Title: Popular Music of the 90s | LoveToKnow
Headings: Popular Music of the 90s
Popular Music of the 90s
Popular Music of the 90s - Major Genres
Rap/Hip-Hop
Grunge
Indie
Country Pop
Pop
R&B
BritPop
Most Popular Songs of the 90s
Your Favorite 90s Tracks

Content: Some of the genres that ruled the airwaves in the 1990s - or even actually first appeared in the 90s - were: Rap/Hip-Hop
The 90s is considered by many to be the golden age of rap and hip hop. At the end of the 80s, a wave of politically-driven rap music appeared and moved the genre away from the somewhat more simplistic party song format that it had embodied before. From the politically-charged music grew another subgenre of rap that would go on to earn the name "gangsta rap." This subgenre told gritty stories of life in the inner cities and drew almost instant criticism for its language, violent imagery and sexual lyrics. As the 80s became the 90s, a storm of negative press surrounded the rap genre, but an explosion in popularity of the music followed. Many of rap's biggest stars and most influential artists released their music in this decade, and it also became the decade of peak sales for the genre. Grunge
Along with rap, grunge was the genre that defined the decade. Pearl Jam is the group that took grunge mainstream (and to the cover of Time magazine), but it was really an explosion of the indie/underground/college radio scene in the late 80s that opened the door for grunge music. A few major labels had moderate success working with some indie scene stars, like Sonic Youth, which in turn set off a major label signing frenzy.