Hey Music Mag - Issue 5 - April 2019

D.O.C. (No One Can Do It Better) and EPMD
(Unfinished Business), while Public Enemy
and NWA caused untold moral panics with
their uncompromising black power rhetoric.
Elsewhere, in the US at least, grunge
was beginning to bloom: Nirvana,
Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Tad all
released seminal albums.
After a decade of Thatcherism, British
youngsters wanted a new attitude of
harmony and, most significantly, a new beat
to dance to. Acid house, and its attendant
offspring, certainly gave them that. In 1989
a new Sheffield label released its first 12-
inch from the shop that gave the imprint its
name, Warp. The Forgemasters’
Track With No Name was manna
for those dancers lost in the
unrelenting rhythm of bleep. In
London, Soul II Soul hit the top of
the charts with both their single
Back to Life and the influential
album it was pulled from, Club
Classics Vol. One.
It was in Manchester, of course,
that this new spirit hit the most
memorable ecstatic heights.
Bands such as The Stone
Roses and the Happy Mondays,
alongside producers 808 State
and A Guy Called Gerald, took the rave era’s
key signifiers to bold new heights. Following
a summer recording in Ibiza, Mancunian
statesmen New Order released their Balearic
album Technique.
The incredible thing about most, if not all,
of the music mentioned is that it remained
largely hidden underground. The media had
yet to cotton on to the alluring tales from the
dark side of popular culture and this was
of course pre-internet and
social media, where nothing is
underground for longer than
five seconds.
The other aspect largely
forgotten in our post-tribe
world where the history of
recorded music is just a click
away, is how much hard
10 ALBUMS THAT DEFINE 1989
1. Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique (Capitol Records)
2. Pixies Doolittle (4AD)
3. The Stone Roses The Stone Roses (Silvertone)
4. De La Soul 3 Feet High & Rising (Tommy Boy)
5. New Order Technique (Factory Records)
6. Nirvana Bleach (Sub Pop)
7. Soul II Soul Club Classics Vol. One (Virgin)
8. Madonna Like a Prayer (Sire)
9. The Cure Disintegration (Fiction)
10. Neneh Cherry Raw Like Sushi (Virgin)
work it was to maintain and cultivate
these cultural identities. Today, we’re all
hip-hop and indie fans. We all dance –
broadly – to the same music. Whether
that’s a good or bad thing is for
another discussion.
It was different in 1989. But things
were changing. People coming together
felt good. Taking over the mainstream
felt righteous. Cool was becoming
popular. It’s true when they
say the past is a foreign
country, they do things
differently there: 1989 is
proof positive of that and
just one reason why those
365 days deserve the
accolade of the Greatest
Year in Musical History.
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