The Music Industry1990s

Structure of the Industry

• The face of music in the 1990s had changed dramatically, and now rather than one medium overtaking all others, the new developments in technology only added further choices for the public.

• The nineties were largely about delivering music to the fans however the fans wanted to receive it, a trend that still continues to this day.

• While the CD remained the dominant force in sales terms, people were still buying vinyl records, the new Minidisc format proved popular with some.

• The adoption of the internet started to gain popularity with the more people as the decade progressed.

• By 1999 the 5 largest record companies in America controlled 84% of the 755 million albums sold there - Vinyl's were becoming obsolete by this point.

Popular Genres & Subcultures

Image in the 1990s triumphed over talent with artists attempting to revive music and style from the 70s & 80s.

R'n'B, Rap, Hip-hop

• Hip-hop exploded in popularity throughout the decade.

• Recordings by hip-hop artists made up the single highest-selling music genre.

• With its roots in the late 70s and 80s, rap gave a deprived Black America a boost in the industry.

• Now that 1980s acts like Run DMC were considered as 'old school', new 90s acts such as Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z ,wanted to take this traditional hip-hop style into another direction.

• With 'Hammer Time' arriving right at the beginning of the era in 1990, the popularity of colourful oversized clothes and ‘silk slacks’ had emerged, through MC Hammer’s chart smash, 'U Can't Touch This'. http://youtu.be/otCpCn0l4Wo

• The sounds of R 'n' B continued alongside hip-hop, with acts such as Boyz II Men and Whitney Houston providing some variety to go with the rap culture.

• Additionally, Mariah Carey became the biggest-selling female artist of the 90s.

Grunge

• Grunge evolved in the early 1990s from the Northwest American punk scene to become hugely popular with teenagers both in America and the UK.

• Stage-diving and crowd-surfing were the norm at performances and festivals, and plaid shirts, ripped jeans, black leather jackets and checked flannel shirts were the fashion of the decade.

• Bands most famous for this radical approach included Nirvana, Green Day and Linkin Park.

• The UK were converted to this new sound set in America, and the ascendance of grunge in the popular culture continued until the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994.

Boybands

• Although Boybands originated from the 1960s, the 90s was an age of fresh, manufactured pop acts, that by the mid 90s had filled both American and British chart listings.

• The cult of the Boybands came courtesy of New Kids of the Block and Take That, setting the standard for more British and American artists.

• These include: From the UK, East 17, Irish quintets Boyzone and Westlife and, from the USA, the Backstreet Boys, N Sync and Boyz II Men.

Girl Power

• In 1996, a commercial creation in the form of five bold and vibrant women arose.

• The Spice Girls paraded the scene, coming as a response to the popularity of Boybands at the time.

• They broke records by getting their first six singles to Number One, with nine Number Ones in total.

Controversies

The introduction of the MP3 format in the 90s raised the question of music piracy in the industry with each new development supposedly signally the death of it.

• 1990 - The CD-R becomes a commercial reality.• 1992 - Recordable CD's become popular.• 1998 - MP-3 players for downloading MP-3 audio music from the Internet appear. Music piracy on the Internet, using this MP3 format, began to trend. Pirate sales make up 33% of global music sales.

The technology of duplicating CDs developed rapidly, making CDs a quicker, easier, and cheaper product to duplicate than most other forms of sound recording.

Speeds for the delivery of music over the internet began to improve, resultantly increasing the number of people finding their music online.