Popular music in the 90s

The 1990s was an iconic and influential decade in the making, distribution and consumption of music. The theme of the 90s was simplicity and popular appeal. The 90s marked a disassociation with, but also in a way a reinterpretation of, the new wave culture of the 1980s which was dominate by synthesizers, electronic drums and all sorts of other technological advances. Grunge harked back to the punk movement of the late 70s, in it's rejection of the complex technology of the 80s and return to raw and rough rock. The defining memories of the later 90s are of boy bands, novelty hits and simple soft vocal pop, ranging from Britney to Celine Dion. Meanwhile the rise of techno and hip-hop were quite rooted in ideas begun in the 80s and beyond. Sampling, synthetic sounds, machine loops like the Phil Collins pioneered drum machine, the heavily disco and 80s dance music reminiscent idea of pulsing bassy beats and the focus on infectious danceable rhythms all took shape in things like techno and hip-hop, both in simplified forms. The fast-rising availability of computer technology meant you could often have music of either of those genres devoid of organic instruments, and in techno's case, even of any sort of active live performer.

Popular music can be defined as "Music accessible to a wide audience, distributed through the mass media as a commercial product." If this is anything to go by, then the 1990s might be the most important, if not necessarily respected decade in the era of popular music of the past 50 years. The 90s was the beginning of a homogenized mass culture in music that has only increased in the years since the beginning of the new millennium. With the ever-increasing power of the mass media to pigeonhole societal masses into the realms of conformity, and the rise of phenomena such as the Internet, commercial viability became paramount. Much of the ambition of previous decades was sacrificed in preference of simple, easy to listen to, pop infectiousness's. For better or worse, the musical icons of the 90s were in many cases scarcely qualifiable as musicians. It's nearly impossible to entertain the Backstreet Boys, NSync, Mariah Carey, anyone related to teen pop or 'those guys who did the Macarena' as serious musicians, irrespective of whether you like their commercial product or not. The nature of mass media made 'sellable' music more enticing, and the homogenised society these acts targeted was as a collective, more than happy to buy.

Such popular fervour must have been nauseating to the many musicians and fans who would always still be around to disagree. By the beginning of the 90s, commercialism was reaching its zenith, so by that stage some of the most iconic subcultures, every bit the equal of psychedelia and punk, were starting to flourish. Grunge, post-punk, alternative rock, industrial, metal, hip-hop, rave and house music and techno all made their voices heard in the underground music scene as time went on and the world commercialised more. However not even these genres could escape the fervour. While fans of many of these genres and bands will always maintain, often rightly, that the musicians they loved never 'sold out' or ever were against becoming commercially popular, nevertheless it is undeniable that many of the musical icons of the 1990s were born out of these initially subcultural movements. Grunge dominated the early years of the decade, led by bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, arguably until the death of Kurt Cobain in April 1994. For the remainder of the decade (and beyond to this day) alternative rock and it's many subgenres like indie rock, pop punk and industrial rock was hugely powerful and popular. Even country music didn't escape, as the more pure country and western roots gave way to a more commercial country-pop sound that now rules the genre. Hip-Hop of course became the last underground scene to turn mainstream in the latter years of the decade. It is not my claim that these genres or artists ever sold out or are not important and highly respectable, the nature of western culture has meant that all of the leading powerful musical subcultures over the years have gone to become mainstream, from jazz in the first half of the century to 50s rock 'n' roll to psychedelia to punk. But with the increased media-centricity of the world, this process has become much faster and far more unavoidable, all adding to the overall mainstreaming which threatens the very future of music.

Of all decades previous to this one, the 90s are the most relevant to the current state of the music world, not because of the obvious proximity so much as the continuity between the decades. The roots rock 'n' roll and blues of the 1950s had given away to the beginning of the songwriters of the British invasion and later the psychedelic movement by the 1960s. And yet as soon as any of these movements had been established, the progressive atmosphere of the early 1970s moved on and took popular music into new realms of complexity. But the decade wasn't even out when punk rock came along and turned the world upside down. The New Wave movement, synthesizers and advancing technology in every way defined the 80s, before the aforementioned re-return to basics in the 90s, from the raw rock n roll of grunge, to the commercialised simplicity of your boy bands or your Britney's. But there seems to be far less to differentiate the 1990s, particularly its latter half, from the 2000s up to this very day. Although some fads such as boy bands have generally died out, for the most part the cultural aesthetic of the 90s, of simplicity and commercialism, as well as the way music is now produced, has largely been retained through to today, reflecting the homogenization of music.

Through all this doom and gloom I seem to spout of the 90s though, there is more than a little good to have come from the decade. The 1990s marked the beginning of today's age, in which music of as wide a range as you could hope for is readily available in so many ways, from mobile phones to MP3 players to 24 hour music TV. The obvious primary factor there though is the advent of the Internet. The Internet has had a profound and wonderful affect on music availability and consumption. The combination of downloading software, sites like YouTube, and things like music blogs and fan pages have added layers of depth to the musical experience. Aside from this obvious factor though, the Internets greatest effect has been in largely off-setting many of the negative leanings of music in modern times, both by presenting an alternative to mass media which allows people to tap into a domain outside the mainstream, and primarily in making available music of all varieties. Any person can now download music they like of any era or genre, irrespective of what happens to prevail on the charts at the time. This means that although the mainstream music may thread a certain way, there can never again fundamentally be any 'ruling' musical genre, or the death of any musical form. The Internet has served to level the playing field for all, bringing the very essence of music back to life.

This blog will celebrate the 1990s in all its iconic glory, and highlight how important and influential the decade was on shaping today's musical culture, both the good and the bad equally.