Playboy Music 1996
May, 1996
The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Eagles, Janis Joplin (singing Mercedes-Benz) and the Village People were some of the hot names in 1995. While such nostalgia makes people feel good, what does it say about the health of the music business? Record sales were flat, and 1995 was a year of unprecedented hiring and firing at all the major labels. Proven acts--Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna--tanked on the charts. But upstarts such as Alanis Morissette, Live, Hootie & the Blowfish and Foo Fighters had socko years. Still, they can't carry a major label. In fact, major labels have struggled to find ways to compete with the indies, movies, tours, television, CD-ROMs and all the other options open to anyone with dollars to spend.
A Billboard editorial on the industry infighting points out that "a cynical, hollow climate in the music business makes for the detached 'corporate rock" mentality that the public disdains and intuitively rejects." So what did we embrace in 1995?
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant returned to the concert stage, together for the first time in years, and filled up every place they played. H.O.R.D.E., with headliners Blues Traveler, the Black Crowes and the Dave Matthews Band, outhipped Lollapalooza. The Dead played its last shows, as Jerry Garcia's death brought an era to an end. Calling its tour Aneurysm '95, R.E.M. was on the road in between hospital visits by most of the band.
There was yet another British invasion. Bands such as Oasis, Bush, Supergrass, Blur, Elastica and Portishead conquered both fans and critics.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum finally opened, and those who came to sneer were pleasantly surprised. Our favorite story concerns a well-known rock critic who was taking a group on an informal tour. Rounding a corner, they came upon a lone man staring into an exhibit of vintage studio equipment. It was Sam Phillips, looking at the original stuff from the Sun studio. The group gathered around as he reminisced about recording Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny and Carl. Can you schmooze with Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art?
Although controversy heated up again between rap artists, labels, politicians and the media, the music continued to diversify. Listen to TLC, Coolio, R. Kelly, Jodeci, Monica, Method Man and Mary J. Blige and it becomes apparent that melody has been taking hold of rap.
Swingin' people celebrated Frank Sinatra's high-profile 80th birthday with television specials and boxed sets. But we think Wynton Marsalis' four-part PBS special and all the CD reissues from master jazz musicians were the highlights of 1995. Then there were the youngsters--Joshua Redman, Wessell Anderson, Christian McBride, James Carter and Jacky Terrasson in particular--who brought audiences back into the clubs.
The biggest surprise in country was the rediscovery of bluegrass and Alison Krauss' success as its ambassador. And the big, full voice of Shania Twain on her album The Woman in Me made it the fastest-selling disc by a woman in country music history.
Soundtracks and music video continued the profitable marriage between record labels and movie companies. The video for Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, from the film Dangerous Minds, combines the power of Coolio's rap with Michelle Pfeiffer's glamour, a mixture that pushed it into heavy rotation on MTV. Weezer's video for Buddy Holly taps into nostalgia for the characters of Happy Days. Period soundtracks such as Pulp Fiction created a similar sentimental feel for movie audiences and record buyers.
MTV's weight sent the labels in new directions. The success of Unplugged (thanks to the Nirvana session) sent artists such as Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart into their studios. Wasn't unplugged called acoustic in the old days?
These moneymakers increase the bottom line, but don't erase the problem of artist development. Many new artists still end up one-hit wonders while record labels search for the next big trend. The small, independent labels are more willing to nurture musicians. If an indie label sells 20,000 CDs, it has a hit. Twenty thousand sales aren't even a blip on the bigger screen.
The Smashing Pumpkins' new CD, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one. It disproved those who predicted that the band couldn't do it again.
What other 1995 events gave us joy? The return of Al Green; Dylan, in top form with a tight band, singing with the Stones; the unretired Patti Smith and (if only briefly) the Velvet Underground. Also, Robert Palmer's Rock and Roll: An Unruly History. Discovering Eddie Vedder on a club tour with Mike Watt and Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters. And finding Babyface on all the hippest, smoothest R&B this year, including his own.
In keeping with the times, we put this year's readers' poll on our Web page at the same time that the paper ballots were mailed. We weren't sure whether it would make a difference in the voting. It didn't. Our readers know what they like. Some of what they like, they liked before. Kind of retro, wouldn't you say?
Music Poll Results • Our Readers Speak Up
Concert of the Year
The Greatful Dead
Music Video
Waterfalls • TLC
Soundtrack
Pulp Fiction
Albums of the year
Rock
Cracked Rear View
Hootie & The Blowfish
•
Country
The woman in me
Shania Twain
•
R&B
Crazysexycool
TLC
•
Jazz
Dis is Da Drum
Herbie Hancock
VJ Daisy Fuentes MTV
Hall of Fame • Jerry Garcia
The unexpected death of Jerry Garcia last August spelled the end of an era as well as the last show for the longest-running band in rock and roll. Playboy's 1996 Hall of Fame winner was born in san Francisco on August 1, 1942 to a musician father and a mother who ran a bar. He took up the guitar at the age of 15 and became a virtuoso as well as the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead. Legions of Deadheads danced their way through three decades of tie-dye, macrobiotic rice and concerts saluting the improvisational noodlings of Captain Trips and his cohorts. Garcia, who sneered at fame and who was superstitious about death, strangely enough made the Dead famous.
1996 Playboy Music Poll Winners
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