1991-1992 was a pivotal time for me. I was entering my senior year of high school, making the slow change from young adolescent to young adult. I had two main groups of friends, one went to the high school I went to and the other were a closer knit of rebels that I bonded with that went to a rival school of mine. 1991 and 1992 also, in my humble opinion, was single handed the best years for music EVER to be released in the world.
It was a new decade, things were changing, the heavy synth sound of EMO bands were gettting a shake up from the more rough sounds of grunge, industrial, and alternative music. Rap was slowly changing, and country… well, that blew up huge (not my scene, but you could not escape the likes of Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, and George Strait). I personally, enjoyed the alternative sound, as my one buddy once joked, “You’re the White Italian Polish American from California with a Jewish first name who loves Russia and listens to crappy alternative music… you’re just Euro Trash” to which I took as a compliment. I dug the sounds of XTC, INXS, Talking Heads, Cure, Depeche Mode and spent many an evening up past common sense time watching MTV’S 120 Minutes, the show that would air the most current and best alternative videos at the time. Most of my buddies were into the harder metal scene and so many Fridays were spent around the TV watching Headbanger’s Ball and shooting stupid movies with our buddies Hi-8 camcorder. As a result, I was, let us say, eclectic when it came time to my own playlist and as a result if you were ever forced to get a ride with me in my car, you might have heard some of the music I am about to list.
On a sidenote after 1992 music started to shift and while still interesting music started to evolve, I have to say that (other than 1995) the music industry began to grow stagnant and that by the end of 1999 all the creative energy that came out of the 1990’s jettisoned from the scene and was replaced by very bland and “safe” pop music, and while that style is still popular amongst the tween crowd now, with Disney girl bands, Nickelodeon boy bands, and every other off shoot of kid that can be auto tuned into boring clarity the “alternative” scene has been pretty dormant.
Luckily with such critic ravings about bands like Vampire Weekend, Foster The People, and songs like the Gotye hit, bands that have artistic integrity is starting to make a comeback and hopefully within the next few years… 20 years after the greatest creative explosion the music scene has ever endured, we are ready for another one. Here’s hoping for an alternative future.
(Note about list. I was originally going to write a little about each album, but opted out of that, and instead just listing the album in no particular order, as to music that could be heard playing , on cassette tape mind you, at any point throughout the years of 1991 and 1992. Some of the albums were released in mid to late 1991, but do not let that fool you I had many of these on heavy rotation well into the middle of the drum n’ bass explosion that happened in 1995).
1. Pearl Jam: Ten
2. Nirvana: Nevermind
3. Mark Curry: It’s Only Time
4. Sophie B. Hawkins: Tongues & Tails
5. Meat Puppets: Forbidden Places
6. R.E.M.: Automatic For The People
7. INXS: Welcome To Wherever You Are
8. U2: Achtung Baby
9. White Zombie: La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
10. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult: Sexplosion!
11. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik
12. Social Distortion: Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
13. Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
14. Pantera: Vulgar Display of Power
15. Right Said Fred: I’m Too Sexy (The Single; I never bought the album Up)
16. Def Leppard: Adrenalize (I’m embarrased by this one)
17. KISS: Revenge (Not my car, but I heard it a lot in my buddie’s car)
18. Weird ‘Al’ Yankovic: Off The Deep End
19. Beastie Boys: Check Your Head
20: Soup Dragons: Hotwired
21: Los Lobos: Kiko
22. Faith No More: Angel Dust
23. Dream Theater: Images and Words
24. Megadeth: Countdown To Extinction
25. Damn Yankees: Don’t Tread (not a classic.. I know that now)
26. Jackyl: Jackyl (Guilty Pleasure #1)
27. Roger Waters: Amused To Death
28. Suzanne Vega: 99.9 F
29. Ugly Kid Joe: America’s Least Wanted (Guilty Pleasure #2)
30. Nine Inch Nails: Fixed (Never did get Broken)
31. Alice In Chains; Dirt
32. Peter Gabriel: Us
33. Rage Against The Machine: Rage Against The Machine (Loved them live, thought the album was just O.K.)
34. Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds: Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds (Guilty Pleasure #3)
35. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: Are You Normal? (I didn’t know ANYONE else who liked this album, but that didn’t stop me from blasting it)
36. Bon Jovi: Keep The Faith (The only album I really like from the band; my wife loves them, but I consider this their best album)
37. EMF: Stigma (Guilty Pleasure #4)
There it is. I am sure you have heard of at least ONE of these albums, and if you haven’t I suggest you look them up and give it a try. Like I said, this was all music that happened at the best possible moment for music history, at least it was the best possible soundtrack for my last days in high school.
Benjamin Thornton 