MJ was more successful than both Madonna and Prince in the 90s and very much counts as a 90s superstar. Madonna's only massive hit album of the 90s was ROL, Prince's was D&P.

Dangerous, HIStory and BOTD were all big sellers for MJ and he was touring stadiums in 92/93 and 96/97. He had the biggest chart hit of his career in Europe with Earth Song, plus a string of big hits throughout the 90s both Stateside and in Europe.

[Edited 9/11/14 5:49am]

MattyJam said:

MJ was more successful than both Madonna and Prince in the 90s and very much counts as a 90s superstar. Madonna's only massive hit album of the 90s was ROL, Prince's was D&P.

Dangerous, HIStory and BOTD were all big sellers for MJ and he was touring stadiums in 92/93 and 96/97. He had the biggest chart hit of his career in Europe with Earth Song, plus a string of big hits throughout the 90s both Stateside and in Europe.

[Edited 9/11/14 5:49am]

Although MJ's albums sold massively in the 90's and he was still a household name, even among my peers then, it's unfair to credit Madonna's 90's successes just because of the Erotica/Sex period. Not to get all stan-like cause I'm more into MJ, but was very much into her then. From what I recall with Madonna during the 90's, her songs from the very early 90's were popular choices for dance items at talent shows throughout the whole decade, right along with....you guessed it, mj's music, even after the allegations! This Used To Be My Playground was #1, and ROL gets a lot of credit for being her comeback, but tbh, Bedtime Stories and Evita did fine even if they were not her 80's numbers. Take a Bow was #1 for so many weeks and became one of the year's biggest singles; the bedtime stories album and singles were popular with r&b/hip hop listeners cause of the Babyface collaboration, her videos from that period are still imitated today, and Evita soundtrack sold about 15 million worldwide and earned her an award even if the box office numbers didn't live up to the hype, it's considered a cult classic. And we all know about ROL and incorporating/appropriating Eastern culture and the popular electronic sound of the time with her music and motherhood.

Having said all this, I agree with everything you're saying about mj as well, both had longeivity in the 90's, and I think people outside the US appreciated them so much more though I know this isn't true for all of the US, and I would imagine their music was still hugely popular in the clubs.

MattyJam said:

MJ was more successful than both Madonna and Prince in the 90s and very much counts as a 90s superstar. Madonna's only massive hit album of the 90s was ROL, Prince's was D&P.

Dangerous, HIStory and BOTD were all big sellers for MJ and he was touring stadiums in 92/93 and 96/97. He had the biggest chart hit of his career in Europe with Earth Song, plus a string of big hits throughout the 90s both Stateside and in Europe.

[Edited 9/11/14 5:49am]

i don't like Madonna, but her biggest success of her carreer was VOGUE in 1990, and THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION sold 30 millions worldwide. She surely made big tours too, and RAY OF LIGHT was a huge success, don't ask me why, but these are facts.

Alanis Morrisette just did one album that worked in the middle of the ninetees, but Madonna covered the entire period with top 5 hits.

Tuls101 said:

alphastreet said:

Though Mariah was huge in the 90's and still remembered for a lot of her hits, Celine will always be remembered for not just My Heart Will Go On, but also Falling Into You album, and the Beauty and the Beast, Power of Love days. I guess it depends where in the world you're from really...

Mariah did not start that trend at all, it was already happening in the 80's and early 90's, she just was the queen of doing it more often and crossing over with it, that it just became more commonplace since.

There is definitely a good argument for Celine! I forgot about Beauty and The Beast which was also massive. I could see where worldwide Celine was more consistently successful throughout the decade, not that she didn't have consistent success in US but she did have a couple of underperforming singles throughout the decade. It seemed like everything Mariah released turned to gold. It's definitely a toss up though now that I'm thinking about it. The 90's megastars aren't as easily defined as the 80's ones IMO. [Edited 9/10/14 12:54pm]

I remember Mariah would release a hit album every other year and the leading single would often go number one. Everytime a single didn't make it to number 1 and was just top 5 or lower, THAT would make a headline

RODSERLING said:

MattyJam said:

MJ was more successful than both Madonna and Prince in the 90s and very much counts as a 90s superstar. Madonna's only massive hit album of the 90s was ROL, Prince's was D&P.

Dangerous, HIStory and BOTD were all big sellers for MJ and he was touring stadiums in 92/93 and 96/97. He had the biggest chart hit of his career in Europe with Earth Song, plus a string of big hits throughout the 90s both Stateside and in Europe.

[Edited 9/11/14 5:49am]

i don't like Madonna, but her biggest success of her carreer was VOGUE in 1990, and THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION sold 30 millions worldwide. She surely made big tours too, and RAY OF LIGHT was a huge success, don't ask me why, but these are facts.

Alanis Morrisette just did one album that worked in the middle of the ninetees, but Madonna covered the entire period with top 5 hits.

Yes, I wanted to mentioned the Blonde Ambition tour as well. That Versace costume with the cone bra became iconic and was often imitated, never duplicated! She was extremely famous/controversial in 1990 too.

listen if you actually lived through a decade and was old enough to know what was going on around you,there should be no need to go look up numbers to determine who was the superstars of that time.you would remember who was dominating radio,videos,style,who people were checking for,who was on top of their game.alot of times google search and all that research causes revisionist history.if google says a certain artist sold 10 million records some will assume that person had to be a mega superstar....but they could have actually been mc hammer or vanilla ice or milli vanilli and many other fads/one trick ponies

lowkey said:

listen if you actually lived through a decade and was old enough to know what was going on around you,there should be no need to go look up numbers to determine who was the superstars of that time.you would remember who was dominating radio,videos,style,who people were checking for,who was on top of their game.alot of times google search and all that research causes revisionist history.if google says a certain artist sold 10 million records some will assume that person had to be a mega superstar....but they could have actually been mc hammer or vanilla ice or milli vanilli and many other fads/one trick ponies

This is true. The 90's, fame-wise, here in the UK, was all about:

Michael Jackson

Nirvana

2Pac

Guns N Roses

Alanis

Mariah Carey

Shania

and for British acts - Oasis, Stone Roses, Blur and Depeche Mode.

In the late 90's, you also had the inescapable teen pop acts like the Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Take That etc.