Singer/Songwriter and the 1990s

Bob Dylan

One major event of the 1990ies was definitely the birth of Grunge. Grunge-rocker didn't want to provoke other people with their music, consisting of a combination and development of Hard rock and Punk elements, rather than expressing their refusal of the consumer society. The band Nirvana released their most successful Album in 1991, three years before their front man Kurt Cobain killed himself. And this wasn't the first and shouldn't be the last death of musicians of this decade. Only the 1960 show similar high numbers of untimely fade-aways of musicians.

On the other hand boy-groups, first of all Take That, let the girls scream again, the Techno-movement developed in the underground of bigger cities in Germany, and Hip Hop's popularity grew steadily. Taking a look at the MTV Europe single charts of the early nineties, you find songs from Genesis, Roxette and Mr Big under the top 5 of the most successful songs of the year, Michael Jackson is still one of the best selling artists, and Dance acts such as Haddaway, 2 Unlimited and Ace of Base are making their way up to the top.

Nirvana

However, the 1990ies are said to have been the decade of the singer/songwriters as well, as more and more artists decided to go "solo" rather than look for a band. Their masters were musicians from the 1960ies such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake.

Who or what is a singer/songwriter? The term refers to a particular music style within the rock genre and refers to those musicians who write and perform their songs themselves. Most of the original singer/songwriters performed alone with an acoustic guitar or a piano. Their lyrics were personal, although they were often veiled by layers of metaphors and obscure imagery. The song itself stands in the spotlight not necessarily the artist or the performance.