It was twenty years ago today….
PopMatters.com has been celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Nevermind, and, well, 1991 generally. Yours truly chipped in with a look back at where China was at as the world went ga-ga for grunge.
Ramblings on YAOGUN, Chinese rock music, by the author of Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll
It was twenty years ago today….
PopMatters.com has been celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Nevermind, and, well, 1991 generally. Yours truly chipped in with a look back at where China was at as the world went ga-ga for grunge.
Nevermind
Ten
Achtung Baby
Out of Time
Metallica
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Use Your Illusion
Badmotorfinger
The Low End Theory
1991: An unbelievable musical year – a year the likes of which have yet to be seen again. And it’s been twenty years. Suddenly, a whole lot of thirtysomethings – teenagers when they we were first turned on to the bands via the breakthrough albums listed above – are wondering how the hell two decades went by. And, of course, we’ll gobble up the inevitable reissues (like these), anniversary tours (one hastens to note the ticket merchant handling said tour) and Cinematic Events.
But I digress.
When grunge hit, what was yaogun doing? Soon, a more detailed answer to that question, I promise. The short answer: In August, 1991, Black Panther released their debut album in Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Mainland release came the following year). This was the hit single there-off:
Yaogun’s early nineties was a more homogenous period, where longhairs dominated with hard rock and metal. It would be some time before yaogun would sound like American rock’s 1991 – it was a time, remember, when R.E.M. and Mr. Big, “November Rain” and “One”, plaid and leather could share chart space.
Yaogun got there, eventually, and in a big way.