Will Hodge is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
"My first thought when I listened back to the demo of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ was ‘Man, the hood’s gonna love this shit,'" recollects Coolio. "I was so excited about sharing it with everybody." To be clear, the "everybody" Coolio was initially thinking of was just his record label and his friends—"My day ones and my homies that I trusted to give me a…
"We have an audience for a song," singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb told Entertainment Weekly in the fall of 1995, "I hope they want to hear a whole album." As the first unsigned artist to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Loeb was situated within the unique position of having to balance the television-and-radio promotional whirlwind around her platinum-selling single "Stay…
When Carnie Wilson, Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips released their multi-platinum debut album Wilson Phillips 30 years ago this month, the initial press buzz surrounding the group mostly centered on their '60s rock royalty lineage: siblings Carnie and Wendy are the daughters of the Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson and Marilyn Wilson of girl group The Honeys, while Chynna is the…
While MTV’s "Unplugged" has mostly been around in some form or fashion over the last three decades, there’s no denying that it’s most memorable and creatively fertile period was its initial run throughout the entirety of the 1990s. With a deceptively simple ethos of stripping back the sparkle and roar of electric instruments in favor of the "nowhere to hide"…
There's no denying that 1990 was a watershed year for golden age hip-hop. Falling between the mid-'80s pop-cultural cannonball brought on by platinum-selling progenitors like Whodini, Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Fat Boys and the mid-‘90s boon of genre-perfecting classics from Dr. Dre, Tupac, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Snoop Dogg, the hip-hop scene of 1990 provides a vibrant…
"There's a reason Pearl Jam is still going strong 30 years in," states producer Josh Evans. "The guys care deeply about the details that matter and they’re determined to let go of the things that don’t." While Evans has worked in various capacities with the legendary alt-rockers since 2006, their brand-new album Gigaton (out now on the band's own Monkeywrench Records…
"I got my first Tom Waits record when I was about 17 and ever since then I’ve thought, 'I can’t wait to be an old man.' I’ve always wanted to just be a crazy old man musician, banging on pots and pans and playing whatever I want," laughs former Gaslight Anthem frontman and current Americana solo artist Brian Fallon as he…
While the holiday marketing phrase "the gift that keeps on giving" has been around since at least the 1920s, the musical embodiment of this seasonal sentiment can be traced directly back to Oct. 28, 1994, when Mariah Carey released her iconic multi-platinum Merry Christmas album containing her inescapable holiday hit, "All I Want For Christmas Is You." However, instead of…
For the last decade or so, Record Store Day and Record Store Day Black Friday have been the venues through which bands have chosen to offer their fans feverishly anticipated album reissues and first-runs on vinyl. One of the most celebrated stars of this year’s Black Friday event—taking place Nov. 29 at participating record stores across the U.S.—is Pearl Jam's MTV…
"Every year we joke about doing a Christmas record," laughs Letters To Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley, "but this year we decided to get serious and finally do it." Since reuniting in 2016, the beloved Boston alt-rockers have been playing a year-end run of shows where they like to have a surprise or two up their sleeves. "For the last couple of…
"I'm starting to think I may have finally found my true calling. I think this might be my thing and I'm really enjoying it," Juliana Hatfield mused, with equal parts dry wit and keen self-awareness. This confessional observation comes from the seasoned singer/songwriter/bandleader reflecting on her newest musical endeavor—splitting up her standard album releases with cover albums entirely devoted to…
"Good evening. This is off our first record. Most people don’t own it." With this unassuming and charmingly self-deprecating kick-off from frontman Kurt Cobain, Nirvana launched into their feverishly anticipated episode of "MTV Unplugged"—a crystallizing performance that quickly became one of, if not the most, beloved and iconic gigs of their all-too-short career. Often celebrated for showcasing both the band…
In popular culture, the cyclical adage "Everything old is new again" is often embodied in the form of the tribute album—an unwieldy vehicle of veneration whose success lies as much with the source material as with those interpreting it. A tribute album’s chances of hitting that sonic sweet spot are also enhanced when it follows the loosely structured (and hotly debated)…
As soon as an artist experiences success with their debut album, the shadow of the dreaded "sophomore slump" starts swirling on the horizon. In the 1990s, however, there were quite a few second album smashes that showed just how defiantly that curse can crumble under rarified musical talent, mastercraft songwriting and record-breaking runs at the top of the charts. Throughout the pre-millennium…
