Music of the United Kingdom (1990s)

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This article is about British popular music of the 1990s. For Classical music, see Classical music of the United Kingdom.

1990s in music in the UK
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Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1990s continued to develop and diversify. While the singles charts were dominated by

Radiohead and The Verve
.

Rock

Main article:
British indie rock

Madchester

Main article: Madchester
Happy Mondays in concert in 2006

The independent rock scene that had developed in Manchester in the second half of the 1980s, based in

shoegazing bands from the south of England and bands emerging through US grunge.[1]

Dream pop and shoegazing

Main articles:
Shoegazing

Dream pop had developed out of the indie rock scene of the 1980s, when bands like

shoegazing; key bands of this style were Lush, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Alison's Halo, Chapterhouse, Curve and Levitation. These bands kept the atmospheric qualities of dream pop, but added the intensity of post-punk-influenced bands such as The Chameleons and Sonic Youth.[3]

Indie pop

Main article: Indie pop
Belle & Sebastian

Initially dubbed '

C86' after the 1986 NME tape, and also known as "cutie", "shambling bands" and later as "twee pop",[4] indie pop was characterised by jangling guitars, a love of sixties pop and often fey, innocent lyrics.[5] It was inspired by the DIY scene of punk, with a thriving fanzine, label and club and gig circuit, but tended to eschew punk's nihilism and aggression.[5] Early bands included The Pastels, Talulah Gosh and Primal Scream, and among the most commercially successful were Belle and Sebastian.[4]

Post rock

Main article:
Post rock

Post rock originated in the release of

Laughing Stock and US band Slint's Spiderland, both in 1991, which produced experimental work influenced by sources as varied as electronica, jazz, and minimalist classical music, often abandoning the traditional song format in favour of instrumental and ambient music.[6] The term was first used to describe the band Bark Psychosis and their album Hex (1994), but was soon employed for bands such as Stereolab, Laika, Disco Inferno and Pram and other acts in America and Canada.[6] Scottish group Mogwai were among some of the influential post-rock groups to arise at the turn of the 21st century.[7]

Britpop

Main article: Britpop
Oasis is considered to be the most commercially successful British rock act of the decade.

Britpop emerged from the British indie scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.[1] The movement developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the grunge phenomenon from the United States.[1] New British groups such as Suede and Blur launched the movement by positioning themselves as opposing musical forces, referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns. These bands were soon joined by others including Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass and Elastica.[1] Britpop groups brought British indie rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural movement called Cool Britannia.[8] Although its more popular bands were able to spread their commercial success overseas, especially to the United States, the movement largely fell apart by the end of the decade.[1]

Post-Britpop

Main article: Post-Britpop

By 1999, as dissatisfaction grew with the concept of Cool Britannia, and Britpop as a movement began to dissolve, emerging bands began to avoid the Britpop label while still producing music derived from it.

Rolling Stones and Small Faces,[12] with American influences, including post-grunge.[13][14] Post-Britpop bands like The Verve, Radiohead, Travis, Stereophonics and Feeder, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s.[14][15][16][17]

Pop

Main articles:
Girl groups
Wannabe

The success of American boy band

Wannabe", "2 Become 1" and "Spice Up Your Life" from 1996.[19] They were followed by British groups like All Saints, who had five number 1 hits in the UK and two multi-platinum albums.[20] By the end of the century the grip of boy bands on the charts was faltering, but proved the basis for solo careers like that of Robbie Williams, formerly of Take That, who achieved seven Number One singles in the UK between 1998 and 2012.[20]

Electronic music

Main articles: Drum and bass and Trip hop

House music

Main article: House music § UK: 1986–early 1990s

UK garage

Main article: UK garage

UK garage originated from England, particularly in London in the early 1990s and emerged from styles such as

grime, bassline and dubstep. The decline of UK garage during the mid-2000s saw the birth of UK funky
, which is closely related.

Drum and bass

Main article: Drum and bass

Drum and bass emerged from the London

4 Hero and DJ Rap, some fusing drum and bass with influences from jazz, film music, ambient and trip-hop.[21][23][24]

Trip hop

Main article: Trip hop
The Chemical Brothers performing live, 2005.

In the early 1990s,

Fat Boy Slim.[29]

Metal

Main article: Heavy metal music

Extreme metal bands were rarely covered in mainstream media and rarely appeared on television.[30] Part of what separated the British metal music of the 1990s was a sense of a humor and irony that was not as nearly widespread as the European and American metal groups of the era.[31] Even among the more 'serious' British groups such as Carcass or Gorerotted have displayed a tongue-in-cheek attitude.[31]

The British extreme metal scene produced bands of worldside significance and popularity such as Cradle of Filth.[31] Other metal oriented media that originated in the United Kingdom included magazines such as Terrorizer which have a reputation worldwide.[31]

Hip hop

Main article:
British hip hop
Stereo MCs at the Orange Music Experience Festival, Haifa
, 2005

By the early 1990s the British hip hop seemed to be thriving, with flourishing scenes in London, Bristol and Nottingham.

Stereo MCs beginning to playing instruments and sampling their own tunes.[32] Arguably this led to a creative renaissance, with British hip hop shifting from the hardcore American template and moving into more melodic territory.[33]

Soul

Main article: British soul

After

Brand New Heavies, were now able to pursue mainstream recording careers.[34] Particularly noticeable was the proliferation of British female black singers including Mica Paris, Caron Wheeler, Gabrielle and Heather Small.[35]

Folk resurgence

Main article: British folk revival
Kate Rusby on stage.

Traditional folk music, having been in a slow decline from mainstream popularity since the 1970s, began to enjoy a resurgence in the 1990s, benefiting from the more general interest in World music.[36] The arrival, and sometimes mainstream success, of acts like Martyn Bennett, Kate Rusby, Nancy Kerr, Kathryn Tickell, Spiers and Boden, Blazin' Fiddles, Eliza Carthy, Runrig and Capercaillie, all largely concerned with acoustic performance of traditional material, marked a radical turn around in the fortunes of British folk music.[37] This was reflected in the adoption creation of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000 and the profile for folk music was as high as it had been for over thirty years.[36]

Post-Bhangra

Main article: Bhangra (music)

After the establishment of thriving south Asian music scenes in the 1980s, the 1990s saw Indian music reach the mainstream, particularly through a series of "post-Bhangra" fusions.

Cornershop, reached number 1 in the singles charts with a version of "Brimful of Asha" remixed by Fatboy Slim.[37]

Declining American popularity and increasing divergence with US styles

By the latter half of the decade, British music was declining in popularity in the United States.[39] Oasis and Blur were not considered phenomenons but one-hit wonders stateside.[39] Various Electronica styles were less well received in America than at home while genres that were popular in the United States such as nu metal were not picked up by UK artists.[39] British "quirkiness" and regional sensibilities that once were considered strengths there were now considered weakness by the increasingly oligarchic American music industry that was interested in marketing to young teens.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine, AllMusic Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), pp. 1346–7.
  2. ^ "Dream Pop Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  3. ^ "Shoegaze Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b N. Abebe, "Twee as Fuck: The Story of Indie Pop", Pitchfork Media, 24 Oct 2005, retrieved 28 January 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Indie pop", AllMusic, retrieved 28 January 2010.
  6. ^ a b "Post-Rock Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  7. ^ S. Taylor, A to X of Alternative Music (Continuum, 2006), pp. 154–5.
  8. ^ W. Osgerby, Youth Media (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 92–6.
  9. ISBN 0-306-81367-X
    , pp. 369–70.
  10. ISBN 0-7486-1745-0
    .
  11. ^ "British Trad Rock", AllMusic, retrieved 3 January 2010.
  12. ^ A. Petridis, "Roll over Britpop ... it's the rebirth of art rock", The Guardian, 14 February 2004, retrieved 2 January 2010.
  13. ^ "You Gotta Go There to Come Back, Stereophonics", AllMusic, retrieved 3 January 2010.
  14. ^ a b "Travis", AllMusic, retrieved 3 January 2010.
  15. ^ M. Roach, This is it-: the first biography of the Strokes (Omnibus Press, 2003), pp. 42 and 45.
  16. ^ "Stereophonics", AllMusic, retrieved 3 January 2010.
  17. ^ "Coldplay", AllMusic, retrieved 3 December 2010.
  18. ^ P. Shapiro, Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2006), pp. 288–9.
  19. ^ a b D. Sinclair, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (Omnibus Press, 2004), pp. 71–2.
  20. ^ a b N. Warwick, T. Brown, J. Kutner, The complete book of the British charts: singles & albums (Omnibus Press, 3rd edn., 2004), pp. 21–4.
  21. ^ a b c d "Jungle/Drum'n'bass", Allmusic, retrieved 9 May 2010.
  22. ^ S. Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999),
    ISBN 0-415-92373-5
    , pp. 251–69.
  23. ^
    ISBN 0-415-93835-X
    , p. 334.
  24. ^ S. Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999),
    ISBN 0-415-92373-5
    , p. 335.
  25. ^ N. South, Drugs: culture, controls, and everyday life (SAGE, 1999), p. 30.
  26. ISBN 0-415-95408-8
    , p. 47.
  27. ^ a b c d D. Helmsmondhalgh and C. Melville, "Urban Breakbeat culture: repercussions of Hip-Hop in the United Kingdom" in A. Mitchell, ed., Global noise: rap and hip-hop outside the USA (Wesleyan University Press, 2001), pp. 86–110.
  28. ^ J. Shepher and D. Laing, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (Continuum, 2003), p. 179.
  29. ISBN 0-415-97501-8
    , p. 309.
  30. ^ Kahn-Harris 2007, p. 111.
  31. ^ a b c d Kahn-Harris 2007, p. 110.
  32. ^ P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock, (London: Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 28.
  33. ^ Rowntree, Barney (10 August 2001). "BBC News website: British hip hop renaissance". Retrieved 2 November 2006.
  34. ^ G. Wald, "Soul's Revival: White Soul, Nostalgia and the Culturally Constructed Past", M. Guillory and R. C. Green, Soul: Black power, politics, and pleasure (New York University Press, 1997), pp. 139–58.
  35. ^ A. Donnell, ed., Companion to contemporary Black British culture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2002), pp. 285–6.
  36. ^ a b D. Else, J. Attwooll, C. Beech, L. Clapton, O. Berry, and F. Davenport, Great Britain (London, Lonely Planet, 2007), p. 75.
  37. ^ a b c S. Broughton, M. Ellingham, R. Trillo, O. Duane, and V. Dowell, World Music: The Rough Guide (London: Rough Guides, 1999), pp. 83–8.
  38. ^ A. Donnell, Companion to contemporary Black British culture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2002), p. 242.
  39. ^ a b c d Jenkins, Mark (3 May 2002). "The end of the British Invasion". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 8 January 2021.

References

  • Kahn-Harris, Keith (2007). Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. Berg.
    ISBN 978-1845203993
    .
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