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Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

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    Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

    As I have just posited in the "get on your nerves" thread, I reckon that some kind of mass lunacy afflicted the UK during that particular year. As well as the aforementioned Doop and 4 Non-Blondes, we also had to suffer:

    - Whigfield
    - Wet Wet Fucking Wet at number 1 for a geological era
    - The emergence of Boyzone
    - The most grating theme tune ever courtesy of the Rembrandts
    - Mariah Fucking Carey ruining Without You
    - D: Fucking Ream
    - Bryan Adams, Ace of Base, Meat Loaf, Deacon Blue all with chart-topping albums
    - One For All and All For Fucking One (Hello again, Bryan)

    Grim.

    #2
    Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

    Yes but Parklife.

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      #3
      Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

      It's only music, John.

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        #4
        Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

        It Ain't Hard to Tell

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          #5
          Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

          Kurt Cobain blew his brains out - that wasn't so good - however, musically there was a fair bit to love about 1994, IMO. Morphine, Pavement, Stereolab, Transglobal Underground, Ween, Gang Starr, Nick Cave, FSOL, Julian Cope, Luscious Jackson, Autechre, Massive Attack, Sebadoh, Hole, Deadcandance, dEUS, Shellac and a whole bunch of others all put out cracking albums. (My jury's still out [all this time later] on Portishead's debut, REM's Monster and the J&MC's Stoned and Dethroned, but I'm sure they'll gather plaudits - and all were released in 1994.)

          Pulp, Suede, Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Ash and some of the other Britpop (sic) leading luminaries recorded/released arguably their best stuff that year, too.

          Agree with most of your bugbears, however (despite 4NB featuring a year late) - but I have little problem with Whigfield, if I'm honest.

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            #6
            Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

            1994, besides all of what Jah Womble said:

            Nas - Illmatic
            Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
            Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
            Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
            Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
            Warren G. - Regulate...G Funk Era
            The Coup - Genocide & Juice

            There have been a lot of years worse than that.

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              #7
              Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

              The Holy Bible was another from 1994.

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                #8
                Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                Yes, 'Holy Bible', 'Definitely Maybe' and 'At Action Park' on their own make it not the worst year in musical history. There was a lot of shit Britpop and faux-grunge though as well.

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                  #9
                  Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                  There was a time.. Before I was clubbing or gigging (and maybe that is the key) where there was much more possibility and risk taking in music (especially indie), and that seemed to be drying up by 94. There was an edge and general declining good to shitey pill ratio going on by then: Doves were a dicey no quality guaranteed gamble by then in the Arches. The music was getting darker and fragmenting people more dance wise too(which can be good as much as bad). Glasgow 94 club wise wasn't always a love buzz (Slam is the only night in Glasgow where I've seen a glassing. To strobing). And oasis were about to blow so much interesting indie music like yer Stereolabs and other respectable 60000 sellers out the water, as the Shitnami of samba trainered coked up shite hit land.

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                    #10
                    Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                    Even if y6u confined the discussion to the singles charts, I would think that a random week's Top 20 would not be as bad as one from, say, 1975, 2017, 1970 or 1962, to take 4 examples

                    Albums charts were diabolical before 1964 and would still contain very mediocre Top Tens as late as the mid-70's

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                      #11
                      Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                      General consensus seems to be that 1994 was a bit of a high point. 6Music for instance recently had a '1994 day' during which their entire daytime output was... yep. And I'm sure they did a documentary on 1994 a few months ago too.

                      In fact I'm sure there was a thread on the old OTF board about favourite years in music and I plumped for '94. Hang on... here we go...

                      "the zenith of the 'rave duo' phenomenom, with orbital, the chemical brothers, leftfield and lfo (plus honorary members the prodigy) arguably at the height of their powers and producing classic lps. top that with the nascent britpop scene (before it got into bogged down under the weight of its own pretensions)"

                      Upper case huh. Who needs it. Or being able to spell 'phenomenon'.

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                        #12
                        Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                        The UK Singles chart, this week in 1994

                        Certainly more variety than there is in the corresponding week of 2017.

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                          #13
                          Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                          longeared wrote: The UK Singles chart, this week in 1994

                          Certainly more variety than there is in the corresponding week of 2017.
                          That's not saying much though - that might just be the worst top three there has ever been.

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                            #14
                            Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                            Pulp, Suede, Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Ash and some of the other Britpop (sic) leading luminaries recorded/released arguably their best stuff that year, too.
                            Indeed. Frankly, I'm going to need some persuading as to why the year in which His 'n' Hers was released is not the greatest year in musical history.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                              3 Colours Red wrote:
                              Originally posted by longeared
                              The UK Singles chart, this week in 1994

                              Certainly more variety than there is in the corresponding week of 2017.
                              That's not saying much though - that might just be the worst top three there has ever been.
                              I see your worst ever top three, and raise you to May 1994. Don't even know what the number 3 single is, but assume it is horrendous.

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                                #16
                                Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                In terms of going out and enjoying live music, it's probably my favourite year of all time. It was the year Heavenly started the The Sunday Social at The Albany and I was lucky enough to be a regular there and a frequent attender at Blow Up the evening before. When I was flush, I'd even go to Smashing on a Friday, but I always felt like I didn't fit in there, it was very glam and snobby, but a great night's entertainment, I loved Matthew Glamore.

                                As Jah has already said, Pavement have always been a great band, but they were at the height of their powers that year. Parklife was an event at the time, it was ground-breaking and celebratory.

                                Really great, stand the test of time stuff, does avoid 1994 though. I could swear Enter the Wu-Tang was that year, but it was 1993. Illmatic was 1994, Music for the Jilted Generation too.

                                I can't find any major techno or jungle releases that year, no scene changers. But I'd put that down to the fact most people were having a lot of fun that year. I certainly was.

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                                  #17
                                  Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                  Gotta say the US top ten for '94 was pretty awful. Boyz II Men dominated with a total of 20 weeks at #1. There was also way too much Celine, Bryan, Rod and Sting. I did kinda have a thing for Lisa Loeb though (perhaps it was the specs) and Ini Kamoze spent two weeks at the top of the charts with Here Comes the Hotstepper so it wasn't entirely bad.

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                                    #18
                                    Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                    Terrorvision released "How To Win Friends And Influence People", so the answer to the original question is definitively no.

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                                      #19
                                      Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                      It was the year Marion, my favourite band of all time, released their first single, so not a bad year at all.

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                                        #20
                                        Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                        Rolling Stone seems to think it was a good year for college radio.
                                        http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/1994-the-40-best-records-from-mainstream-alternatives-greatest-year-20140417/live-throwing-copper-19691231

                                        Dookie is a good album, as is Rancid's Let's Go, though not as good as their next. But the only one there that's one of my all-time favorites is Ill Communication.

                                        I hold the very standard white-man opinion that hip-hop and poppy-dance stuff used to be better. My feeling is that it was better when sampling was rampant. Maybe I need to try harder, but the popular "rap" that I hear these days - usually by accident - just feels boring and stale. Nothing today is as good as Bust a Move or Kriss Kross' Jump Jump. I think that all started to change around 1994, but I could be off by a year or two.

                                        That was definitely the beginning end of that great explosion of college music that hit in 1990/91, and not just because of emergence of Nu Metal and the death of Kurt Cobain. Any time one kind of pop art wears out its welcome and a new thing comes along, there's a period where the commercial interests aren't sure what works and what doesn't so they'll just through up anything that sticks. But then they start to figure it out and we just get a whole lot of derivative garbage. This is not an original observation. The same thing sort of happened at the beginning of rock and roll and definitely happened with movies in the 70s. I think the same thing is happening with so-called "prestige" TV. There's still a lot of good stuff on, but there have been a number of shows in recent years that superficially resemble the Sopranos insofar as they have great actors and great art direction but, ultimately, kinda suck.

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                                          #21
                                          Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                          Agree on all counts. T'was ever thus (or t'was since the 16th century at least.) Your last para is as succinct a definition of Mannerism as I've heard recently.

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                                            #22
                                            Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                            I just want to mention that as a result of looking down one of the 1994 UK charts posted on the previous page, I've had 'Murder She Wrote' by Chaka Demus & Pliers stuck in my head for the last few hours. I hope you're happy with yourselves.

                                            I'm surprised by the number of songs I remember as having been massive when I was about 12 or 13 which were actually massive when I was 9 or 10 (i.e. in 1994), incidentally. If you'd asked me to estimate a year of release for that song, or for 'Here Comes The Hotstepper' or 'Saturday Night' (by Whigfield) or any number of others, I'd have guessed 1996.

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                                              #23
                                              Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                              MiserableOldGit wrote: It was the year Marion, my favourite band of all time, released their first single, so not a bad year at all.
                                              It was the year they inspired me to the greatest pun of my life, culminating in the punchline, "I'm not the Marion kind."

                                              It's been downhill ever since.

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                                                #24
                                                Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                                Unless the post was intended ironically, I'm surprised that Marion rate as anyone's favourite group of all time, tbh.

                                                That's not a slight, however. This World and Body (1996) still stands up well. I liked 1998's Miyako Hideaway single as well. It was produced by Johnny Marr, apparently.

                                                Edit: Cannot believe I didn't include Ill Communication - completely overhauled my opinion of the Beasties, did that. 1994 - almost as good as 1995.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Was 1994 the worst year in musical history?

                                                  As well as Wet Wet Wet being a blight on the summer charts, there was also that abominable version of Baby I Love Your Way by Big Mountain that seemed to be everywhere, as was that peculiar re-working of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper.

                                                  On the flip side, you had 7 Seconds by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour which stands up as a magnificent song.

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