{"id":47433,"date":"2005-10-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/the-year-that-was-1991\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:46:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:46:41","slug":"the-year-that-was-1991","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/the-year-that-was-1991\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year That Was: 1991"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 1980s, rock had become forgotten as a viable means of change. Pop acts like Madonna<\/a>, Prince and Michael Jackson<\/a> dominated the charts, surrounded by a slew of one-hit pop wonders and cheesy hair-metal bands. Occasionally, a talented band would break out — Metallica<\/a>, R.E.M.<\/a>, Guns ‘n’ Roses<\/a> — but by and large meaningful rock struggled to become popular again.<\/p>\n

Then 1991 hit, and things were back to how they should have been, at least for a little while.<\/p>\n

Famously, 1991 was when Nirvana<\/a>‘s Nevermind<\/i> was released, knocking Michael Jackson off the charts in 1992 and effectively beginning the mainstream alternative revolution. More than any other, that album and Pearl Jam<\/a>‘s monumental Ten<\/i> were both critical and commercial successes and became soundtracks for the then-undefined generation. 1991 also saw Soundgarden<\/a> release the grunge\/heavy metal blend Badmotorfinger<\/i> and U2<\/a> came roaring back to life with Achtung Baby<\/i>, a radical reinvention of the band’s sound. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/a>‘ landmark Blood Sugar Sex Magik<\/i> album established their stardom with “Under the Bridge” and “Give It Away,” while Alice Cooper<\/a> released the mediocre Hey Stoopid<\/i> and Metallica, after five years of waiting, put out their self-titled “black album.” Metallica<\/i> turned out to be that band’s most successful and accessible release, cutting down the indulgences and speed-freak thrash and adding a dose of heart. Also in 1991, Guns ‘n’ Roses released the highly-anticipated Use Your Illusion<\/i> albums, of which one-quarter of the songs were brilliant.<\/p>\n

A year and two months after his death, Stevie Ray Vaughan<\/a>‘s The Sky Is Crying<\/i> hit the shelves and quickly went platinum, capping off a brilliant career that ended far too soon. But another career was beginning — Garth Brooks<\/a>‘ second album No Fences<\/i> was becoming popular and the same year, Ropin’ The Wind<\/i> was released, both blending country with rock and folk and adding a whole new audience to the country genre that would not have cared otherwise. Britpop stars Blur also hit the scene with “She’s So High.”<\/p>\n

In other alternative rock, R.E.M. released the mediocre Out Of Time<\/i>, which happened to feature the band’s best-known song, “Losing My Religion,” and also one of their dumbest, “Shiny Happy People.” The Pixies<\/a>, Fugazi, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Fishbone all had 1991 releases. Standouts included the Smashing Pumpkins’ debut Gish<\/i>, Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend<\/i>, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless<\/i>, Massive Attack’s Blue Lines<\/i> <\/i>and Sebadoh’s III. <\/i>Live<\/a> kicked off their career with Mental Jewelry<\/i>, which had no hint of the arena rock success the band would later have. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In classic rock, Tom Petty<\/a> released Into The Great Wide Open<\/i> and Ozzy<\/a> put out No More Tears, <\/i>but the rest of it was pretty bad. Van Halen<\/a> also released an album, but nobody cared, while Genesis<\/a> had We Can’t Dance<\/i> and Queen<\/a> the average Innuendo.<\/i> Rush<\/a> tossed off Roll The Bones<\/i>, which is just another Rush album, David Bowie ground out Black Tie White Noise<\/i>. Yes<\/a> released the dreadful Union<\/i> and the Moody Blues the even worse Keys of the Kingdom<\/i>. Lenny Kravitz offered Mama Said<\/i>, which sounds like classic rock even though it isn’t and which had a couple of decent songs in “Always on the Run” and “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over.”<\/p>\n

1991 also was a pivotal and intelligent year for hip-hop; it was the year Ice Cube left N.W.A. and released the intense Death Certificate, <\/i>while his old bandmates put out Efil4zaggin<\/i>. A Tribe Called Quest offered The Low End Theory, <\/i>De La Soul put out De La Soul is Dead, <\/i>Cypress Hill dropped its self-titled album and Main Source had Breaking Atoms<\/i>, which wasn’t a big seller but was both influential and launched the career of Nas. Most importantly, though, Tupac Shakur broke through with his political, evocative and energetic debut 2pacalypse Now<\/i>. <\/p>\n

It wouldn’t have been the 90s without a few one-hit wonder pop singles; these included EMF’s “Unbelievable,” Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” Jesus Jones’ “Right Here, Right Now,” Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” and Seal’s “Crazy” (not a one-hit wonder, but a great song). The Spin Doctors also hit it big with Pocket Full of Kryptonite, <\/i>Siouxsie and the Banshees had a minor hit with “Kiss Them For Me” <\/i>and Suzanne Vega came out with “Tom’s Diner.” <\/p>\n

And that, friends, is the Year That Was in music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alternative Breaks Out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":51099,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"feature_type":[11244],"class_list":["post-47433","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-column"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53052,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47433\/revisions\/53052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47433"},{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}