- Imagine what it was like

back when the Rolling Stones

could shock parents everywhere.
My, how times have changed.
- I see hustling,
I see killing. That's what I rap about.
- Well, you can take me out the ghetto,
but you can't take the ghetto up out of me, though.
- It's a tough time to grow up in,
and Nirvana and Kurt Cobain,
in particular, reflect that angst.
- I learned ho w to write for myself,
and it's pretty ironic that most people related to it.
- Boom, there it is. Platinum record.
- Country music has taken over the airwaves
and the record charts.
- The honeymoon's over.
Now we're getting down to real commerce.
[fans screaming]
- Aren't these girls just crazy?
- Yeah, they are.
[stirring instrumental music]
♪ ♪
[Poison's "Unskinny Bop"]
[rousing rock music]
- You may think of it as the channel
that rattles your china--and occasionally your teeth--
and hypnotizes your children,
but what you may want to know
is that MTV is responsible for a complete revolution
in the music business in this country.
- ♪ Unskinny bop ♪
♪ Just blows me away ♪
- MTV makes the hits.
It's as if there were just one
national radio station for new songs.
- ♪ Unskinny bop ♪
- Ending the '80s, in terms of rock music,
you're getting a lot of hair bands.
You've got Poison, Ratt, Warrant...
- ♪ She's my cherry pie ♪
♪ Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise ♪
♪ Tastes so good, make a grown man cry ♪
♪ Sweet cherry pie, oh yeah ♪
- You have a lot of hairspray going on.
There's a lot of sexually suggestive lyrics.
It's not particularly deep music,
but you have MTV pushing it, so they're selling.
- When I would turn on MTV, all of the rock bands
looked a certain way, they played a kind of music.
They were expected to have a certain facade.
- MTV's ratings are surprisingly small,
but those who do watch--
mostly teenagers and young adults--
buy a lot of records and tapes and CDs.
And they buy the most of what they see the most.
Recently, two members
of the heavy-metal band Aerosmith
dropped by MTV's offices to screen their new video.
They brought a big bag of cash as an incentive.
- The record companies would submit videos every Monday,
and then we would have our music meeting,
and we would look at all the videos
and decide who was gonna
get put into the new rotation.
I was a 21-year-old kid that loved punk rock,
and I pretty quickly realized
that they music that they were playing
just wasn't what I was into.
When the new Nirvana video was delivered to MTV,
I was completely blown away.
[guitar strumming]
I said, "Listen, they really are incredible,
and we need to give them a shot."
And if it doesn't work,
then you can push me out of the music meeting.
- Tonight's world premiere video:
it's from the Seattle band Nirvana.
[sniffs]"Smells Like Teen Spirit."
- ♪ Load up on guns ♪
♪ Bring your friends, it's fun to lose ♪
- It was like the musical Kennedy assassination
of our time. Everybody who was alive then
can tell you the moment they heard that song,
because nothing like that existed to that point.
It was really transcendent.
- ♪ With the lights out ♪
♪ It's less dangerous ♪
♪ Here we are now, entertain us ♪
- "Here we are now, entertain us."
It sounded like a threat.
You know, it sounded like a different generation
coming in and saying, you know,
"What do you have for us?
What are you gonna do for us?"
- ♪ Gotta find a way ♪
♪ A better way when I'm there ♪
- The so-called, you know, slackers of Generation X,
they were not being paid attention to,
and this pressure was building up--
especially in the music industry--
for something that actually spoke to them.

This is the first American generation

that will make less than your parents will.
It's a tough time to grow up in,
and I think the band, and Kurt Cobain in particular,
reflect that angst.
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
- Kurt Cobain was a great songwriter,
with this ability to scream...almost in tune.
It just gave an intensity that was really unique.
- ♪ I killed you ♪
♪ I'm not gonna crack ♪
- Nirvana gave the record industry
a wake-up call and said,
"Here is your new audience.
"So, start looking for the people
"with the clothes with the holes in the knees.
"And you better run to those clubs
to buy up the next one."
- I would go to clubs and see bands like Cat Butt,
and bands like Screaming Trees,
and it was such a refreshing change
from the competitive, sort of LA, Hollywood '80s.
And it was just suddenly so cool to be from Seattle.
- One of the biggest music biz stories these days
is the so-called "Rain City Renaissance,"
with the emergence of noisy,
punk-metal, grunge rock:
bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana,
Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam, from Seattle, Washington.
- ♪ I'm feeling ♪
♪ I'm feeling outshined ♪
♪ Outshined, outshined ♪
♪ Outshined ♪
- Why don't you tell me the biggest misconception
about the so-called Seattle music scenes.
- Everybody's a grunge band.
- All these bands that actually sound pretty different
from each other were being lofted up to the mainstream as:
"This is what grunge is."
- Tell me a little bit about the Seattle music scene.
- With all the attention, you know, no one's ever
asked us that before. - [laughs]
- That's amazing. - We've never heard
of that question. "So, tell me about
the Seattle sound. What's going on up there?"
Uh...- "What's in the water?"
♪ Son, she said ♪
♪ Have I got a little story for you ♪
♪ What you thought was your daddy ♪
- Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam--
they wanted no part of the music-industry machine,
and yet, there they were: on MTV,
on the charts, selling millions of records.
- ♪ Still alive ♪
♪ I'm still alive ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Oh, I'm still alive ♪
It's a little bit overwhelming
to see this many people. [laughs]
We're used to playing small clubs, you know.
And we wanna go back to playing small clubs.
[electric guitar chords]
- Alternative rock tour kicked off in Phoenix, Arizona,
on Thursday night. It's a multi-act package
called the Lollapalooza tour.
- ♪ You want to open up when ♪
♪ Someone says lighten up ♪
♪ You find all your doors closed ♪
1991, we were the first band on stage
at the first ever Lollapalooza,
which was a tremendous thing for my band and I.
- Lollapalooza's cool.
- ♪ C'mon, I just want you to give me a little ♪
♪ Oh ♪
- The idea that you could get
these important and popular bands
from the underground, like Jane's Addiction,
Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden,
Hole, Red Hot Chili Peppers--
and you get them all together.
It felt like a really new idea.
- By the mid-90s, it's already been parodied by "The Simpsons.
- Wow, it's like Woodstock,
only with advertisements everywhere
and tons of security guards.
- It is in the American lexicon.
- The commercial culture has co-opted
the counterculture.
- The honeymoon's over.
Now we're getting down to real commerce,
and... there’s a certain kind of disillusionment going on.
- Since I've got everything I wanted--you know,
I could put a zero after the number
of record sales I've had,
or I could play200,000-seat halls
instead of 2,000-seat halls,
and I could be on MTV1,000 times a week,
rather than one time a month.
And I thought that maybe, when I reached all these goals,
I'd find some sort of peace. - Mm-hmm.
- And I didn't. And now, it's like
I'm more miserable now than I ever was.
[Nirvana's "Rape Me"]
- Welcome to "The Week in Rock.
It was a week lit up in a large way,
by the release of “In Utero,"
the much-anticipated third album by Nirvana.
- ♪ Rape me ♪
- Wal-Mart is refusing to sell Nirvana’s new release,
which includes a song called "Rape Me."
The chain says it wants to be sensitive
to its customers ‘moral standards.
- To get into Wal-Mart,
they had to change the title
of the song "Rape Me" to "Waif Me."
I don't think Kurt was too happy about that.
He always had that conflict
between wanting to maintain that kind of punk authenticity,
but also wanting to be popular.
- ♪ Rape me ♪
- The star-making machine had sucked Nirvana up
into its evil guts. [laughs]
And now, they had to deal with it.
- We decided to lay low, and obviously that was...
you know, someone would say,
"Oh, that's because Kurt's on heroin the whole time."
It's just like...
that's been really damaging to us,
to tell you the truth.
It's really affected my personal life a lot.
[cheers and applause]
- I was in the front row of the "Unplugged" performance,
and it was a serious artistic statement.
Kurt didn't play the hits. You know,
those songs were chosen for a particular reason.
- ♪ My girl, my girl ♪
♪ Don't lie to me ♪
♪ Tell me when did you sleep ♪
♪ Last night ♪
- I remember watching him play a cover of a Lead Belly song,
"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
And it was emotional for me,
because I love Nirvana, and I felt this connection
to Kurt Cobain, and I was always--
even when I was young--
just so worried about him.
- ♪ My girl, my girl ♪
- In that era, there was always the speculation
of, you know, Kurt’s not doing well,
Kurt has drug problems.
And "Nirvana: Unplugged “was this kind of thing,
like...the clouds parted. You know?
And it seemed like everything was gonna be okay.
- [inhales]
♪ Night through ♪
[cheers and applause]
- From Seattle tonight, word of an untimely death.
- The lead singer of Nirvana shot and killed himself
at his home in Seattle, Washington, today.
[emotional piano melody]
- It didn't come as a major surprise,
but it was devastating because of the way it happened.
- I pulled over, and then I just--
I was there for, like,20 minutes to a half an hour,
just crying, right there.
- I just don't understand it, that’s all.
- I think he was the closest
that his generation came
to a John Lennon. - Yeah.
- In that, you know, he was writing
very much from the heart, very directly,
and he didn't play according to the rules.
- I was 16 when that happened,
and if you turn to music for solace in your life...
to then see your hero kill himself--
it was devastating.
It certainly sucked the air out of alternative rock.
You know, the best band fell apart
after only making a couple records.
You know, what do you do after that?
[needle drops]
[acoustic guitar strumming]
♪ ♪
- Oasis, The Verve, Blur--the Brit-pop thing,
it was like the hangover of grunge.
"Oh my God, my head's pounding, this has been insane,
let's turn on Oasis."[laughs]
- ♪ And after all ♪
♪ You're my wonderwall ♪
- They were the opposite of Nirvana
because they wanted fame. You know,
no matter how big they were, they wanted to be bigger.
- We know we're the best band in the country,
and it's as simple as that.
And it's that simple.
- The thing we admire about Oasis,
in a way, is that they’ve got no kind of...
no false modesty, you know. - I admire anybody
who can just sort of go, “We’re brilliant."
And, I mean, it's like...
anybody who's got the balls to do that
is good in my book.
♪ ♪
♪ But I'm a creep ♪
- "Creep" came out in the early '90s,
and that was as much of an alt-rock hit
as any of the Nirvana songs or the Pearl Jam songs.
But it was hardly extraordinary
- Inevitably, you know, the first song
that becomes a hit--everybody caricatures the band
from that. We just have to wait to see
whether we have the chance to prove
that we're not just that. [laughs]
Okay.
["High and Dry" plays]
- I remember, vividly,
listening to Radiohead’s next record,
"The Bends, “nonstop.
I would just seriously geek out on every part.
The bassline, the percussion--every tiny little nuance.
- ♪ Don't leave me high ♪
♪ Don't leave me dry ♪
- This week, the band released a new album, "OK Computer,"
that has critics chirping with praise too.
- ♪ God loves his children ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ ♪
- "OK Computer" is like “Dark Side of the Moon"--
of the '90s.
It really showed that this is gonna be
a defining band of the next 25 years.
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- You could tell the whole story
of the evolution of what came out of grunge
through Radiohead,
and what came out of alternative through Beck.
- ♪ In the time of chimpanzees ♪
♪ I was a monkey, butane in my veins ♪
♪ And I'm out to cut the junkie ♪
I was always interested in hip-hop--
these sort of non-linear word connections.
♪ I'm a loser, baby ♪
♪ So why don't you kill me ♪- ♪ Double-barrel buckshot ♪
- Beck is defining what’s happening now
with that mesh of style she’s mixing--
electronic, country, rap, rock n' roll--
everything. Everything.
He's throwing the kitchen sink in.
[cheery rock music]
♪ ♪
- Out of the ashes of Nirvana,
Dave Grohl created the Foo Fighters.
- This is the first time in my life
I've ever fronted a band,
had to actually stand up and sing,
and, you know, seem charismatic
or whatever, which I can't do.
But, uh, I need to...
just keep playing and making music.
♪ Looking to the sky to save me ♪
♪ Looking for a sign of life ♪
♪ Looking for something to help me burn out bright ♪
- In an era where everything was serious
and had a heavy tone,
especially after Kurt Cobain's death,
the Foo Fighters create “Learn To Fly" music video--
they found this perfect balance between
making people laugh with also having the ability
to play incredible rock music.
♪ ♪
- The down-home music that was once the preserve
of cowboys and rednecks is well on its way
to becoming the sound of the '90s.
- One of the things that was overlooked
while all this rock n' roll explosion was going on
was country music.
These acts were putting out good music.
They were touring constantly around the country,
and building up a fan base.
- ♪ Blame it all on my roots ♪
♪ I showed up in boots ♪
♪ And ruined your black-tie affair ♪
- When they ask people their favorite singer,
number one in the nation was Garth Brooks.
You surprised by that? - Yes, sir.
I guess my family knew
where they were gonna be asking the questions
and got there before they did. - [laughs]
- ♪ 'Cause I got friends ♪
♪ In low places ♪
♪ Where the whiskey drowns ♪
♪ And the beer chases my blues away ♪
- Living in Mississippi,
country was a huge part of my life
and it was all because of Garth Brooks.
The first time I ever saw him in concert,
I was probably10 or 11 years old.
And I said, "That is exactly what I want to do."
- Garth Brooks is the biggest-selling artist
of the decade, and the fastest-selling
musical artist ever.
[cheers and applause]
- He's been described as a cross between John Wayne
and Mick Jagger. He’s got the looks of a cowboy
and the moves of a rock n' roll star.
- It sounded like rock and roll
Guitars and big drums and everybody singing along.
That's what people liked about rock shows.
- Ah, here I come.
- As the acts became, maybe,
less twangy, in their way,
that really just expanded their audience.
Artists like George Strait,
or Brooks & Dunn--plenty of acts
really worked their way up and became massive.
- Over the last two years,
country music has taken over the airwaves
and the record charts,
with over $2 billion in sales and climbing.
- As the boom and the music takes hold,
Western-ware dealers can’t keep up with the demand.
- You've got kids, you’ve got a house payment,
and these people are more like you are than Madonna is.
- ♪ Is there life out there ♪
♪ So much she hasn't done ♪
- Women in country was a huge thing
in the '90s.You had Reba McEntire,
Martina McBride, Chely Wright,
the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain...
- Let's go, girls.
[guitar chords]
Come on.
- I remember when Shania Twain came out.
I was just obsessed with her.
I thought it was because I was really attracted to her,
but, come to find out,
I just wanted to be her best friend.
- ♪ The best thing about being a woman ♪
♪ Is that prerogative to have a little fun and ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ Go totally crazy ♪
In all fields in our society now,
women--I mean, I wouldn't say dominating.
I think that they're just
rising to their true place.
♪ I feel like a woman ♪ [cheers and applause]
- As things wore on,
it became a great decade to be a girl.
- ♪ I just can't stop loving you ♪
- ♪ No, baby ♪
- After years of singing backup for such stars
as Michael Jackson and Rod Stewart,
she exploded onto the music scene in 1993,
with her album “Tuesday Night Music Club."
- ♪ All I wanna do ♪
♪ Is have some fun ♪
♪ I got a feeling I’m not the only one ♪
- Radio has been so long in coming
in playing female artists, so it's definitely
a different sort of environment and attitude now.
♪ If it makes you happy ♪- Female artists,
like Sheryl Crow or Liz Phair--
even though they had success,
they were still routinely marginalized
within every aspect of the industry.
There was not a lot of space in pop culture
where young women’s thoughts, feelings, voices
were respected or taken seriously.
- ♪ I'm just a girl ♪
- There was such a strange dichotomy to Gwen Stefani.
Super girly, but then also kind of tough,
and in front of this band of all guys.
- ♪ That's all that you'll let me be ♪
- "I'm just a girl in the world and that's all
that you'll let me be. “You know, it was, like,
the middle finger up to every guy
that ever annoyed you.
- Look who's here. Alanis, hi.
- Hi. We ran into each other.
- We're shopping today. - Yeah.
- So, I thought we’d take you with us.
And Alanis is herewith a brand-new album.
- Mm-hmm.- A brand new look,
I've noticed.- Yeah.
- I was dropped by MCA Records
after having made music through my teens.
And my personal promise to myself
was that I wouldn't stop until I wrote a record
that really exemplified and nailed on the head
what was truly going on for me.
♪ An older version of me ♪
♪ Is she perverted like me ♪
♪ Would she go down on you in a theater? ♪
- It was sort of a pearl-clutching moment.
"What? What did she say?
"Women can say that?” And yeah, they could.
She was singing about a relationship
that had obviously gone wrong,
but it wasn't this kind of nice
like, "Oh, my God, you left me and now I'm sad."
This was rage at this man.
And you didn't hear that a lot from women.
- ♪ And I'm here ♪
♪ To remind you ♪
♪ Of the mess you left ♪
♪ When you went away ♪
♪ It's not fair ♪
- In America alone,
"Jagged Little Pill” sells 50 million albums.
It's Alanis' moment.
- ♪ You, you, you oughta know ♪
[cheers and applause]
Over the last four years, just learned how to write
for my own reasons, and write for myself.
And it's...it's pretty ironic
that the moment I started doing that
was the moment that most people related to it.
♪ An old man ♪
♪ Turned 98 ♪
You know, there’s that egocentric tendency
on my part--and perhaps everyone's part--
to think that you’re alone in your pain.
I quickly realized that I was not alone
and that millions of other people
were feeling along with me.
People were tired of sublimating,
people were tired of being inauthentic
about their real experience and conforming.
So, I think there was this door that busted open,
and I was on the crest of the wave.
♪ It's like rain ♪
♪ On your wedding day ♪
♪ It's a free ride ♪
♪ When you've already paid ♪
- "Ironic" was really funny
because what she was talking about
wasn't ironic at all,
but she became one of the biggest stars
of the mid-'90s, and I think, out of that,
you get not just Alanis Morisette,
but the idea of, like, you know what,
there's lots of other women making music too.
And let's celebrate all of it.
- The latest trend in rock n' roll: women.
Last night, some of the top female artists
took the stage to launch Lilith Fair.
It is a series of summer concerts
rocking the world and shattering misconceptions.
- A lot of the summer festivals are very male-dominated,
and I just thought that wasn’t at all a representation
of all the music that was out there.
So this is sort of a, you know,
a way to even the scales a little bit.
- ♪ I went to the doctor ♪
♪ I went to the mountains ♪
♪ I looked to the children ♪
♪ I drank from the mountains, yeah ♪
- ♪ Well, there's more than one answer ♪
♪ To these questions ♪
- Lilith Fair was incredibly powerful.
Our brains, our bodies,
our creativity, our ambition mattered.
It validated a lot.
- Everybody, now! - ♪ The closer I am to fine ♪
- ♪ Yeah ♪
[folksy guitar strumming]
- ♪ Original gangster, OG ♪
♪ Original gangster ♪
- Gangster rap: the angriest kind of rap music.
It glorifies brutality and sex.
- Gangster rap, it really starts to take hold
in the early '90s.People are moving away
from the political rap, say, of Public Enemy
from the '80s, and much more into
this sort of reality rap and street rap.
- ♪ Fuck the police, coming straight ♪
♪ From the underground ♪
♪ A young nigga, got it bad 'cause I'm brown ♪
- The group NWA is the harshest,
most in-your-face of the gangsta-style rappers.
One song blasts the police in the most obscene terms.
- Ren and Ice Cube, they write the raps, right?
- Yeah.- Then me and my boy Yella
get together and hook up a good beat...
- Uh-huh. - That we feel that'd go good
with the rap, and boom, there it is.
Platinum records.
- NWA, at that point,
is the biggest hip-hop band there is.
- ♪ Fuck the police ♪- First time I heard NWA,
I was like, "OH, that Ice guy's all right,
but the rest of this is garbage."
And that was pretty much the attitude, initially,
of most people who were part of the New York hip-hop thing.
- ♪ NWA ain't shit to me ♪
♪ Dre, beating on Dee from "Pump It Up" ♪
♪ Step to the Dog and get fucked up ♪
- The East Coast felt kind of like,
"Well, you know, we invented hip-hop.
"You're not gonna come in as the new kid and suddenly,
you know, decide this is the thing."
Like, "the East Coast is the home of hip-hop,
"and we're always gonna have a say
in where hip-hop goes."- ♪ Now you're mad ♪
♪ And you're thinking about stomping ♪
♪ Well, I'm from the South Bronx, fuck Compton ♪
- You're gonna continue making a lot of money
off of this, do you think? - As long as there's violence,
there's gonna be rap music,
gangster rap music, whatever.
- NWA was always
too hot to hold. It had to splinter,
and the first person who walks away is Ice Cube.
- ♪ The filthy devils tried to kill me ♪
- The same reason Ice Cube left the group
is the same reason I left. [laughs]
You know, I'm tired of making other people money.
It's my turn.
♪ Tonight's the night I get in some shit ♪
- ♪ Yeah ♪- ♪ Deep Cover ♪
♪ On the incognito tip ♪
- Suge Knight, who wasn't a real gangster,
got into cahoots with Dr. Dre,
and said, "Dre, we should start our own record label,"
which became Death Row Records.
- Knight, a 6'3",330-pound former bodyguard,
has become one of the most feared men
in the music business. - You get at Dr. Dre,
who probably makes beats better than anybody.
This guy finna deliver a hit.
- Dre puts out his first solo album,
"The chronic, “and, you know,
not only do you get Dre,
but then you also get Snoop Dogg.
- ♪ One, two, three and to the four ♪
♪ Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre is at the door ♪
- Ooh, boy. Snoop Doggy Dogg
and Dr. Dre at the door. It’s crazy,
they knocked the door down, baby.
- ♪ Nothin' but a G thing, baby ♪
♪ Two loc'ed out niggas, so we're crazy ♪
- 70% of rap music, including gangster rap,
was purchased by whites.
- Growing up in Saint Paul, Minnesota,
my friends and I thought that Compton and South Central
must be the coolest places
in the world, based on this music.
- Other music is more like a fairy-tale story,
where now we can hear somebody else's history,
basically, and understand where they're coming from.
- ♪ Bow wow wow, yippy-yo, yippy-yay ♪
♪ Death Row's definitely in the house ♪
- "The Chronic" made hip-hop digestible to everybody.
It was a hip-hop tsunami, and we didn't see it coming.
- Death Row Record's gonna be the next Motown,
you know what I'm saying? - Mm-hmm.
- "The Chronic" album was the foundation,
and we gonna keep rolling on until the house is finished.
- ♪ It's the bow to the wow ♪
♪ Creepin' and crawlin', yiggy-yes y'all-in' ♪
♪ Snoop Doggy Dog ♪
- The handful of gangster-rap superstars
are not just singing about
being mean, and nasty, and vicious...
- ♪ Rob you for your ears, then I kill you blood clots ♪
- They're accused of living up to their lyrics.
- ♪ Back to get wrecked ♪
♪ All respect to those who break they neck ♪
- Tupac Shakur, rap strand movie star,
was arrested in New York
and charged with sodomy and sexual assault.
Atlanta cops had arrested Tupac less than a month earlier
for shooting two off-duty police officers.
- Tupac was languishing in jail, waiting for his appeal,
when Suge Knight swooped in
and basically offered to pay his bail
if he signed a contract.
- Death Row, you will see
your art brought to a bigger plateau,
and you will be paid, one of these days.
- Even though he was an East Coast guy by birth,
he's now rapping on the West Coast,
with the big label out there, Death Row.
- ♪ Say what you say ♪
♪ But give me that bomb beat from Dre ♪
♪ Let me serenade the streets of LA ♪
♪ From Oakland to Sac-town ♪
♪ The Bay Area and back down ♪
♪ Cali is where they put their mack down ♪
♪ Give me love ♪- Suge was trying
to expand Death Row all over the country,
but who controlled most of the music
in the East at that time?
Bad Boy.
- Puffy! Fab 5 Freddy's here.
- Yo! - What up, Puff?
- What's up, baby? - It goes on, baby.
- How you guys doing? - Everything is all good
is all good in the hood? - Yeah.
- Sean "Puffy" Comb founded Bad Boy,
and Biggie Smalls was his marquee artist.
They modeled their sound on Death Row in a lot of ways--
Kind of a gangster rap on the East Coast.
- ♪ Jump in the Rover and come over ♪
♪ Tell your friends jump in the GS3 ♪
♪ I got the chronic by the tree, 'cause ♪
♪ I love it when you call me big poppa ♪
♪ Throw your hands in the air if you's a true player ♪
- I make music about what I know,
you know what I'm saying?
If I'd have worked at McDonald’s,
I'd have made rhymes about Big Macs and fries,
and stuff like that, know what I'm saying?
With Brooklyn, you know, mostly I see hustling.
I see killing, I see gambling,
I see girls, I see cars. That’s what I rap about:
what's in my environment.
- ♪ Keep banging ♪
- ♪ I love it when you call me big poppa ♪
- And the winner is Notorious Big.
- B-I-G.
[cheers and applause]- Puff Daddy in the house!
- I hosted that Source Awards.
Mayhem almost broke out in that place that night.
- Any artist out there who wanna be an artist
and wanna stay a star,
and don't wanna--won't have to worry about
the executive producer trying to be all in the videos,
all on the records, dancing--come to Death Row.
- [cheering]
- Suge calls Puffy out. He never mentions Puffy's name,
but everybody know she’s talking about Puffy.
- The idea of a territorial bee
is now being drawn out in front of your eyes,
in real time.
That was hip-hop's funeral.
- Rap star Tupac Shakur died last night,
after a brief life in a rough business.
He was 25.
- Shakur has been at the center of a battle
between East and West Coast rappers.
- For the second time in six months,
a star in the often brutal world of gangster rap
has been gunned down.
- Music industry sources on the West Coast suspect
that Small's death may, in some way, be payback
for the September killing of rap star Tupac Shakur.
- When Tupac and Biggie were assassinated,
that was a watershed moment, I think, in hip-hop culture.
It was kind of a death of a revolution.
- These two men were two of the most successful rap artists
in the industry, phenomenally wealthy.
Why are we--why are we seeing this happen?
- Well, both Biggie Smalls and Tupac had talked
of trying to break out of that violence,
but many say they were trapped in the world they created.
They were forced, in a word, as they say,
to "keep it real. “And that's a sad commentary.
- I remember seeing news report about how violent it was.
I remember seeing editorials about,
"How can we let our children listen to this
"when these artists are being killed
at an incredible rate? “And I thought rap was gonna end.
- At least one radio station here in Los Angeles,
which has made a lot of money from gangster rap music,
has stopped playing it. - We lost two of
the greatest artists in hip-hop history.
That vacuum was there for a while.
It was just like, “Okay, what are we gonna do?"
- ♪ Seems like yesterday, we used to rock the show ♪
♪ I laced the track, you locked the flow ♪
♪ So far from hangin' on the block for dough ♪
♪ Notorious, they got to know ♪
- "I'll Be Missing You" was Diddy's song about Big.
Suddenly, it's like, “OH, damn."
Puffy's gonna be a legitimate solo act,
and enters the next phase of hip-hop.
- ♪ Every step I take ♪
- There's sampling, and then there's sampling.
To take the “Every Breath You Take"
Police sample and rap over it--
Puff Daddy finds a way to appeal
to young listeners and their parents.
- ♪ I'm comin', I'm ♪
- Everybody wants to party. Ain't nothing wrong
with partying, right, at all.
Puff Daddy built an empire off of it,
and it was out of vogue to be conscious anymore.
- ♪ It's like the more money we come across ♪
- ♪ Yeah ♪- ♪ The more problems we see ♪
- The sound shifted and the use of samples exploded
"Mo Money Mo Problems” was a Diana Ross sample
that an older crowd could hear and say,
"Well, that sounds familiar to me,
so maybe this isn't all bad."
- ♪ As they croak, I see myself in the pistol smoke ♪
- You get songs like Coolio’s "Gangsta's Paradise,"
which is, on the surface, a heavier song,
but the hook is so, like, inviting and warm.
- ♪ Been spending most their lives ♪
♪ Living in a gangster's paradise ♪
- ♪ Say what? ♪- Hip-hop had hit this point
where it had become mainstream,
and all the sudden, it starts appearing
in other forms of music.
There's this kind of rock-rap happening.
- ♪ Sometime, someway ♪
♪ Something kicked on the front floor ♪
- There's hip-hop that can be found in pop music.
- ♪ Like Harrison Ford, I’m getting frantic ♪
♪ Like Sting, I'm tantric, like Snickers ♪
♪ Guaranteed to satisfy ♪
- And there's R & B and rap mixing for new jack swing.
- ♪ Back to the matter, the new jack swing ♪
♪ Is the sound that can flatter ♪
♪ Any other sound around town doesn’t give the ♪
♪ Same type of feeling ♪
- Teddy Riley was the big new-jack-swing producer,
and he produced everybody.
- ♪ All I wanna do is zoom-a-zoom, zoom, zoom ♪
♪ And a poom-poom ♪- ♪ Just shake your rump ♪
- He had Wreckx-N-Effect; he had his own group, Guy;
he did Heavy D & The Boyz...
- ♪ We got our own thang ♪
- It all had this kind of rhythm that made you have to dance.
- ♪ Shorty, get down, good Lord ♪
- New jack swing was someone that could sing
with the level of Stevie Wonder, with the breakbeat background
of Public Enemy. And marry those two.
- ♪ Baby, I can get you in my ride ♪
♪ I like the way you work it ♪- ♪ No diggity ♪
- "No Diggity” is the masterpiece
of the... [laughs]of the new jack swing era.
- ♪ Mm-hmm ♪- ♪ We out, we out ♪
- Hip-hop was a male-dominated music--
seriously. Like, women were thought of,
"Oh, you're not sexy? OH, get out of here.
You're not shaking ass? Mm, get out of here."
- ♪ I wanna take a minute or two ♪
♪ And give much respect due ♪
♪ To the man that's made a difference in my world ♪
- Female MCs wasn’t a pop cultural phenomenon,
really, until Salt-N-Pepa.
And that blew the doors off of it.
- ♪ What a man, what a man, what a man ♪
♪ What a mighty good man ♪
- ♪ He's a mighty, mighty good man ♪
- It opened up the door for people to go,
"Well, who else are females and rapping?
Oh, here's that MC Lyte."
- ♪ Gotta get a roughneck ♪
♪ Gotta what, yo? Gotta get a roughneck ♪
♪ I need it and I want it, so I gotta get ♪
- ♪ Who you calling a bitch? ♪- ♪ Here we go ♪
- "Oh, who's this Queen Latifah girl?"
And then later on, “Oh, who's this Missy?"
- ♪ Oh, Missy, try to maintain ♪
- They were respected as artists.
They didn't have to shake booty or wear a low-cut blouse.
It changed the way we viewed things.
- ♪ I can't stand the rain ♪
- To me, the best two female MCs
to come out of the '90sare Missy Elliott
and Lauryn Hill.
- ♪ Since you were looking for your friend ♪
♪ The one you let hit it and never called you again ♪
- How do you see the role of women in hip-hop?
Is it changing? Like yourself.
- Well, it's something that’s always been there.
Whether or not they got the, you know,
the acknowledgement that they should've,
they've always been there. And just now,
maybe they’ll truly be acknowledged.
♪ Some girls are only about ♪
♪ That thing, that thing ♪
♪ That thing ♪
- She sings, she raps,
there's heartache involved--
it's all encompassed in one amazing piece of art.
- "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill."
[cheers and applause]
- With her record-breaking fifth Grammy win,
Lauryn Hill echoed what many might’ve been thinking.
- This is crazy, because this is hip-hop music,
and... you know what I mean?
- She's gonna be big, big--
well, she already is a big star. I mean, you get five Grammies,
you are, but...and so young. - Yeah, and a lot of people
think she's gonna really redefine
the connections among hip-hop, pop--for everybody.
- ♪ Hi, kids. Do you like Primus? ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪- ♪ Wanna see me stick ♪
♪ Nine-inch nails through each one of my eyelids? ♪
- ♪ Uh-huh ♪- When Em came,
we sat back like this. - ♪ Try 'cid ♪
♪ And get messed up worse than my life is ♪
- What's this white boy doing?
And then I really listened.
- ♪ But I can't figure out which Spice Girl ♪
♪ I want to impregnate ♪- And I was like, "whoa."
- ♪ Dre said ♪- ♪ Slim Shady, you a base head ♪
- ♪ Uh-uh ♪- And Dre's behind it?
He's in! He’s in.
- He's not trying to be black.
He's not pretending he has these great, urban stories.
He's telling his story,
portraying lower-middle-class white life,
which hip-hop had not done before.
And I think that's why he was so appealing to so many people.
- With kids in America that always had
a sufficient amount of money
and a different pair of clothes to wear to school
each day of the week--those type of kids,
they admire poor people that have nothing to lose.
♪ Slim shady ♪- Eminem is sort of
the logical conclusion of 20-odd years of hip-hip--
and white kids listening to hip-hop,
but now deciding, "We need to create our own thing."
- ♪ My name is ♪[imitates record scratch]
- It's hot news for electronica,
the multifaceted techno-dance genre
touted by many tastemakers as the next big musical thing.
Prodigy's new album, “The Fat of the Land,"
enters the Billboard pop chart at number one.
- ♪ Breathe the pressure ♪
♪ Come play my game, I’ll test ya ♪
- Up until the end of the '90s,
dance music was just a DJ; it was a beat.
And all the sudden there’s a face to it.
- ♪ Back with another one of those block rockin' beats ♪
- The Chemical Brothers come up
- This is very much the recycling age.
Is this music recycled?- Everything is secondhand.
You know, take things from different places
and create something new with it.
- ♪ Just as long ♪
♪ As my baby's safe from harm ♪
♪ Tonight ♪- All this stuff is going on
at the same time--Massive Attack, Moby...
So, you're seeing what we called electronica--
which is EDM, which is techno...
- Let go!
- Really starting to kind of take hold beyond dance clubs.
- ♪ Let your feelings lift, boy, but never your mask, boy ♪
- All these artists end up laying the seeds
for what would become
a pretty huge revolution in music.
- ♪ Around the world, around the world ♪
- Everybody's talking about 'em,
and they're headed to America. It started with the Beatles,
and then the Stones. Well, move over, boys--
and roll over, Beethoven. The Spice Girls are coming.
- ♪ If you wanna be my lover ♪
♪ You gotta get with my friends ♪
- There's never been a group where every person had
their own personality, and every fan could choose
a different one that they related to,
and it was brilliant.
- ♪ Taking is too easy ♪
♪ But that's the way it is ♪- Whoo!
- There needed to be some music to be the sorbet,
and the palate-cleansing for all the intensity
that was the earlier part of the '90s.
- The recording industry does not need to be told
that it's a teen, teen world.
[fans screaming]- There were about to be
more teenagers than any other time
in America's history.
Teenagers wanted to be entertained.
They wanted to have fun.
- ♪ Even in my heart ♪
♪ I see ♪
♪ You're not being true to me ♪
- The Backstreet Boys made a video
for "Quit Playing Games(With My Heart)"--
them, like, in the rain, getting all wet,
being all sexy, and it became a hit.
- ♪ Quit playing games with my heart ♪
- ♪ Games with my heart ♪- ♪ With my heart ♪
- ♪ Before you tear us apart ♪- ♪ My heart ♪
- This is where it all started, right here, in this house.
The guys coming here, doing vocal recording
on a little karaoke machine that I had.
- Their manager Lou Pearlman said,
"I think I need another one of these."
- ♪ Tearin' up my heart ♪
♪ When I'm with you ♪
♪ 'Cause when we are apart ♪
♪ I feel it too ♪
- It was a little overwhelming
to be, you know,16 years old
and have that many people trying to attack you.
It was craziness. And it felt like a dream.
[fans screaming]
- One by one, the breathless few
got their lucky autographs. Most were missing school.
Many had Mom as chaperones.- [screams]
- All these people who would go on
to become huge pop stars began on Disney.
- So many people came out of “The Mickey Mouse Club."
Keri Russell, Justin Timberlake,
Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez,
Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears...
- That's like the 1927 Yankees, in terms of pop.
[piano chords]
- ♪ Oh baby, baby ♪
♪ How I was supposed to know ♪
♪ ♪
♪ That something wasn’t right, here? ♪
- Teenagers are the biggest consumers of music,
and Britney has become their queen.
[together]♪ I'm not that innocent ♪
- ♪ Oops, I did it again ♪
- Britney was the Madonna,
whereas Christina was like the Mariah.
- ♪ I'm a genie in a bottle ♪
- ♪ Whoa-oh, yeah ♪
- Christina, you know, very tiny girl--
she's under five feet, and when she opened her mouth,
it was like this burst of, like, wind came through your hair.
You were like, "That voice is coming out of that girl?"
[cheers and applause]- ♪ Come on, come on ♪
♪ Come on ♪[cheers and applause]
- The end of the '90s
is a really precarious, strange time for music,
because MTV stops playing music videos.
They start doing this more,
kind of reality television programming,
which, everyone's like, “That’s never gonna take off."
[laughs]
- Music would be as much, or more, in people's lives
than it ever had been,
but the economics of it would vanish.
- ♪ Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road ♪
♪ Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go ♪
- The '90s represented being who you are.
"This is the kind of music I’m gonna make,
"and I don't care who likes it and who doesn't like it,
"and I'm not gonna sound like anybody else.
This is who I am."- ♪ Something unpredictable ♪
- People were starving for authenticity.
They were starving for what the real experience was--
the messy, chaotic, fallible experience
of being human.
And the '90s gave complete, green-light permission
for that to be explored.
- You talk about this band a lot, then you go,
"Oh, wait a minute, you can't talk about the '90s
"without this one! Oh, and this one, and this one,
and this one! “Where there's so many
monumental bands, one after another--
That's the '90s.
- ♪ So take the photographs and still frames in your mind ♪
♪ Hang it on a shelf, in good health and good time ♪
[fans screaming]♪ Tattoos of memories ♪
♪ And dead skin on trial ♪
♪ For what it's worth, it was worth all the while ♪
♪ It's something unpredictable ♪
♪ But in the end, is right ♪
♪ I hope you had the time of your life ♪
[lively strumming]