Music - 1990s
4 Non Blondes
Debut album Bigger, Better, Faster, More! showed off introspective folk, electric rock, hard-driving funk and saloon blues.
Linda Perry
Vocals, guitar
Roger Rocha
Guitar
Christa Hillhouse
Bass
Dawn Richardson
Drums
808 State
With their sample-driven dance music, the pioneering Manchester-based 808 State was one of the first house groups to release trance/ambient dance records.
Formed in 1988 during the biggest youth movement since punk, the trio of Martin...
Adventures, The
Formed in 1984, The Adventures were a melodic six-piece group from Belfast. Founder member Terry Sharpe had previously been the lead vocalist and guitarist in the excellent punk/power pop band Starjets.
They released their debut single, Another Silent...
Agent Orange
This trio from Fullerton in Orange County, California, specialised in the unlikely combination of punk and surf music. Led by vocalist/guitarist Mike Palm, the band lost its original bass player Steve Soto (he left to...
Alanis Morissette
A former child actress (You Can't Do That On Television), Canadian Alanis Morissette transformed herself into a confessional alternative singer/songwriter
Flea and Dave Navarro from Red Hot Chili Peppers added a bit of musical clout (and...
Alice In Chains
Formed in 1987, and originally a heavy metal band, Alice In Chains was one of the first Seattle bands to sign with a major label, which they did in 1990.
They tempered their sound with a...
Anthrax
Although die-hard fans stuck by Anthrax no matter who their singer was, it is widely agreed among metalheads that the band was at their peak - both artistically and commercially - when Joey Belladonna was...
Apartments , The
Like a number of Australian musicians who got their start during the late 1970s New Wave movement, The Apartments' Peter Milton Walsh received more acclaim in Europe than at home.
Walsh's songs were full of bittersweet lyrical imagery,...
Arrested Development
When Arrested Development's debut appeared in 1992, the Atlanta band seemed to herald a new dawn in hip-hop. It seemed they had created a distinctly rural, Southern brand of the genre to blow apart the...
Ash
Ash crash-landed from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1994 into a London scene entirely obsessed with Britpop.
Proudly touted as 'Guaranteed Real Teenagers', the trio - Tim Wheeler on guitar and vocals, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick...
Auteurs, The
Formed in 1992 by arch cynic Luke Haines and girlfriend Alice Readman alongside drummer Glenn Collins and cellist James Banbury, The Auteurs (named for the French movie term denoting both author and director) signed to...
Babes In Toyland
All-girl hardcore trio Babes in Toyland formed in Minneapolis in 1988 and topped the indie charts with their Spanking Machine LP in 1990. Soon after, they were signed to WEA and recorded the 1991 mini-album To Mother.
Their music...
Baby Animals
Husky-voiced singer Suze DeMarchi recorded three soft-metal singles in the UK for EMI during the late 1980s, co-writing one of them with Simon Climie of pop duo Climie Fisher.
Upon returning to Australia in July 1989,...
Bachelors From Prague
Melbourne-based Bachelors From Prague formed in 1985 and played an infectious blend of 1940s jazz, 1950s R&B, 1970s funk and salsa.
The group became the band to see while cruising the cafes and clubs of Brunswick...
Bad Religion
Blending old-school power chords with hardcore thrash, Bad Religion formed in Woodland Hills, California, in 1980.
The debut album from these SoCal brats scarcely resembled the harmony-drenched pop-punk they successfully purveyed for over two decades, laying...
Beautiful South, The
The brainchild of former Housemartins Paul Heaton and Dave Hemmingway, The Beautiful South smuggled political lyrics into jaunty, singalong tunes and acerbic commentary on domestic violence and emotional angst into the charts wrapped in pop-friendly...
Beck
Bek David Campbell - professionally known simply as Beck - was born in Los Angeles in 1970 to an established artistic heritage. Mother, Father and both grandfathers had all performed in different ways.
Beck grew up...
Belle & Sebastian
Formed in Glasgow in 1995, Belle and Sebastian were initially brought together to complete singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch's music course at Stow College. They became one of indie rock's best-loved institutions . . .
The initial line-up...
Black Crowes, The
In 1990, as The Black Crowes released their debut album, American rock was in the midst of change. Heavy Metal was now well into its decline, while Seattle’s alternative grunge sound was about to storm...
Black Grape
Britpop wasn't just about the vanguard of brand new bands spunking forth from Camden's Good Mixer pub. It was also about older acts tweaking their sound to hop on the gravy train - hence Teenage Fanclub, James, The Charlatans and...
