Thursday already?! Yessir, and we’re traveling back to 1994; when Grunge was on its way out and the Punk Revival was just beginning.
January 19th – Bryan Adams becomes the first Western music star to perform in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.
http://youtu.be/uTjiXzSvrjc
January 25th – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which makes its US chart début at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so.
February 1st – Green Day release their breakthrough album Dookie, ushering in the mid-1990s punk revival. Dookie eventually achieves diamond certification.
February 11th – The three surviving members of The Beatles secretly reunite to begin recording additional music for a few of John Lennon’s old unfinished demos, presented to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono, with Jeff Lynne producing. The track, “Free As A Bird”, is released as a single in late 1995 as part of the exhaustive Beatles Anthology project, reaching #2 in the UK and #6 in the United States.
http://youtu.be/4PAXDHd9gkY
February 17th – American pop-punk band blink-182 release their debut album Cheshire Cat.
March 1 – Nirvana play their final concert in Munich.
March 30th – Pink Floyd embark on what would be their last world tour before their breakup. The record-breaking tour supports their Division Bell album, with the band playing to 5,500,000 people in 68 cities.
http://youtu.be/D4uXSmwDzYk
March 31st – Madonna appears on the Late Show with David Letterman, making headlines with her foul-mouthed, profanity-laced interview. Robin Williams later describes the segment as a “battle of wits with an unarmed woman.”
April 8th – The body of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found. Cobain’s death three days before, is legally declared to be suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot.
http://youtu.be/esyvSdKN_ls
April 27th – The legendary Fillmore club reopens in San Francisco with a concert headlined by The Smashing Pumpkins.
May 10th – Weezer are introduced to the world with their self-titled debut, often referred to as the Blue Album. It would go on to become one of the most influential records of the 1990s.
June 9th – Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, in a domestic dispute with partner Andre Rison, sets fire to his shoes which ultimately spreads to the mansion they share and destroys it.
June 27th – Aerosmith becomes the first major band to premiere a new song on the Internet. Over 10,000 CompuServe subscribers download the free track Head First within its first eight days of availability.
August 12th – August 14th – Woodstock ’94 is held in Saugerties, New York. As with the original 1969 festival, attendance is swelled by a high number of gatecrashers, while heavy rains turn the festival grounds into a sea of mud. Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Gabriel and Green Day are among the many performers.
http://youtu.be/4GudNmNGWCw
August 30th – Oasis release their debut album Definitely Maybe. It becomes the fastest selling debut album in the United Kingdom at the time until 2006 when it was beaten by the Arctic Monkeys’ debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
http://youtu.be/dAp8sH1h2iY
October 11th – Korn, a nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, launches its self-titled debut album Korn, peaking at number 72 on the Billboard 200 and launching the nu metal sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g8hW0rq8Lo&feature=share&list=PL81705843AB1CD5E3
November 30th – The Breeders guitarist Kelley Deal is arrested at her Ohio home after accepting a private-courier package containing four grams of heroin.