90s Music Essay Research Paper Music in

90s Music Essay, Research Paper

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