EPA: M&M Notes Thread

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1991 Cultural Notes

Top Grossing Films
1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
2. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3. Beauty and the Beast (Disney)
4. Hook
5. The Silence of the Lambs
6. JFK
7. The Addams Family
8. Cape Fear
9. Hot Shots!
10. City Slickers

Biggest Hit Singles (Music)
1. (Everything I Do) I Do it For You - Bryan Adams
2. Black or White - Michael Jackson
3. Joyride - Roxette
4. Wind of Change - Scorpions
5. Losing My Religion - R.E.M.

Music Summary
Credit Wikipedia - Link

The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year. Followed immediately by other grunge bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and in 1992 by Stone Temple Pilots, grunge dominates the U.S. charts for the next few years. Its success effectively ends the reign of the glam metal groups that enjoyed massive success in the 1980s like Mötley Crüe, Poison, Warrant, Cinderella, and Ratt whose sales and critical viability were beginning to decline for about two years previously. Even so, the rock band Guns N' Roses's popularity flourishes with the release of their albums Use Your Illusion I & Use Your Illusion II, both selling over 10 million copies each. Def Leppard's next album Adrenalize, released in March of 1992, would go on to reach multi-platinum status and prove to be the last major commercial success for 80's pop metal. A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory is released this year; it would go on to be considered one of the best hip hop albums of the 1990s. A Tribe Called Quest, along with De La Soul, Dream Warriors, Gang Starr and the Poor Righteous Teachers, help define what comes to be known as alternative rap with important releases this year.

On November 24 Both Kiss drummer Eric Carr and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died. Mercury was at home in London on November 24, due to AIDS complications. Rumors had been circulating that Mercury had AIDS, but the death comes as a shock to millions of fans and the music industry. The remaining members of Queen form the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the following year, a tribute concert is staged in Wembley Stadium. A sell-out crowd in attendance witness the three surviving members reuniting to play along with performances by the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, Annie Lennox, and George Michael.

Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes to number one for the second time in the U.K., which is the one of the only times a single has gone to number one in the same version more than once (another example is Chubby Checkers' "The Twist," which was #1 in 1960 & 1962). It is also the only time a single has gone to number one more than once on the UK Christmas charts. It has now spent a total of 14 weeks on top of the UK charts.

1991 is also the year CCM, or contemporary Christian music, reaches a new peak. Amy Grant, who had already crossed back and forth between CCM and pop in the mid-80s, achieves her first solo #1 hit on the pop charts with the hit single "Baby Baby," becoming the first single by a CCM artist to reach #1 (despite the fact the song was a pop song and was void of any Christian references). Another single, "That's What Love Is For," would also top the charts, this time in the Adult Contemporary field. Meanwhile, Grant's album Heart In Motion reaches #11 on the pop chart and #1 on the Christian chart despite its non-religious objective, and quickly becomes a best-seller. Another CCM crossover artist in 1991 is Michael W. Smith, who achieves a Top Ten pop hit with his single "Place In This World." The subsequent album, Go West Young Man, is also a hit.

The massive success of Garth Brooks in this year sets the stage for the mid-1990s influx of pop-oriented country musicians. In addition, several soon-to-be pivotal bands form or release debuts, including Dave Matthews Band, Live, Phish, Spin Doctors and stoner metal (Kyuss, Sleep, The Obsessed). Massive Attack's Blue Lines, while unique at the time, pioneers the sound that would eventually become known as trip hop. Entombed's Clandestine and Dismember's Like an Ever Flowing Stream are early releases from the Scandinavian metal scene. On the other side of the Atlantic, New York death metal band Suffocation release their debut full-length Effigy of the Forgotten, often considered one of the most influential extreme metal albums ever recorded. Trance music rises to prominence in the underground dance scene of Frankfurt, Germany, pioneered by such producers as Dance 2 Trance and Resistance D. U2 release their seventh album Achtung Baby, considered by many of their fans to be their best album. Metallica also release their most commercially successful self-titled album, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers break through to the mainstream with their critically and commercially acclaimed Blood Sugar Sex Magik. R.E.M. release their massive commercial breakthrough album Out of Time. When it came to music, 1991 was one of the most successful years of the 90's.

Music Timeline

January 18 - Three people are crushed to death during an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City, Utah when audience members rush the stage.
January 27 - Whitney Houston sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. The recording is then released and becomes a hit single.
February 27 - James Brown is granted an early parole and released from jail, following his arrest after a high-speed car chase through two states in 1989. Pop Will Eat Itself documented the affair with their song, "Not Now James, We're Busy".
February 28 - Hollywood, California's Record Plant Studios recording studio closes its doors. Among the albums recorded at the Record Plant were The Eagles' Hotel California, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life
March 11 - Janet Jackson signs a $30 million (US) contract with Virgin Records, making her the highest paid female recording artist ever.
March 16 - Seven members of country music singer Reba McEntire's band and her road manager are killed when their private plane crashes in California, near the U.S.-Mexico border. McEntire travels on a separate plane.
March 20
o Michael Jackson signs a contract with Sony which could generate 1 billion dollars for the company. [1]
o Eric Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, dies after falling 53 stories from a New York City apartment window, which would inspire Clapton to write the hit single "Tears in Heaven").
March 24 - The Black Crowes are dropped as the opening act of ZZ Top's tour for repeatedly insulting the tour's sponsor, Miller Beer.
March 27 - New Kids on the Block star Donnie Wahlberg is arrested in Louisville, Kentucky for allegedly setting his hotel room on fire.
March 28 - George Harrison, Phil Collins and others attend funeral services for Eric Clapton's late son, Conor.
April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York.
May 4 - The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 is held in Rome, Italy and, after a highly controversial voting segment, Sweden's Fångad av en stormvind by Carola is declared the winner.
May 7 - In Macon, Georgia, a judge dismisses a wrongful death lawsuit against Ozzy Osbourne. The suit was filed by a local couple that believed their son was inspired to attempt suicide by Osbourne's music.
May 10 - Truth or Dare, a documentary chronicling singer Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition Tour, is released to theatres.
May 24 - Guns N' Roses kicked off their 26 months world tour Use Your Illusion Tour in Alpine Valley in East Troy.
May 25 - The Billboard 200 album chart starts incorporating electronically monitored sales data provided by Nielsen SoundScan, thus beginning what chart aficionados tag as the "SoundScan era".
July
o Launch of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
o During the Use Your Illusion Tour, Axl Rose assaults a member of the audience watching the show on camera, after security fails to respond to the singer's orders to confiscate the camera. After the attack, Rose angrily stomps off stage saying, "Thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm goin' home!"[1]
July 13 - Pianist Keith Jarrett records his Vienna Concert at the Vienna Staatsoper.
August 13 - Metallica releases their most successful album, "Metallica" (also called "The Black Album"). This album is somewhat of a departure from the thrash metal sound they helped pioneer. It is one of the best selling albums of all time.
August 15 - Paul Simon's Concert in the Park, August 15, 1991, takes place in Central Park.
August 27
o Pearl Jam releases their debut album, "Ten". While initially slow to sell, it became #2 on the Billboard charts within a year and has since become certified thirteen times Platinum in the United States.
o Dr. Dre pleads no contest to charges that he beat up a woman at a West Hollywood nightclub. Dr. Dre is sentenced to 24 months probation.
* Tupac Shakur's solo career begins with his first album, 2Pacalypse Now, however it does not do well. Six-year-old Qa'id Walker is shot dead by a stray bullet during a confrontation between Tupac's entourage and a rival group.
October 25 - Steely Dan spontaneously reunites.
November 7 - Bryan Adams 16 week long stay at the top of the U.K. Singles Chart is finally ended by U2 single The Fly. Nevertheless, a new record is set for the longest consecutive stay at the top of the U.K. Singles Chart.
November 23 - Lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, reveals he has AIDS; he dies the following day.
November 26 - Pop music icon Micheal Jackson releases his worldwide hit album Dangerous the album went on to sale over 7 million copies in the U.S. and more than 32 million worldwide becoming the second best seller of Jackson's career (following Thriller) and one of the biggest albums of all-time.
November 30 - Following on the steps of the Billboard 200, the Billboard Hot 100 also begins a new era by incorporating and merging electronically measured sales and airplay data from SoundScan and BDS respectively.
December - A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, featuring Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade, a jazz band led by Wynton Marsalis, and orchestra & chorus conducted by Andre Previn, is recorded for television.

Link to '1991 in American Television'

Link to '1991 in Canadian Television'

Miscellaneous

Monster Truck Rallies really started taking off in the mid to late 1980s.

Coca Cola (aka New Coke) and Coca Cola Classic are both on store shelves.

The 16 bit home video game console market is dominated by the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, along with the less widespread TurboGrafx-16 and the Neo Geo. Handheld game systems are the monochrome Nintendo Gameboy and the color Sega Game Gear. Sega introduced Sonic the Hedgehog this year.

Video arcades and arcade games are at their height, with arcade machines in bowling alleys, bars, supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores, gas stations. Street Fighter II arcade games came out this year and became one of the most popular video games of all time.

Generation X became the preferred term for the post-Baby Boom generation, with MTV Generation and Nintendo Generation used interchangeably.

Basketball is especially popular at the time with such big name players as Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. The Chicago Bulls, with the iconic Michael Jordan, are especially popular in pop culture of the time with Chicago Bulls jerseys widespread.