Music tagged with 90s

Hall & Oates

Rivalry. Gunfire. A daring escape. These are not things you would normally associate with Daryl Hall and John Oates but that is exactly how the duo met. They were both students at Temple University when, while attending a band contest, rival gangs started shooting up the place and our two heroes ran into the same elevator. Somehow in the midst of their mutual terror, the two artists bonded over their taste in music. They were both involved with other bands at the time and they parted ways after that magical elevator ride but they soon met up again; Hall and Oates became Hall & Oates.

Journey

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Back in the early 80s, few bands could compete with the popularity of a rock group from Northern California called Journey. Their seemingly endless supply of hits, belted out by frontman steve Perry, filled arenas across America, endeared them to a generation of rabid fans who welcomed Journey with open arms and have yet to let go.

KISS

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Imagine that you’re a kid just entering your teen years - right about that time in life when listening to music begins to coincide with the rebellious streak that accompanies adolescence. In the 50s, you might have latched on to the gyrating ways of Elvis Presley. The 60s might have drawn you into the psychedelic wonderland of The Beatles. In the 70s, however, it was impossible not to notice the fire-breathing, makeup wearing, blood-spitting stage antics and hard-rocking music of a band simply known as KISS. If the goal was to simultaneously rock and roll all night, while making the parental units noticeably uncomfortable, KISS was the perfect band. But, far from just being a cringe-worthy flash in the pan, KISS was a solid act, unleashing a string of enormous-selling records and filling concert halls the world over during their long and prosperous career.

Rick Springfield

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It’s easy to look at a career like Rick Springfield’s and think “overnight success,” but like so many performers, this way of thinking paints an incomplete picture. Sure, he had a string of hits following his popularity on the soap opera, General Hospital, but his musical career had started long before his face became plastered on every teen magazine in the country.

Run-DMC

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By the end of the 90s, the melding of rock and rap music was a common occurrence, with bands like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit at the forefront of the fusion. But credit for starting this trend lies solely with Run-DMC, whose inclusion of distorted guitars and slamming drumbeats defined the genre of hardcore rap, and created crossover appeal for the first time. Rap was no longer a mere niche, it was a formidable force to be reckoned with.

Soul Train

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Ever since its debut in 1952, fans of American pop music could tune in weekly to American Bandstand and keep themselves current on all of the latest artists and trends. But it would be almost two decades later before fans of rhythm and blues were given their own weekly outlet. They would forever owe their thanks to a Chicago DJ named Don Cornelius, the creator of Soul Train, for letting their voices be heard. Soul Train showcased all of the up-and-coming artists of the genre, put a spotlight on all the current dance moves, and, very quickly, became an enduring hit.

Tears For Fears

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There are some bands that are easy to categorize by genre, or even sub-genre – perhaps never more so than the early 80s. If you weren’t defined as “synth rock” or “new wave,” you were probably exploring “adult contemporary” or “pomp rock.” But for one particular band, Tears For Fears, definitions don’t come easy. They might have fallen into any of the aforementioned categories, or, perhaps they simply created their own. One thing is for certain; their original sound and songwriting skills made them on of the most successful and popular bands to emerge from the era.

Vanilla Ice

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One of the more controversial artists to emerge from the 90s, Vanilla Ice (aka: Robert Van Winkle) became a household name with the hit record “Ice, Ice Baby” while simultaneously battling both a copyright infringement lawsuit and a merciless media, who were ruthless in their criticism of the performer after discovering that his biography was more fiction than truth. Regardless, he cried all the way to the bank, selling millions of records and bringing the urban sounds of rap music to the forefront of popular music.