A lot of people, especially the millennials, praise 90s music. While I was growing as a musician and as an aspiring record producer in the 90s, I wasn’t accumulating a lot of new favorite bands, guitarists, singers or new songs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1991
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_R%26B_singles_of_1994_(U.S.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_number-one_dance_singles_of_1994
According to Billboard, soul music becomes black music in the early 80s and not long after that it becomes R&B and hip hop combined. Earlier I mentioned how the roots of 70’s black music had been removed by the mid 80s. Combining the prestigious long lived R&B genre with the brand new hip hop/rap genre, whether the comparison was in theory or aesthetically, was a mistake in my opinion, as both genres would inevitably be gentrified and go away almost altogether.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_Soul_Singles_number_ones_of_1975
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Singles_number_ones_of_1982
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_R%26B_Singles_number_ones_of_1990
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_R%26B/Hip-Hop_Singles_%26_Tracks_number_ones_of_2000
By 1994, I found myself growing increasingly apathetic towards hip hop/rap but I did like some so-called R&B, including the vibrant New Jack Swing genre. My once beloved pop music genre began to feel overly manufactured and, as a result, considerably less interesting.
This year wasn’t black against white, it was dancers against the non-dancers.
In 1994 fewer artists had #1 records on the R&B charts as the songs stayed on top for weeks or months at a time. Compare 1994 to 1989, I can’t believe both came from Billboard.
So let’s officially make 1994 the year that my taste leaned very heavily towards House and Garage (sped up House).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_garage
I wasn’t in the clubs, I wasn’t going to raves but I was enjoying the house/garage scene through my headphones. 1994 is around the time I become curious about BPM as a fan and as a producer. My taste peaked around 130BPM and 121BPM was my go-to in the studio.