In this series I have been looking back at each year on the charts between 1986 and 1996 and asking the question "When did the Eighties actually end?" The background to this is a research project that focuses on the proliferation of Greatest Hits albums in the early 1990s. The assumption is that the shift from vinyl to CD, the influence of Baby Boomers and the value offered by compilation albums, reframed the way people thought about Pop.
Introduction
Nineteen Ninety-One is significant for the arrival Blur and Nirvana on the singles chart with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (#7) and "There's No Other Way"(#8). Both acts would go on to shape the direction of Rock for the next decade. Only grazing the Top 10, they gained momentum slowly and, on the surface, might seem like also-rans in the Class of 1991. But their sonic template, and production styles of producers Butch Vig (Nirvana) and Stephen Street (Blur), influenced the sound of Grunge in the U.S. and Brit Pop in the U.K. While both of these genres were immersed in a geographically specific set of cultural circumstances, they were unified by a move towards a more minimalist style of playing, and a rejection of synths and electronic drum patterns.
This segregation of Rock and Dance would be characteristic of much that was going on in the singles charts, with the proliferation of House and Rave concomitant to another wave of Nostalgia Pop and film soundtrack songs. On the album chart, the rise of the Greatest Hits album is mirrored by the shift towards the Blockbuster CD album, with multiple single releases staggered over a promotional run that lasted, in some cases, longer than 12 months. By 1991, five singles had become the industry norm for big selling albums, although Top 10 placings for such releases were more sparse.
Mirroring the shift towards a more minimalistic Rock aesthetic, 1991 sees the rise of MTV's Unplugged series (originally launched in 1989); and an unlikely concord between Hip Hop and Heritage Rock. Reconfigured within competing narratives of authenticity, the show provided an unlikely axis around which notions of musicianship and truth to social context were cohered. In the Rock idiom, performances by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Nirvana restated the legacy of Blues music. While Hip Hop artists, like L.L Cool J, and A Tribe Called Quest, invoked an improvised, performative quality with certain free-form jazz stylisations. As much as Blur and Nirvana, this rejection of Warholian codes of plasticity and artifice spelt, in many ways, the end of the 1980s; and certainly the way in which they would be remembered.
The Album Chart
Nineteen Ninety-One sees a significant movement forward in the album chart for a number of reasons. In the first instance, unlike 1990, it is dominated by albums that are released that year, as opposed to hangovers from the preceding one. Secondly, there is a continuation of the trend for Blockbuster albums orientated towards the lucrative adult-orientated CD market, with multi-single releases: the industry standard moved from four to five:
Simply Red's Stars (#1): five UK singles between September '91 and July '92.
Michael Jackson's Dangerous (#5): nine UK singles between November '91 and December '93.
R.E.M.'s Out of Time: (#6) four UK singles between February '91 and December '91.
Michael Bolton's Time Love and Tenderness (#7): five UK singles between April '91 to February '92.
Cher's Love Hurts (#9): five UK singles between February '91 to February '92 (sixth in US).
Seal's Seal (#11): five UK singles between November '90 and February '92.
Bryan Adams' Waking Up the Neighbours (#12): six UK singles July '91 to June '92.
Genesis's We Can't Dance (#13): five singles October '91 to February '93 (sixth in Europe).
Dire Straits' On Every Street (#14): four singles August '91 to June '92 (fifth in Europe).
Beverley Craven's Beverley Craven (#14): four UK singles (six in Europe).
U2's Achtung Baby (#18): five singles October '91 to August '92.
Chris Rea's Auberge (#19): four singles February '91 to November '91.
Enya's Shepherd Moons (#20): three October '91 to June '92 (fourth in '94 apropos soundtrack to End of the Innocence).
Roxette's Joyride (#21): five singles February '91 to February '92.
Kenny Thomas's Voices (#22): four singles singles December '90 to December '91
Prince & the New Power Generation Diamonds and Pearls (#27): five UK singles June '91 to April '92 (sixth in U.S.
Lisa Stansfield's Real Love (#28): four UK singles plus a fifth in US.
Erasure's Chorus (#29): four UK singles June '91 to March '92
George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (#30): five August '90 to March '91 (sixth in other territories).What is interesting about these Blockbuster albums is that they varied greatly in delivering singles chart hits. At the one extreme Michael Jackson's Dangerous procured eight Top 40 entries including a number one and three top five singles:
“Black or White” (#1)
"Remember the Time" (#3)
"In the Closet" (#8)
"Jam" (#13)
"Who Is It” (#10)
"Give In to Me” (#2)
"Will You Be There" (#9)
"Gone Too Soon” (#33)
Likewise, within the context of the Rock idiom, U2 did well to deliver five Top 20 singles including two Top 10s and a Number One. By contrast, although Prince and the New Power Generation scored five Top 40 singles, only one made the Top 10:
"Gett Off” (#4)
“Cream" (#15)
"Diamonds and Pearls” (#25)
"Money Don't Matter 2 Night” (#19)
“Thunder" (#28)
The same sort of pattern can be observed for Cher, Roxette, Seal, Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton, for whom a continual presence in the lower rungs of the Top 30 was a means of extending the shelf lives of albums that have already peaked in terms of sales. At the very extreme of this spectrum is Dire Straits and their final album On Every Street, which delivered a solitary Top 40 single in "Calling Elvis”(#21); followed by "Heavy Fuel” (#55), "On Every Street” (#42), and "The Bug” (#67). For AOR artists it would seem the concept of the 'single-filled album' was perhaps more important than the success of those singles; particularly with regards to servicing radio and music television, as well as competing with the value offered by hit-laden Greatest Hits packages.
Indeed, the proliferation of Greatest Hits continued in 1991 with the album chart very much dominated by the Class of 1984. Fifty percent of the End of Year Top 10 is composed of greatest hits collections by artists synonymous with 1980s: Eurythmics’ Greatest Hits (#2); Queen’s Greatest Hits II (#3); Tina Turner’s Simply The Best (4#); Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection (#8); and Paul Young’s From Time To Time (#10). Throughout the year other Top 10 placings from the stars of the preceding decade included:
Jimmy Somerville’s The Singles Collection 1984/1990 (#4);
The Stranglers’ Greatest Hits 1977 to 1990 (#4);
Deborah Harry and Blondie’s The Complete Picture (#3);
Joan Armatrading’s The Very Best of (#9);
The Waterboys’ Best of 81 to 90 (#2);
Marc Almond and Soft Cell’s Memorabilia – The Singles (#8);
The Jam’s Greatest Hits (#2);
The Specials Singles (#10);
Jason Donovan’s Greatest Hits (#9);
R.E.M.’s The Best of (#7);
Salt ’n’ Pepper’s Greatest Hits (#6)
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Looking Back (#9)
Pet Shop Boys’ Discography: The Complete Singles Collection (#3)
While the end of year figures for compilations on the Top 30 in 1991 represents a slight dip (three percentage points to 30% compared to 33% in 1990), what is significant is the archival coherence of the work being anthologised. This first tranche is freighted very much towards the early Eighties: Stranglers, Blondie, The Jam, The Specials, Bronski Beat, Soft Cell etc.This moment of cultural retrospection, which really begins in 1990 in the context of blockbuster films and World Cup sentimentalism, is refined by 1991 into a coherent project of revisionism that, as it matures, will establish a much more coherent account of the 1980s and a canon of set popular music works.
Singles Chart
By contrast, on the Singles Chart, there is a sense that the 1980s nearly over: the changing of the guard is almost complete. New pop comes in the form of Right Said Fred’s “Im Too Sexy” (#4), Oceanic’s “Insanity” (#9), Colour Me Bad’s “I Wanna Sex You Up” (#10), 2-Unlimited “Get Ready For This” (#11), The KLF’s “3am Eternal” (#12), Extreme’s “More Than Words” (#16) James’s “Sit Down” (#20) and The Prodigy’s “Charly” (#26). Augmenting this, however, is another procession of Nostalgia Pop: Queen’s re-release of 1975’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (#2) following the death of Freddie Mercury, tops the charts for second time. Cher’s cover of the 1964 Betty Everett hit "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)” (#3) does the same; as does Elton John and George Michael’s duet on a new version of the 1974 recording “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (#15). Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff’s revival of Tommy Roe’s 1969 hit “Dizzy” (#8) reaches the top. And The Clash score their only number one with “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” (#19): nine years after the split on the back of a Levi jeans commercial.
Film and TV continued to play large role in shaping the charts, not least the Cher hit that featured in the film Mermaids, in which she also starred. Most notable, however, was Eighties throwback Bryan Adams’ "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” (#1), from the the soundtrack of the Robinhood: Prince of Thieves, which spent sixteen weeks at the top of the charts. This was Adams’ first Top 20 single since 1984’s “Run To You” peaked at number eleven in 1984. Conversely, newcomer Chesney Hawkes “The One and Only”(#7) topped the chart for five weeks on the back of the movie Buddy’s Song, in which Hawkes starredalongside The Who’s Roger Daltry. In addition to this, novelty items from The Simpsons (“Do The Bartman” #5) and a charity single from TV comedy duo Hale and Pace in support of Comic Relief (“The Stonk” #22) sold impressively.
Two notable exceptions to this binary between nostalgia/film versus new acts, were Motown legends Michael Jackson and Diana Ross: scoring big hits with ’Black or White”(#13) and “When You Tell Me That You Love Me” (#17). However, many of the British stars of the 1980s (and the sound of New Pop), the singles charts were now a wilderness. That is not to say there aren't any refugees Making the Top 10: however, in many instances these are a product of the Blockbuster album marketing strategy:
Iron Maiden"Bring Your Daughter...To the Slaughter" (#1) Queen's "Innuendo" (#1);
Robert Palmer's "Mercy Mercy Me"/"I Want You" (#9);
Roxette's "Joyride"(#4);
Rod Stewart's "Rhythm of My Heart" (#3) &"The Motown Song" (#10);
Pet Shop Boys' "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)"/"How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (#4);
Simple Minds' "Let There Be Love" (#6);
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "Sailing on the Seven Seas" (#3) and "Pandora's Box" (#7);
Zucchero featuring Paul Young "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)" (#4);
Erasure "Chorus" (#3) & "Love To Hate You" (#4)
Divinyls "I Touch Myself" (#10);
Guns N' Roses "You Could Be Mine" (#3),"Don't Cry" (#8) & "Live and Let Die" (#5)
Deacon Blue's "Twist and Shout" (#10);
Scorpions' "Wind of Change" (#2);
Lisa Stansfield's "Change" (#10);
U2's "The Fly"(#1);
Genesis's "No Son of Mine" (#6)
Michael Bolton "When a Man Loves a Woman" (#8);
Brian May's "Driven by You" (#6);
Simply Red's "Stars" (#8);
Notable here are hits by Pet Shop Boys and Paul Young for being new tracks taken from Greatest Hits collections. In addition to this there is a pattern of re-releases connected both to Greatest Hits compilations that see some surprising re-entries in the chart. These include: The Waterboys' "The Whole of the Moon" (#3); Soft Cell featuring Marc Almond's "Tainted Love '91" (#4), and Madonna's "Holiday"(#5).The profile of the Stock Aitken Waterman production team is also severely diminished with six top forty chart placings:
Kylie Minogue "What Do I Have to Do" (#6).
Kylie Minogue "Shocked" (#6)
Jason Donovan "R.S.V.P" (#17)
Jason Donovan "Happy Together" (#10)
Kylie Minogue "Word Is Out" (#16)
Kylie Minogue & Keith Washington "If You Were With Me Now" (#4).
The success now restricted to the established brands of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.
Bubbling away at the Lower end of the Top 10 are a slew of singles that anticipate the resurgence of traditional guitar sounds of Grunge and Brit Pop:
Jesus Jones' "International Bright Young Thing" (#7)
EMF's "I Believe" (#6)
The Wonder Stuff's "The Size of a Cow" (#5)
Electronic's "Get the Message" (#8)
Blur's "There's No Other Way" (#8)
REM's "Shiny Happy People" (#6)
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (#7)
James's"Sound" (#9)
Most notable here of course are the chart debuts of Nirvana and Blur: both significant portents as to the direction of Rock music in the 1990s. The division between the Rock aesthetics of Grunge and Brit Pop was significant. While the Seattle took its cue from the nihilistic modernist sensibilities of Punk, Brit Pop was more romantic in its sentimentalism for the Modish sounds of Sixties guitar Pop. However, in hindsight the impasse that was about to occur between Rock and Dance was perhaps more significant.
Conclusion
Throughout the 1980s the ebb and flow of musical innovation and genres had blended elements of both Rock and Dance. The concurrent influence of both Punk and Disco at the end of the Seventies informed the direction of travel in New Wave, New Romantic, and New Pop eras: Blondie, Talking Heads, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Eurythmics etc. Even mainstream Rock acts like Dire Straits, Roxy Music, Fleetwood Mac, and Bryan Ferry embraced dance floor rhythms. And in the post-Live Aid, Stadium Rock pomp of the late Eighties this influence could also be felt in the prominence of synth hooks and prominent beats of the Rock Anthem: Bon Jovi; Alice Cooper, The Cult, Guns and Roses, Def Leppard etc.
Nineteen Ninety-One marked a conclusion of this cross pollination between Rock and Dance, with only a smattering of groups bridging the gap: EMF, Jesus Jones and Electronic. Henceforth the sound of Pop would become much more segregated into those acts drawing upon the legacy of Acid House and Sound System culture, and the revisionism of Brit Pop and Grunge. Rock was about to enter a phase of great denial, with the inference that little music of cultural significance occurred after 1977. Luminaries of the earlier errors were now feted as influencers: Neil Young, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Small Faces etc
Symbolic of this was the success of the MTV Unplugged format, which first emerged in the Autumn of 1989. Throughout the 1980s, the music video had bathed the pantomime of musical styles that emerged in a riot of colour and light: this new format effectively turned the lights off at the disco. While the initial seasons of Unplugged predictable featured the older Rock artists (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Don Henley etc), in 1991 the show aired its first show focused solely on Rap with LL Cool J, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. The success of this broadcast and the coalescence of two seemingly opposing aesthetic rationale's inaugurated a very new sensibility in which authenticity was the key touch-stone of pop culture.
While the 1980s had celebrated the plastic sensibilities of Pop Art (encapsulated in Andy Warhol's MTV show Fifteen Minutes), the new decade would be pre-occupied with a new sense of truth and realism: eschewing the surface culture in pursuit of something much grittier and real. Rock configured itself in the image of its own heritage: focusing on musicianship and a truth to live performance. Conversely, Hip Hop celebrated urban realism and the romanticised truths of its lived social context. Both rang the death knell of the 1980s and the last remnants of an aesthetic, which had been hanging on into the early part of the 1990s.
Top 50 Singles 1991 Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 11 January 1992
1 "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" Bryan Adams
2 "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"These Are the Days of Our Lives" Queen
3 "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" Cher
4 "I'm Too Sexy" Right Said Fred
5 "Do the Bartman" The Simpsons
6 "Any Dream Will Do" Jason Donovan
7 "The One and Only" Chesney Hawkes
8 "Dizzy" Vic Reeves & the Wonder Stuff
9 "Insanity" Oceanic
10 "I Wanna Sex You Up" Color Me Badd
11 "Get Ready for This" 2 Unlimited
12 "3 a.m. Eternal" (Live at the S.S.L.) The KLF featuring the Children of the Revolution
13 "Black or White" Michael Jackson
14 "Let's Talk About Sex" Salt-N-Pepa
15 "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" George Michael and Elton John
16 "More Than Words" Extreme
17 "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" Diana Ross
18 "Sunshine on a Rainy Day" (remix) Zoë
19 "Should I Stay or Should I Go" The Clash
20 "Sit Down" James
21 "Wind of Change" Scorpions
22 "The Stonk" Hale and Pace and the Stonkers
23 "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" Nomad featuring MC Mikee Freedom
24 "Now That We Found Love" Heavy D & the Boyz
25 "Baby Baby" Amy Grant
26 "Charly" The Prodigy
27 "Justified & Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)" The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette
28 "World in Union" Kiri Te Kanawa
29 "Promise Me" Beverley Craven
30 "Last Train to Trancentral" (Live from the Lost Continent) The KLF
31 "You Got the Love" (Erens Bootleg Mix) The Source featuring Candi Staton
32 "Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee)" Crystal Waters
33 "Thinking About Your Love" Kenny Thomas
34 "Rhythm of My Heart" Rod Stewart
35 "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" PM Dawn
36 "Love to Hate You" Erasure
37 "Sadness (Part I)" Enigma
38 "Crazy" Seal
39 "Move Any Mountain" The Shamen
40 "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" Rozalla
41 "Saltwater" Julian Lennon
42 "Sailing on the Seven Seas" Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
43 "Wiggle It" 2 in a Room
44 "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" Monty Python
45 "All 4 Love" Color Me Badd
46 "Crazy for You" (remix) Madonna
47 "Joyride" Roxette
48 "Get Here" Oleta Adams
49 "Gett Off" Prince and the New Power Generation
50 "You Could Be Mine" Guns N' Roses
Top 50 Albums 1991 Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 11 January 1992.
1 Stars Simply Red
2 Greatest Hits Eurythmics
3 Greatest Hits II Queen
4 Simply the Best Tina Turner
5 Dangerous Michael Jackson
6 Out of Time R.E.M.
7 Time, Love & Tenderness Michael Bolton
8 The Immaculate Collection Madonna
9 Love Hurts Cher
10 From Time to Time – The Singles Collection Paul Young
11 Seal Seal
12 Waking Up the Neighbours Bryan Adams
13 We Can't Dance Genesis
14 On Every Street Dire Straits
15 The Very Best of Elton John Elton John
16 Beverley Craven Beverley Craven
17 Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber Michael Crawford
18 Achtung Baby U2
19 Auberge Chris Rea
20 Shepherd Moons Enya
21 Joyride Roxette
22 Voices Kenny Thomas
23 Greatest Hits 1977–1990 The Stranglers
24 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Original London Cast starring Jason Donovan
25 Greatest Hits Queen
26 Essential Pavarotti II Luciano Pavarotti
27 Diamonds and Pearls Prince & the New Power Generation
28 Real Love Lisa Stansfield
29 Chorus Erasure
30 Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 George Michael
31 Innuendo Queen
32 The Commitments (Original Soundtrack) Various Artists
33 Into the Light Gloria Estefan
34 MCMXC a.D. Enigma
35 The Definitive Simon and Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel
36 Discography: The Complete Singles Collection Pet Shop Boys
37 Wicked Game Chris Isaak
38 Use Your Illusion II Guns N' Roses
39 Together with Cliff Richard Cliff Richard
40 In Concert José Carreras/Placido Domingo/Luciano Pavarotti
41 Real Life Simple Minds
42 Use Your Illusion I Guns N' Roses
43 Vagabond Heart Rod Stewart
44 Sugar Tax Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
45 The White Room The KLF
46 Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em MC Hammer
47 Fellow Hoodlums Deacon Blue
48 Serious Hits... Live! Phil Collins
49 Timeless: The Very Best of Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka
50 The Greatest Hits Salt-n-Pepa