The Ongoing History of New Music, Episode 816: The 90s, Part 5(b): The Hip-Hop Influence
If we look at the state of rock here in the 21st century, it is no longer the main musical driver of popular culture. Hip-hop now rules.
This doesn’t mean that rock is dead. Or that it doesn’t have a place in our lives. Or that it isn’t going to around for decades to come. But if you’re honest, you’ll have to admit that hip-hop has extended its reach into popular culture with the strength and depth that used to belong to rock.
It’s not like rock’s appeal has shrunk old; it’s that other genres have exploded, hip-hop being the genre with the most growth.
Now let’s go back to the 1990s, the last decade where rock ruled everything. Alt-rock as THE thing. But if we dig through what happened back then, we can see how hip-hop not only infiltrated alt-rock but how it was embraced, incorporated and celebrated.
Regions of the alt-rock universe began to evolve. The beats got bigger, the rhymes tougher and more complicated. The vibe of things began to change–and it was all pretty good. But not all of it worked out well.
What were hip-hop’s effects on alt-rock in the 90s? Here’s part two of that exploration.
Songs heard on this show:
Helmet & House of Pain, Just Another Victim
House of Pain, Jump Around
Cypress Hill, Insane in the Brain
Beastie Boys, Sabotage
Beck, Loser
Massive Attack, Teardrop
Korn, Freak on a Leah
Kid Rock, Bawidaba
Linkin Park, In the End
Everything has been put into a playlist by Eric Wilhite.
Don’t forget that you can get the podcast version of this podcast through iTunes or wherever you get your on-demand audio.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
- Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
- The Zone/Victoria
- The Fox/Vancouver
- Live 105/Halifax
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown The show runs at 11 am Sunday. This, by the way, is a great option for American listeners who are prevented from listening to the show live because of geo-blocking,
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
