The Music of 1994: 15 Years Later

If that title doesn't make you feel old, then... well, it makes me feel old. This is the music I grew up to. These are the bands that made me want to play guitar. And all of this was fifteen years ago.

1994 was a banner year for the music industry. Changes were occurring that would shape the music scene for years, and some would argue that the repercussions are still being felt.

Let's start in February of 1994, when pseudo-indie punk band Green Day launched the crappy-sounding album Dookie. While some of the more wholesome musical pundits decried the album's vulgar title, others actually listened, and were rather impressed. The record peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, and to this day is the band's highest selling album, with over 15 million copies sold.

Songs like Basketcase, Longview (with it's definitive bass rhythm), Welcome to Paradise, and When I Come Around (which is one of the most memorable songs ever written) set the tone for Green Day's popularity for the next few years, although the indie punk scene immediately labeled the band as a group of sellouts. Apparently these people have never heard of the idea of profitability.

Green Day continued to have success, and they still perform today, but the magic that made Dookie such a fun album just doesn't seem to have returned.

March of '94 saw the release of Superunknown, by Soundgarden. While I can claim that I wasn't really into Soundgarden when they first released this album, I will wholeheartedly agree with those who claim the number one single off the record, Black Hole Sun, is the preeminent anthem of the Summer of '94.

Superunknown debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified 5X Platinum in the United States. Soundgarden doesn't exist anymore, but frontman Chris Cornell has made a good living for himself with solo projects and Audioslave.

In April The Offspring arrived. Although they had already released two albums, Smash brought them into the mainstream. The hard rocking punk grunge sound was seemingly unique among all the other bands of 1994. Singles like Come Out And Play, Self-Esteem, and Gotta Get Away brought the band much lauded playtime on MTV, because you have to remember that MTV still played music in 1994, and not just continual reruns of The Real World, and other assorted crap.

The Offspring brought out a sound that we had all heard before, but they did it in a way that was new and exciting. They made the phrase "la la la" part of music again. Seriously, just click on that link to Self-Esteem and you'll see what I mean.

Smash has since been certified 6X Platinum in the United States, with over 16 million copies sold. The band continues to produce records, and many fans applaud their latest release, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (just look up the songs Trust in You (which uses a Latin phrase Quo modo? (maybe the band is made up of college professors)) and You're Gonna Go Far, Kid and you'll see that the new album really does hearken back to the days of Smash) as a return to the sound that made them famous.

Some time passed in 1994 and as December rolled around the world waited patiently for Britain to offer up some kind of good music. And the Brits delivered. On December 5, 1994, the debut album of grunge band Bush hit the shelves. Sixteen Stone was both accepted and rejected by musical pundits. Some said the band sounded too much like Nirvana or Soundgarden. Others said the band didn't sound enough like Nirvana or Soundgarden.

In my opinion, Bush did everything right as a band. The album was capable of maintaining listener interest without having slower songs that tend to sap the interest right out of the album. Singles like Everything Zen, Little Things (which has one of the best opening guitar riffs I can recall), Comedown, and the wildly popular Glycerine (c'mon, you remember the video of the topless chick standing on the chair in an empty house while Gavin Rossdale sulks in the back room playing guitar? I knew you hadn't forgotten.) pushed the band to the main forefront of music for a brief time, but eventually the negative critics gained a stronger footing.

Bush released several albums after Sixteen Stone, like Razorblade Suitcase, The Science of Things, and Deconstructed, but none enjoyed the real commercial success of their debut foray. The last two albums broke away from the grunge sound that made them famous and began some experimental sounds.

In the fifteen years since these albums hit the store music has changed. Rap/Hip-Hop has become steadily more popular. The Indie scene has also become more popular, which almost feels like a contradiction in terms when you type it out like that.

Soundgarden and Bush no longer exist, although the members of Bush, and more to the point, frontman Gavin Rossdale, have hinted at a possible reunion tour in 2009 or 2010. The Offspring are enjoy commercial success with their newest album, and Green Day is still pumping out songs. These four bands made up the music of 1994. Yeah there were other bands, but none of them caught my attention the way these four did. They are the reason I play guitar today.