24/09/1991 and what turned out to be one of the greatest months/years in music history
Deviating a little bit from the main purpose of this blog I decided to dedicate a post to one of the greatest days/months/years in music history. In all honesty I came to appreciate it a few years later as at the time I was still shaping my taste in music and the bands that made history were not the first choice of the 11-year-olds population segment. There are plenty of articles about the releases that hit the world on the 24th of September 1991 but in all honesty this whole month and year are so significant I wouldn’t know where to start. 1991 was an incredibly productive year for music with the new heroes taking over from the old guard in all kinds of genres and some already accomplished artists bringing out yet another great album. The year saw the last Queen album released in Freddie Mercury’s lifetime - ‘Innuendo’, ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ by Prince, ‘Dangerous’ by Michael Jackson, U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ and Metallica’s Black album. It also delivered some of the most important albums for me and, I can imagine, for a whole lot of people back then. Some of those albums changed music forever. Some developed a cult following. Some, to this day, inspire kids to grab a guitar, to try and rap or make electronic music. One might think I am romanticising a bit that time in music history but let’s be honest here - in 2020 I find most popular music to be generic, unimaginative catchy tunes with no substance and it is beyond me how we came to this. But back on point. If you were a hip-hop fan, 1991 was a great year. While I have never been really into this particular genre, there are 4 albums that came in 1991 that I still appreciate to this day - ‘*iggaz4Life’ by N.W.A, ‘Apocalypse’91’ by Public Enemy, ‘Cypress Hill’ by Cypress Hill and ‘Naughty by Nature’ by Naughty by Nature (obviously it was also the year of self-titled albums!). With albums that topped the charts also by 2Pac, Ice-T and Ice Cube it doesn’t get better than this if that was your jam. These days I rarely find any authenticity in this kind of music. This is only my opinion of course, but the ‘bling’ seems to be taking over the ‘think’ part of what hip-hop represented back in the days
Then there is another set of albums that made 1991 so important. The 90’s gave us trip hop. Trip hop is still one of the best things to come out of Bristol. And no one did it better than Massive Attack. ‘Blue Lines’ has to be one of my all-time favourite albums. It paved the way for artists like Portishead, Tricky and half of the Ninja Tune’s roster, making trip hop a prominent part of the 90’s music landscape. You know how with age you change, hence the music that you listen to change as well. For a while now I am absolutely fine with who I am and my taste in music, that has been evolving for the last 30 years, is completely in tune with that. Yet, there are those important bands, albums, songs and influences that you can never leave behind. They are part of a journey and represent milestones in how you changed as a person. I haven’t played Massive Attack for years at home, yet when they announced a few London shows a while back, I was first to buy tickets and relive what their music meant to me back then.
In 1991 the world was operation ‘Desert Storm’, the largest military coalition since World War II, the burning Kuwaiti oil wells and Saddam Hussein preparing for what he called at the time “the mother of all battles”. Yet, if you ask any music fan about what happened that year probably the most popular answer will be ‘Nirvana released “Nevermind” on 24/09’. Arguably one of the most important albums in music history as it was groundbreaking in the way it mixed genres, creating a completely new alternative sound. ‘Nevermind’ introduced to younger audiences a lot of great bands that influenced the album and defined the mood of few generations, making way for so many bands that tried to follow the same path. To this day this album is a creative effort that is not easy to match and the combination with the unique voice and persona of Kurt Cobain made it one of the most important albums ever. Timeless probably is how you best describe it as it was astonishing to me to find out that my daughter’s classmates are discovering it just now. Every time they come over someone asks me to put it on and I do, alongside my input of bands I know inspired Nirvana and this album (honestly listening to the Pixies, Fugazi and Sonic Youth with 14-year-olds is giving me hope for the future!)
Meshuggah - ‘Contradictions Collapse’
Dinosaur Jr. - ‘Green Mind’
R.E.M. - ‘Out of Time’
Oxbow - ‘King of the Jews’
Sepultura - ‘Arise’
Violent Femmes - ‘Why do Birds Sing?’
Melvins - ‘Bullhead’
Primus - ‘Sailing the Seas of Cheese’
Swans - ‘White Light from the Mouth of Infinity’
Type O Negative - ‘Slow, Deep and Hard’
Mudhoney - ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’
Mr. Bungle - ‘Mr. Bungle’
Blur - ‘Leisure’
Slowdive - 'Just for a Day’
Hole - ‘Pretty on the Inside’
Pixies - ‘Trompe le Monde’
Kyuss - ‘Wretch’
The Cult - ‘Ceremony’
Prong - ‘Prove you Wrong’
Pennywise - ‘Pennywise’
My Bloody Valentine - ‘Loveless’
Slint - ‘Spiderland’
The Smashing Pumpkins - ‘Gish’
With so many seminal albums released in 1991 I can only say - They don’t make them like that anymore and it is a damn shame or if I have to quote one of my best friends after few glasses of wine - “Please, play something from the early 90’s when some actual talent was required, and musical integrity created true stars!” To finish this, below is one of the best pieces of songwriting the 90's gave us!
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