Rock n' Roll in the 90's

Hello there! I have to tell you, I did not wanted to talk about this but later I found it very interesting…as you can see. It was in the 90’s that rock and roll took a distinctive turn. Many people became bored with the soft rock bands and singers in the charts, even with traditional Rock n’ Roll which now included not just the one of the fifties but the other variations that were out there until the 80’s. They needed something different (rocknroll123.com). New Rock n’ Roll variations came up that were very different from the ones that were sounding on the radio by the 1980’s, it was almost a new Rock n’ Roll.

Grunge became extremely popular during the 90’s and was the predominant Rock n’ Roll variation, usually credited to the success of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. With his death came the decline of grunge music, because by the end of the decade most of these bands changed their style (rocknroll123.com). Nirvana’s song “Smells like Teen Spirit”, released in 1991, became the anthem for the rebellion against structure, conformity and commercialism (rockmem.com). This is the real meaning of this song in context of the Rock n’ Roll movement, it is not just a “headbanger song”, the reason why a lot of people like it without knowing what it really means.

British Rock n’ Roll revived in the 90’s, since in the 80’s there was not much manifestation of this music. Artists and bands were trying to emulate famous British bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, for example two bands formed in the decade, Blur and Oasis, resembled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones respectively. It was a new proposal and that made this a new sound (rocknroll123.com). Indie rock, founded in the late 80’s, intensified and became more popular in this decade and later became a mainstream, contributing to this new group of variations of Rock n’ Roll that changed it (rocknroll123.com). This is often described like a sentimental, less rude and more personal music.

Just like L.A. was home for the 80’s Rock n’ Roll (L.A. ROCKS), now Seattle became the hub of 90’s rock. Successful bands were the ones with which young people could identify, such as Nirvana, the Cranberries, Oasis and Pearl Jam. This last one became a flagship rock band in the 90’s just because of that, because their lyrics echoed the confusion, anger, heartbreak, and frustration of the lost youth (rockmem.com).

So the Rock n’ Roll movement responded to a new social attitude of the youth of this time. It gave the young people, the teenagers, anger toward government, a fight against conformity, and search for the meaning in life, a search different from the one inspired by previous Rock n’ Roll. The youth was asking where they came from, why they existed and where were they going. Most of them had no identity and Rock n’ Roll helped to create “Generation X”, a name referring to how unimportant and unknown many teenagers felt. This feeling gave a new sound to Rock n’ Roll, creating these very different styles and variations I have mentioned. Now it was a cold, dark music with deep lyrics and fearless expressionism (rockmem.com).

I’ll show you the representative song of the representative Rock n’ Roll variation of the 90’s, even though maybe you already know it because of the “headbanger” concept, but it is interesting to listen to it knowing what it means ;) haha well, I call it interesting.

Works Cited

“Rock and Roll in the 90’s”. rocknroll123.com . Rock N Roll, October 13. Web. November 3, 2011.

“How 90’s Rock and Roll Changed the World”. rockmem.com. RockMem.com: The History of Rock & Roll, October 2, 2011. Web. November 3, 2011.