I'll start with hiphop although there are tons of people here who know a hell of a lot more about it than I do since I don't listen to hiphop as my main choice of tunes. here's my thoughts. Hiphop originated as a kind of street poetry where the beats behind the music were secondary to the words themselves. Modern mainstream hiphop places a great deal more emphasis on slick production and bouncing beats then on the words. This is why I can't stand the entire catalogue of no limit and cash money records. I have better things to do than listen to someone tell me how they ruined their 60,000 suv by installing snakeskin seatcovers and 10000 worth of custom rims. When I listen to hiphop i tend to put in old geto boyz, public enemy, nwa, or icecube. Back before the words got drowned in a sea of base. Modern rock. Same thing really. Early 90s had a lot of mainstream bands that were actually progressive and had something to say. Now acts like avril lavigne, shakira, and even n'sync are tossed into the rock category. Rock and Roll has fallen victim to the same disease that hiphop has, where it's more important to write a catchy tune that will sell well rather than putting down any tracks that people will still be listening to 10 years from now.
The top 40 will always be full of **** no matter what year you look at. Even so, there are no boy bands on the top 40 list from 1992.
That's becuase there were no boy bands in 1992 other than New Kids on the Block, who came out with they're first cd in 1990. I had to look that up, I swear I didn't know off hand when their cds came out.
In my opinion, the more that mainstream music embraces the computer (and the drum machine in particular) the more empty and horrific it will become. This is probably just my old-fartiness talking, but instruments you actually play (as opposed to program) will always be more visceral and immediate and emotive to me. My least favorite is thumping house music -- sort of like music that would be interesting to ... as long as you're a zombie or Frakenstein's monster or Mark Eaton. How does that relate to rap? I don't know. I'd say sampling technology is too easy. When TerminatorX was mixing and layering in the studio, I doubt he could do it all from one piece of PC software. .. How long does it take to produce your average Snoop song? If it takes longer than the song's playing time, then there are some serious idiots involved. Same with a lot of that wanna-be-R&B pop.
Originally posted by Heretic Modern mainstream hiphop places a great deal more emphasis on slick production and bouncing beats then on the words. This is why I can't stand the entire catalogue of no limit and cash money records. I have better things to do than listen to someone tell me how they ruined their 60,000 suv by installing snakeskin seatcovers and 10000 worth of custom rims. When I listen to hiphop i tend to put in old geto boyz, public enemy, nwa, or icecube. Back before the words got drowned in a sea of base.[/QUOTE] Strangely enough Dr Dre from NWA, probably the best rap group ever IMHO, is one of the people who started pushing the slick production tactics. Puffy, MasterP, et al. are just following up on what Dre started. Plus I think the murders of Tupac and Biggie pushed a lot of people away from old style battling to what we have now, Eminen trashing skinny pop stars.
What early 90s bands are you calling 'progressive'? Just curious. Everything's been done before in rock music. The early 90s grunge bands were far from progressive. They just borrowed from bands critics thought were cool. Also n-sync et. al. are never tossed into the 'rock' category, I don't know where you're getting that. What passes for really good rock nowadays is really not that great, for instance most anything that starts with "The". Also who cares if you have "something to say"? I really don't care what you have to say, just write a good song. That's what it's always been about. Not picking on you, just giving you my thoughts as a person who really doesn't know a whole lot.
man that is an interesting Top 40, 92 was when i graduated from high school, so know those songs well from formals/dances etc it it just me or are there a lot of bands in that top40 that dropped completelty off the face of the earth shortly after 92 or things went horribly wrong ie whitney, MC hammer, billy ray, wreckn effects, colour me badd ..... the list goes on damn how quickly i forget Rumpshaker and house of pain's Jump around ..... Classics!! where is that box of cassingles i had from 92, under a bed somewhere, probably has most of these songs. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 1992 is a classic for #4 RSF - I'm too SEXY, damn i loved that song, i even have the whole CD, even listened to it the other week. Where are you Right Said Fred!!!
I didn't own a CD player in 1992, so I am currently listening to my tape of Right Said Fred as I type!
What I miss about music in 1992: OK, maybe I'm biased because I was at the right age to appreciate it back then. The Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" era. Nirvana, of course. "Alternative rock" when it was actually alternative, and not necessarily grunge - Cracker, The Lightning Seeds, Soup Dragons, Big Audio Dynamite, etc. REM's best ever, "Automatic For The People", which I've been listening to ever since (as opposed to, say, New Adventures in Drink Coasters, Up, and Reveal). I actually liked 90's-era U2 (though they've continued to put out quality music, just different). Jon Secada. Some interesting stuff from Prince, or whatever his name was that year. And the rap: Baby Got Back, the greatest of all time. Continuing with that theme, Rump Shaker (which I didn't discover until recently). Silly fun or weird stuff: I'm Too Sexy, I Touch Myself (yes, that song's a little up close and personal, but it's fun to sing it just to scare your friends) What I don't miss: Anyone remember Color Me Badd? Never understood the big deal about Kriss Kross. Madonna's low point. Overexposure of Bohemian Rhapsody. (it was fun the first few hundred times) Overexposure of anything by Mariah Carey. Shakespear's Sister (never thought they could sing). Then there's always Achy Breaky Heart (but admit it, at the time you probably listened to it - a lot - and even did the dance ).
I graduated from high school that year too. We left the graduation ceremony playing "I'm Too Sexy" out of my friend's convertible. (the message, of course, that we were too sexy for high school!) Good times. "Jump Around", though, has this annoying noise in the background that sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
Isabel - your description is spot on, i had started to discover alternative that year, that is the triplej radio station for australia, but was still listening to the mainstream hits, the year after Uni kicked in and it was all alternative and the commercial stuff was giving the arse
Forgot to mention bands I liked then... Albums that really come to mind: "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", Red Hot Chili Peppers "How the Gods Kill", Danzig "Dirt", Alice in Chains "Vulgar Display of Power", Pantera "America's Least Wanted", Ugly Kid Joe "Angel Dust", Faith No More "Badmotorfinger", Soundgarden "Keep the Faith", Bon Jovi "Metallica", Metallica "Countdown to Extinction", Megadeth "Psalm 69", Ministry
Smashing pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Tori Amos, Sepultura, Tool, and Pantera to name a few acts who I believe put out cds around that time period that are still relevant today. True most of the songs were either about drug abuse, pain, hatred, loss, etc but the lyrics and the music actually meant something to the musicians because they wrote, recorded, and performed all of the music themselves.
