Music
From Napster and TLC's No Scrubs to Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin and Chris Cunningham's disturbing music videos, these are some of the reasons why 1999 matters.
The year 2000 gets all the acclaim. A new millennium introduced new sounds and a glut of incredible albums. However, the year before it still had its moments, and, in many respects, set the scene for the years to follow.
The White Stripes released their self-titled debut album, ushering in a garage-rock (and Detroit music) revival. The Magnetic Fields set a new benchmark for concept albums with their magisterial 69 Love Songs. Pop-punk became a properly mainstream concern thanks to Blink-182. Kelis introduced herself with the ferocious Caught Out There. And Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears began their chart battle.
In the UK, garage continued to bubble away, with artists like Wookie doing their thing, cueing up the genre's eventual transformation into grime. Post rock, meanwhile, was beginning a second golden period that would make Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós and Mogwai stars.
As RBMA Daily continues to celebrate 20 years of Red Bull Music Academy, below are more reasons why popular music from 1999 matters.
Music began its relationship with the internet
When Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker's peer-to-peer file-sharing site Napster launched in June, 1999, it was inevitably met with fierce resistance by a music industry terrified by the prospect of fans listening to, and sharing, music for free.
Napster was eventually shut down over copyright infringements, but with 26 million music fans using the site by 2001, the horse hadn't just bolted – it had learned to fly. Although they were still more than half a decade away, streaming sites were the obvious future.
As was his way, David Bowie also forecast the future by making his album Hours available to download two weeks before the physical release. He was the first commercial artists to do so.
Eminem released The Slim Shady LP
Hip-hop wasn't firing on all cylinders in 1999, not like it had been in the 'golden years' prior. There were still killer long-players by Prince Paul's Handsome Boy Modelling School (So... How's Your Girl?), Beastie Boys (Hello Nasty), Ol' Dirty Bastard (Nigga Please), Dr Dre (2001), MF Doom (Operation: Doomsday), and The Roots (Things Fall Apart), though. The Rawkus label, too, was dropping stone-cold classics.
That was all overshadowed by a record that introduced the bleached hair, existential fury and toilet humour of Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, to the world.
Propelled by Dr Dre's production, The Slim Shady LP kickstarted an Eminem phenomenon that would last, properly, for nearly a decade. It wasn't all good for Eminem, though. His mum tried to sued him for slandering her on the record.
Elton John appeared on The Simpsons
Paul McCartney, Sonic Youth, George Harrison, U2 – The Simpsons had already convinced some huge music names to appear on the show before 1999. But season 10 saw a particularly stellar list of musical guests making fun of themselves.
Cyndi Lauper, Dolly Parton, even Yo La Tengo and, err, The Moody Blues all did their thing. Guest appearances don't get much bigger than Elton John, though. The bespectacled, piano-playing legend was delightfully self-deprecating when he agreed to perform a private concert for feuding lovers Apu and Manjula in the episode, I'm With Cupid.
TLC released No Scrubs
TLC had been away for four years or so by the time 1999 rolled along, and had been replaced on the throne reserved for R'n'B's most independent women by Destiny's Child. No Scrubs put them right back in the game.
Written by Kandi Burruss, Kevin 'She'kspere' Briggs, and Tameka 'Tiny' Cottle, but with a self-written rap by Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, the song flipped the script on late-90s hip-hop and R'n'B misogyny by railing on lazy, uncouth men without ambition.
Accompanied by a futuristic video, it dominated screens and airwaves alike, and even inspired a male response from Sporty Thievz, called No Pigeons. The song still bangs and continues to influence artists, including Ed Sheeran, Jorja Smith, and Kacey Musgraves.
One-hit wonders
Every year has its own one-hit wonders – artists who, for a few fleeting moments, are inescapable before scuttling back off to where they came from. They're a part of every music fan's past, and those paying close attention in 1999 will have more of them than most in their pantry of guilty pleasures.
Eagle-Eye Cherry's reggae-pop hit Save Tonight, Vengaboys' rave-for-toddlers smash We Like To Party, and film director Baz Luhrmann's spoken-word PSA oddity Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), plus inescapable tracks by Eiffel 65 and Lou Bega, are all stored in the recesses of music fans' memories.
A special mention, though, goes to LEN's Steal My Sunshine, a summer anthem it's still okay (honest) to bust out when the excitement of seeing the sun finally come out just gets too much. The Canadian rock duo's only hit has traces of the DNA belonging to Bran Van 3000's Drinking In LA, Fred Durst-approved rap-rock, and other faddish styles of the time.
Flaming Lips broke through with The Soft Bulletin
Wayne Coyne's Oklahoma oddballs – whose early years were so beautifully captured on the film Fearless Freaks – were nearly psych-rock almost-rans. Formed in the 1980s, their only brush with fame was their 1993 indie anthem She Don't Use Jelly. Apart from that, though, the Flaming Lips' glorious, amorphous mess of lysergic acid-fried psychedelic punk and garage was a niche concern.
However, following their interactive sound experiments with fans in parking lots, which their four-disc 1997 album Zaireeka was a part of, the band developed a proggy coming-of-age sound filled with dense orchestration, head-rush melodies, euphoric experimentation, and lush harmonies. More remarkable still, was its introspective and dark subject matter: death and drug abuse.
This was the album that introduced the band fans (including collaborator Miley Cyrus) know now. A band that delivers sermons on mortality and sexuality in performances incorporating oversized hands, glitter canons, and animal costumes.
Chris Cunningham's iconic music videos
UK video artist Chris Cunningham set his stall out early, making his first music video for techno-noise conceptualists Autechre in 1996.
After a stint working with a handful of lesser-known Britpop bands, Cunningham made an infamous name for himself with the disturbing video for Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy. Banned almost everywhere, Cunningham was suddenly sought after by many artists, including Madonna.
1999 was the year his surreal, nightmarish visions became truly iconic. Peep at his videos for Bjork's All Is Full Of Love, Aphex Twin's Windowlicker, and Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa's Afrika Shox and you’ll see why.
French touch conquered the world
Daft Punk brought the '90s French house scene to international prominence in 1997, with their debut album Homework, but the French touch sound was about more than just that robotic duo.
Embracing disco, P-funk, Jackin', and all the other best bits of '70s and '80s American dance music, in the early '90s French producers had started to craft their own sound by adding filter effects to house and techno, and giving it some Gallic panache – the 'French touch'.
The scene didn't last much longer, but in the final year of the millennium everyone partied like it was, well, 1999.
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