Popular Music in the 90's

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.

Country Pop

Country music went pop in the 90s like never before, with a long list of artists who had major crossover success. Garth Brooks not only ruled the charts in the 90s but became one of the best-selling artists of all time, and his fellow country musicians like Alan Jackson and Shania Twain followed in his wake. Country music traditionalists were less than pleased - and indeed new subgenres of country music like Americana were born to please those who like a more true country sound - but it is country-tinged pop that made cowboy boots cool in the 90s.

Pop

Grunge may have come along and knocked sugary 80s pop off the charts, but it didn't take long for pop music to have a rebirth. The Spice Girls were the first girl pop group to tackle the Billboard charts, but they soon inspired a long list of other pop acts - boys and girls. Towards the end of the decade, it was the boy groups that really succeeded, with the likes of The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC ruling the airwaves.
Female pop artists tended to do better as solo artists in the 90s - just ask Britney Spears, Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera.

R&B

R&B music had a rebirth in the 90s and started selling like it hadn't since the 1960s. Artists like Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly and Toni Braxton all helped breathe new life - and sales potential - into the genre.

BritPop

There was another wave of the so-called British invasion in the 90s. Oasis, The Verve, Blur, Pulp and others traveled across the pond and started impacting US music in a big way.