Rap-Rock

We as people know that songs are similar to poetry, and that most songs rhyme, but with the invention of Rap music this rhyming craze went to an extreme. Rap is a load of lyrics that were made popular by such artists as Grand Master flash and Run DMC, but enough about rap, when it combines with the rock music we all know and love is when it becomes outrageous, and most might be shocked at how it was first introduced into the mainstream.
In the mid 80's Aerosmith wanted to do a remake of their hit song "Walk this way" and to make it sound a bit different then the original they teamed up with rap group Run DMC, and this was the beginning of what soon would become a trend. When the 90's rolled around and after grunge had died out people wanted something new, and since the other main genres of music at the time were either pop or rap, then it seemed only natural that someone would eventually would take the little step that aerosmith had taken back in the day and turn it into their own style, and it happened.
Some of the first mainstream Rap-Rock bands included Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The movement was in full swing when rap group Public enemy collaberated with metal band Anthrax to do the song "Bring the Noise" in 1991. After this all the bands that had been doing this sort of thing before it was even mainstream became popular, such as In Living Color and Biohazard. This genre became so popular that it even spawned a sub genre known as Nu Metal which included bands like Kid Rock and Linkin Park.
This idea of rap and rock coming together will most likely be around for a while, although the hardcore fans that enjoy just the rock style wont really enjoy it to much, it still shows that the rock music genre is capable of being teamed with any other style of music, which will make it last forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBOGqaiVLUs&feature=related

One-hit wonders of the 90's

For those of you that don't know the meaning of "one hit wonder" well it's quite simple. The name says it all, they are bands that only were able to get one big hit out of their entire career, and after hours of searching(and years of listening) I have found some of the most known one hit wonders of 90's rock.
The first one hit wonder was grunge band Blind Melon and their slow mellow song "No Rain"
This song was released in 1992 during the high part of the grunge era. The song follows a child who wants to fit in and finally does in the end with hooks and a bittersweet pop melody leading the way. The video was just as popular as it featured the now famous Bee Girl. The song was the anti-style to the grunge based songs of that period, and over 17 years later, it’s still lovely to hear.

Another major one hit wonder band of the 90's was the band Blur and thier song "Song 2". This song is famous for the lyric “Whoo Who!”. Besides that lyric, most of the lyrics are basically incomprehensible and open to interpretation. Although Blur had been highly acclaimed and prolific, they had managed to stay under the radar for most of their career—at least in the States. But with this song, suddenly they were everywhere.

Honorable mentions:
Spacehog

Marcy Playground

4 Non Blondes

Tripping Daisy

Some information provided by:

http://biolog.jamsbio.com/2008/05/25/top-alt-rock-one-hit-wonders-of-the-90s/

Album Review; Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness(The Smashing Pumpkins)

The Smashing Pumpkins are an America rock band that was formed in 1988 by Billy Corgan(vocalist) and James Iha(lead guitar). The first came onto the music scene in 1993 with their album Siamese Dream, which had the sound of the typical rock/grunge sound of that time. However, their greatest success came with the release of their third cd, which was a two-disc CD titled Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness which was released in 1995.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a loose concept album, with the songs intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Billy Corgan has said that the album is based on "the human condition of mortal sorrow". The ablum featured many different styles of music and there was a greater variety to the number of guitar overdubs utilized than on previous albums.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released on October 24, 1995. The following week, Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, an unusual feat for a double-disc album that cost over $20. The RIAA has certified the album as having sold 9.8 million copies in the United States. This was considered to be the bands most ambitious and accomplished work yet. Some of the more well known songs off the album include: "1979", "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "Tonight, Tonight" and "Zero". The group won their first Grammy award that year, after being nominated for seven, they won only a single one, best rock performance for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".
After all the success the band continued to tour and make music. They made music and contributed their music to all kinds of compilation albums. The band came to an end though in 2000 when lead singer Billy Corgan told the world that the band was breaking up. The Smashing Pumpkins reunited in 2005 for a tour, and they still play songs from Mellon Collie at their shows because it is, by far, their most successful ablum both commercially and musically.

Some information provided my:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellon_Collie_and_the_Infinite_Sadness

Metal to Mainstream; Metallica and "The Black Album"

Metallica was a band that was well known in the 80's for their hardcore and thrash metal style and for being one of the pioneers of the metal scene in the United States. After their 1988 ablum "..And Justice for All" they decided to change it up and approach their next album differently. To do this they teamed up with Bob Rock, who had produced such classic album with other bands like Motley Crue "Dr. Feelgood", and they went into the sutdio and recorded a 12 song cd and plainly called it Metallica(later known as "the black album" bcause of its dark cover). The album was loaded with great tacks complete threw metal music and Metallica back into the mainstream. The Album sold over 22 million copies worldwide, and Metallica went on a world tour and kept touring for three years after the release of the album.
Since then they have released several more cd's, their latest being 2009's Death Magnetic, but The Black Album is considered their biggest success.

Album review; The Bends(Radiohead)

Three guitars, a driving rhythm section and keyboards, all fronted by a whiny English bloke on vocals. That's the Radiohead setup, and believe it or not, it works spectacularly well. Following up on its hit "Creep" from their previous ablum Pablo Honey in 1993 , Radiohead's sophomore effort The Bends was released in 1995, not barely a year after the grunge scene had imploded, delivering renewed vigor in the form of a happiersounding guitar assault. Shimmering piano notes and echoing drums immediately pull you into the lead-off track "Planet Telex," as the guitars unleash a wall of fuzzenhanced bliss. Vocalist Thom Yorke's delivery is less deadpan and more passionate than before, giving the tracks a sense of smoldering urgency. The title track is a brilliant piece of raging guitar-driven pop, while "Fake Plastic Trees" opts for a subdued acoustic entrance, beginning with subtle nods to John Denver before cascading into an intense swirl of guitar, keyboards and drums. The band specializes in creating safe, lilting melodies awash in warmness, before drowining them in a wall of blistercrunch guitar and chaotic rhythmic interplay right before your ears.
Althought it maybe be less distorted and guitar based as my last review, but The Bends gave us some some Radioheads greatest hits including "High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Street Spirit". This album is what made the rock world realize that the heavy dark tones of grunge were gone, and that it was now time to change the sound and melody of rock.
Some achievements of this ablum include being ranked #6 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year', ranked #4 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995, and included in Q Magazines 50 Best Albums of 1995.

"The Boss" in the 90's

After the release of 2008's The Wrestler, and the release of the cd "Working on a Dream" created a triumphant comeback from the Bruce Srpingsteen, who had not made much new commercially successful music in 2000's before this. Springsteen had been touring with the street band, his original band, who he had done a reunion tour with when they got back together in 1999 and still toured throught the years. Althought The Wrestler movie and the song by Bruce was a hit this was not the first time Springsteen had made an appearance on a movie soundtrack.
In 1993 the movie Philadelphia,staring Tom Hanks came out. It was about a lawyer in Piladelphia who had AIDS and was fired from his job for having the disease, but throughout the movie he fought for his rights and for his job. Bruce was featured on the soundtrack with his song "Streets of Philadelphia". It became a hit that year and got Bruce nominated for an academy award for best soundtrack.

Decline of grunge

During the mid-1990s many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest," appeared "unusually tortured by success" and struggled with an addiction to heroin. Rumors surfaced in early 1994 that Cobain suffered a drug overdose and that Nirvana was breaking up. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; Nirvana summarily disbanded. That same year Pearl Jam canceled its summer tour in protest of what it charged as ticket vendor Ticketmaster's unfair business practices. Pearl Jam then began a boycott of the company; however, Pearl Jam's initiative to play only at non-Ticketmaster venues effectively, with a few exceptions, prevented the band from playing shows in the United States for the next three years. In 1996, Alice in Chains gave their final performances with their ailing estranged lead singer, Layne Staley, who subsequently died from a heroin overdose in 2002. That same year Soundgarden and Screaming Trees released their final studio albums, Down on the Upside and Dust, respectively. Soundgarden broke up the following year.
After that music began to change, but the music of grunge is now stuck in the music world forever, and will never be forgotten.

Drug abuse and the grunge scene

When the grunge movement had reached the hight of it's success around 1993, after bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam had come out with some of the greatest rock albums to ever come out, it was starting to become clear that something was wrong. Kurt Cobain, the main grunge artist had overdosed on heroin multiple times by this time, and other artists of that genre,including Layne Staley of Alice in Chains and others had also become addicted to the drug. The addiction crippled the music, and ended up killing some of the greats of that era, like Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon and Kurt Cobain.
The term always ascociated with rock music has been "sex, drugs and rock n roll" in the case of the grunge scene the drugs played more of a part than the sex, and sometimes even more than the rock n roll. The people from that scene were like what they talked about in their music, alienated and shy kids, who took to addictions and music to get out of their slump, from the boring life they had in the small town they grew up in. By doing this, the drugs took over, and caused the destruction of one of the most influencial music genres of all time.

Grunge:The Beginnings

In the beginning of the 90's noone knew exactly where music was headed. Everyone was coming out of the hair metal and pop songs of the 80's, but no one was prepared for the way the music industry was about to be rocked and changed forever. A dark punkish sound that was coming out of bands from Seattle Washington were starting to get noticed by more than just underground clubs. The event that really sent these bands into mainstream success was the release of Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind". After that all bands that either came from Seatle(which was considered home of grunge) or sounded similar to Nirvana were called grunge.

Album Review: Nevermind(Nirvana)

Nirvana's "Nevermind" Album that was released in 1991 was the bands greatest success, and is known as the album that kickstarted the grunge movement. The first song off the album, "Smells like teen spirit" became an anthem for many people in that time, and since its release has inspired many artists in their style of music and how they create songs. Most songs on the album are a heavy guitar and loud vocals, but one song stands out. "Something in the Way" was the final track on the album, and unlike all the other songs that were heavy and more grunge-like, "Something in the Way" was the complete opposite, having a mellow acoustic sound and a low deep dark tone to Cobains voice in the song.
Nevermind was recently featured on VH1's Ultimate Album's which featured interviews from the band and songs from the album that were the most influencial on the music of their time, and of now.
1."Smells Like Teen Spirit"
2."In Bloom"
3."Come as You Are"
4."Breed"
5."Lithium"
6."Polly"
7."Territorial Pissings"
8."Drain You"
9."Lounge Act"
10."Stay Away"
11."On a Plain"
12."Something in the Way"

Smells Like Teen Spirit

A good and interesting blog about Nirvana has not seem to come across many peoples computer screens lately, mostly because they aren’t available, but I am about to change that. Nirvana formed in the late 80's but never came into much success until 1991's Never mind was released, launching them into the mainstream, and giving them the title of the kings of grunge.Nirvana's success lasted until April of 1994 when lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Most reports say that the fame was too much for Kurt to handle; he also had a severe heroin addiction and depression which also was a factor in his death.

The impact on rock music that Nirvana had was huge. Artist of today such as Seether and Flyleaf have been influenced by Nirvana's music and cover tracks of "Smells like teen spirit" is a highly covered song for Youtube.