Is it grunge? Is it hip hop? Is it teen pop?

When you remember the 90's, what do you think of!?

i remember a lot of prince because i was pregnant most of the 90s

No such thing. There's many countries in the world and it's unlikely they all had a particular style of music.

I dont think there was a "90's sound" for the most part, there were things that originated in the 90's in genres, but to me no real "new sound" came through. The 90's and on have been about grabbing from other decades and making it now for you. there are certain things that are "90's" though, like bloated 80 minute cds with 20 tracks mostly filler, that was 90's. The thinking that everything has to be a number one debut to be a hit, people buying albums for amount of tracks regardless of substance. Explosion of teen pop, explosion of the "collabo" which destroyed 2 genres overall, the end of instruements in RB that was all the 90's. Of course grunge bands like Nirvana opened the door for others like Alice in chains soundgarden etc...But again i dont think what they were doing was a "new sound" grunge was punk rock just with a blend of better lyrics and artists. Im really not a fan of the 90's overall, very spotty decade.

lastdecember said:

I dont think there was a "90's sound" for the most part, there were things that originated in the 90's in genres, but to me no real "new sound" came through. The 90's and on have been about grabbing from other decades and making it now for you. there are certain things that are "90's" though, like bloated 80 minute cds with 20 tracks mostly filler, that was 90's. The thinking that everything has to be a number one debut to be a hit, people buying albums for amount of tracks regardless of substance. Explosion of teen pop, explosion of the "collabo" which destroyed 2 genres overall, the end of instruements in RB that was all the 90's. Of course grunge bands like Nirvana opened the door for others like Alice in chains soundgarden etc...But again i dont think what they were doing was a "new sound" grunge was punk rock just with a blend of better lyrics and artists. Im really not a fan of the 90's overall, very spotty decade.

Of course there were new sounds....drum&bass, Big beat, 2step, triphop....for me the 90's are actually the decade with lots of new sounds in the dance scene.

for some reason the first word that came to mind is DERIVATIVE, at least in the US. but that tyypically has negative connations. 90's music has actually aged well can even be thought of as a golden era of sorts for r&b, though it doesn't FEEL LIKE it had any distinction in comparison to the 60s, 70s, and 80s. i think 2000-now doesn't have a specific sound either, but there doesn't seem to be as much good music as the 90s.

sarah1712 said:

i remember a lot of prince because i was pregnant most of the 90s

do u mean prince music made u pregnant?

Teen pop was everywhere, main reason I turned off the radio.

I love the 90's. Now obviously every decade has its bad manufactured music and teen pop and has different genres included in it. There's not any one decade where every artist did the same thing.

But when I think of the 90's, I think of alternative rock like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and Garbage and also trip hop artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead, Morchedba and Sneaker Pimps.

I also think the 90's was a wonderful time for female singer songwriters like Fiona Apple and Tori Amos. I think the 90's definitely gave women more space to express themselves in diverse ways than now.

Glindathegood said:

I love the 90's. Now obviously every decade has its bad manufactured music and teen pop and has different genres included in it. There's not any one decade where every artist did the same thing.

But when I think of the 90's, I think of alternative rock like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and Garbage and also trip hop artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead, Morchedba and Sneaker Pimps.

I also think the 90's was a wonderful time for female singer songwriters like Fiona Apple and Tori Amos. I think the 90's definitely gave women more space to express themselves in diverse ways than now.

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Not to mention female emcees being a part of that.

You had Latifah, Monie Love, Lyte, Foxy, Missy, Kim, Lady of Rage, Brat, Eve. Hell, we even had Left Eye in TLC spitting on mainstream channels.

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Who do we have now? Nicki Minaj? Iggy Azelea? Not a lot of ladies in the spotlight rocking the mic.

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Glindathegood said:

But when I think of the 90's, I think of alternative rock like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and Garbage and also trip hop artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead, Morchedba and Sneaker Pimps.

I don't, I heard very little of that. I've only heard 2 Nirvana songs, and one of them I'm more familiar with the Weird Al version. I remember Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, The Bodyguard Soundtrack, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, TLC, and Ace Of Bass being really popular (US). I heard them all the time. I also remember the Miami bass songs (Ride The Train, Dazzey Duks, Whoot/Whoomp There It Is, etc.) and dance rap like 2 Unlimited, Marky Mark, Snap, C+C Music Factory, Technotronic, & Betty Boo. I recall some of the folks around me were into Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Patra and other acts like that. Some others liked Fu-Schnickens, Onyx, Naughty By Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Black Sheep, Geto Boys, NWA, BWP, etc.

[Edited 5/6/14 13:51pm]

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^I can't apologize enough for 2Unlimited. And Venga Boys.

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ginusher said:

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^I can't apologize enough for 2Unlimited. And Venga Boys.

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I liked 2 Unlimited. I have a couple of their maxi-singles, but I don't know who Venga Boys are.

Coffeshop pop music and overproduced New Jack swing.....also towards the end of the decade there was a lot of "futuristic" sounding music.....

The main thing I remember about the 90s is that suddenly everybody had to be more "raw" and was allowed to be more "explicit." At the start of the decade you could be thrown in jail for singing "We Want Some Pussy" at a 21 + over nightclub.

Once that turned out in 2Live's favor it seemed like all the borders around polite conversation came down. The Lewinsky trial made it OK to say "blow job" in front of children and the moral scolds seemed to give up at that point. As a result I think all the popular music is nastier ever before. The rock bands are gnarlier, the metal bands are more violent, the grunge bands are more violently depressed, the rappers are so hard they have use profanity in every line... All caution to the wind.

I remember in 1998 hearing what I think was a new song by Prodigy come on the radio and the lyric was "I'm gonna break for a new addiction - I'm gonna break for a new addiction.... A COKE ADDICTION!" It was like wow, no more metaphors needed.

Collective angst that unified the alienated youth of the day but in turn alienated me, who wanted a return to the bright colors and synths of the 80s.

MickyDolenz said:

ginusher said:

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^I can't apologize enough for 2Unlimited. And Venga Boys.

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I liked 2 Unlimited. I have a couple of their maxi-singles, but I don't know who Venga Boys are.

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I must admit I have considerable nostalgia for some of their songs like 'Nothing Like The Rain' and 'Tribal Dance'. But Ray Slijngaard's raps are just soooo corny.

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bobzilla77 said:

I remember in 1998 hearing what I think was a new song by Prodigy come on the radio and the lyric was "I'm gonna break for a new addiction - I'm gonna break for a new addiction.... A COKE ADDICTION!" It was like wow, no more metaphors needed.

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I think that may be a mondegreen. The Prodigy single that in my mind comes closest to these lyrics, is 'Out Of Space', in which the actual lyrics are:"I'll take your brain to another dimension/Pay close attention".

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"the boom . . . the BIP . . . the boom BIP . . ." Q-Tip (1990)

Seems to me that most of what could be called a "90s sound" was just a smoother and more relaxed continuation of the more hyperactive 80's sound.

nextedition said:

lastdecember said:

I dont think there was a "90's sound" for the most part, there were things that originated in the 90's in genres, but to me no real "new sound" came through. The 90's and on have been about grabbing from other decades and making it now for you. there are certain things that are "90's" though, like bloated 80 minute cds with 20 tracks mostly filler, that was 90's. The thinking that everything has to be a number one debut to be a hit, people buying albums for amount of tracks regardless of substance. Explosion of teen pop, explosion of the "collabo" which destroyed 2 genres overall, the end of instruements in RB that was all the 90's. Of course grunge bands like Nirvana opened the door for others like Alice in chains soundgarden etc...But again i dont think what they were doing was a "new sound" grunge was punk rock just with a blend of better lyrics and artists. Im really not a fan of the 90's overall, very spotty decade.

Of course there were new sounds....drum&bass, Big beat, 2step, triphop....for me the 90's are actually the decade with lots of new sounds in the dance scene.

I fully agree with you. The 90's weren't the best for pop, rock and RnB in my opinion (there were exceptions of course), but dance music brought us many interesting genres and developments.

To me there were two distinct periods in the 1990's music scene which I would last as beginning in 1991. (To me, 1990 itself was just an extension of the 1980's.) You had the angst ridden alternative rock scene that was led by Nirvana but copied by so many bands, and even established groups like R.E.M. and U2, which made their sound on theor earnestness, suddenly went ironic in order to stay relevant. Then you had the rising influence of hip-hop, especially gangsta rap, which made R&B music more raw and edgy, and in order to make it in pop music, you had to be extraordinarily talented or else not get played. That led to a lot of emphaisis on "the voice," which meant that you had to sing like Whitney, Mariah, or Celine, or do new jack doo-wop like Boyz II Men or Jodeci. This basically lasted until 1997, when a new generation came to the forefront.

While there was a generational shift that changed the music scene in the late 1990's, it dovetailed nicely with the burnout of the grunge/gangsta rap influence, as Kurt Cobain killed himself, Soundgarden broke up, Alice In Chains and Hole imploded due to substance abuse, and 2Pac and Biggie Smalls were both murdered. With all of that heavy karma seemingly imploding upon itself, it was a perfect time for the Spice Girls and Hanson to bring in a new generation of music, and by extension, the Backstreet Boys, 'Nsync, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, and Christina Aguilera. Music suddenly got very light and poppy again, and even in hip-hop the edginess and anger that permeated gangsta rap was replaced by aspirational stuff like bling, fancy cars and women.

LOL. Somebody else said it was Prodigy but I can't independently verify that claim. It may have been a Dutch band doing a parody of that lyric, with a similar track, but we definitely heard it correctly. This was in Holland in '98 when the big new thing was "gabber", hollering profanity over super fast gnarly beats.

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bobzilla77 said:

I remember in 1998 hearing what I think was a new song by Prodigy come on the radio and the lyric was "I'm gonna break for a new addiction - I'm gonna break for a new addiction.... A COKE ADDICTION!" It was like wow, no more metaphors needed.

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I think that may be a mondegreen. The Prodigy single that in my mind comes closest to these lyrics, is 'Out Of Space', in which the actual lyrics are:"I'll take your brain to another dimension/Pay close attention".

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728huey said:

To me there were two distinct periods in the 1990's music scene which I would last as beginning in 1991. (To me, 1990 itself was just an extension of the 1980's.) You had the angst ridden alternative rock scene that was led by Nirvana but copied by so many bands, and even established groups like R.E.M. and U2, which made their sound on theor earnestness, suddenly went ironic in order to stay relevant. Then you had the rising influence of hip-hop, especially gangsta rap, which made R&B music more raw and edgy, and in order to make it in pop music, you had to be extraordinarily talented or else not get played. That led to a lot of emphaisis on "the voice," which meant that you had to sing like Whitney, Mariah, or Celine, or do new jack doo-wop like Boyz II Men or Jodeci. This basically lasted until 1997, when a new generation came to the forefront.

While there was a generational shift that changed the music scene in the late 1990's, it dovetailed nicely with the burnout of the grunge/gangsta rap influence, as Kurt Cobain killed himself, Soundgarden broke up, Alice In Chains and Hole imploded due to substance abuse, and 2Pac and Biggie Smalls were both murdered. With all of that heavy karma seemingly imploding upon itself, it was a perfect time for the Spice Girls and Hanson to bring in a new generation of music, and by extension, the Backstreet Boys, 'Nsync, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, and Christina Aguilera. Music suddenly got very light and poppy again, and even in hip-hop the edginess and anger that permeated gangsta rap was replaced by aspirational stuff like bling, fancy cars and women.

Great answer! Thanks.

Yeah, I think music scene gravitated toward that teeny-pop sound in the late 90's, it's strange how all those videos and that music was basically influenced by Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince, but it showed only a decade later. I think the millenium brought us a new brand of alternative & indie rock bands, as well as the genre blending formula OutKast, Gnarls Barkley, The White Stripes and such followed.. even if everybody literally went R&B in the last decade.

Well, today, what rocks is those EDM david guetta / calvin harris / avicii songs... with shitty production and nonsense lyrics.

728huey said:

To me there were two distinct periods in the 1990's music scene which I would last as beginning in 1991. (To me, 1990 itself was just an extension of the 1980's.)

Fair. Zero year is usually that way.

You had the angst ridden alternative rock scene that was led by Nirvana but copied by so many bands, and even established groups like R.E.M. and U2, which made their sound on theor earnestness, suddenly went ironic in order to stay relevant.

U2 went big and boombastic to kick off the decade. REM seemingly just broeadened theoir sound.

Then you had the rising influence of hip-hop, especially gangsta rap, which made R&B music more raw and edgy, and in order to make it in pop music, you had to be extraordinarily talented or else not get played. That led to a lot of emphaisis on "the voice," which meant that you had to sing like Whitney, Mariah, or Celine, or do new jack doo-wop like Boyz II Men or Jodeci. This basically lasted until 1997, when a new generation came to the forefront.

\In hindsight, GENERALLY, think the West Coast sound commercialized hip-hop, while the East Coast sound gave it some gravitas and underground bona fides. Both coastas helped shape the new R&B sound.

While there was a generational shift that changed the music scene in the late 1990's, it dovetailed nicely with the burnout of the grunge/gangsta rap influence, as Kurt Cobain killed himself, Soundgarden broke up, Alice In Chains and Hole imploded due to substance abuse, and 2Pac and Biggie Smalls were both murdered.

Plus, the Hip-Hop sound had started to consolidate and become less diverse.

With all of that heavy karma seemingly imploding upon itself, it was a perfect time for the Spice Girls and Hanson to bring in a new generation of music, and by extension, the Backstreet Boys, 'Nsync, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, and Christina Aguilera. Music suddenly got very light and poppy again, and even in hip-hop the edginess and anger that permeated gangsta rap was replaced by aspirational stuff like bling, fancy cars and women.

I agree about the pop sound, and at the same time, the more interesting sounds were coming from the fringes. D'Angelo, Maxwell, Badu, Jamiroquai, Beck, et al. Electronica, drum and bass, downtempo were percolating.

As for the hip-hop sound, I agree. Hip-hop had started to imitate itself, with the industry looking to fill the void left by Tupac and Biggie.