Lollapalooza 1991: The Underground As a Community
Originally conceived of as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza turned into something even grander: Woodstock for Gen X.
Dennis Shin
Music
20 Oct 2011
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More Than Music: How Going Underground Kept Punk From “Breaking” in 1991
From pivotal, iconic venues in New York and California and the ubiquity of the house show, to the dramatic, intentional divorce from the highly lucrative hardcore/metal crossover scene, 1991 saw numerous DIY punk rock groups reinterpret a 14-year-old subculture with new and urgent relevance.
Michael McKee
Music
19 Oct 2011
True to the Game: Ice Cube's 'Death Certificate'
It was during the period between the Rodney King beating and subsequent court verdict that Ice Cube cut Death Certificate, a chilling glimpse into the anger and frustration South Central Angelinos were feeling.
Dean Van Nguyen
Music
18 Oct 2011
'Screamadelica' and the Altered State
In the context of Primal Scream's prior and subsequent career, Screamadelica is a miracle.
17 Oct 2011
Rock 'n' Roll with Chinese Characteristics: Nirvana Behind the Great Wall
Like pretty much everywhere else in the pop music universe, China's developing rock scene changed after Nirvana. It's just that China's rockers didn't get the memo in 1991, nor would've known what to do with it, then.
Jonathan Campbell
Music
16 Oct 2011
The Album That Changed Everything: Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines'
Even now with all our understanding and acceptance of genre-mashing, Massive Attack’s opening salvo remains as bold and eclectic, as utterly assured a musical message as it was upon release.
Steve Jansen
Music
14 Oct 2011
"Something in the Way": 'Loveless' and the Un-Invention of Cock Rock
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless stands as an album of (at least) equal importance to Nirvana's Nevermind, garnering a great deal of its importance for the way that it offers a gender-bending sonic style that severed the entrenched connections between the electric guitar and masculine phallic power.
Joseph Fisher
Music
12 Oct 2011
It's All Right, It's All Right, Alllllll Right: U2's 'Achtung Baby'
Pretty much everyone under the age of 35 views U2 as a bunch of overzealous assholes, but this 25-year-old can't help but still blast the group's 1991 masterpiece.
11 Oct 2011
An Album Found in a Trashcan: De La Soul Is Dead
Listening to De La Soul Is Dead means immersing oneself inside a funny but terrifying universe, where brutality and self-destruction exist side by side with smart-ass jokes and sex talk and good music.
Paul Anthony Johnson
Music
10 Oct 2011
New Jack Black: Contemporary Urbanity and Blackness in New Jack City
Hood films are a jarring eviction notice for traditional Civil Rights rhetoric and, possibly, leadership -- in other words, "What has the Civil Rights movement done for me lately?"
09 Oct 2011
New Jack Swing Forever: How a Movement Redefined an Era
New Jack Swing was the soundtrack to young America of the late 1980s and early 1990s in the same vein that Motown was the soundtrack to young America of the 1960s.
C.L. Williams
Music
06 Oct 2011
High Flying: Pop Goes Country
1991 was a significant, even historic year, for country music, giving a strong indication of the direction it would take from then on to now.
05 Oct 2011
R.E.M's 'Out of Time' Over Time
On Out of Time, R.E.M. wasn't too big to be cool -- yet.
Ian Mathers
Music
05 Oct 2011
Exquisite Corpse: Guns N' Roses' 'Use Your Illusion I and II'
If there was a gravestone for MTV-style '80s metal, it would probably be Guns N' Roses' 1991 opus Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
Sean McCarthy
Music
04 Oct 2011
Right There, Right Then: Jesus Jones' Alternative History of 1991
Twenty years ago, there was no question about who one of the most talked about bands of the time. So yeah, let's talk about Jesus Jones, then.
Ned Raggett
Music
03 Oct 2011
Was Grunge the Last American Musical Revolution?
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten. In revisiting the grunge genre which altered the musical landscape two decades ago, the question arises: was this our last musical revolution?
03 Oct 2011
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