See also:
Events
Summary
The year 1991 is the year that
grunge music
made its popular breakthrough.
Nirvana's
Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single
"
Smells Like Teen Spirit",
becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year. Followed
immediately by other grunge bands like
Pearl
Jam,
Alice in Chains,
Soundgarden and
Stone Temple Pilots, grunge dominates
the U.S. charts for the next few years. Its success effectively
ends pop-oriented, 1980s
glam metal
groups like
Def Leppard,
Mötley Crüe,
Poison and
Ratt, whose
sales and critical viability were beginning to decline for about
two years previously. Even so, the rock band
Guns N' Roses's popularity flourishes with the
release of their albums
Use Your
Illusion 1 & 2 both reaching selling over 10 million copies
each.
A Tribe Called Quest's
Low End Theory is
released this year; it would go on to be considered one of the best
hip hop albums of the 1990s. A Tribe
Called Quest, along with
De La Soul,
Dream Warriors,
Gang Starr and the
Poor Righteous Teachers, help define
what comes to be known as
alternative
rap with important releases this year.
Queen frontman
Freddie Mercury dies at home in London on
November 24, due to
AIDS complications. Rumors
had been circulating that Mercury had AIDS, but the death comes as
a shock to millions of fans and the music industry. The remaining
members of Queen form
the
Mercury Phoenix Trust and the following year, a
tribute concert is
staged in Wembley Stadium. A sell-out crowd in attendance witness
the three surviving members reuniting to play along with
performances by the
likes of
David Bowie,
Elton John,
Guns N'
Roses,
Def Leppard,
Metallica,
Annie
Lennox, and
George Michael.
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody goes to number one for
the second time, which is the only time a single has gone to number
one in the same version more than once. It is also the only time a
single has gone to number one more than once on the UK Christmas
charts. It has now spent a total of 14 weeks on top of the UK
charts.
1991 is also the year
CCM, or contemporary Christian
music, reaches a new peak.
Amy Grant, who
had already crossed back and forth between CCM and pop in the
mid-80s, achieves her (and CCM's) first #1 hit on the pop charts
with the hit single "Baby Baby." Another single, "That's What Love
Is For," would also top the charts, this time in the Adult
Contemporary field. Meanwhile, Grant's album
Heart In Motion reaches #11 on the pop
chart and #1 on the Christian chart despite its non-religious
objective, and quickly becomes a best-seller. Another CCM crossover
artist in 1991 is
Michael W.
Smith, who achieves a Top Ten pop
hit with his single "Place In This World." The subsequent album,
Go West Young Man, is
also a hit.
The massive success of
Garth Brooks in
this year sets the stage for the mid-1990s influx of pop-oriented
country musicians. In addition,
several soon-to-be pivotal bands form or release debuts, including
Dave Matthews Band,
Live,
Phish,
Spin Doctors) and
stoner metal (
Kyuss,
Sleep,
The
Obsessed).
Massive Attack's
Blue Lines, while unique at the
time, invents the sound that would eventually become known as
trip hop.
Entombed's
Clandestine and
Dismember's
Like an Ever Flowing Stream
are early releases from the
Scandinavian metal scene. On the other
side of the Atlantic, New York death metal band
Suffocation release their debut full-length
Effigy of the
Forgotten, often considered one of the most influential
extreme metal albums ever recorded.
Trance music
rises to prominence in the underground dance scene of Frankfurt,
Germany
, pioneered by such producers as Dance 2 Trance and Resistance D. U2
release their seventh album
Achtung
Baby, considered by many of their fans to be their best
album.
Metallica also release their most
commercially successful
self-titled
album, and the
Red Hot Chili
Peppers break through to the mainstream with their critically
and commercially acclaimed
Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
R.E.M. release their massive commercial breakthrough
album
Out of
Time.
Timeline
- March 11 - Janet Jackson signs a $30 million (US)
contract with Virgin Records, making
her the highest paid female recording artist ever.
- March 16 - Seven
members of country music singer Reba
McEntire's band and her road manager are killed when their
private plane crashes in California
, near the U.S.-Mexico
border. McEntire travels on a separate plane.
- March 20
- Michael Jackson signs a $1
billion contract with Sony.
- Eric Clapton's four-year-old son,
Conor, dies after falling 53 stories from a New York City apartment
window, which would inspire Clapton to write the hit single
"Tears in Heaven").
- March 24 - The Black Crowes are dropped as the opening
act of ZZ Top's tour for repeatedly insulting
the tour's sponsor, Miller Beer.
- March 27 - New Kids on the Block star Donnie Wahlberg is arrested in Louisville,
Kentucky
for allegedly setting his hotel room on
fire.
- March 28 - George Harrison, Phil Collins and others attend funeral services
for Eric Clapton's late son,
Conor.
- April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York.
- May 4 - The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 is
held in Rome,
Italy
and, after a highly controversial voting segment,
Sweden's F%C3%A5ngad av
en stormvind by Carola is declared the
winner.
- May 7 - In Macon, Georgia
, a judge dismisses a wrongful death lawsuit against Ozzy Osbourne. The suit was filed by a
local couple that believed their son was inspired to attempt
suicide by Osbourne's music.
- May 10 - Truth or Dare, a documentary
chronicling singer Madonna's
1990 Blond Ambition Tour, is
released to theatres.
- May 25 - The Billboard 200 album chart starts incorporating
electronically monitored sales data provided by Nielsen SoundScan, thus beginning what
chart aficionados tag as the "SoundScan era".
- May 28 - The Smashing Pumpkins release their
debut extended play album, Gish.
- June 18 - Van
Halen releases their ninth album For Unlawful Carnal
Knowledge, spawing the huge ballad hit Right Now and the Top Billboard
30 hit "Top of the
World"
- July - Launch of the Australian Festival of
Chamber Music.
- August 13 - Metallica releases their most successful album,
"Metallica" (also called "The Black Album"). This album is somewhat
of a departure from the thrash metal
sound they helped pioneer. It is one of the best selling albums of
all time
- August 27
- Pearl Jam releases their debut album,
"Ten". While initially slow to sell, it became #2 on the Billboard
charts within a year and has since become certified thirteen times
Platinum in the United States.
- Dr. Dre pleads no contest to charges
that he beat up a woman at a West Hollywood nightclub. Dr. Dre is
sentenced to 24 months probation.
- September 17 - Guns N' Roses release the highly anticipated
albums Use Your Illusion I &
II which debut at the two
highest spots on the Billboard 200,
the first such feat for a rock act. The albums went on to sell over
7 million copies each in the USA alone and spawned the most
expensive music videos ever made and a very controversy-laden
multi-year world tour.
- September 24 - Nirvana releases Nevermind, debuting at #144 on the Billboard 200. Red Hot Chili Peppers release their
5th album Blood Sugar Sex
Magik and A Tribe Called
Quest release their 2nd album The Low End Theory on the same
day.
- Tupac Shakur's solo career begins
with his first album, 2Pacalypse Now,
however it does not do well. 6 year old Qa'id Walker is shot dead
by a stray bullet during a confrontation between Tupac's entourage
and a rival group.
- October 25 - Steely Dan spontaneously reunites.
- November 10 - Loki Cure St. Louis Rockstar Loki Cure is
born.
- November 19 - U2 release Achtung Baby, considered by many to be
one of their best, if not their best, album. It is their 3rd #1
album, with 2 Billboard Top 10
singles and 4 Billboard
Top 40 singles
- November 23 - Lead singer of
Queen, Freddie Mercury, reveals he has AIDS; he dies the following day.
- November 26 - Michael Jackson
releases his blockbuster album Dangerous, led by the controversial
hit single Black or
White.
- November 30 - Following on the steps
of the Billboard 200, the Billboard Hot 100 also begins a new era by
incorporating and merging electronically measured sales and airplay
data from SoundScan and BDS respectively.
Undated
Bands formed
Bands disbanded
Albums released
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Release Date Unknown
Biggest hit singles
The following songs achieved the highest
chart
positionsin the charts of 1991.
| # |
Artist |
Title |
Year |
Country |
Chart Entries |
| 1 |
Bryan Adams |
I Do it For
You |
1991 |
|
UK 1 - Jun 1991, US BB 1 of 1991, US CashBox 1 of 1991, Holland
1 - Jul 1991, Sweden 1 - Aug 1991, Austria 1 - Aug 1991,
Switzerland 1 - Jul 1991, Norway 1 - Jul 1991, Poland 1 - Jul 1991,
Germany 1 - Jan 1992, Éire 1 - Jul 1991, New Zealand 1 for 8 weeks
Aug 1991, Australia 1 for 11 weeks Oct 1991, US BB 3 of 1991,
Australia 3 of 1991, POP 3 of 1991, Europe 5 of the 1990s, TOTP 6,
Global 7 (10 M sold) - 1991, Italy 9 of 1991, Germany 9 of the
1990s, Scrobulate 30 of ballad, Virgin 60, Party 70 of 2007, RYM 73
of 1991, Poland 96 of all time, OzNet 121, Belgium 150 of all
time |
| 2 |
Michael Jackson |
Black Or White |
1991 |
|
UK 1 - Nov 1991, US BB 1 of 1991, Sweden 1 - Nov 1991,
Switzerland 1 - Nov 1991, Norway 1 - Nov 1991, Poland 1 - Nov 1991,
Éire 1 - Nov 1991, New Zealand 1 for 8 weeks Nov 1991, Australia 1
for 8 weeks Feb 1992, Austria 2 - Nov 1991, Germany 2 - Jan 1992,
Holland 3 - Nov 1991, Italy 3 of 1991, US BB 19 of 1991, POP 19 of
1991, Australia 24 of 1992, US CashBox 29 of 1992, RYM 96 of 1991,
Germany 115 of the 1990s |
| 3 |
Roxette |
Joyride |
1991 |
|
US BB 1 of 1991, Holland 1 - Mar 1991, Sweden 1 - Mar 1991,
Austria 1 - Mar 1991, Switzerland 1 - Mar 1991, Norway 1 - Mar
1991, Germany 1 - Mar 1991, Australia 1 for 3 weeks Jul 1991,
Poland 3 - Apr 1991, UK 4 - Mar 1991, France 7 - Apr 1991,
Australia 13 of 1991, Italy 24 of 1991, Germany 24 of the 1990s, US
CashBox 33 of 1991, US BB 35 of 1991, POP 37 of 1991 |
| 4 |
Scorpions |
Wind of Change |
1991 |
|
Holland 1 - Apr 1991, Sweden 1 - Mar 1991, Austria 1 - Jun
1991, Switzerland 1 - Feb 1991, Norway 1 - Apr 1991, Poland 1 - Mar
1991, Germany 1 of the 1990s, Germany 1 - Apr 1991, UK 2 - Sep
1991, US BB 4 of 1991, Scrobulate 9 of ballad, France 10 - Dec
1990, US BB 24 of 1991, Europe 26 of the 1990s, POP 26 of 1991, RYM
142 of 1990 |
| 5 |
R.E.M. |
Losing My Religion |
1991 |
|
Holland 1 - Mar 1991, Poland 1 - Apr 1991, Europe 1 of the
1990s, US BB 4 of 1991, Norway 4 - Jun 1991, Sweden 5 - Mar 1991,
RYM 5 of 1991, Austria 7 - Aug 1991, Switzerland 11 - Oct 1991,
Belgium 12 of all time, UK 19 - Mar 1991, US BB 28 of 1991, Virgin
30, US CashBox 39 of 1991, 39 in 2FM list, Poland 44 of all time,
Acclaimed 44, POP 61 of 1991, Scrobulate 69 of rock, Italy 70 of
1991, OzNet 90, WXPN 106, RIAA 143, Rolling Stone 169 |
Top hits
See also: Hot 100
No. 1 Hits of
1991
Published popular music
Classical music
Opera
Musical theater
Musical films
Births
Deaths
- January 8 - Steve Clark, 30, guitarist of Def Leppard
- February 6 - Danny Thomas, singer and actor
- February 17 - Gitta Alpár, opera singer
- February 21 - Margot Fonteyn, ballerina
- February 26 - Slim Gaillard, jazz musician
- March 2 - Serge Gainsbourg, 62, singer and
songwriter
- March 14
- March 15 - Bud
Freeman, jazz musician
- March 18 - Dezider Kardoš, 76, Slovak composer
- March 21 - Leo
Fender, inventor of the electric
guitar
- March 25 - Eileen Joyce, pianist (b. 1908)
- April 8 - Per
Yngve Ohlin, aka 'Dead', 22, vocalist of Mayhem
- April 13 - Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto, horn virtuoso
- April 20 - Steve Marriott, 44, singer, songwriter and
guitarist (Small Faces and Humble Pie)
- April 21 - Willi Boskovsky, conductor
- April 23 - Johnny Thunders, 38, rock guitarist and
singer
- May 8 - Jean
Langlais, composer
- May 9 - Yanka
Dyagileva, poet and singer
- May 19 - Odia
Coates, 49, singer (breast cancer)
- May 23 - Wilhelm Kempff, pianist and composer
- May 24
- May 27 - Leopold
Nowak, musicologist
- June 1 - David
Ruffin, 50, singer
- June 4 - MC
Trouble, 20, rapper
- June 6 - Stan
Getz, US saxophonist
- June 9 - Claudio
Arrau, pianist
- June 14 - Joy
Finzi, founder of the Finzi Trust
- July 11 - Honorata de la Rama, singer
- August 28 - Vince Taylor, 52, rock and roll singer
- September 4
- September 8 - Alex North, composer
- September 17 - Zino Francescatti, violinist
- September 28
- October 6 - Igor Talkov, Russian singer/songwriter
- October 9 - Roy Black, 48, singer and actor
- October 17 - Tennessee Ernie Ford
- October 27 - Sir Andrzej Panufnik, Polish composer
- October 31 - Joseph Papp, Broadway producer
- November 2 - Mort Shuman, songwriter
- November 8 - Frances Faye, singer
- November 15 - Jacques Morali, 44, disco composer
- November 24
- December 13 - Stuart Challender, conductor
- date unknown
Awards
References
when audience members rush the stage.
's Record Plant
Studios recording studio closes its doors. Among the
albums recorded at the Record Plant were The
Eagles' Hotel
California, Fleetwood Mac's
Rumours and Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life
, London.
on April 11 and ran for 4097
performances
production opened at the St. James Theatre on April 25 and ran for
706 performances
: LaVern Baker, The Byrds, John Lee
Hooker, The
Impressions, Wilson Pickett,
Jimmy Reed and Ike and Tina
Turner
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