The Music of the Nineties

As the nineties began, Kurt Cobain's group, Nirvana, as well as other "grunge rockers," took over the rock and roll scene. The glam rockers of the eighties faded away fast as the alternative Seattle sound went mainstream. While Nirvana will most likely reign as the king of grunge, other bands such as Pearl Jam and Soundgarden cannot be left out. After Cobain killed himself, his widow Courtney Love used the publicity to show that girls can be angry rockers too and touted her band, Hole.

     After grunge began to fade from the scene, punk music made a small comeback with the group Green Day, which charmed its mainly middle-school-aged audience with a lot of fast music and spitting. Ska also came into the mainstream during the ninties. Ska is a wild mixture of punk and horns with a twist of reggae. Go a little bit heavy on the reggae, get rid of most of the punk and make yourself a bit cleaner and marketable, and you get current Top 10 slot holder Sugar Ray as well as a lot of other bands that are in rotation on MTV. Before this paragraph is over, mention must be made about the Smashing Pumpkins. Though maybe not much fun to watch in concert, those crazy Pumpkins are everywhere.

     The nineties have been called "the decade without an identity" by some due to the many different types of music on the pop charts. In past decades, usually only a few types of music dominated the Top 40, but in the nineties you can find rock, rap, gangsta rap, alternative, punk, country, R&B, adult contemporary, ska, and classic rock. There are so many types of music and it is easier to get access to what you want than ever before. Maybe the only thing that has stayed the same in the music world is that the Rolling Stones are still touring.

Links to Artists of the Era

Natalie Imbruglia

Metallica

 
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