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JJ's Bizarre Blog #45 - How to End a Millennium in Style!
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Greetings and salutations everyone! The Bizarre One returns once again with more knowledge to share. As it is indeed a new year, I always feel the urge to somehow keep upping myself and pushing farther and farther. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this up, but I’m sure going to try my damnedest. So for this time, I’ve figured out a way to introduce one more type of blog. For with the country blogs, I managed to conquer space, now I shall conquer time. This is my very first decade-focused blog, where we’ll explore the music that defined a specific decade and how that intersected with the cultural zeitgeist of the time. I see no more fitting place to start than the decade that spawned me too and the decade that seems to be becoming more and more popular today as new generations are re-discovering its music. So comb your mullets, put on some neon colours and pray your dial-up connection can download this web site on time. Hope you’ve prepped for Y2K, because it’s time to dive into the 90s!
At the kickoff of the 1990s, an era of change and evolution began. Going off of the eccentricity of the 80s, this decade can best be defined by change, shifting cultures and technological progress. By the end of the decade, computers were in most households and the internet was slowly taking over. This began allowing new subcultures and communities to form in a way never seen before. It was the dawn of the modern age, a transition away from the era of TV and radio and into the digital age. But the cultural aspect of the decade is a topic for another time. Let’s see what was blasting in the Walkmans of the time!
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Across the charts, the Queen Madonna was still going strong and remained a pop music powerhouse, while also embracing the spirit of the decade and experimenting with more risque material. Other established artists like Celine Dion were also still holding the fort and continuing to be globally revered. No reign lasts forever though and very soon, new young singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera among many others were coming for the throne. Soon, they would usurp it and become the poster girls for a whole new generation of youth. Not to mention their monumental influence on the fashion of the day.
On the men’s side of pure pop, plenty of new stars were rising, such as the charming Robbie Williams, first finding group success before embarking on a massive successful solo endeavour. Beyond that, this was a grand era of variety in the charts with soul, classic and modern R&B, pop rock and country all finding new ground and growing to new heights.
The 90s is remembered by many as the era of boy bands and girl bands and for good reason. Many iconic acts like the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the aforementioned Robbie Williams’ Take That and many more came into prominence during this era and wooed the hearts of many teenage girls the world over. It’s not just them though, because girl bands like Destiny's Child, the Spice Girls and others were likewise dominating the charts. This was truly the peak of their time before Korea took the same idea and ran with it and before singular stars spun off from these groups.
For many the 90s is also regarded as a true golden age for hip hop. Many of the top rappers of the time like The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2Pac and many others are still regarded as some of the greatest mic magicians to ever walk the Earth! Bringing a more fast and technical approach with an endless verbal assault presenting grim, raw and brutally honest lyricism, forming some of the core tenets of the gangsta rap movement. A lot of them didn’t stick around for long for one reason or another, but they left trails and legacies that reverberate to this day!
With the exception of the legendary N.W.A., who had their peak in the 80s, the 90s was also the era of the hip hop bands with many varied collectives bringing their potent and poignant poetry to the masses and captivating countless across the globe. Chief among them were Wu-Tang Clan, who entered the picture with a bang via their 1993 debut album and quickly became a pillar of the hip hop world, a position they hold to this day. Said debut album was so influential, it’s even preserved by the library of Congress for its cultural significance. How about that?
Electronic music was gaining a massive foothold as well and slowly stepping out of the underground clubs it flourished in and entering the mainstream. The advent of computers and music software also meant that electronic artists weren’t restricted to synthesizers and cumbersome studio gear anymore and could produce even more outlandish sounds with ever greater ease. It was the birth of rave culture. House, trance and techno were rocking the scene, industrial music was revolutionizing things with Nine Inch Nails at the forefront, the Prodigy were shaking the world to its core and bold experimentalists like Aphex Twin were ready to go where nobody dared before. Drum and bass too had claimed its own domain and even the first roots of dubstep can be heard wubbing about in the underground.
Iconic bands like Massive Attack were even able to invent new genres, such as trip-hop – a mix of hip hop, slow electronic rhythms and ethereal synth lines to create a dark yet soothing vibe that captivates the imagination.
Speaking of electronics and computers, the 90s was also a time when gaming reached the next level, especially with the advancement of 3D graphics and the growing popularity of PC games allowing much greater freedom and creativity than consoles did before, even though they along with arcades remained insanely popular as well. We saw the rise real-time strategy games, making thinking man’s games fun and exciting courtesy of Command & Conquer, as well as Age of Empires and Warcraft. Mortal Kombat filled countless arcades and brought a new edge to games and even birthed the ratings system. Doom brought the brutality and created the first-person shooter genre (or Doom clones as they were initially called) and set a whole new course for gaming to take, one still taken to this day. We weren’t just stomping goombas and hunting ducks anymore. Naturally, all of these classics came with legendary soundtracks that can still pump new adrenaline into any game session to this day. I mean, the legendary Quake, the first fully 3D FPS, had it’s haunting score composed by Trent Reznor himself! Nuff said.
Now let’s turn to rock music. As the 80s came to a close, it was immediately clear that the glam rock/hair metal that had dominated the scene in the last few years was losing its touch and its popularity was fizzling out. A changing of the guard was in order. Even though, there were some that managed to come out of it looking pretty good, most notably Guns ‘N’ Roses, who exploded in popularity with their 1987 debut. They dropped the Use Your Illusion pair of albums at the dawn of the decade, which managed to propel them to even greater heights and ensured that they would be the standard bearers for oldschool hard rock for some time to come.
The gradual shift would rise further as the so called “alternative rock” movement would garner much popularity and become the preferred option for most. Now, I really dislike that term and how vague it is, but the point still stands that many more experimental and unique rock acts became the forerunners of 90s rock, mixing in hip-hop, reggae, funk, prog and more to craft their own identity.
The biggest stars of this are probably the proud sons of California – Red Hot Chili Peppers. Despite their wacky and unorthodox funky sound, they became global superstars during this time and their instantly memorable tunes became the anthems of countless outcasts. Bass players around the world also haven’t been the same since. Trust me, I know.
Punk rock on the other hand was doing quite well during the decade, but entered an evolutionary process. There were plenty of established hardcore punk bands still tearing it up, but this was also when pop punk and skate punk first rose to prominence. Skate culture was becoming huge and with the help of some upbeat music, vibrant visuals and iconic music videos to plaster all over MTV, these subgenres of punk rose to be kings of the era. They didn’t forget their rebellious roots either and remembered to stick it to the man with a dose of humour to boot. And so, Warped tour became the go-to gathering spot for this new bustling subculture and the new age punks ruled any flat surface or railing all over the world.
The 90s were a time of shifts and changes and seeing as being dark, brooding and mysterious was becoming more of a thing, a fitting rock movement would be born to soothe the souls of the youth – grunge! This is the style that not only defined rock music of this era, but fashion and way of thinking too. Grunge became an inseparable part of the cultural zeitgeist of the 90s. Taking inspiration from aforementioned punk’s overdriven guitars and overall intensity and slowing it down to a more trudging pace stooped in melancholy, grunge captured a vibe that seemed underserved until now. The hotspot for it all was Seattle with many massive bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and more becoming huge sensations. Obviously though, the biggest by far would be Nirvana, who would become one of the most recognizable rock acts in history as their music seemed to speak to the very soul of this new generation and many more after, their iconic frontman Kurt Cobain basically becoming a cultural icon. To this day, any 90s media feels incomplete without grunge blasting in the background as flannel-clad teenagers rock out to it.
If grunge was a little too mainstream, then the goth subculture could help! Many of the biggest gothic rock bands exploded onto the scene in the 90s and the internet and the rise of shopping malls allowed this gloomy new subculture to blossom into its shadowy beauty. Plus, if they felt too shy, they just waited for the punks and grunge guys to go home so they can hang out in the skate parks after dark. The 90s was a time of individuality and self expression and few movements showcased this better.
Now it’s time to focus on my favourite part – the metal! For you see, many will argue otherwise, but I am personally of the opinion that the 90s were in fact the best decade to be a fan of metal as a whole and I will dedicate the rest of this blog to showing you why. It’s true that a lot of the bands from the 80s or earlier were having a bit of an identity crisis during this time, but a lot of them managed to drop some of their finest work right before that. The iconic Judas Priest dropped one of their most revered records Painkiller right at the crack of the decade. Likewise, the equally as iconic Iron Maiden released one of my personal favourite albums, the incredible Fear of the Dark in 1992. The mighty Metallica dropped their divisive but commercially legendary self titled album, aka The Black Album, also in 1990, becoming a massive sensation. Fellow thrash kings Slayer one of their greatest works “Seasons in the Abyss” the same year. Needless to say, metalheads were eating good at the start of the 90s.
In fact, 1990 seems to be quite a legendary year for thrash metal in particular with Megadeth’s Rust in Peace, Antrax’s Persistence of Time, Kreator’s Coma of Souls and many more releasing that very year. It’s one of those magical moments where the stars seem to align and everyone’s creative juices flow just right. Thrash spent the 80s being the heaviest thing around and the dawn of the new decade was some of its last epic moments on top of the world and the creations from this time still rock moshpits at festivals to this very day. Thrash wasn’t dethroned because it was forgotten. There were simply several worthy successors.
One of these is of course death metal. While it was born in the 80s, death metal truly came into its own in the 90s and many of the most iconic bands of the genre were born during this decade and went on to release their most iconic work at the dawn of their careers too. 1992 seems to be their most magical year. The genre shunned for being too brutal and vulgar grew into a worldwide phenomenon and by the start of the new millennium, death metal had forged a path and become an institution that everyone knew about and it was one of the key driving forces in evolving metal into its next stages as the years went on.
Speaking of evolution, we mustn’t forget that it was also during the 90s that the Swedes in their lovely Gothenburg birthed the most popular death metal offshoot there is – melodic death metal! This one movement was a nexus point of creativity and the ideas born here continue to reverberate to this day and even nearly 3 decades later, new bands continue to draw massive inspiration from the Gothenburg melodeath sound.
Since we’re in Scandinavia, another movement that needs mention is black metal. While it too like death metal laid its foundations in the 80s, it was the so called “second wave” across Norway and Sweden that truly catapulted black metal into fame – or infamy perhaps. The raw, unfiltered, DIY sound with its high shrieks, tremolo guitars, blast beats, dark imagery and intense atmosphere, it was all perfected here. As it seems to have been some kind of cosmic poetry, their magical year came in 1994, with some of the most worshiped works in the entirety of the genre’s history being unleashed upon the world, Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Darkthrone’s Transylvanian Hunger just to name a few. The Northern storm of darkness is one felt around the world and it was during this frigid decade that black metal made its presence felt.
It wasn’t just extreme metal that was taking a foothold of course. Power metal and its pappy speed metal were going very strong during the 90s and it was a time when many of the most iconic sword bearers forged their legend across all the land. Even when it comes to folk metal, the pioneering bands of the genre were all formed during the 90s and some of them even released their debut records during this time too. The fantasy fans of the 80s had just grown up after all, and they needed a soundtrack!
Progressive metal was in its own peak as well, with bands daring to go both heavier and being more bold with their experimentation too. Titanic bands that are regarded as kings of the genre today such as Dream Theater and Tool were at their zenith and released some absolute godsends during the decade. The rise of extreme metal also birthed the first crossover bands that sought to make the heaviest sons of metal more advanced and technical.
But keeping it simple, one act that dominated the decade has to be Pantera. Groomed as the new Metallica, they started as a glam metal band in the 80s, but shed this imagery and became an honest version of themselves right at the crack of the decade with the legendary Cowboys from Hell. In these mere ten years, they dropped banger after banger, pioneered the groove metal subgenre and the New Wave of American Metal and the late Dimebag Darrell's godly riffing style defined the sound of modern metal for decades to come!
I already mentioned how the rise of hip hop permeated every corner of music and metal was no different. The 90s saw the birth of true rap metal and the forerunners of that were definitely the rebellious Rage Against the Machine, bringing metal, hip hop and punk fans together into one massive conglomeration of nonconformists ready to walk their own roads, no matter what the masses say!
On that note, even when it comes to nu metal, a genre most closely associated with the 2000s, most of the biggest bands to pioneer the genre formed in the 90s and released their most revered early albums prior to the dawn of the new millennium. KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones and many more formed in the 90s and with the help of massive festivals around the world, they shook the metal world to its core and kickstarted a whole new era that nobody could’ve foreseen. Even somewhat newer bands like Static-X, System of a Down and more managed to squeeze their debut albums in just before the end of the decade. It makes sense too, alternative rock had risen to insane heights in the 90s and proved that you can mix in whatever you like into rock music and make it work if you really put your heart into it. Likewise, hip-hop, industrial and many styles I already talked about were massive and their popularity spread to many other subcultures, including metalheads, so the more open minded of those decided to try something different and mix those into their usual taste. This cultural nexus point would have lasting ramifications for all of popular music that continue to reverberate to this day!
So there you have it, my first decades blog! It’s a bit of a doozy, but that’s what happens when you try and condense the culture of the whole world across ten whole years into one mere blog. Nonetheless, I hope I managed to capture the vibe of the era well for you and for those that grew up during the time, I hope I scratched that nostalgia itch for you. I know also that a lot of younger people are now coming across media and the culture from the 90s and getting enamored with it, given that enough time has passed for it to gain that retro cool factor. If this applies to you, I hope my blog aids you in this discovery. In any case, thank you all for coming with me on this trip back through time! It won’t be the last, I promise. Take care, stay cool, stay tuned and see you again soon!
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