wait do you mean those fuckin crazy hats from the 90's that you still see at state fairs once in a blue moon
I liked "Evapor8" by Altern8, "The Calling" by Friends of Matthew and especially "We Are Back" by LFO, but "Cubic" by 808 State got really old really fast. Actually screw all that. Pre-Rave Acid House was da shit! And guys in Cat in the Hat hats always looked dorky to me, sorry. On the other hand, they were better than freakin' pacifiers. Why do you ask?
Well then please forgive my snarky comment about people looking dorky in them. It doesn't seem to be a thing any more, but then, those sorts of dance parties aren't, either, at least not at the moment. Maybe it's been long enough that they're coming back. Long enough to forget about the awful Jim Carrey movie, that is.
Good question, especially since dance floors are already pretty hot (as in temperature.) I think it had to do with the zeitgeist of the time. The first Iraq war was happening and there was this sense of potentially impending Armageddon in the air. Acid/Rave was originally a combination of the embrace of high tech, do-it-yourself, reinventing psychedelia and the general casting off dull care. (Or as a friend at the time said, "just another excuse to take drugs and dance.") Dr. Seuss imagery represented a shared happy childhood memory for that generation, and for some reason, big long hats were in, be they loooooong knit rasta caps, Mad Hatter deals or towering cat-in-the-hat hats. They were funny and funky. I was never an ecstacy person but I imagine the effects of that drug played some part, too. I dunno ... just riffing here. What do you think?