iconic Poppy Bush Interzone records

George HW Bush is dead, but what our own Alfred Soto calls the Poppy Bush Interzone will never die in the cultural memory. What're some of the defining records of the era? And why?

Ones that come to mind are Disintegration, Violator, Rhythm Nation 1814, Hats, Goo, Fear Of A Black Planet, Doolittle, Paul's Boutique, Amerikkka's Most Wanted, etc. I'm fascinated by the era as the period immediately preceding the Soundscan era, and also as a political period following the fall of the Berlin Wall that would culminate in Fukuyama's End Of History.

We can talk about Public Enemy and the Pixies all we want, but the defining records of that era are probably “Achy Breaky Heart” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.”

not gonna oppose that. the latter is interesting since it basically signals Mutt Lange's entrée into more twangy singing that would eventually inform Shania.

This was the era where I really began to explore music and learned about all kinds of stuff that wasn't just what was played on Top 40 radio, but the two things I always immediately summon up from the depths when someone mentions this time period are Taylor Dayne and EMF. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Yeah I literally came in here to say "Unbelievable"

crystal waters/gypsy woman/lock thread

Uh. Those were four of the most fertile years in music, in memory.

and that fuckin horrible Jesus Jones song

Lee Greenwood

Stevie Ray Vaughan "Crossfire"

Full Moon Fever

Seal's "Crazy", Fine Young Cannibals "Good Thing" and "Drives Me Crazy" come to mind.

Plus a lot of the artists/songs that emerged out of or were associated with UK Rave that ended up filtering back to the states:

On one side, you had your house stuff that ended up either dominating radio playlists or running high into the upper echelons of the Hot 100. The KLF "3 AM Eternal" and "Justified and Ancient" were perhaps the most oddball examples of that. But there was also your D Mob + Cathy Dennis "Come and Get My Love" , and "Touch Me" or Black Box "Strike it Up" and "Everybody Everybody". All seemed not too distinct from the diva dance-pop mold of C+C Music Factory or Snap!

Then on the other, there was the whole Madchester indie+rave kind of stuff in which you had stuff like The Shamen's "Move Any Mountain" receiving some Top 40 airplay and even getting MTV rotation. And of course EMF "Unbelievable" + Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now" (and both of their lesser follow up hits) became big deals at the time. People (music crits) thought that sort of sound was THE future as we knew it. The Soup Dragons too had a minor mainstream hit with "I'm Free" as did Blur with "There's No Other Way".

Maybe it's the weirdo pop hits too: Shakespeare's Sister "Stay" or Suzanne Vega "Tom's Diner".

Outside of that, I think of that era being the sort of the last gasp of older artists having adult contemporary/ballad-type style hits played into the ground on pop radio before a whole new generational cohort of listeners rendered them irrelevant (I'm thinking of a whole string of late era Collins/Genesis singles, Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting", Bryan Adams "Everything I Do", Clapton "Tears in Heaven", that sort of thing).

lol how'd I miss this thread

u2 achtung baby?

alfred what are the official years

late '88 to late '93.

Those college/"modern" rock charts well into '93 are bizarre

would love a full PBI canon

10,000 Maniacs and REM

Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

^I once made a Spotify playlist that was sort of inspired by that thread: Basically, circa-1991 groove-oriented college rock:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5sZ4hJ2B8f5I96PerzVmF1?si=Tj8fPQ9jS0OyiLWw1INkiA

OMG, does anyone else remember this goofy tune? It was real popular on Boston modern rock radio for a few weeks. For some reason, listening to Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever always brings this band to mind, and the kind of jangle rock that was popular pre-grunge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCy13kjj13M

Iconic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWd__w5UWVc

Some overlap with: Here we post radio-slick, ultracompressed Modern Rock singles 1987-1990 w/ huge gated drums & lots of chorus! (youtube thread)

every Roxette hit

Crash Test Dummies

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Pretty Hate Machine era NIN

Jane's Addiction
Faith No More

The Interzone is where subgenre thinking really took off - punk splits in to emo, crust, pigfuck, grunge, garage-punk; house and techno become garage, rave, minimal; metal becomes black, death, grindcore; indie becomes twee, Madchester, shoegaze; hiphop becomes gangsta, native tongues, etc etc etc

I wrote down a list of the records that defined my listening at the time, but wasn't sure if that was the point of this thread.

However, from a broader perspective, I can never reflect on this era without hearing 'Save the Best for Last' by Vanessa Williams. Or half a dozen Mariah Carey singles.

deej otm

also think of americans like myself - via 120 minutes (said show which is a HUGE part of the pbi) getting a first taste of uk dance music through soul ii soul, stereo mcs, "telephone thing" by the fall/coldcut, etc

dave kendall era natch

Thank u 2 cryptosicko for explaining the rubric of this oddly-named thread in the midst of the Roxette discussion. I prolly never would've clicked through even though the era was central to my musical development.

To wit:
Greatest Billboard Top 40(-ish) Ballad (1988 edition)
Greatest Billboard Top 40(-ish) (Song That Is Reminiscent Of A) Ballad (1990 edition)

ultimate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaO_WhajB88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImRyPymRAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr02Ahz0lT4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BUAl819jzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwg6UcmWDeA

god I love "Bad of the Heart."

for awhile in '90-'91 it felt like every week there was a new freestyle smash. they all still sound pretty damn good.

of course every week there was also some drip like Timmy T up there releasing an inexplicably inescapable hit.

Presto-Roll The Bones Rush

(A certain thinness of production that is certainly recognisable as not being post-93 unlike eg. Counterparts (and a million alt rock albums post-93)

Rupert Hine! Same mix (Tom Lord-Alge?) used on Stevie Nicks' The Other Side of the Mirror. Compare "Rooms on Fire" to Rush's "Ghost of a Chance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUhBc35T-e4

If a PBI penchant is the greater willingness for a mega-selling artist, who is strongly identified by a certain genre, to make an overture towards other emerging genres of the era, then I nominate MacPhisto and Co.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y1YFH9A3Bw

I'm okay with this just becoming a freestyle thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2bDaTvow0

Achtung Baby feels like the apex of the PBI

This one's for Alfred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeZ3QV_IJXc

on your knees, boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ

I'm down with post-'80s freestyle too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox85dGD79K0

crystal waters/gypsy woman/lock thread

― mookieproof, Saturday, December 1, 2018

Every banger should include 'she's homeless' somewhere in the chorus.

this song feels like achtung baby without sounding like achtung baby if that makes sense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTWeLUB5OI

thanks to tim f for putting me onto it years n years ago

im probably also being influenced by the post soviet euro vibe of the video but whats more achtung baby than a reliance on visuals

INXS tried out the Achtung Baby thing

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

Albums: Use Your Illusion.

Song: Two Princes.

Upon reflection Two Princes wasn’t released as a single until early ‘93, although the album was out in ‘91, so it arguably misses the mark

Presto-Roll The Bones Rush

Yes, also Journeyman-era Clapton, Manic Nirvana-era Robert Plant, Pump-era Aerosmith. I remember all these as huge on mainstream rock/AOR radio.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?sns=&v=F-nyeiKk35M

Upon reflection Two Princes wasn’t released as a single until early ‘93, although the album was out in ‘91, so it arguably misses the mark

― Mule, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 23:06 (thirty-two minutes ago) link

This feels off to me ... I def remember two princes as like a eight or nine year old kid which would have been before 93... no way that song hadn’t hit the world before that

I was 9-13 from 88-92 and rock radio playlists from that time are permanently etched into a lobe. An interesting period around 1990-1991 when even I could tell hair metal had largely run its course. Radio stations were messing around with a mix of mellowed-out warhorses, rootsier bands like the Black Crowes and art-metal stuff like FNM/King's X and whatever Queensryche was; the first radio singles of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden (pushed as kind of a return to Black Sabbath iirc). xps

"Two Princes" video released Feb 92, apparently

Ah, that makes more sense. Let’s count it in then.

Transition from Metallica's "One" (the video for which was announced as a major event for days leading up to its release on MuchMusic) to the monster that was the black album seems key.

Hell yeah, D-40!!! K-Klass “Let Me Show You” felt like the best song ever to me at the time. (Achtung Baby was not involved)

Twin Peaks soundtrack, Chris Isaak, Divinyls, Mazzy Star

sorry.. was a little drunk and felt compelled to belch that post out while on a train.

Here's my 1991 list, peak PBI.

1991-1992 was notable for a brief spasm of post-Native Tongues alternative hip-hop that got played on the local alternative rock station. It was in and out in a little over a year, culminating in Digable Planets and Arrested Development with Cantaloup by Us3 following in 1993, after which I think the station ceased playing rap, other than maybe Beck. See also, PM Dawn from Alfred's list.

MC 900 Foot Jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KB54p8_wh8

Basehead - 2000 BC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxWzzGpmBEA

Rise Robots Rise - All Sewn Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecs5IQfdahw

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4uYnsF3kc

I will second "Winds of Change" as an iconic PBI song, especially given its overt political nature.

It was released as the album's third single in January 1991 and became a worldwide hit, just after the failed coup that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The song topped the charts in Germany and across Europe and peaked at number four in the United States on August 31, 1991 and number two in the United Kingdom.

It would be a shame if we overlooked PBI-era songs containing actual Poppy Bush samples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imqvLToWH7k

"Language of Violence" was the Hiphoprisy single that really stuck with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J_qadIwM60

The actual Native Tongues groups were a huuuuge deal at my high school, probably more than any other music.

Also, I somehow got sent on a field trip to see PM Dawn around that time.

More transitional rock stuff, that I was hearing on MuchMusic only:

Pop Will Eat Itself - Wise Up! Sucker
Warrior Soul - Losers

We didn't have a commercial alternative station until the mid-90s so I remember that the campus stations would sometimes play relatively popular singles (not that I knew anyone who listened to them) by e.g. Cure or Morrissey or NIN during general music programs, in between shows devoted to music in Hindi or discussions of eco-feminism or John Cage tributes. Within a few years, DJs would have probably thought it ludicrous for someone to request those things.

I somehow got sent on a field trip to see PM Dawn around that time.

we took an 8th grade class trip in 1990 to see laser Depeche Mode

For your reference and edification, I present a complete list of SNL musical guests from Bush I's term of office:

Anita Baker
John Hiatt
Luther Vandross
Cowboy Junkies
Gipsy Kings
Elvis Costello (x2)
Living Colour
Dolly Parton
John Cougar Mellencamp
Fine Young Cannibals
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (x2)
Neil Young (x2)
Rickie Lee Jones
Billy Joel
Don Henley
Eurythmics
David Byrne
k.d. lang
Linda Ronstadt/Aaron Neville
Tracy Chapman
Harry Connick, Jr.
Bonnie Raitt (x2)
Tevin Campbell/Kool Moe Dee/Big Daddy Kane
Aerosmith
Technotronic
The Pogues
Eric Clapton
The Smithereens
The B-52's
Julee Cruise/Spanic Boys
The Notting Hillbillies
Sinéad O'Connor (x2)
Hothouse Flowers
Morris Day & The Time
Mariah Carey (x2)
World Party
Paul Simon
Faith No More
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
The Neville Brothers
Vanilla Ice
Sting
INXS
Deee-Lite
Whitney Houston
The Black Crowes (x2)
Fishbone
R.E.M.
Michael Bolton
Chris Isaak
Public Enemy
Color Me Badd
Skid Row
Tin Machine
MC Hammer
James Taylor
Nirvana
Robbie Robertson/Bruce Hornsby & the Range
C&C Music Factory
Teenage Fanclub
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Garth Brooks
En Vogue
Pearl Jam
Annie Lennox
Bruce Springsteen
Vanessa Williams
Bobby Brown
The Spin Doctors
Arrested Development
10,000 Maniacs
Morrissey
Sade
Bon Jovi
Madonna

Lol, what schools did you go to? We did go to see Phantom of the Opera. xp

"Language of Violence" was the Hiphoprisy single that really stuck with me.

Yeah, I was a fan of the whole album, but didn't even know that Language of Violence was a single!

And Winds of Change is definitely one of those songs that I heard a million times back then and I think about all the time, but never hear on the radio or anything.

I feel like there had to have been 'can you even believe this mindblowing era we're living through?' songs from more than just Jesus Jones and the Scorpions released back then but I'm drawing a blank rn.

Rush had one, but it sucks

We Didn't Start the Fire is kinda of that ilk.

Yeah, it's kinda in the ballpark, but then it's also kinda just a recitation of a history text without any coherent aim.

There was also this type of thing, kind of metaphorically optimistic somewhat 1960s conscious vibe that somehow also felt new

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zg-MhEXb4c

that SNL is amazing

xxp: yeha, it was more accidentally relevant

yeah

1991-1992 was notable for a brief spasm of post-Native Tongues alternative hip-hop that got played on the local alternative rock station. It was in and out in a little over a year, culminating in Digable Planets and Arrested Development with Cantaloup by Us3 following in 1993, after which I think the station ceased playing rap, other than maybe Beck

This stuff dovetailed and blended with the acid jazz scene, but then I've seldom heard the term acid jazz spoken since around '96 (maybe it's different in UK)

Yeah, it's kinda in the ballpark, but then it's also kinda just a recitation of a history text without any coherent aim.

― Welcome to the Sandwich Trough (Old Lunch), Thursday, December 12, 2019 11:15 AM (seventeen minutes ago)

What's incoherent about trying to dodge an arson charge?

It's called 'protesting just a little too much', Billy. I mean you reek of gasoline.

(Now I'm imagining his attorney plaintively intoning the verses from the song in his closing statement to the jury, and it's a funny thing to imagine.)