Music That Shaped a Decade: The ’90s

The 1980s was firmly defined as a music genre, so it was easy to categorize the different music contained in those 10 years. We knew we were going to hear some synthesizers, quite a few horns, some androgynous singers, quick, catchy pop tunes, and maybe a little too much of Daryl Hall and John Oates. For every “Like a Virgin” there was a matching “I Need You Tonight”. Every “Bette Davis Eyes” had a corresponding “Love is a Battlefield.” “99 Luftballoons” was so much better with the German but everyone danced when it was played anyway. 1980s music even influenced the fashion of the time period. Who didn’t have big hair like Poison? Who didn’t wear a ripped leather jacket like Bon Jovi? Who wasn’t desperately seeking Madonna? It was easy to recognize the 1980s by the music that so completely embodied the decade. So it was expressly disturbing when the clock struck midnight and led us into the 1990s. What could we expect. I think U2’s frontman, Bono, said it best when he said “We’ll have to go away and dream it all up again.” When we woke up in 1990 the dream had yet to be realized, but now, looking back on the era, it is possible to define it.

First off, the 1990s cannot be encapsulated in quite the same way as the prior decade. For one, we had no Hall & Oates figures to lean on. Instead, we had a hodgepodge of characters ranging from Sarah McLachlan, to MC Hammer, to Hootie & the Blowfish, to Dr. Dre. Some group called Radiohead was introduced to the public consciousness, along with Alanis Morissette, the Backstreet Boys, and Counting Crows. The 90s was just as much the decade of grunge as it was the decade of gangster rap, boy bands, and female singer-songwriters. With as many styles as the 90s engendered, you can imagine the number of fashion revolutions it inspired as well. With no solid way that 1990s society dressed, it’s easy to see why the music wasn’t as memorable upon first listen. However, if you listen more, you’ll see a decade fraught with confusion, desperation, and dreams. These emotions were mirrored in the music of Mariah Carey, Milli Vanilli, Eminem, and Ace of Base.

Some groups made the seamless transition from the 1980s to the 1990s. Groups like Bon Jovi and R.E.M. just kept making the same crowd-pleasing music they always made, for the same people who always bought and listened to their music. For groups like that, and for individuals like Phil Collins and Michael Bolton, they treated the 90s like a natural extension of the 80s. They never had to change because of the people who came along with them who also never wanted to change. There was a caveat attached to that stagnation, however, because eventually time caught up with them. Phil started the 90s on a tear and fizzled out midway through when his fans instead began to embrace a newer sound. The same is true of Mr. Bolton who realized his retreads weren’t working soon after 1992. If you ask kids today they would probably not be able to name one 90s song by either artist.

Other groups and artists decided they needed to make a change. INXS introduced a bolder, brasher sound with their epic album, “Welcome to Wherever You Are,” which signaled a new era and a new group of fans for the group. Metallica brought their brand of metal to the mainstream, changing it just enough to make them palatable on popular radio stations, exposing them to a new generation of fans who would otherwise have never known they existed. U2 did more than anyone with this transition, transforming themselves so completely that their hit album, “Achtung Baby” was unrecognizable from their 80s sounds and whose concert tours in the 90s drew just as many 20-somethings as they did 40-somethings. These were not mere coincidences. This was more than just a fluke chance. This was solid change, and the 90s were all about change.

Also enhancing that image of change were the new groups and artists who were quickly embraced by the public. Groups like Pearl Jam, Better than Ezra, Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Blind Melon, Candlebox, Live, and Collective Soul were born from this idea that change was good. Each of these bands featured a lead singer who wasn’t a classically trained voice. The gravelly voice was in, and the androgynous voice was out. No more was the public embracing the falsetto of a Peter Cetera or a Boy George from the 80s. Now the heroes were regular people with regular, flawed voices.

This of course led us to Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan, the voice of female America, and the entire female world, if we are to be honest. “You Oughta Know” was a global anthem of independence, a big middle finger to the solid hierarchy that said you couldn’t talk about those issues publicly. McLachlan’s “Angel” was an understated call to a simpler time when songs told stories, and we were drawn to it like moths to a flame. Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” rounded out the decade on the same note that it entered, with lyrics about relationships and being a positive female in a negative world. Yet, somehow along the way the world became a lot less negative. The world became a place we were proud to call our own, even if it was so different from the comfort of the 80s.

Gangster rap assaulted our senses with artists like Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Dr. Dre. We had to adjust to swearing as a fact of life on our favorite songs, and with stores like Wal-Mart covering up the music, covering up the message. “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” resonated with middle-class, white America just as much as it did with the inner-city ghetto population because it inspired us to be individuals, to defy the system that forced us into malleable sheep. We loved it because they said what we dared not say, to express themselves in ways we thought to be impossible.

Lest we forget the pop world, we were also introduced to boy bands like N’Sync, 98 Degrees, and the Backstreet Boys during the 90s. Spurred on by the success of New Kids on the Block, these groups were churned out by the dozens, creating a sound that blended well with everything else that was on the radio in the time period, while at the same time not compromising its blatant candy-coated sweetness for anyone. They reminded us that we like harmonizing, another facet of music that was lost way too often in the 80s.

Vanilla Ice said it best when he rapped, “To the extreme I rock the mic like a vandal. Light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle.” The 1990s music scene really did know how to rock the mic like a vandal. It made you stand up and take notice, even if you weren’t always pleased with what was being forced on you. It made you appreciate it for what it couldn’t help being — individualistic. And of course we like that, of course we thrive on that, and of course we threw that all away once that clock switched to midnight on January 1, 2000. But we can remember.

Sam