t, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yup, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network. give your business a head start in 2024 with this great offer. plus, ask how to get up to $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. switch today. - 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,

anand nirvanaa and kukurt cobain,n, in particular, reflect that angst. - i learned how 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 honeymoooon'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 getetting a a lot of haiair bands. you've gotot poison, r ratt, wawarrant... - ♪ 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 k bands looked a certain way, they played a kind of music. they were e expected to have e a certain n 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 r strumming]g] i said, "l"listen, they reaeally are inincredibl, "and w we need to give e them a shohot. and if i it doesn't t work, thenen you can p push me out of thehe music meeeeting. - - tonight's s world premee 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 w was like ththe musical kennededy assassinination of o our time. everybodody who was s alive tn cacan tell youou the momenet theyey heard thahat song, because nonothing likeke that existed to that t point. itit was realllly transcenend. - ♪ w with the lilights out ♪ ♪ it's s less dangegerous ♪ ♪ here wewe are now,, entertrtain us ♪ - "here e we are nowow, enentertain usus." it s sounded likike a threat. you knknow, it souounded like a difffferent geneneration comiming in and d saying, you knowow, "what t do you havave for us? what arere you gonnana do for " - ♪ 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 ththis pressurure was s building u 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 t gave an inintensity that w 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 audidience. "so, s start lookiking for the peopople "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 s like screaeaming tr, and d it was such a refefreshing chchane from the competitive, sort of la, hollywood '80s.

and it was just suddenly so cool to be from seattle. - one e of the bigiggest mumusic biz ststories theseses 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 ♪ ♪ o outshined,, outshihined ♪ ♪ o outshined ♪ - why don'n't you tellll me the e biggest mimisconceptioion 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 w what grungege is." - tetell me a lilittlet about ththe seattle e music sc. - 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 yeyet, there t 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 t the first e ever lollapapa,

which wawas a tremendous thig 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 t the mid-90s0s, it's aly beenen parodied by "the simpson" - wow, it's like woodstock, only with advertisements everywhere and tons of security guards. - it is in the american lexicon. - - the commerercial cultutus 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 play 200,000-seat halls instead of 2,000-seat halls, and i could be on mtv 1,000 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. [heavy rock music]

[stirring instrumental music] [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, ththey had to o change the titlee of the s song "rape e 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. - ♪ rapape me ♪ - the star-making machine had sucked nirvana up into its evil guts. [laughs] anand now, thehey had to deal witith it. - - we decideded to lay lol, and d obviously y 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'n't play thehe hi. you knowow, 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 kururt cobain,, and i i was alwaysys-- evenen when i wawas 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 seeeemed like everythihing was gononna be ok. - [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 pulllled over, and thenen 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 devevastating.. it certainly sucked the air out of alternative rock. you know, the best band fell apart after only making a couple records. yoyou know, what do yoyou do afterer that? [needldle drops] [acousustic guitarar strummin] ♪ ♪ - 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 turnrn on oasis.s." [laughghs] - - ♪ and a after all ♪ ♪ you're e my wonderwrwall ♪ - they werere the oppoposie of nirvanana because e they wanteted fame. you knowow, nono matter hohow big they we, theyey wanted toto be bigger. - we knonow we're ththe best bd in thehe 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 forced 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 t it was harardly extraoaor. - 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 bassliline, the pepercussi- every y tiny littltle 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

througugh radioheaead, and what c came out ofof alterne throrough beck.. - ♪ i in the timeme of chimpapa♪ ♪ i wasas a monkey,y, butanene in my veieins ♪ ♪ and i i'm out to cut thehe junkie ♪ i was s always ininterested i in hip-hop-p- these sort of non-linear word connections. ♪ i'm a loser, baby ♪ ♪ so why y don't you u kill ♪ - ♪ doublble-barrel b bucksh♪ - bebeck is defifining what's hapappening nowow with thahat mesh of f styls he's mixixing-- electrononic, countrtry, rap,p, rock n' r 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 inincredible r rock mu. ♪ ♪ [cheers and applause]

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[stirring instrumental 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 coununtry music.c. these acacts 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 t friends ♪ ♪ in low w places ♪ ♪ w where the w whiskey droro♪ ♪ andnd the beer chases my blues a away ♪ - livingng in missisissipp, countrtry was a huhuge part of my lilife

anand it was a all because of gararth brooks.s. the e first time i e ever sam in concecert, i was s probably 10 or r 11 years o old. and i saidid, "that isis exacy what i w want to do.o." - gartrth brooks is the bigiggest-selliling artit of the decade, and the fastest-selling musical artist ever. [cheers and applause] - he's beeeen described as a croross betweenen john e and mick j jagger. he's got the l looks of a a cy and the e moves of a rockck n' roll s star. - it s sounded like rockck and . guitars anand big drumums and everybybody singining alo. that's what pepeople liked about t rock showsws. - ah, hehere i come. - as the acts became, maybe, less twangy, in their waway, that realllly just expxpanded their auaudience. artists like george strait, or brooks s & dunn-- plentyty 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't's go, girls. [guitar chords] come on. - i remembmber when shaniaia twain camame out. i was s just obsesessed with h . i thought itit was becauause i wawas really a attracted t t, but, c come to finind out, i i just wanteted to bebe her best t friend. - ♪ the besest 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 t can't stopop lovingng 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 e every aspecect of thehe industry.y. ththere was nonot a lot of spacace in pop c culture where young women's thoughts, feelings, voices wewere respectcted 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 d in front of thisis band of all g 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 e middle fininger up to every g guy that evever annoyed d you. - look whoho's here. alanis, hihi. - hi. we ran into each other. - we're shopping today. - yeah. - so, i thought we'd take you with us. and alanis is here with 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 thatat i wouldn'n't stop until i wrwrote a recocord that realllly exemplifified anand nailed o on the headd whatat was trulyly going on n f. ♪ an ololder versioion of me♪ ♪ is s she pervererted like m♪ ♪ would she go down on you inin a theaterer? ♪ - itit was sort t of a a pearl-clutching moment. "what?t? what did d she say? "women c can say thahat?" anand yeah, ththey could.. she e was singining about a rerelationshipip thatat had obviously gone e w, but t it wasn't t this kind of , like, "o"oh, my god, you lefte anand now i'm m sad." this w was rage atat this ma. and yoyou didn't h hear that a lot frfrom women..

- ♪ a and i'm herere ♪ ♪ to o remind youou ♪ ♪ o of the messss you left ♪ ♪ when you u went away y ♪ ♪ it's nonot fair ♪ - in ameririca alone,, "jagged lilittle pill"l" sells s 50 millionon album. it's alanis' moment. - ♪ youou, you, youou oughta kn♪ [cheheers and apapplause] over thehe last fourur years, just l learned howow to write for my ownwn reasons,, and wrwrite for mymyself. 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 quicickly realizized ththat i was n not alone and that millions of other people were feeling along with me. people were tired of sublimating, people were tired of being inauthentntic about t their realal experiene and coconforming.. so, i think there was this door that busted open,

and i was on the crest of the wave. ♪ it's lilike 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't ironic atat 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 wowomen mamaking musicic too. and let's s celebrate e all of. - ththe latest t trend in r rock n' rololl: 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 v validated a a lot. - everybodody, now! - ♪ t the closer r i am to fif♪ - ♪ yeah ♪ [folksy guitar strumming] [cheers and applause]

[stirring emotional music] - ♪ 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 frfrom the '8080s, and d much more e into this sorort of realility rap anand street r rap. - ♪ f*** 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. - ♪ f#*** the police ♪ - first time i heard nwa, i was like, "oh, that ice guy's all right, but ththe rest off this i is garbage.e." and that w was pretty y much the e attitude, , initially, of most t people whoho were parf ththe new yorkrk hip-hop t th.

- ♪ n nwa ain't s shit to me♪ ♪ dre, beating on dee from "pump it up" ♪ ♪ step to the dog and get f***ed up ♪ - the east coast felt kind of like, "well, you know, we invented hip-hop. "you're nonot gonna cocome n 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 w where hip-h-hop goes."" - ♪ now you'r're mad ♪ ♪ and you're thinking about stomping ♪ ♪ well, i'm from the south bronx, f*** 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 hohot to hold.d. it hadad to splintnter, and ththe first peperson 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 y you also geget snsnoop dogg. - ♪ one, two, three and to the four ♪ ♪ snoop doggy dogg and dr. dre is at the door ♪ - ooh, boy. snoop doggy dogg and d dr. dre atat the door. it's c crazy, they knockcked the e door down,n, baby. - ♪ nothin'n' but a g ththing, baby ♪ ♪ two l loc'ed out t nigga, so we'rere crazy ♪ - 70% of r rap music,, inclcluding gangngster 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 placaces in the wororld, babased on thihis music. - otheher music isis more lie a fairiry-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 beining mean, anand nasty, and vivicious... - ♪ rob you f for your eaear, ththen i kill l you blood d cl♪ - they're e accused of liviving up to o their ly. - ♪ back to g get wrecked ♪ ♪ allll respect t to those who breaeak they nececk ♪ - tupac c shakur, rarap str and movie e star, was arrested in new york and chcharged with sodomy and sexual assault. atlanta copsps had arresteted tc 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 r rapping on the wesest 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 t the east atat that time? bad boy. - puffffy! fab b 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" combs 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 for 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 knows he's talking about puffy. - the idea of a territorial beef is now being drawn out in front of your eyes, inin real timeme. thatat was hip-h-hop's funere. [dramatic tone]

[stirring instrumental music] - 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 reports 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 leaeast one radadio stan herere in los anangeles, 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?" - ♪ seeeems like yeyesterday, we used d to rock ththe show♪ ♪ i l laced the t track, you lockeded the flow w ♪ ♪ so far from hangin' on the block for dough ♪ ♪ nototorious, ththey got to o ♪ - "i'll be missing you" was diddy's song aboutut big. suddenly, it's like, "oh, d damn." puffffy's gonna a be a lelegitimate s solo act, and enters the nextxt phase of f hip-ho. - ♪ every s step i takeke ♪ - ththere's sampling, and then there's sampling. to take e the "every breath you take" police sample and rap over it-- pupuff daddy f finds a way to a appeal to yououng listeneners and their parents. - ♪ i'm'm comin', i i'm ♪ - everybybody wants s to part. ain't t nothing wrwrong

withth partying,g, right, at all. puffff daddy built an empire e off of it,t, and it wasas out of vovogue to b be consciouous anymore. - - ♪ it's s like the m morey we comome across ♪ - ♪ yeah ♪ - - ♪ the m more problelems w♪ - ththe sound shshifted anand the use e of sampleses ex. "m"mo money momo problems" was a a diana rossss sample thatat an older r crowd could hearar and say,, "well, t that soundsds familiarar to me, so maybe t this isn't t all ba" - ♪ as theyey croak, i i see myf 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. - ♪ b been spendiding mostst 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 f forms of mumusic. 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 g frantic ♪ ♪ like sting, i'm tantric, like snickers ♪ ♪ guaranteed to satisfy ♪ - and there's r & b and rap mixing for n new jack swing. - ♪ back to t the matter,r, the nenew 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 p produced eveverybod. - ♪ all i w 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 allll had this s kind of rm ththat made you u have to dad. - ♪ s shorty, getet down, good lorord ♪ - new jack swing was someone that could sing with the level of stevie wonder, with the breakbeat background of public c enemy. and marry y those two.o. - ♪ bababy, i can g get you in my ridede ♪ ♪ i like the way you work it ♪ - ♪ no diggity ♪ - "no diggity" is the masterpiece of thehe... [laughghs] of t the new jacack swing er. - ♪ mm-hmm ♪ - ♪ we out, we out ♪ - hip-hop was a male-dominated music-- seriouslsly. lilike, women n were thougug, "oh, you'r're not sexy? oh, get ouout of here.e. you're notot shaking a ass? mmmm, get out t of here."" - ♪ i w wanna takee a minunute or two o ♪ ♪ 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's that mc l lyte." - ♪ gotta getet a roughneneck♪ ♪ gotta w what, yo? gogotta get a a roughneck k♪ ♪ i neeeed it and i i want i, so i gototta get ♪ - ♪ w who you calalling a biti♪ - ♪ h here we go o ♪ - "oh, w who's thiss queeeen latifah h girl?" and then l later on, "oh, w who's this s missy?" - - ♪ oh, missy,, try y to maintaiain ♪ - they werere respected as artisists. ththey didn't have to shshake by or w wear a low-cut blblous. it chahanged the w way we v viewed thinings. - ♪ i c can't standnd the ra♪ - to me,e, the e best two f female mcss to come out t of the '9090s are e missy elliliott and d lauryn hilill. - ♪ 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. - "t"the miseducucation ofof lauryn hihill." [cheers and applause] - with her record-breaking fifth grammy win, lauryn h hill echoed w what y might've beeeen 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, y yeah ♪ - ♪ wananna see me stick ♪ ♪ nine-e-inch nailsls through each onene of my eyeyelids? ♪ - ♪ uh-huh ♪ - - when em cacame, we sat b back like t this. - ♪ tryry 'cid ♪

♪ and g get messed d up woworse than m my life is s♪ - - what's thihis white boboy ? and then i i really lilistene. - ♪ but i c can't figurure ot which spicice girl ♪ ♪ i wanant to impreregnate ♪ - and d i was likeke, "whoa." - ♪ dre s said ♪ - ♪ slilim shady, y you a baseh♪ - - ♪ uh-uhuh ♪ - and drdre's behindnd it? hehe's in! he's in. - he's's not tryining to be b. he's not p pretending g he hs these greaeat, urban s storie. he's's telling h his story,, portrayiying lower-mimiddle-classss white , which h hip-hop had nonot done befefore. and i ththink that's's why he s so appppealing to o so many pep. - withth kids in a 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 logigical conclulusion of 20-0-odd years s of hip-h- and white kids listening to hip-hop, bubut now deciciding, "we e neo create o our own thihing." - ♪ my nameme is ♪ [imitatates recordrd scratch] ♪ slim shadady ♪ ♪ ♪

[stirring instrumental music] - 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. anand all the e sudden there's a a face to itit. - ♪ back withth another o oe ofof those blolock rockin'n' ♪

- 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 d 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 wasas brilliantnt. - - ♪ takining is too easy ♪ ♪ but that's the way it is ♪ - whoo! - there needed to be some music to be the sorbet, anand the palalate-cleansig fofor all the e intensityy that was t the earlierer 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 d to have fufun. - ♪ even inin my heart t ♪ ♪ i see ♪ ♪ you're not being true to me ♪ - the backstreet boys made a video for "quit playing games (with my heart)"---- themem, like, inin the rai, gettining all wet,t, being all sexy, and it became a hit. - ♪ quit playing games with m 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 r one of thehese." - ♪ tearin' u up my heartrt ♪ ♪ when i'm with you ♪ ♪ but when we are apart ♪ ♪ i feel it too ♪ - it was a little overwhelming to be, you know, 16 years old anand have thahat many peoeoe trtrying to atattack you.. itit was craziziness. and it f 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 y people camame outf "the mickey mouse club." keri r russell, justinin 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 i'm a genieie in a bottt♪ - ♪ 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. yoyou were likike, "that v e is coming g 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."" [laughghs] - music would be as much, or more, in people's lives than it ever had been, but the economics of it would vanish. - ♪ a another tururning poin, a fofork stuck i in the road♪ ♪ time grgrabs you byby the wr, direrects you whwhere to go ♪ - the '90s0s representnted being g who you are. "this s is the kinind of muc i'm gogonna 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 f for whatat the real l experience w- the messy,y, chaotic,, fallllible expererience of being human. and the '90s gave complete, green-light permission for ththat to be e explore. - you talk about this band a lot, then you go, "o"oh, wait a a minute, you can'n't talk abobout the 's "without this one! oh, and this one, and this one, and this one!" where there's so many momonumental b bands, one afteter another-r--

that's the '90s. - ♪ s so take thehe photograps and d stillframemes in your r ♪ ♪ 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] - video killed the radio star. now has the internet killed the record industry? - napster's stealing from us straight up, and i'm gonna fight them to the death. - ladies and gentlemen, the strokes.

- may i have your attention, please?