A Chronology of Rock Music - The 1990s

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1990	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Paradise Lost invents "doom-metal" Meat Beat Manifesto invents "jungle" (or "drum'n'bass"), a fusion of hip hop and techno, that is adopted at the London club "Rage" by disc jockeys Fabio and Grooverider Stevie Ray Vaughn dies The Burning Man sculpture is moved to Black Rock Desert Warner merges with Time Life to become the world's largest media conglomerate Polygram acquires A&M MCA buys Geffen EMI buys Chrysalis Independent labels founded in 1990 include: Trance Syndicate, Drag City, Ninja Tune, Warp, Too Pure Other significant albums of the year: Royal Trux's Twin Infinitives, Nick Cave's The Good Son, Fugazi's Repeater, Phish's Lawn, Cop Shoot Cop's Consumer Revolt
1991	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Codeine's Frigid Stars invents "slo-core" Molly Neuman forms the Bratmobile in Olympia, the first riot-grrrl band Boom of Seattle's grunge (Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten) The Primal Scream's Screamadelica fuses rock'n'roll and acid-house Kyuss' Wretch coins "stoner" rock Mariah Carey becomes the first artist ever to have her first five singles all make #1 on the Billboard charts N.W.A.'s Efil4Zaggin (1991) is the first rap album to debut at the top of the charts Revival of the melodic song in Britain ("Brit-pop") The Prodigy's Charly pioneers "big beat" Massive Attack's Blue Lines invents "trip-hop" Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind is the first country album to debut at number one in the pop charts The "Lollapalooza" festival is born as the road show accompanying Jane's Addiction's final tour, but soon becomes an itinerant display of alternative rock Freddie Mercury of the Queen dies of AIDS Johnny Thunders dies Independent labels founded in 1991 include: Skin Graft, Kill Rock Stars, VHF, The Pro Tools software is introduced A Paul Simon concert in Central Park draws an audience of 750,000 people Miles Davis dies at 65 Billboard begins tallying albums based on actual sales at retail stores (not word of mouth) Other significant albums of the year: Slint's Spiderland, Dogbowl's Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain, Type O Negative's Slow Deep And Hard, Unsane's Unsane, Jesus Lizard's Goat, Swans' White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity, Fugazi's Steady Diet Of Nothing
1992	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Rage Against The Machine's first album fuses funk, rap and heavy-metal Atari Teenage Riot wed techno and hardcore ("digital hardcore") D.J. Shadow is the first virtuoso turntablist on record The Pavement's Slanted And Enchanted launches lo-fi pop in the charts Boyz II Men set the new record for the longest running # single with "End Of The Road" Disc-jockey Gregor Asch (DJ Olive) organizes the first Lalalandia multimedia party in Williamsburg and coins the word "illbient" MP3 is invented as a format to store music in computers EMI acquires Virgin Records The first edition of Michael Erlewine's "All Music Guide" is published Willie Dixon dies at 77 Independent labels founded in 1992 include: Cleopatra, Thrill Jockey, Nothing Other significant albums of the year: Morphine's Good, Dadamah's This Is Not A Dream, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282's Mother Of All Saints, Red House Painters's Down Colorful Hill, Babes In Toyland's Fontanelle
1993	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Labradford's Prazision launches the revival of analogical keyboards Beck's Loser is a folk song for the age of hip-hop Pearl Jam's Vs sells one million copies the first week of release Autechre's Incunabula turns dance music into an abstract art LTJ Bukem's Music invents "ambient jungle" In London techno and jungle merge and yield "techstep" German disc-jockey Sven Vath's Accident In Paradise invents "progressive house" (or "trance") The Transglobal Underground launch "transglobal dance" Eric Miller founds the magazine "Magnet", specializing in independent rock Polygram buys Motown Frank Zappa dies of cancer Kranky is founded in Chicago Other significant albums of the year: Kenneth Newby's Ecology Of Souls, Vampire Rodents's Lullaby Land, Stereolab's Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements, Pain Teens's Destroy Me Lover, Mark Lanegan's Whiskey For The Holy Ghost, Morphine's Cure For Pain, Barkmarket's Gimmick, Girls Against Boys's Venus Luxure No 1 Baby, Sugarsmack's Top Loader
	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
1994	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Korn's first album fuses rap and grunge Oval's Systemisch invents "glitch" music Portishead's Dummy launches trip-hop Simon Reynolds coins the term "post rock" for Bark Psychosis' Hex Tortoise's first album leads the "post-rock" generation The British government enacts the "Criminal Justice Bill" aimed at curbing raves 4 Hero's Parallel Universe introduces jazz in jungle Sub Dub spearhead the fusion of hip hop, ambient house, middle-eastern folk and dub, the precursor to the "illbient" scene Green Day's Dookie is the best-sold punk-rock album of all times Piero Scaruffi begins work at this chronology Kurt Cobain of Nirvana commits suicide Independent labels founded in 1994 include: Rather Interesting Polygram acquires 50% of Def Jam Other significant albums of the year: Lisa Germano's Geek The Girl, Nine Inch Nails's The Downward Spiral, Magnetic Fields's The Charm Of The Highway Strip, Aurora's Dimension Gate, Von Lmo's Cosmic Interception, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Orange, Today Is The Day's Willpower
1995	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum opens in Cleveland Legendary disc-jockey Wolfman Jack dies Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzos dies Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground dies Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead dies, after performing 2,200 live concerts The Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust invents "big beat" that fuses techno and rock Seagram acquires MCA Independent labels founded in 1995 include: Digital Hardcore Other significant albums of the year: Lightwave's Mundus Subterraneus, Lycia's The Burning Circle And Then Dust, Air Liquide's The Increased Difficulty Of Concentration, Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, Low's Long Division, Bardo Pond's Bufo Alvarius, Fugazi's Red Medicine,
1996	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. DJ Spooky's Songs Of A Dead Dreamer (Asphodel, 1996) launches the "illbient" scene of New York with a chaotic and non-melodic fusion of drum & bass, hip hop, dub Naut Humon organizes "Recombinant", a multimedia festival for electronic musicians, in San Francisco Two rap singles reach the #1 spot in the pop charts "Macarena" is the biggest dance craze since the twist (one of its mixes stays at #1 for 14 weeks) Jeffrey Lee Pierce of the Gun Club dies Mariah Carey's One Sweet Day tops the U.S. charts for an unprecedented 16 weeks The DVD is introduced in Japan Disc-jockey Paul Oakenfold launches "Goa Trance" at the "Full Moon Party" BMG buys Windham Hill Independent labels founded in 1996 include: Alien8 Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. are murdered Other significant albums of the year: Black Tape For A Blue Girl's Remnants Of A Deeper Purity, Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Labradford's Labradford, Windy & Carl's Drawing Of Sound, For Carnation's Marshmallows, Neurosis's Through Silver In Blood, Subarachnoid Space's Delicate Membrane, Vas Deferens Organization's Transcontinental Conspiracy, Polvo's Exploded Drawing Youstol Dispage tops the charts
1997	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Roni Size's New Forms blends jungle's breakbeats with live instruments and singing Matmos uses "organic" samples (noises, not instruments) to compose music Elton John's Candle in the Wind becomes the best-selling song of all times, passing Bing Crosby's White Christmas Armand Van Helden develops "garage" music Laura Nyro dies Tim Taylor of Brainiac dies John Denver dies Fela Anikulapo Kuti dies of AIDS The "Terrastock" festival for psychedelic music is held in Providence (Rhode Island) Nusrat Fateh Ali dies Other significant albums of the year: Hash Jar Tempo's Well Oiled, Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On, Gravitar's Now The Road Of Knives, Dissolve's Third Album For The Sun, Amon Tobin's Bricolage Townes VanZandt dies at 52
	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
1998	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. The first portable MP3 devices are introduced Seagram acquires Polygram and combines MCA and Polygram into the Universal Music Group, which thus comprises Polygram, MCA, Geffen, Mercury, Polydor, London, Vertigo, Verve, A&M, Island, Motown, Decca, DG Independent labels founded in 1999 include: Absolutely Kosher, Tiger Style Other significant albums of the year: Dirty Three's Ocean Songs, Bran Van 3000's Glee, Calexico's The Black Light, Roy Montgomery's And Now The Rain
1999	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Moondog dies at 83 Mark Sandman of Morphine dies Shawn Fanning founds the Napster service that allows people to share music over the Internet Barry Hogan organizes the first "All Tomorrow's Parties" festival in England 'N Sync set the new record of sales in the first week of a new release (2.4 million copies) "Option" ceases publication The music world is ruled by five majors:  1. Universal,  2. Warner/Elektra/Sire/Atlantic,  3. Sony/Columbia/Epic,  4. EMI/Virgin/Capitol/Chrysalis,  5. BMG/Jive/Private/American/Windham Hill. The world's music market is worth 38 billion dollars. The five "majors" control 95% of the albums sold in the world, and 84% of the 755 million albums sold in the USA:  1. Universal with 27% (26.3% in the USA),  2. Warner with 20% (15.7%),  3. Sony with 18% (16.2%),  4. EMI with 16% (9.4%),  5. BMG with 14% (16%). The USA accounts for 37% of world sales, Japan for 16.7%, Britain for 7.6%, Germany for 7.4%, France for 5.2%, Canada for 2.3%, Australia for 1.7%, Brazil for 1.6%, Holland for 1.5%, Italy for 1.4%. Other significant albums of the year: Black Heart Procession's 2, Heather Duby's Post To Wire, Hash Jar Tempo's Under Glass Independent labels founded in 1999 include: Family Vineyard The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festivals is born
2000	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Mum's Yesterday Was Dramatic Today Is Ok mixes glitch electronica, chamber instruments and folk-rock Berlin's "Love Parade" becomes the largest dance event in the world, attended by almost one million people 27 people die of ecstasy in just one year in England Curtis Mayfield dies Tomata du Plenty dies 25,000 people attend the Burning Man festival at Black Rock Desert, which has become a city of art installations July: San Francisco hosts "Skratchcon", a conference for turntablists French media giant Vivendi buys Seagram. Warner is the only "major" that is still American: Universal is now French, Sony is Japanese, EMI is British, BMG is German Other significant albums of the year: Spring Heel Jack's Disappeared Independent labels founded in 2000 include: Def Jux
2001	TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Larry Tee, owner of the "Luxx" club in Brooklyn, organizes the "Electroclash" festival, which establishes electroclash (a fusion of punk-rock and dance-music) as a stand-alone musical genre Sales for the record industry slip 5% (first decline in ages) Napster is found guilty of breaching copyright law John Fahey dies Sandy Bull dies Fred Neil dies Joey Ramone dies Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh dies "Puncture" ceases publication 62 albums released by the Universal group sell more than 1 million copies in 2001 The file-sharing service Kazaa is founded in Amsterdam by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis Other significant albums of the year: Solex's Low Kick And Hard Bop, Lofty Pillars's Amsterdam, Scott Tuma's Hard Again
2002	Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones dies Joe Strummer of the Clash dies at 50 Otis Blackwell dies at 72 The top-selling album of 2002 is a white rap album, Eminem's Show EMI buys Mute "Pulse" ceases publication CD sales decrease 9% Warner acquires Tommy Boy Independent labels founded in 2002 include: Eastern Developments The first "Projekt Revolution" tour promotes rap-rock fusion
2003	Apple introduces the on-line music service "iTunes", which sells 25 million songs by december Universal reduces the price of CDs by 30% Market shares: Universal 26.3%, BMG 16.7%, Warner 16.1%, Sony 13.7%, EMI 11.2% The top-selling album of 2003 is a black rap album, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' CD sales decrease 2%, from 649.5 million units in 2002 to 635.8 million units in 2003 Piero Scaruffi's "A History of Rock Music" is published Warren Zevon dies at 56
2004	Ray Charles dies at 73 Robert Quine dies British DJ John Peel dies Johnny (Cummings) Ramone of the Ramones dies 143 millions songs are downloaded legally in the USA
2005	Robert Moog dies Link Wray dies at 76 CD sales decrease 7% in the USA to $602.2 million, while music downloads more than doubled from $134 million to $332 million
2006	Wilson Pickett dies at 64 Syd Barrett dies at 60 Arthur Lee dies at 61 James Brown dies at 73 Kazaa surrenders to the music industry Global digital music sales double to about $2bn
2007	Piero Scaruffi's "A History of Jazz Music" is published "Live Earth" concerts are held all over the world to increase awareness of climate change The annual "CMJ Music Marathon" presents 1,000 indie rock bands All four majors (Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony) start selling their music on Amazon's digital-music store in the unprotected mp3 format