Category

MUSIC

The songs and acts that leaked out of every passing car.

1. 1990 · #6

   Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and Rap’s Pop Breakthrough

   MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em spent 21 weeks at number one on Billboard’s album chart, though not in one uninterrupted stretch. The dancing, loose-fitting pants, and opening of U Can’t Touch This were instantly recognizable—even though the single itself peaked at number eight on the Hot 100. Vanilla Ice joined the rush when Ice Ice Baby reached number one in November and To the Extreme topped the album chart. Rap had already developed over many years through varied performers, regions, and messages. What changed in 1990 was the enormous pop audience reached by particular crossover acts.

2. 1990 · #5

   New Kids on the Block

   A New Kids on the Block fan could buy the record, hang a poster, wear a shirt, attend a concert, and place a favorite member on a shelf. Hasbro’s fashion dolls sold one million units in their first four weeks, according to an October 1990 report. Some buyers were as old as 15, suggesting these were not simply toys. They were physical souvenirs of a pop obsession—famous faces that remained in sight after the cassette ended and the television was switched off.

3. 1997 · #6

   Hanson and MMMBop

   Three brothers from Tulsa turned a nonsense chorus into a national earworm. You did not have to like it. You just had to survive it.

4. 1997 · #3

   Spice Girls

   Wannabe had already cracked the charts. 1997 is when Spice mania went full merch — dolls, movies on the horizon, and five nicknames every kid could recite.

5. 1999 · #4

   Britney Spears and the Teen-Pop Takeover

   ...Baby One More Time had landed at the end of 1998. 1999 is when Britney, the boy bands and TRL made teen pop feel like the only radio format that mattered.