90′S Music Essay, Research Paper

90s Music Music in the nineties can be simply described as diverse. Diversemeaning that music has been segregated into hundreds of groups. Thisreport will refer in detail to three genres of music: AlternativeCountry, Rap, Alternative Rock. It will also cover certain aspectsindicative of the 90’s. Alternative Country Music In 1990, a bandcalled Uncle Tupelo from Belleville, Illinois, released their debutalbum. Titled No Depression, it featured a rough mixture of punk-rocksongs, but it also added something different: several toned-down,acoustic ballads that had a distinct country flavor. A few years later,that simple little song and album title became the name of an internetfan club and chat group. It didn’t stop there, in 1995, a magazine ofthe same name went into publication, and “No Depression” soon becamethe leading title for a progressive alternative country movement. Othernames include “insurgent country” “Americana,” or simply “alt.country,”the latter is a reminder of the role the internet has played in thegrowth and publicity of this movement. For the most part, NoDepression or alt.country bands aren’t much of a threat to the salesfigures of mainstream Nashville country artists. But the speed withwhich this music has caught on has shown that a substantial number ofpeople have grown weary of the overproduced pop trends of 1990’smainstream country music, and the limited range of styles and soundsthat are typically played on country radio stations. Rap Music Rap ofthe late 70’s and 80’s, commonly called “old school”, was made by DJsscratching records and playing drum loops, with MCs rapping over theresulting rhythms. As the genre progressed, hard-rock guitars andhard-hitting beats were introduced by Run-D.M.C., the first hardcorerap group, and the scratching techniques were replaced by sampling.With their dense collages of samples, beats and white noise, PublicEnemy took sampling to the extreme, and they helped introduce a socialand political conscience to rap. This faded in the ’90s, as gangstarap, originally introduced by NWA, who used Public Enemy’s sound as atemplate, became the dominant form. By the ’90s, gangsta rap, whichoriginally was in direct opposition to such pop-oriented rappers as MCHammer, had become smoothed over and stylish, and consequently was more

popular than ever, as evidenced by the success of pop-gangsta PuffDaddy in the late 90’s. Alternative Rock Music Alternative pop/rock is essentially a catch-all term for post-punk bands from the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s. Though there is a variety of musical styles within alternative rock, they are all tied together since they originally existed outside of the mainstream. In some ways, there are two waves of alternative bands, with Nirvana’s success in 1991 acting as a dividing point. In the ’80s, most alternative bands were on independent labels; if they were on majors, they didn’t receive as much support as most of the label’s mainstream acts. In the ’80s, alternative included everything from jangle-pop, post-hardcore punk, funk-metal, punk-pop, and experimental rock. After Nirvana’s success in the ’90s, alternative included all of these sub-genres, but many of the edges were sanded off because the music was know being marketed as part of the mainstream. Hard rock and punk-derived music were more commercially successful than the left-of-center pop that dominated late ’80s alternative pop/rock, so alternativeRemakes and Retro The ’90’s was definitely the decade for the remake.Many Rap and Hip Hop bands have made a living out of remaking otherpeoples works. Sean “Puffy” Combs remade Sting’s classic “I’ll bewatching You” As a tribute to his friend Notorious B.I.G. The Fugeesremade Roberta Flack’s Hit song “Killing Me Softly” and once againturned it into a hit. A music commentator for Spin Magazin once said,”What was once contemptible comes back collectible.”(Smith, R.J.) Thosepeople who despised Kiss in the 70’s will be fighting their way to thefront of the line in order to catch a glimpse of the band on thisyear’s tour. With the return of these retro bands a lot of today’sbands want in on the action. Trent Reznor sings Kiss’s praises, PearlJam’s Mike McCready carried a Kiss lunch box to school, and CourtneyLove was caught sporting a Kiss T-shirt. The Rolling Stones returnedwith their comeback album “Voodoo Lounge” featuring all of theirgreatest hits. The original punk influences of the 70’s, like theRamones who are back with new material, and the Sex Pistols who haveexperienced a resurgence, have had great influence on 90’s retro punkbands like Greenday and Offspring.