Curated category
1990s in music
- House musicIn 1977, a dimly lit basement club named the Warehouse opened its doors on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Frankie Knuckles stood behind the turntables…
- Nu metalIn 1987, the thrash metal band Anthrax released an EP titled I'm the Man that combined hip hop and metal. This record laid groundwork for a genre that would…
- Punk rockThe Kingsmen released "Louie, Louie" in 1963, a song that later became known as punk rock's defining ur-text. This garage band from Portland, Oregon, played…
- Gangsta rapPhiladelphia rapper Schoolly D released a self-titled debut album in 1985 that contained the song "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" This track is widely regarded…
- Rap metalIn 1987, the heavy metal band Anthrax released their extended play I'm the Man. This record fused hip hop with heavy metal for the first time on a major…
- EmoIn 1983, a band called Rites of Spring formed in Washington, D.C., playing music that sounded like hardcore punk but felt different.
- Contemporary R&BIn 1973, Marvin Gaye released the album What's Going On. This record introduced jazz influences that loosened the rigid structures of earlier rhythm and…
- Mashup (music)Harry Nilsson sat in a studio during 1967 and struck a single chord on his guitar. He realized that chord could support more than one song at once.
- Electronic dance musicIn 1973, a Jamaican-American DJ named Kool Herc introduced large bass-heavy speaker rigs to the Bronx. His parties kick-started the New York City hip-hop…
- Country musicIn the early 1920s, a young fiddler named Henry Gilliland stood in a small studio in Bristol, Tennessee. He held his instrument tight as he prepared to…
- J-popIn 1958, forty-five thousand people crammed into the Nichigeki Western Carnival to see Japanese singers perform rockabilly music.