1994

I remember thinking at the time that 94 was a great year for music. Some albums I loved (and still enjoy to varied degrees) were The Downward Spiral, Music For the Jilted Generation, Senser's Stacked Up and Troublegum. It was the year I turned 16.

My 1994 in singles, alphabetically:

alex party - saturday night party (read my lips)
artemisia - bits & pieces
atlantic ocean - waterfall
beck - loser
blue bamboo - a b c & d
blur - end of a century / girls & boys
bruce springsteen - streets of philadelphia
carleen anderson - nervous breakdown
counting crows - mr. jones
crystal waters - 100% pure love / ghetto day
dj shadow - lost and found
doop - doop
elastica - connection
elevator - shinny
elvis costello - sulky girl
fruit - the queen of old compton street
the grid - swamp thing
hed boys - girls and boys
jah wobble's invaders of the heart - the sun does rise
jx - son of a gun
kristine w - feel what you want
kristin hersh - your ghost
kylie minogue - confide in me
leena conquest - boundaries
loveland - let the music lift you up
mary j. blige - be happy
m beat/general levy - incredible
michelle gayle - sweetness
morrissey - the more you ignore me, the closer i get / hold onto your friends
motiv 8 - rockin' for myself
moving melodies (ethics) - la luna (to the beat of the drum)
m people - renaissance
mr. roy - something about you
neil young - philadelphia
nush - u girls
oasis - whatever / live forever / supersonic
omar - outside
the o.t. quartet - hold that sucker down
paul weller - hung up
pizzaman - trippin' on sunshine
portishead - sour times / numb
the pretenders - i'll stand by you / 977 / night in my veins
primal scream - rocks
prince - the most beautiful girl in the world
the prodigy - no good (start the dance)
r.e.m. - what's the frequency, kenneth
r.kelly - she's got that vibe
sister bliss - life's a bitch (can't get a man, can't get a job)
sonic youth - superstar
suede - stay together / we are the pigs / the wild ones
t-empo - saturday night sunday morning
tindersticks - kathleen
transglobal underground - taal zaman / protean
tricky - aftermath
warren g/nate dogg - regulate
whigfield - saturday night
youssou n'dour/neneh cherry - 7 seconds

I forgot Dummy came out in 94! One of my favourite albums to this day.

don't forget subliminal cuts mike ;)

Didn't hear that one until late December, when Pete Tong played it on his year-end round-up.... good old Patrick Prins, whatever happened to him...

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

Lush, Sloan, Belly, Pure, 54-40, Beastie Boys, Jeff Buckley, Hole, Liz Phair, Tori Amos, Blur, The Veldt, Public Enemy, the 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould soundtrack, the Trois Couleurs Bleu and Rouge soundtracks. One of my favourite albums from this year is by Stereolab but I had no idea who they were in '94, didn't get hip to them until '97 or so. Loved a lot of other stuff from this year, though Kurt's death means I have a very soft spot for Eugenius and felt that & Sloan's albums the closest to me as comforts (I'm just a month older than Kurt and it was very personal at the time...some in my social circle were far more affected than others, and things slowly started to change for me then).

LOL, it is so funny to read mine own posts from 2001, basically to see the self-censoring revision of the past in operation. And I understand why then-me was doing it, to justify her tastes and dislikes of that point in time. And how she was utterly and totally belied, as a few months ago, I found a box of cassettes in storage at my Mum's house, dating from that exact period. And though yes, it's true, I did listen to all the things I described myself loving in 1994, and the changes in my tastes I described *did* happen, it is not the whole story. I omitted all sorts of music that didn't fit with the narrative (industrial music taped off my Goth housemate, loads of techno from my Britishes boyfriend, other things I daren't even mention, oh dear, Bhangra and "ethno-beats" or whatevs it inspired that I wince at the cultural appropriation of, now) but was definitely in that box of cassettes from the mid-90s, and well worn with play.

Can I blame acid not just for changing my tastes, but also conveniently erasing my memory of the music that didn't fit the narrative of Who I Thought I Was at age 30? It wasn't acid that changed my tastes. It was ageing, and the cultural conservatism that "I'm a grown up now, honest" brings. 1994 is also the year I was kicked out of a mod band for liking "stuff that sounds like A Flock Of Seagulls" (default insult for anything with a drum machine.) Memories are unreliable, and always more about "who you believe yourself to have been" rather than "the person you were."

I dunno. 1992 was "my year" so 2012 was the year of "OMG, I can NOT believe this is 20 years old!!!!" so I guess I'm going to be used to the 20-year anniversaries that 2014 brings.

But LOL and RMDE and KMT and SMH and 30-year old me. God, you were such a snob. (and oh god, will 50 year old me kiss their teeth at now-me?)

I discovered Stereolab in 1993, because I remember a friend playing them at my leaving do (and posting me tapes of all their albums through 1994) but I seem to have conveniently forgotten that. I was obsessed - OBSESSED - with New Order during this period, because I'd had this whole series of delusions based around Bernard Sumner and "Barneywaves" controlling my thoughts when I was on the medication I was on, 92-94. I'm kind of astonished at my ability to forget these things. It's not like I abruptly stopped listening to Hole and Lush and stuff like that, either.

I'm really, really glad I found that box of cassettes last autumn. Because it's kind of a relief to call bullshit on the person I used to portray myself as being.

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, January 17, 2014 11:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So this is often held up as a banner year for music. Is this true? It's the year I properly got into music outside of the chart countdown so my own ideas of what 1994 mean are probably highly embellished. Was it the "year that changed everything" as a recent NME headline says? Would your perspective be affected by age and geographical location? For 14-yo UK me, it did and still does feel kind of exceptional in terms of impactful albums. I'm sure many many ilxors disagree.

Definitely Maybe came out, which for better or worse (okay worse) had a gigantic impact on British music. We're still feeling it today really.

Like I'm trying to remember if Britain had an insatiable appetite for laddish stodge-rock pre-1994 but it doesn't feel like it, it's more a case of a latent market being blown right open.

I made a list on fb for this year recently; I shd paste it here. It was v 'alt-rock'

This is one of my fave years for movies incidentally. ..

xpost It's easy to sneer at that album, and Britpop in general, but I don't remember 'Britpop' as a term really gaining currency until '95 / '96. Until then it just felt like UK indie music was moving very quickly away from baggy/shoegaze/fraggle and going for... something else(?). Dance music and the way it was being appreciated was changing too. It wasn't being seen as this dangerous outlier thing for people in fields and warehouses - there were PROPER ALBUMS coming out and being featured on Jools Holland and dance tents at festivals and things. The sound seemed to be upgrading rapidly too - compare Prodigy's first two albums; the difference between rave/ardkore/jungle and drum'n'bass/triphop.

1994 [Started by Tom in April 2001
Coping with Nostalgia, A Beginner's Guide [Started by tissp! (the impossible shortest specia) in August 2005

^^^LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pP8amMgMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pP8amMgMk

this was the year i changed my footwear from wine doc martens to adidas gazelles (or maybe that was 95)

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, January 17, 2014 11:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 6:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was 16 and this was a hugely transformative year for me in so many ways including musically. Thinking back the two groups I spent the most time listening to that year were Bikini Kill and Operation Ivy. Maybe the Pixies too. I really kind of can't believe this was 20 years ago. Shit.

x-post - Ha! I had both though my Docs were purple and I was super excited because my birthday that year was the first time my mom let me go into NYC with friends without parental supervision and the first thing I did was buy those damn shoes.

bands i was listening to - nirvana, pavement, beastie boys, oasis (hated blur and suede), soundgarden, sebadoh, sonic youth, manic street preachers, blues explosion, velvet underground, the posies, big star, teenage fanclub, buffalo tom. i remember buying "dummy" on cassette and being disappointed.

sudden urgent desire to go buy purple Docs cos I still never have

:)

I haven't owned a pair since college tbh but I've been seriously rethinking that lately. I passed the DM store recently and was like, yeah, maybe it's time again.

Also, I just messaged my first boyfriend (who I met that year and with whom I am still friends) with "I JUST REALIZED THAT THE SUMMER WE MET WAS 20 YEARS AGO THIS YEAR." I just can't. Man.

I remember buying cassettes of The Downward Spiral, Superunknown and, er, Troublegum on the same day in 1994. That was a good day.

looked at DMs last night by bizarre coincidence. fucked if i'm paying 100 quid for a pair.

Oh shit Dummy came out this year too! Something of a landmark for me, first non-rock album I ever loved.

Unattributed youtube was Jovonn - Love Destination (forgot to identify it)

Someone just tweeted that Live Through This is 20 this year (and p much on my birthday, no less) and man, do I feel old now.

In 1994 I was 25 years old. I lived in Brooklyn until the end of the year. According to my Social Security report, I lived the entire year on $607. This actually isn't totally true - I was making it as a music critic. So thanks to the income I received that went unreported, I'm sure I at least doubled that.

I was writing for heavy metal and rock publications back then, and thanks to being a huge Promosexual (and always being in the Creem / Livewire offices) I was able to secure most of the music that came out new and not all of it was metal. So I am pretty sure that the following releases from that year were high on my list, even though I cannot find any end of year lists I might have officially put together at the time.

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory
Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl
Therapy? - Troublegum
Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops
Killing Joke - Pandemonium
The Obsessed - The Church Within
King's X - Dogman
Grief - Come to Grief
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Prong - Cleansing
Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction
Rollins Band - Weight
Paramæcium - Exhumed of the Earth
Mother Tongue - Mother Tongue
Cop Shoot Cop - Release
Sick of It All - Scratch the Surface
Killdozer - Uncompromising War on Art Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Nailbomb - Point Blank
The Veldt - Afrodisiac
L7 - Hungry for Stink
Cows - Orphan's Tragedy
Front Line Assembly - Millennium
Biohazard - State of the World Address
Slayer - Divine Intervention
Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
Veruca Salt - American Thighs
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
Wool - Box Set
Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family
Wicked Maraya - Cycles
Course of Empire - Initiation
Helios Creed - Busting Through the Van Allan Belt
Luscious Jackson - Natural Ingredients
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Hole - Live Through This

I went through Rate Your Music to make sure of the year. Some of them I only remember listening to a lot because I did stories on them at the time.

To this day, I adore the Therapy?, Cop Shoot Cop and Mother Tongue albums quite a bit. Some of these I have not listened to in ages.

A pretty good year in retrospect. My fave was that Swell album. Such a trip.

Laurie Anderson - Bright Red
Blumfeld - L'Etat et Moi
Diabologum - Le Goût du Jour
Flowerpornoes - red nicht von Straßen, nicht von Zügen
Luna - Bewitched
Luscious Jackson - Natural Ingredients
Massive Attack - Protection
Nirvana - Unplugged
Portishead - Dummy
Swell - 41
Alan Vega / Alex Chilton / Ben Vaughn - Cubist Blues
Weezer - s/t

1994 is famous for being a banner year for a lot of people.

The difference between 1994 and 2001 seems so much greater than the difference between 2010 and 2017 for some reason.

I love that Swell album as well! And Blumfeld!

Dog Latin may remember I did a top 50 albums of 94 list once that absolutely nobody was interested in.
American Music Club - San Francisco
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II ,
Bark Psychosis - Hex,
Black Crowes - Amorica
Blur - Parklife
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Deus - Worst Case Scenario ,
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop,
Esoteric - Epistemological Despondency ,
Flying Saucer Attack - Further
Front Line Assembly - Millennium ,
FSOL - Lifeforms,
Global Communication - 76:14 ,
Godflesh - Selfless,
Grief - Come To Grief,
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand ,
Hole - Live Through This
Jeff Buckley - Grace,
Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley ,
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible ,
Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost ,
Massive Attack - Protection
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nirvana - Unplugged
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Orbital - Snivilisation,
Palace Brothers - Palace Brothers
Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain,
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy ,
Portishead - Dummy,
Prodigy - Music for a Jilted Generation
Prong - Cleansing
Pulp - His N Hers
Rodan - Rusty,
Sabres Of Paradise - Haunted Dancehall
Sebadoh - Bakesale,
Senser - Stacked Up
Sick Of It All - Scratch The Surface
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Stone Roses - Second Coming
Suede - Dog Man Star
The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying ,
Therapy? - Troublegum
Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens ,
Three Mile Pilot - The Chief Assassin to the Sinister ,
Today Is the Day - Willpower ,
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman,
Warrior Soul - Space Age Playboys

I owned all but 2 of these at the time

I haven't listened to most of them in a long while, but albums I still own from that year:

Mary Chapin Carpenter – Stones in the Road
Paula Cole - Harbinger
Elvis Costello – Brutal Youth
The Grays – Ro Sham Bo
Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand
Heavenly – The Decline and Fall of Heavenly
The Loud Family – The Tape of Only Linda
Massive Attack - Protection
The Mountain Goats – Zopilote Machine
Nas - Illmatic
Liz Phair – Whip-Smart
The Pretenders – Last of the Independents
Prince - Come
Rheostatics – Introducing Happiness
Veruca Salt – American Thighs

oh I had that veruca salt album. I sold it to a mate about 15/16 years ago who was desperate to own it. Wish I'd kept it

Stray melodies from the Sleeps With Angels album still pop into my head now and then.

I remember liking it when it was new-ish, but when I went to listen to it a few years back I found the performances to be kind of lazy and plodding. It got sold in the Great Collection Purge of '15.

Yeah 1994 seems like a banner year, it was the high point of a lot of styles I feel a very strong connection with (black metal, doom, drum & bass, handbag house, ambient, hip-hop, acid trance) or maybe I was drawn to these genres precisely because they peaked at the stage in my life where I was particularly susceptible (and went out a lot more than at any other point in my life).

Btw the dumbest thing I did in 1994 was to miss Wu-Tang Clan on one of their first gigs abroad just after 36 Chambers came out, a friend of mine urged me to come and said they would be awesome but I hadn’t heard the album yet and passed.

Faves at this moment probably "My Life" (Mary J Blige) and "My Life" (Iris DeMent).

At the time I was a grunge-addled child.

i was 2 and my parents listened to Siamese Dream a lot

Jeff Buckley - Grace
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Stone Roses - Second Coming
Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens

1994 was a big year for Christian rock, huh

i was 2 and my parents listened to Siamese Dream a lot

― flappy bird, Tuesday, October 17, 2017 12:52 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!

I'd been listening to the charts since 1990 but '94 was the year I became a proper teenager and aware of culture outside of daytime TV and commercial radio. I got a CD player and Blur's Parklife (a 'proper' album by a 'proper' band as opposed to Now Dance comps, I felt so grown up).
My friends and I all loved 'How To Make Friends and Influence People' by Terrorvision; they had a real cult following among teens in my area. We would play video games and listen to Cypress Hill and the Prodigy, knowing our parents would be appalled if they heard them.
We didn't have a lot of money so we'd buy singles from the cut-out bin at the local indie - a lucky dip really. Most were terrible, but some (dEUS) were fantastic.
That Christmas my grandparents came over from the States with a copy of Green Day's 'Dookie'. I was the coolest person ever thanks to that.

1994 is the second best year of that decade for me, with 1997 being the best. Such a huge quantity of great records were released both years.

My friends and I all loved 'How To Make Friends and Influence People' by Terrorvision

Still a great record, IMO - I don't care what anyone days. Leagues ahead of their debut, and the best they ever got.

*says

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Autechre - Amber
Blur - Parklife
Erasure - I Say I Say I Say
Gary Numan - Sacrifice
Global Communication - 76:14
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Tatay
Green Day - Dookie
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Hole - Live Through This
Korn - Korn
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Madonna - Bedtime Stories
Massive Attack - Protection
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Orbital - Snivilisation
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Portishead - Dummy
Prince - Come
Pulp - His'n'Hers
R.E.M. - Monster
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Suede - Dog Man Star
Terrorvision - How to Make Friends and Influence People
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
The Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot
The Stone Roses - Second Coming
The Wannadies - Be a Girl
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Weezer - Weezer

The Wannadies were pretty good. I heard HIT for the first time in ages recently. Great tune.

Oddly it reminded me of The Strokes but rocks far harder