Word: 90s
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...hadn't heard the song in at least five years, and memories of the turn of the decade came flooding back--memories of the transition from the carefree days of elementary school to the real world of junior high, from the trusty '80s to the blank slate of the '90s...
...Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf War. But in music, you'd think there was a jump from the upbeat Top 40 of Reagan's America--epitomized in Madonna's "Material Girl" (1984)--to the brooding alternative explosion of Clinton's '90s, marked by Nirvana's breakthrough hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991). In making that leap you'd skip both the George Bush years and the apex of a key musical genre: the power ballad...
...just as soon as Bush's popularity dove with the post-war recession of the early '90s, so too did arena rock fall off the map. Nirvana stormed the music scene in 1991, bringing Seattle grunge to the rest of the country and making alternative suddenly mainstream. By 1993, Winger, Damn Yankees and Bad English had disbanded, and Warrant, Poison and Nelson had fallen off the map entirely. Pushing them aside were bands like Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden and the Smashing Pumpkins, turning the airwaves from a place of possibility and power--where our average triumphs were...
...form of recent songs such as The Verve's "The Freshmen," Matchbox 20's "Push" and the Ben Folds Five's "Brick." Powers writes: "Recently...the meaning of the power ballad has changed as the age of heroes gives way to more conflicted protagonists." But these mid-'90s songs do not belong in the same category as the ballads of the turn-of-the-decade. In content, they are too angst-ridden, too mad, too sad to fly as the power ballad must. In style, they are too soft, too cloying and too repetitive to claim a place in music...
...older bands did manage to outlive the alternative craze. Aerosmith's "Crazy," "Cryin''' and "Amazing" (1993) may be more remembered for featuring Alicia Silverstone in their videos, but these hits also kept the power ballad alive in the '90s. The soaring melody and shamelessly hackneyed lyrics of Bon Jovi's 1994 hit "Always" made it one of the most perfect power ballads ever. And in 1995, Van Halen chipped in with the confident "Can't Stop Lovin' You." Still, with Steven Tyler headed for membership in the American Association of Retired Persons and with Jon Bon Jovi headed nowhere, given...