90s MUSIC a CHC2D Canadian History Presentation

SEATTLE when it comes to music in the 90s, all eyes were on Seattle at the start of the decade Seattle had three things no other city had: Microsoft, which was the largest computer company in the world; Starbucks, which was beginning to spread across the world as its largest coffee outlet; and grunge. grunge was a style of music that, like punk, emphasized the rawness of the sound — only this time it was unfiltered music like you would hear in your garage top bands in the grunge movement were Nirvana and Pearl Jam grunge also had a style of its own: plaid flannel shirts that were worn over t-shirts or long shirts, jeans (preferably torn), and long unwashed hair

RETRO the counterpoint to grunge was Unplugged, a television show on MTV that aired one new episode a month the rule of Unplugged was simple: bands could play whatever they wanted in front of the small crowd — but they could not use electric guitars some compensated for the lack of electric guitars by bringing in string quartets and orchestras bigger and bigger names were attracted to the show, but what makes it important is that those older acts released albums that got hit singles… and introduced new audiences to them some key acts who benefited from Unplugged are: Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Tony Bennett and Bryan Adams

MTV-MADE MTV’s influence was more important when it came to Total Request Live (or TRL for short) TRL was watched by so many teens that it was able to drive what was hot and reached the top of the charts when record companies figured this out, they worked to create acts that would be able to fit the style they wanted to sell the most recognizable examples of this are boy bands Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, and solo female acts Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera — most of whom had got their pre-teen start on The New Mickey Mouse Club for acts like Britney and Christina, the press also helped push them away from the “good girl” image they had cultivated as Disney kids MTV also helped increase the popularity of hip hop and rap, both of which had been around before but were not bringing acts that would become producers of other acts to keep the genre going

ALTERNATIVE any music that didn’t fit what the music companies knew how to promote got labelled alternative the range of alternative is large — and a lot of it comes from countries outside of the United States, where the power of MTV’s Total Request Live wasn’t as strong for example: in Britain, rivals Oasis and Blur were called “britpop” but in America they were alternative other acts that were labelled alternative include Radiohead and Ottawa’s own Alanis Morissette

CANADA’S BEST Alanis wasn’t the biggest act out of Canada in the nineties: that title belonged to two others at the start of the decade, it belonged to The Barenaked Ladies, who famously were turned down a chance to play the winter festival of their home town Toronto because the mayor (Barbara Hall) thought they were actually women performing in the nude and not five guys who were fully dressed Barenaked Ladies’ later hit, “One Week” became a smash hit in the US as well they lost the title to Vancouver’s Sarah McLachlan, who had a smash success with her album Surfacing — and followed that tour with the Lilith Fair, a showcase for top women musicians which she was the final act for thanks to the CRTC’s Canadian Content regulation, they were able to stay in the music business even when their albums were not getting hits

CONTENT CONTROVERSY “Canadian Content” became quite controversial when Bryan Adams released his album Waking Up The Neighbours Adams recorded most the music in England with a British producer since he didn’t have three or four of the M.A.P.L. requirements, playing songs from the album did not count towards the Canadian content stations had to play Canadians didn’t think that fair: Bryan Adams proudly announced he was Canadian radio stations also thought it was doubly unfair because the album had the hit “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” — which got the world record for most weeks on the top of the Billboard charts… and still holds it at 11 weeks

CONTENT-LESS CONTROVERSY one other important moment in Canada’s music scene comes from acts that weren’t Canadian on August 8, 1992, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses played Montreal’s Olympic Stadium Metallica ended their set early because Metallica frontman James Hetfield was standing too close to the pyrotechnics and burned his arm Guns N Roses ended their set early (just 30 minutes long!) because Axl Rose claimed he wasn’t feeling well feeling they didn’t get close to their money’s worth, fans rioted windows were smashed, items stolen, cop cars overturned… totalling $1 million in damages Montreal wanted to ban concerts from the stadium but Genesis had already been booked and tickets sold