Music in the 90's
The 90's was filled with a variety of pop, rap and alternative music artist.The early years of the 1990s began with a surge in popularity for music genres like techno (often called dance or house music) and hip-hop that continued throughout the decade.
Around late 1992, there was a change of the genre of music becoming more apparent in radio's mainstream playlists. Even though techno and hip-hop still dominated the airwaves, a new style of rock music was making an impact. Songs like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” spoke about a teen revolution in a seemingly meaningless world and were offering youngsters a new type of rock music to listen to that contained catchy lyrics about the angst and trials of teenage years. This song also marked the beginning of the grunge and alternative rock.
By late 1995, young people were ready for something new. By this, "happy rock" was created to purposefully be in contrast the negativity of grunge bands. Upbeat melodies and lyrics about love and relationships were created.
The “happy rock” years in the mid-90s helped to pave the way for the "bubblegum pop". Artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dominated the mainstream pop music scene well into the late 1990s and beyond. The sexual lyrics and innuendos also came back but they were more obvious than before. The videos also took after this. The later years of the decade also saw a new popularity for traditional boy bands. The Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and N’Sync enjoyed the same amount of, if not more, popularity than older boy bands like New Kids on the Block from the late 1980s.
Effects of the Industry in the 90's
The 90's were largely about delivering music to fans however they wished to receive it. CDs was the main way to buy and listen to music. Even though vinyl's were becoming less popular as a means to buy music, some people still bought them. As the use of the internet increased, downloading MP3 formatted music was becoming popular which made the delivery of music much quicker. However, by using this, it created uncertainty as to whether this would harm the industry. Unfortunately it did as 33% of global sales are pirate sales.
Effect of Society in the 90's
Rap music was blamed for school shootings, violence towards women and gang violence and many more. This damaged the way people saw rap music. However the quality of music decrease due to artists' maintaining their 'image'. Politics was a current theme throughout certain song by bands such as U2.
Technological Developments in the 90's
Opcode introduced Studio Vision which was a way to combine MIDI sequences and audio editing and recording on a personal computer. 'RealAudio' successfully launches the first major streaming audio service in 1995. In comparison to the long wait associated with downloading a music file, streaming audio becomes highly popular, despite initial poor audio quality. The World Wide Web was created by Sir Tim Berners which lead to purchasing music more popular. The HST (Hubble Space Telescope) was launched in April 1990 and it was a major step toward the study of extraterrestrial elements.
Bibliography
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/90smusic.html
http://www.slideshare.net/sachaspence/the-music-industry-1990s
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/cron.html
http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/123405.aspx
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