1991 – The Last Musical Movement? | MuchMusic.com

1991 – The Last Musical Movement?

June 25th, 2007

I’m not really one for “remembering the good old days”…while I don’t want to admit to myself that perhaps I’m reaching an age where I’m able to say something as lame as that, I’m happy to report I have long been jaded enough to do so. That being said, remember the good old days of 1991?

I don’t want to say TOO much about this (though I will), I’ll try to let the facts do the blogging. But in this guy’s opinion, 1991 represented the last “musical movement”, if you will. The obvious leaders of this pack were the bands that came from Seattle and pulled a “Musical Darwin” – survival of the fittest, only the strong survived…OR only the greatest music survived…everything else died – thank f*%k!

It seems all the music I listen to today is from artists who have transcended generations…too many to name here, but think about how many artists from the 50s, 60s, 70s and yes, the 80s, still seem so relevant today. Now try to think about artists from today or say the past 10 years that your kids and grandkids will still be listening to – in my mind and to my ears, there aren’t that many, not to say there aren’t any mind you, just less than say…EVER. I’m still waiting for that next great “Musical Darwin” to make everything OK again. I know the music is out there, it’s just not getting to the masses (which is the subject of a whole other blog, for another time).

I think back to 1991 and scan the walls of my brain to the last really great and honest musical movement…and if that sounds ridiculous to you, just look at a SMALL selection of the albums released that year…notice not only the debuts but how great most of these albums are – I mean FULL albums, not just one or two good songs – again a discussion for a whole other blog.

I don’t know about you, but most of these albums I still have in regular rotation 16 years later. Don’t get me wrong…not EVERY album released that year was a gem, however I think the following list more than makes up for that year’s classic Mo’Ritmo by Gerardo, I’m mean c’mon…every year has one…or two:

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Sublime – Jah Won’t Pay The Bills (debut)
Cypress Hill – Cypress Hill (debut)
Nirvana – Nevermind
U2 – Achtung Baby
Pearl Jam – Ten (debut)
Phish – A Picture of Nectar
Pennywise – Pennywise (first full length)
Primus – Sailing The Seas of Cheese
R.E.M. – Out of Time
Sepultura – Arise
Smashing Pumpkins – Gish (debut)
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
2Pac – 2Pacalypse Now (debut)
Blur – Leisure (debut)
De La Soul is Dead – De La Soul
Ice T – OG: Original Gangster
Kyuss – Wretch (debut)
The Pixies – Trompe Le Monde