All successful
musical idioms linger on commercially well after their creative vitality has left, and rock is no exception to this rule. Rock will continue to be the money maker it has been in the latter half of the century, but any hope of a fourth or fifth injection of true creative restoration of the genre is highly unlikely. Thus, rock's last inoculation against a premature demise was during this Jupiter-Uranus Opposition.
The band's which received
the torch of creativity from the Sex Pistols, Velvet Underground, and the
Talking Heads, (and not Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles)
would make their definitive statements or form under this planetary alignment.
The Cure's melancholic masterpiece, Disintegration is released,
Ninch Inch Nail's debuts with the industrial symphony, Pretty Hate Machine.
Depeche Mode's sanctimonious
but genre-defining Violator is offered up, The Pixie's oft-imitated alt-rock masterpiece, Doolittle is released, Jane's Addiction's breakthrough, Ritual
de la Habitual, the Beastie Boy's sampling masterpiece, Paul's
Boutique, the Stone Rose's brilliant eponymous
offering, the notorious wall of sound technique created by My Bloody
Valentine, Liz Phair's soul-searching confessional Girlysound is laid down, and finally, the solidification of Seattle grunge occurs with the formation of Pearl Jam
and Nirvana's recording of Nevermind.
 De La Soul's Three
Feet High and Rising would be the defining moment of hip-hop. Often
imitated but never surpassed, this masterfully produced collection of infectious
grooves, beats, samples, and rap continues to delight even after the epiphanic
first listening. To appropriate an Orb sample, upon listening you'll say,
"I've never heard music like this before, and if I did, I wouldn't know
where I heard it!"
 Garth Brook's releases the ten-million selling No Fences in 1990 and, with it, single-handedly revolutionize the face of country music. Brooks was also the first country artist to utilize arena rock theatrics in his shows. Garth did not conform to the intimate style of singer-audience collaboration but much preferred the performer-as-star mentality of rock'n'roll. As Writer Thomas Erlewine writes, "After Garth, country music had successfully carved a permanent place for itself on the pop charts. In the process, it lost a lot of the traditionalism that had always been its hallmark."(1)
 Raves and the second wave of Acid House boomed over England, with London and Manchester becoming hot spots to crowds years before commercialized electronica, or anything of its ilk, would hit mass popular consciousness.
As Simon Reynolds writes in his book, “Generation Ecstasy,” “For Many, 1989 was the year things really kicked off…it was a mass movement.” (2)
Met with a lukewarm public
response relative to the release of the DX-7, Roland ushers forth the TR-808
Rhythm Machine and TB-303 bassline synth. The influence of these
machines on dance music for nearly two decades has been enormous.The state-of-the-art
drum machine software synths has not strayed from the TR-808's user interface
and the unmistakable sixteenth note drill of the TB-303 and its offspring
has been encoded into the collective unconscious of millions of ravers, dance
fans, and head boppers worldwide.
The first house record
usually agreed upon as Jesse Saunders' "On and On" is released in
mid-1983. Years before the words "techno," "electronica,"and
"rave" would enter mass public consciousness, pockets of progressive
creativity—usually found in economically depressed sections of industrial
U.S. and European cities—would take hold of youth looking for a radical
departure from rock'n'roll.
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