90s :: essays research papers

Music in the nineties can be simply described as diverse. Diverse meaning that music has been segregated into hundreds of groups. This report will refer in detail to three genres of music: Alternative Country, Rap, Alternative Rock. It will also cover certain aspects indicative of the 90's. Alternative Country Music In 1990, a band called Uncle Tupelo from Belleville, Illinois, released their debut album. Titled No Depression, it featured a rough mixture of punk-rock songs, but it also added something different: several toned-down, acoustic ballads that had a distinct country flavor. A few years later, that simple little song and album title became the name of an internet fan club and chat group. It didn't stop there, in 1995, a magazine of the same name went into publication, and "No Depression" soon became the leading title for a progressive alternative country movement. Other names include "insurgent country" "Americana," or simply "alt.country," the latter is a reminder of the role the internet has played in the growth and publicity of this movement. For the most part, No Depression or alt.country bands aren't much of a threat to the sales figures of mainstream Nashville country artists. But the speed with which this music has caught on has shown that a substantial number of people have grown weary of the overproduced pop trends of 1990's mainstream country music, and the limited range of styles and sounds that are typically played on country radio stations. Rap Music Rap of the late 70's and 80's, commonly called "old school", was made by DJs scratching records and playing drum loops, with MCs rapping over the resulting rhythms. As the genre progressed, hard-rock guitars and hard-hitting beats were introduced by Run-D.M.C., the first hardcore rap group, and the scratching techniques were replaced by sampling. With their dense collages of samples, beats and white noise, Public Enemy took sampling to the extreme, and they helped introduce a social and political conscience to rap. This faded in the '90s, as gangsta rap, originally introduced by NWA, who used Public Enemy's sound as a template, became the dominant form. By the '90s, gangsta rap, which originally was in direct opposition to such pop-oriented rappers as MC Hammer, had become smoothed over and stylish, and consequently was more popular than ever, as evidenced by the success of pop-gangsta Puff Daddy in the late 90's. Alternative Rock Music Alternative pop/rock is essentially a catch-all term for post-punk bands from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s. Though there is a variety of musical styles within alternative rock, they are all tied together since they originally existed outside of the mainstream.