'90s History Through Music

Shmoop, there it is: '90s music is a lot more politically significant than you think.

  • Course Length: 3 weeks
  • Course Type: Short Course
  • Category:
    • History and Social Science
    • Humanities
    • High School

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Minus a few small changes, studying the 1990s shines a light into current global and domestic affairs.

Think about it:

  • A liberal president followed a Bush.
  • There were crippling economic recessions.
  • Apathetic youth wore Doc Martens and got super-stoked about AOL.

Well, except for that last part, the '90s are practically the same thing as the here and now. Because of this everlasting relevance, Shmoop's gonna give you a standards-aligned, fifteen-lesson overview of nineties global, economic, social, and cultural history.

Through junky '90s pop music.

If you're incredulous that Shmoop is okaying a close reading of Milli Vanilli, think again: the '90s gave us catchy hooks that were incredibly revealing about the cultural climate. Innocuous '90s hits make deep statements about immigration, celebrity culture, the AIDS crisis, and every other landmark news story of the era. This course will use creative writing, expository essays, primary source analysis, and more to educate you about the deepest, shallowest decade that ever existed.

In this course, aligned to 11-12th grade history and informational reading standards, you'll:

  • identify the causes and long-term effects of major domestic and international history of the 1990s.
  • analyze song lyrics like you're writing a Rolling Stone cover story about Britney.
  • watch powerful historical clips, documentaries, and examine primary sources.
  • interpret how pop music represents cultural ideals, both good and bad.

Plus, you'll finally "get" the Clinton and Simpson trials…maybe. No promises. Just ask your parents, okay?


Unit Breakdown

1 '90s History Through Music - '90s History Through Music


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.03: Messages from the Heartland of America

That's Shmoop on the left. Geez, was our hair weird back then.
(Source)

In the early 1990s, country music got a much needed facelift.

(We'll avoid the easy Dolly Parton plastic surgery joke and continue.)

Instead of twangy and outdated cowboy tunes, 1990s country music artists came out with tunes that everyone wanted to listen to. Hits like Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" offered a different side to country—a younger, edgier sound, with some well-styled singers to boot.

Today, the mass popularity of country songs like "Achy Breaky Heart" might make us question our taste, but it was all the rage in 1992. Why did the 1990s present such a perfect time for a country comeback? When you look at history and culture, the answer's pretty clear. The genre reflected the struggles of blue collar workers, the boom of conservative talk radio, and the rise of the "McChurch."

Yup: in the early '90s, country music became more relevant than ever before. Grab your denim jacket and your AM/FM radio; we're going on a journey to the center of America.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.03a: Some Down-Home Country Music

Shmoopsters in low places, it's time to listen to some modern country jams. (Well, modern in the scheme of the whole country genre at least.) Check out the following songs, and make sure to read the lyrics to the last one, "Stand By Your Man," while you're at it.

  • "Achy Breaky Heart" – Billy Ray Cyrus
    YouTube
  • "Friends in Low Places" – Garth Brooks
    YouTube
  • "We Shall be Free" – Garth Brooks
    Myspace
  • "Stand by Your Man" – Tammy Wynette (Note: "Stand By Your Man" isn't actually a '90s song, but it's relevant to the decade nevertheless. You'll see.)
    iTunes
    Lyrics

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.03b: The Heartland Speaks

Rush Limbaugh, Garth Brooks, and Hillary Clinton.

If we didn't know any better, the list above would look like pop culture icons chosen at random. (Rush Limbaugh and Hillary Clinton are about as opposite as opposites can be.) But these three '90s figures actually had a lot in common: they all had something powerful to say about the working class and country tunes.

Radio, Radio

Let's back up real quick, though, to get some context on where country music stood in the beginning of the 1990s. To do that, we're going to take a quick peek at how radio was doing in the 1980s.

(Yes, radio. This was before the days of the internet, remember?)

Shmoop's going to make a safe bet that when you listen to the car radio, you turn to an FM station station. FM is, after all, where most of the popular music and comedy shows are. AM's usually news and traffic reports. But FM radio wasn't always top dog. At one point in time, long, long ago, AM radio stations actually ruled king.

Yup: in the olden days, instead of boring talk radio, AM radio had all of the best music. However, that started to change in the '70s. In light of the better audio quality and reception, and some rulings by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that made more FM stations available, more and more music programs shifted to FM stations.

It wasn't like there hadn't been any music on FM radio before that point. It just wasn't particularly exciting. "Beautiful music," now known as easy listening (we're talking Kenny G-style) had a strong presence on FM radio through the late '80s, but as tastes changed, so did radio stations. Many of those beautiful music stations that were very popular in rural America transitioned from playing easy listening to country music. This combination of easy listening that was looking to be replaced, and clearer, crisper FM radio stations led to country songs like "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus (yup, Miley Cyrus' dad) to gain widespread popularity previously undreamt of in the country genre.

(Shmoop note: Not only did Billy Ray Cyrus help country music garner the spotlight in the early '90s, he also put line dancing and the mullet on the map. Oof.)

Country Music's Fan base

Country music gave voice to a section of America that traditionally had been under-represented in pop culture at large: blue collar workers. Men and women who identified with '90s country were often manual laborers, often in physically demanding careers like manufacturing to mining, who felt that their woes were finally being expressed with songs like, "I Got Friends in Low Places".

Because, you see, "I Got Friends in Low Places," was a thinly veiled rant against the upper class. With lyrics like:

Blame it all on my roots
I showed up in boots
And ruined your black tie affair

And:

Just give me an hour and then
Well, I'll be as high
As that ivory tower
That you're livin' in

Brooks really spoke to the working class man by poking fun of the wealthy.

Even though the song is rather depressing, considering the narrator of the song is pretty much drinking away his problems and all, it's depressing in a… kinda uplifting way? Brooks hooked his country audience with the message "hey, man at the bar with the troubles, you aren't alone." Garth got it: It feels good to be one of the group.

Talk, Talk, Talk

Speaking of group mentality, are you wondering what filled the AM radio waves once country music jumped ship? Good question! The simple answer is talk radio, with increasingly political topics. And those talk radio politics created a sort of mob mentality—an us vs. them stance which gave birth to the increasingly divided media attitude towards politics we see today.

Partisan political talk radio took the nation by storm in the early '90s for a variety of reasons, perhaps the most important of which was the 1987 repeal (striking down of) of the Fairness Doctrine . The Fairness Doctrine mandated that radio stations present a wide range of viewpoints on any given controversial topic, so both sides of an issue could be heard.

(Getting rid of something that has "Fairness" in its title sounds like a bad idea to Shmoop...just sayin.')

Once the Fairness Doctrine disappeared, the partisan political radio shows (especially conservative ones) crept up like nobody's business, unabashedly representing only one side of an issue. The most influential early '90s talk radio show was the Rush Limbaugh Show . Rush Limbaugh was an ultra-conservative and was unafraid to show it. He critiqued everything from the Democratic Party to anti-war protesters, and by doing so, garnered the resounding support of the right wing and a lot of the rural America, Garth Brooks demographic.

Rush Limbaugh has gotten into some hot water over his partisan ways. In 1990, Limbaugh transitioned to television as a substitute host on the CBS's Late Night and, to his great dismay, he was as not well-received on TV as he had been on the radio. When he made jokes about AIDS and claimed that "the feminist movement was created to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society," he was dropped from the TV docket.

Despite Limbaugh's, uh, glaring sexism, his radio fan base, who called themselves "ditto-heads," were as faithful as ever. Considering his very conservative view on abortion and gay rights, Limbaugh found an especially special place in the hearts of the religious right.

Churches

Speaking of religion (which, BTW, Shmoop does not recommend using as a conversation starter at parties), the reach of the church was growing in the early '90s. Not only did the public voice of religion grow through talk shows, television, and music, but even the literal size of churches expanded. Yup: the megachurch was on the rise.

The megachurch, super church, or "McChurch," as it was called by some critics, offered services for tens of thousands of Christians every Sunday.

That's right, we said tens of thousands. In one church. Megachurches were seen as the natural extension of the work of televangelists, like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, from the 1980s. Those massive churches worked to spread the gospel of prophets unlike ever before, to as many people as possible at once. This was often accomplished through super-intense preaching, elaborate sound-systems, and, like we said, churches so dang giant they could fit fast food franchises inside.

With America's pumped-up attitude towards Christianity more in the public eye than ever, religious discussion became a part of the cultural mainstream, and intricately intertwined with politics. The idea of the religious right—religious Americans uniting as a highly conservative voting group—was a large part of the cultural conversation. Often, the religious right did no favors for itself when getting media attention in the '90s, through groups like the Westboro Baptist Church's hatemongering, and megachurch preacher-turned-celeb Jerry Falwell outing children's entertainers.

Shmoop knows to stay out of conversations about religious and politics, but we do recognize that understanding the concept of the religious right's rise during the 1990s due to Limbaugh-esque talk radio, megachurch culture, media sensationalism, and pop culture's "with blue collar or against blue collar" messaging is important to understand. Check out this definition here to contextualize how, in the new millennium, we're quite politically divided because of divisions in the '90s (and earlier).

Speaking of prophets and religion, Garth Brooks even joined in on the conversation surrounding religion in the early '90s with his song "We Shall Be Free." (Please note: the music video has some upsetting images). Garth claimed that the song was inspired by his visit to LA during riots, and the song uses religious language to spread a message of tolerance.

Awww.

Check out the lyrics to the song here. Aside from world hunger and racial discrimination, what issues does Brooks grapple with in the song? If you're thinking homelessness, freedom of expression, and gay rights, you'd be right.

Feminism and Country Music

Garth Brooks wasn't the only country artist to comment on social issues. Far from it. Without spoiling our lesson about Bill Clinton's 1992 election, Hillary Clinton pulled country music, feminism, and Middle America into the limelight in an interview with 60 Minutes. During the interview, in response to allegations that her husband had an affair, Hillary said, "I'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him."

Burn.

Not to be pushed around, Tammy Wynette responded in force, "with all that is in me I resent your caustic remark...I believe you have offended every true country music fan."

Oof.

Many country music fans and people from Middle America who already weren't too fond of Bill and Hilary Clinton felt alienated by the comment, but eventually the two women publicly reconciled. Wynette even went on to play at a fundraiser for the campaign. But the public response represented an increasing divide between the "us vs. them" Limbaugh mentality: you're either with country music and traditional, Christian, conservative values, or you're against them. And with that small comment, Hillary pretty much labeled herself a country music and tradition-hatin' liberal.


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.03: Create a Country Music Star

Shmoop's gonna let you in on a little secret: Garth Brooks wasn't born a "Garth."

Brooks realized quickly that his birth name, "Troyal," just didn't have the same mass appeal that would unite blue-collar workers behind him. Thus, Garth was born—and became a bajillionaire.

Can you market yourself like Garth did? Show your smarts through creating an an online avatar or image collage of an invented country music star.

You can build an avatar here (hint, hint you do not need to connect on Facebook if you just take a screenshot) or pick out five pictures from images.google.com of country-lookin' people you'd like to model your invented celeb after.

As you envision your star, write answers to these questions on a separate piece of paper:

  • What is the artist's name? ("Liz Jones"? "Lee Montgomery"? "Delbert Quincy Dukes"?) Try to choose something that evokes a patrotic, all-American, and perhaps rural image.)
  • What is his/her most famous song? Provide some sample lyrics—at least four rhyming lines.
  • What made him/her a star in the 1990s? Come up with a short story or scenario in a few sentences about how they became famous.
  • What political and cultural causes does your star most believe in? What values do they defend? (Write at least a hundred words for that one, Shmoopster, since it's the most important question.)

All done? Upload your star and the answers to those questions below, so your teacher can line-dance while grading all night.