all the time running, run. run. run, yasmine, run like the wind. 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. >> you can take me out of 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 the 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 honeymoon's over. now we're getting down to real commerce. >> aren't these girls just crazy? >> yeah, they are. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ you may think of it as the channel that rattles your china, 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. >> 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 sweet cherry pie ♪ >> 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 that's selling. >> when i would turn on mtv, all 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, tapes and cds. and 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 and brought a big bag of cash as an incentive. >> the record companies would submit videos every monday and then we'd have our music meetings and look at all the videos and decide who was going to get put into the new rotation. i was a 21-year-old kid who loved punk rock, and i pretty quickly realized that the 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. ♪ 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 from the seattle band nirvana. "smells like teen spirit." ♪ load up on guns bring your friends ♪ ♪ it's fun to lose and to >> 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. ♪ when the light's out it's less dangerous ♪ ♪ here we are now entertain us >> here we are now, entertain us. it sounded like a threat. it sounded like a different generation coming in saying what do you have for us? what are you going to do for us? ♪ got to find a way, a better way, a way to live ♪ >> the so-called slackers, 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 their 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 kill 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 the clubs and see bands like cat butt and bands like screaming trees. it was such a refreshing change from the competitive sort of l.a. 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. ♪ outshined outshined ♪ outshined >> why don't you tell me what the biggest misconception about the so-called seattle music

scene is? >> everybody's a grunge band. >> all of 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, no one's ever asked us that before. >> we've never heard that question. >> so, tell me about the seattle sound? what's going on up there? >> what's in the water? ♪ son, 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. ♪ hey ♪ oh, i'm still alive ♪ i, oh, i'm still alive >> it's a little bit overwhelming to see this many people. we're used to playing small

clubs. you know? and we want to go back to playing small clubs. ♪ >> a collaborative rock tour kicked off in phoenix, arizona on thursday night. it's a multi-act package called the lollapalooza tour. ♪ ♪ all your crossroads >> 1991, we were the first band on stage at the first ever lollapalooza, which was a tremendous thing for my band and i. >> lollapalooza is cool. ♪ >> the idea you can 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." >> 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 got everything i wanted i could put a zero after the number of record sales i've had. i could play 200,000-seat halls instead of 2,000-seat halls and i could go on mtv 1,000 times a week rather than 1 time a month. and i thought maybe when i reached all these goals i'd find some sort of peace. i didn't. it's like i'm more miserable now than i ever was. ♪ this is something big.

this is something bigger. that is big. not as big as that. big. bigger. big. bigger. this is big. and that's bigger. ♪ here i go again on my own ♪ goin' down the only road i've ever known ♪ ♪ like a-- ♪ drifter i was ♪born to walk alone! you're a drifter? i thought you were kevin's dad. little bit of both. if you ride, you get it.

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shoot. 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 >> walmart 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 walmart they had to change the title from "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 punk authenticity but also wanting to be popular. ♪ rape me >> the star making machine had sucked nirvana up into its evil guts, 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 was just like -- it's been really damaging to us. to tell you the truth. it's really affected my personal life a lot. [ applause ] >> i was in the front row of the "unplugged" performance, and it was a serious artistic statement. kurt didn't play the hits. those songs were chosen for a particular reason. ♪ my girl, my girl ♪ don't lie to me ♪ tell me where did you sleep last night ♪ >> i remember watching him play a cover of a leadbelly 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 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 going to be okay. ♪ the whole night through ♪ >> from seattle tonight, word of an untimely death. >> the lead singer of nirvana shot and killed himself at his home in seattle, washington today. >> it didn't come as a major surprise, but it was devastating because of the way it happened. >> i pulled over and i was there for like 20 minutes, 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 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 turned 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? ♪ >> oasis, the verve, blur, the britpop thing, it was like the hangover of grunge. oh, my god, my head's pounding. this has been insane. let's turn on oasis. ♪ and after all ♪ you're my wonderwall >> they were the opposite of nirvana because they wanted fame. 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 i admire about oasis in a way is they've got no kind of -- no false modesty.

>> anybody can just sort of go we're brilliant. 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 the first song that becomes a hit everybody caricatures the band from that. we just have to wait to see whether we have a chance to prove that we're not just that. >> okay. ♪ >> i remember vividly listening to radiohead's next record, "the bends," nonstop i would just seriously geek out on every part, the bass line, like 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.

♪ >> "ok computer" is like "dark side of the moon" of the '90s. it really showed this is going to be a defining band of the next 25 years. >> 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 >> i was always interested in hip-hop. sort of non-linear word connections. ♪ i'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me ♪ >> beck is defining what's happening now with that mesh of styles. he's mixing electronic, country, rap, rock and roll, everything. everything. he's throwing the kitchen sink in. ♪

>> 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 seem charismatic or whatever, which i can't do. but 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 when everything was serious and had a heavy tone especially after kurt cobain's death, the foo fighters create the "learning to fly" music video. they found this perfect balance between making people laugh with also having the ability to play incredible rock music. ♪ my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows.

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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 and 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 asked people their favorite singer, number one in the nation was garth brooks. are you surprised by that? >> yes, sir. i guess my family knew they i guess my family knew they were going to be asking the questions and got there before they did. ♪ 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 probably 10 or 11 years old. ♪ to the oasis >> 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. >> 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 'n' roll.

guitars and big drums, and everybody's singing along. that's what everybody liked about rock shows. >> 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 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 in the music takes hold, westernwear 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, shelly wright, the dixie chicks, shania twain. ♪ let's go, girls >> 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 i came to find out i just wanted to be her best friend. ♪ the best part about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh, totally crazy >> in all fields in our society now women, i wouldn't say dominating. i think that they're just rising to their true place. ♪ i feel like a woman >> as things wore on, it became a great decade to be a girl. ♪ i just can't stop loving you >> 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 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 for a young woman's thoughts, feelings, voices, to be respected or taken seriously. ♪ i'm just a girl >> there was such a strange dichotomy to gwen stefani, super girlie but then also kind of tough. and then 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. >> we ran into each other. >> we're shopping today. we thought we'd take you with us. and alanis is here with a brand-new album. a brand-new look i've noticed. >> yeah. >> i was dropped from mca records after having made music through my teens. and my personal promise to myself was i wouldn't stop until

i wrote a record that really exemplified and nailed on the head what was truly going on for me. ♪ another version of me ♪ is she perverted like me ♪ would she go down on you in a theater ♪ >> that was a little pearl clutch moment. what did she say? women could 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. you didn't hear that a lot from women. ♪ well 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 ♪ >> over the last four years learned to write for my own reasons and write for myself. and it's pretty ironic the moment i started doing that was the moment most people related to it.

♪ an old man turned 98 >> you know, it was that egocentric tendency on my part and perhaps everyone's part to think 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 ♪ and 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 only alanis morrissette but 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 it wasn't at all representational of all the music that was out there. so this is sort of 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 fountains ♪ 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. ♪ the closer i am to fine ♪ yeah

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♪ original gangsta ♪ o.g. ♪ original gangsta gangsta rap, the angriest kind of rap music. it glorifies brutality and sex. >> gangsta rap really starts to take hold in the early '90s. people are moving away from the political raps of public enemy of the '80s and much more into reality rap and street rap. ♪ the police coming straight from the underground ♪ ♪ young got it bad because 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. >> renn and ice cube, they write the rap, right? me and my boy yella get together and hook up a good beat we feel will go good with the rap and there it is. platinum records. >> nwa at that point is the biggest hip-hop band there is. >> first time i heard nwa i was like that ice guy is all right but the rest of this is garbage. that was pretty much the attitude initially of most people who were part of the hip-hop world. ♪ nwa ain't shit to me ♪ dre ♪ step to the dog and get [ bleep ] up ♪ >> the east coast kind of felt like, well, we invented hip-hop, you're not going to come in as the new kid and decide this is the thing like the east coast is the home of hip-hop and we're all going to have a say in where hip-hop goes. ♪ mad thinking about stomping ♪ i'm from the south bronx ♪ [ bleep ] compton >> you going to continue making a lot of money off this? >> long as it's violence it's going to be rap music, gangsta rap music, whatever.

>> nwa was always too hot to hold. it had to splinter. and the first person who walks away is ice cube. ♪ tried to kill me >> same reason ice cube left the group is the reason i left. you know, tired of making other people money. it's my turn. ♪ tonight's the night i get in some shit ♪ ♪ 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 got dr. dre, who probably makes beats better than anybody. this guy fittin' to deliver a hit. >> dre put out his first solo album "the chronic." not only do you get dre but then

you also get snoop dogg. ♪ one, two, three and to the four ♪ ♪ snoop doggy dog and dr. dre is at the door ♪ >> ooh, boy. snoop doggy dog and dr. dre at the door. it's crazy. they knocked the door down, baby. ♪ g thing baby ♪ we're crazy >> 70% of rap music, including gangsta rap, was purchased by whites. >> growing up in st. 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 fairytale story. where now we can hear somebody else's history basically and understand where they're coming from. ♪ bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yea ♪ ♪ 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 records going to be the next motown, you know what i'm saying? "the chronic" album was the foundation, and we're going to keep rolling on until the house is finished. ♪ it's the bow to the wow creeping and crawling ♪ ♪ snoop doggy dogg

>> the handful of gangsta rap superstars are not just singing about being mean and nasty and vicious. they're accused of living up to their lyrics. ♪ about to get wrecked ♪ all respect to those ♪ who break their neck >> tupac shakur, rap star and 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 platform and you will be paid one of these days. >> you know, 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 ♪ give me that ball beat from dre ♪ ♪ let me serenade the streets of l.a. ♪ ♪ from oakland to sac town the bay area and back down ♪ ♪ cali is where they put their mac down ♪ ♪ california >> 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. >> papi, fab five freddie's here. >> oh, what up? >> what's going on? >> everything. it's all good in the hood. >> 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 in the gsv ♪ ♪ i got the chronic by the ♪ i love it when you call me big papa ♪ ♪ throw your hands in the air if yous a true player ♪ >> i make music about what i know. know what i'm saying? if i worked in mcdonald's, i'd have made rhymes about big macs and fries and stuff like that. you know what i'm saying? brooklyn, 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. >> and the winner is --

notorious b.i.g. >> b.i.g.! >> puff daddy in the house. >> i hosted that. mayhem almost broke out in that place that night. >> any of y'all want to be an artist and stay a star and don't want to worry about the producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the record, dancing -- come to death row. >> 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 in realtime. that was hip-hop's funeral.

thanks for the ride-along, captain! i've never been in one of these before, even though geico has been- ohhh. ooh ohh here we go, here we go. you got cut off there, what were you saying? oooo. oh no no. maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years? is that what you wanted to say? mhmmm. i have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. geico. proudly serving the military for over 75 years. you ok back there, buddy? going to the shawn mendes verizon up concert

was like an out of body experience. we were right in front of him. dead center. front row. 'cause actually, zarmina, you touched shawn mendes. yeah, i touched him! she touched shawn mendes! he like held my hand for a while. and then we got to meet him after, which was like... another surprise. yeah. we love verizon even more now. i'll never forget that day. ever. (vo) the network more people rely on, gives you more. like thousands of tickets to concerts, festivals and private shows. and big savings on our best phones when you switch. that's verizon. nice shot. thanks. i know you and your wife have been arguing yeah. you know how you been talking about how those old spice body washes are for you yeah. saying stuff like, men have skin too. yeah. man i have to come clean and just say it i borrowed your old spice moisturizer with shea butter from your shower that's it? those body washes are for us men, man shoot.

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bigger. this is big. and that's bigger. 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 gangsta rap has been gunned down. >> music industry sources on the west coast suspect that smalls' death may in some way be payback for the september killing of rap star tupac shakur. >> when tupac and biggie were

assassinated, it was a watershed moment i think in hip-hop culture. kind of the death of a revolution. >> these two men were two of the most successful rap artists in the industry. phenomenally wealthy. 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 to, 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 going to end. >> at least one radio station here in los angeles which has made a lot of money from gangsta 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 going to do? ♪ seems like yesterday we used to rock the show ♪ ♪ i laced the track you rocked

the flow ♪ ♪ notorious, they got to know >> "i'll be missing you" was diddy's song about b.i.g. suddenly it's like, oh, damn, puffy's going to 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 coming >> and everybody wants to party. ain't nothing wrong with partying, right, at all. puff daddy built an empire out of it. ♪ >> 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. ♪ i see myself in the pistol smoke ♪ >> you have songs like coolio's "gangsta paradise" which is, on the surface, a heavier song but the hook is so inviting and warm.

♪ been spending most our lives living in a gangster's paradise ♪ >> hip-hop had hit a point it had become mainstream and all of a sudden it starts appearing in other forms of music. there's this kind of rock-rap happening. >> there's hip-hop that can be found in pop music. ♪ harrison ford getting frantic ♪ new jack swing around town doesn't give a ♪ >> teddy riley was the big new jack swing producer, and he produced everybody. ♪ all i want to do zoom, zoom and a boom, boom ♪ he had wreckx and effect. he had his own group guy, heavy d and the boys. it all had this kind of rhythm that made you have to dance. ♪ get down, good lord >> new jack swing was someone that could sing with the level

of stevie wonder with the break beat background of a public enemy, and marry those two. ♪ baby, i can get you with my ride ♪ ♪ i like the way you work it ♪ no diggity >> "no diggity" is the masterpiece of the new jack swing era. ♪ we out >> hip-hop was a male-dominated music. seriously. like, women were thought of, oh, you're not sexy -- ah. get outta here. you're not shaking that ass, get out of here. ♪ i want to take a minute or two give respect to the man that made a difference in my world ♪ >> female emcees wasn't a pop cultural phenomenon really until salt n pepa, and that blew the doors off it. ♪ what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man ♪ ♪ he's a mighty mighty good man ♪ >> it opened up the door, well, who else are females rapping? oh. here's that m.c. lyte. ♪ can i get a

>> who you calling a bitch? >> 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 emcees to come out of the '90s are missy elliot and lauryn hill. ♪ it's been three weeks since you've been looking for your friend ♪ ♪ the one who never called you again ♪ >> you see the role of women in hip-hop, is it changing? like yourself? >> something that's always been there. whether or not they got the, you know, the acknowledgement they should have, they've always been there. and just now maybe they'll truly be acknowledged. ♪ some guys 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." >> with her record-breaking

fifth grammy win, lauryn hill echoed what many might have been thinking. >> this is crazy, because this is hip-hop music. you know what i mean? >> she's going to be big -- well, she already is a big star. you get five grammys you are. >> a lot of people think she's going to really redefine the connections among hip-hop, pop, for everybody. ♪ hi, kids do you like primus ♪ ♪ want to see me stick nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids ♪ >> when em came we sat back like this. 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! ♪ slim shady you a basehead >> 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. i think that's why he was so appealing to so many people. >> the 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. >> eminem saw the logical conclusion of 20-odd years of hip-hop. and white kids now listening to hip-hop were now deciding we need to create our own thing. ♪ my name is ♪ slim shady wireless network claims are so confusing. america's most reliable network. the nation's largest and most reliable network.

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it's hot news for the next dance genre, touted as the next bug thing. ♪ >> up until the end of the 90s, dance music was just a deejay, it was a beat. all of a sudden there's a face to it. the chemical brothers come up. >> this is very much the recycling age. is this music recycled? >> everything is secondhand. take things different places and create something new with it. >> all the time is going on at the same time, massive attack,

mobe and techno is really starting to take hold beyond dance clubs. all these artists and laying the saeds for what would become a pretty huge revolution of music. >> everybody's talking about them and they're heading to america. it started with the beetles and then the stons. roll over beethoven, the spice boys are coming. >> there had never been a group where different fans could relate to and it was brilliant. >> there needed to be some music to be the sorbet and palate cleansing. >> there are about to be more

teen-agers than any other time in america's history. teen-agers wanted to be entertained. they wanted to have fun. ♪ even in my heart i see you're not being true to me ♪ >> the back street boys made a video, them in the rain, getting all wet and being all sexy and it became a hit. ♪ quit playing games with my heart, with my heart, with 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 said i think i need another one of these. >> it was a little overwhelming to be, you know, 16 yoors oears

and having that many team trying to attack you. it was craziness and it felt like a dream. >> one by one the breathless few got their lucky autographs. most were missing school. many had mom as chaperones. >> all these people who had gone on to become huge pop stars began on disney. >> so many people came out of the mickey mouse club, justin timberlake, christina aguilera, britney spears. >> that's like the 1927 yankees in terms of pop. ♪ oh baby, baby, how was i supposed to know that something wasn't right ♪ >> teen-agers are the biggest consumers of music and britney has become their queen. ♪ i'm not that innocent ♪ oops i did it again >> britney was the madonna, whereas christina was like the

mariah. >> christina, a very tiny girl, under five feet. you're look that voice is coming out of that girl? >> mtv stopped playing music videos and it was more of this television reality. everyone was like that's not going to take off. >> music would be as much and 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 ♪ >> the 90s represented being who you are. this is the kind of music i'm going to make and i don't care who likes it and who doesn't like it and i'm not going to sound like anybody else.

this is who i am. >> people were starving for you a then at this tease, the messy, chaotic experience of being human. >> you talk about this band allot. and you oh, you can't talk about the 90 without this one or this one. there are so many monumental bands one after another. that's the 90s. ♪ ♪

video killed the radio star. >> bill board's top ten singles all by rap artists. >> i love beyonce. >> that's not a working telephone, is it?