Unit 13 -- Some Trends of the 1990s (and 2000s)

Unit 13 – Some Trends of the 1990s
(and 2000s)

 

Rap music continued to diversify as well as increase in mainstream popularity. Rap enjoyed more mainstream popularity than ever in the early 1990s, with rappers like M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice enjoying great commercial success. However, the authenticity of these rappers was questioned, especially in light of other trends within 1990s rap, especially gangsta.

Regional varieties of rap became more prominent, with southern California becoming a center of influence to rival New York. Gangsta rap seemed to replace the social messaging of Public Enemy with a style and outlook that dealt with  more explicit and pessimistic representations of urban street life. N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitude),  released the album Straight Outta Compton in the late 1980s. It was the beginning of the gangsta trend that continued through the 1990s. The violence depicted in this music was not merely fictional and bubbled over into real life. Rivalries between East Coast and West Coast rappers resulted in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

West Coast rapper Snoop Doggy Dog's "Who Am I" from the album Doggystyle may serve as an example of the 1990s rap.

 

Snoop Doggy Dog, Who Am I (What's My Name)

 

 

Some women rappers like Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill challenged the sexism and swagger of male rap artists
 Queen Latifah, U.N.I.T.Y.

Dance Music

Electronic  Dance Music, descended from disco and cultivated in urban clubs since the 1980s, hit its stride in the 1990s and began to influence other popular music. Among the early styles to develop were Detroit techno and Chicago house, with a dizzying number of subgenres (trance, industrial, tribal, etc.) developing by the 1990s.

 Alternative Rock

Alternative rock which developed in the 1980s as an alternative to mainstream pop musicand its commercialism, became sufficiently popular in the 1990s as to go mainstream. Also called indie rock or underground rock, this music was made by musicians who often took a great deal of importance out of the belief thay the were opposing or evading the commercail music establishment. The popular success of alternative bands in the 1990s was a dilemma for both artists and audiences. The musicians' newfound success proved a complicated identity crisis for some, while others embraced it easily. The style and attitudes of this music was usually influenced by and carrying on the attitudes of punk. Some alternative rock bands are Sonic Youth, the Dead Kennedys, R.E.M,  and Nirvana.

Regional alternative music scenes emerged. One of the most important was Seattle, where the Grunge sound was cultivated, combining influences of punk and heavy metal. Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit exemplifies the style in a song that achieved great commercial success. The use of distorted electric guitar sounds, gutteral vocals, and unintelligible lyrics are typical of the style. So is the dissaffected attitude associated with Generation X. Nirvana lead Kurt Cobain famously committed suicide while battling a drug addiction at the age of 27 and at the height of the band's success, securing his status as an icon of a generation and 1990s rock.

Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

The emergence of alternative music also opened a space for a new kind of female singer, who often expressed an alternative or feminist perspective. Ani DiFranco's "Not a Pretty Girl" combines folk and rock elements in an emphatic assertion of feminine self-determination.

 

Ani DiFranco, Not a Pretty Girl

 

 

 

After the '90s

 

It is difficult to asses the lasting trends of more recent times, but some brief observations my be made concerning popular music in the last twelve years. By the beginning of the 2000s, there was a resurgence of pure pop music with the rise of boy bands like 'N Sync and solo singers like Britney Spears. Much pop was influenced by dance music as seen in the work of people like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. R&B singers like Alicia Keyes have come to the fore, and  there has been a rich interaction and synthesis of R&B, hip hop and electronic dance music in the work of artists like Beyonce Knowles, Jay-Z and Kanye West. Country music exerts as much influence as ever, with country-pop stars like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift forming an integral part of the pop music landscape.