At the dawn of the 1990s, music was beginning to change again. The 1980s were over, and the decade’s brand of brash, often synthesizer-inspired rock music was falling out of fashion. In came new voices, new heroes to follow. And that’s just what we wanted to highlight below.
Videos by American Songwriter
We wanted to dive back into the past and remember what it was like at the beginning of the 90s. A snapshot of the moment when one musical chapter was ending, and another was beginning. Indeed, these are three classic rock Grammy Award winners from 1990 who we still stan.
Bonnie Raitt
Songwriter and performer Bonnie Raitt left the 1990 Grammy Awards as the most decorated artist of the night, garnering four trophies on the evening. Those included Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, and Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for her LP, Nick Of Time. She also won Best Traditional Blues Recording with John Lee Hooker for their song, “I’m In The Mood”. Walking into the show, Raitt was already beloved. Walking out, she was a certified legend.
Traveling Wilburys
Just a decade after the Grammy Awards created the first rock categories in 1980, one of the genre’s most famous supergroups was taking home a golden trophy. Indeed, the Traveling Wilburys, a band that somehow included Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, took home the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their debut LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. It’s incredible to think about these five artists in the same room together and to know they were creating music together—mind-blowing! Even two of these people together is enough to get all atwitter.
Living Colour
The New York City-born band Living Colour brought heft and heaviness to the genre of rock music. And for all their oomph and strutting six-string style, the band garnered a coveted Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Hard Rock Performance, earning the hardware for their riff-heavy track, “Cult Of Personality”. Check out that offering in all its buzzy glory from the band, which is still touring today, here above.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
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