1990s in music  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 19:46, 18 June 2009

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The three most important trends of popular music during the 1990s were the emergence of alternative rock to the mainstream , replacing hair metal by 1992; the teen pop phenomenon, and the beginning of hip hop's dominance over Top 40 radio.

United States and Canada

Pop

• Modern R&B and urban pop were the most powerful forces in the Top 40 from 1992 to 1998. Popular artists include Usher, Aaliyah, R. Kelly, TLC, Seal, and Monica.

• Teen pop carries over from the late 1980s into the year 1990, with New Kids on the Block at their peak and Debbie Gibson and Tiffany at the end of their careers. In 1997 teen pop comes back in a much larger way than it ever was in the 1980s with hit-factory groups including the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls that overshadowed not only the acts of the 1980s like them, but all other music popular in the late 1990s.Template:Fact

• Ballad songs are very popular. Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Bryan Adams are leading in this era.

• A revival of the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s, closely connected to Third-wave feminism and the Lilith Fair, this movement lasted up to about 2002 with artists like Norah Jones. Important artists include Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos, Edwin McCain, Jewel, Natalie Merchant and Sheryl Crow. Perhaps the most important album of this movement was the many-times platinum Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morrissette.

• The swing music revival is sparked by bands such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. It primarily occurs late in the decade.

Rock

• The rise of the alternative rock sound, like Red Hot Chili Peppers and REM; and the fall of classic rock.
• Grunge, the defining genre of the decade, was popular from 1991 to 1994. Nirvana are considered to have brought both Grunge and alternative rock, which dominates both the 1990s and 2000s rock scenes into the mainstream, along with the heavier Alice In Chains.

• Pop-punk breaks into the mainstream by 1994 with the success of Green Day, The Offspring, Weezer and blink-182 - by the early 2000s this would merge with emotional hardcore and start the 2000s emo trend.

• The rise and demise of britpop, bands such as Blur and Oasis top the singles charts.

• The rise of skater punk.

• Bands like Sonic Youth and The Pixies set the stage for the rise of Indie Rock in the underground scene, with bands such as Pavement and The Flaming Lips gaining popularity in the early years. Indie gains more notoriety with the rise of The Elephant Six Collective later in the decade, with Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo, and The Olivia Tremor Control gaining much attention. It also set the pieces for Of Montreal's rise of popularity in the 2000s.

• The third wave ska movement kicks off after having brewed in the underground for the majority of the 80's, with bands like Rancid, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish and Sublime all gaining much popularity. More pop oriented acts, such as No Doubt and Smash Mouth, also gained much mainstream attention, while the underground held Ska-core acts such as Catch 22 and Less Than Jake became well known in the punk scene.

• The success of Guns N' Roses and Van Halen in the first half of the decade and the sustained success of Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, U2, and Metallica throughout the entire decade.

• The decline of blues after the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan

Hip hop

• At the beginning of the 1990s, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice make hip hop popular to the pop audience, and mark the beginning of hip hop's so far permanent place in pop music.

• By 1992, hip hop starts to rival rock music with artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac, all of who made gangsta rap popular on pop radio and had a 27 Club-like status.

• The peak of the West Coast-East Coast rivalry, ending with the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

• 1986-1996: Golden age of hip hop.

• By 1998, the first sign of Southern hip hop entering the mainstream.

• In 1999, during the peak of female rap, Foxy Brown's releases her sophomore album Chyna Doll which debuts at number one on the Billboard 200, the first album by a female rapper to do so.

Eurodance

• The Eurodance wave has taken over Europe from 1991–1997. Many groups tried their luck in the music business but only 2 Unlimited managed to make a history out of it. From 1991–1996 they sold more than 30 million albums and 50 million compilations, and had many number 1 hits. They are one of the few eurodance acts which use instruments like electornic drums, bass guitar etc. Many other dance acts tried to copy their style but none of them reached 2 Unlimited's success. In 1994 the group mixed Eurodance with Hi-NRG (famous 80s style which was used by Divine, Sylvester James) for their Real Things! album. That made their style unique with the specific rhythm of eurodance and Hi-NRG. The album reached Number 1 in the UK charts only hours after it was released. 2 Unlimited were compared to ABBA in 1995 and someTemplate:Who even thought that the duo will surpass the success of the famous disco group.

• La Bouche and Haddaway are the others who left something in the music business but they couldn't reach the success of 2 Unlimited.

• Other eurodance acts – Maxx, En-Rage, X-Pression, Le Click, Sin With Sebastian, Cappella, Anticappella, B.G. The Prince Of Rap, Afrika Bambaataa, Beat System, Black Box, Samira.

Europe

• Dance music evolves throughout the decade. The popularity of house, techno and rave in the early part of the decade leads to the boom of the more commercial eurodance genre and eventually the huge popularity of trance in the late 1990s.
• 1990-1996: The phenomenal success of boyband Take That. Post breakup Take That sparks the boy/girlband phase during the late 1990s throughout the UK and Europe, reaching as far as Australia and the United States.
• 1996-1998: The immense success of the Spice Girls reaches across the globe.
• The fall of the Iron Curtain brings Western styles to Russia and Eastern Europe.
• Britpop popular in the second half of the 1990s - bands like Oasis, The Verve and Blur take over the grunge scene which transforms into adult contemporary rock and post-grunge.
• The arrival of Massive Attack in the early 1990s leads to a new style of slow electronic music, that is dubbed Trip Hop and influences groups such as Portishead, Bjork, Tricky, Morcheeba and Thievery Corporation.

Latin America

[[File:ShakiraRipoll cropped 2.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Shakira]]

• In 1991, 21-year-old singer Luis Miguel rediscovers the bolero, echoing back to the trios of the 1950s with his album Romance. He becomes the biggest international Latin star until the late 1990s.

• In 1998, Ricky Martin eclipses Luis Miguel as the top Latin star as he performs The Cup of Life during the 1998 World Cup, and tops that with 1999's Livin' La Vida Loca. He would jumpstart the Latin Crossover era, in which Marc Anthony and Enrique Iglesias follow.

• Surge of newfound interest in Spanish-language rock, led by bands like Soda Stereo or Maná which gained large international following during this period. Others would follow their footsteps.

• In the mid-1990s, Mexican-American singer Selena would dominate Tex-Mex music until her murder in 1995.

• By the late-1990s, Puerto Rico becomes a merengue stronghold, with acts such as Elvis Crespo, Olga Tanon, and Grupo Mania topping the charts throughout Latin America.

• After Selena's death, young stars Shakira and Enrique Iglesias begin to rise into the top of the pop charts by the end of the decade.

• Beginning in 1990, the salsa romantica that begins in the 1980s becomes a standard in tropical music thanks to chart-topping stars such as Marc Anthony, Jerry Rivera, Tito Rojas, Victor Manuelle, and Gilberto Santa Rosa.

Australia and New Zealand

• Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS, supposedly dies of erotic asphyxiation.

See also

• 1980s in music
• 2000s in music