Old friends like Ozzy Osbourne continued to build on his illustrious career, and hardcore acts such as Dillinger Escape Plan proved that there was room for something even more challenging.

The song itself, written by Prince, is outstanding, but Sinead's emotional, gutsy performance made it a classic. The uplifting, intelligent lyrics and positive tone seemed to herald a new direction for rap, but it turns out that the gangsta takeover, just a year away, would win out. The emergence of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a top-10 pop hit remains one of the most dramatic events in 1990s pop music.Beyond its audio appeal, "Waterfalls" is a disturbing commentary on street violence and its impact on the lives of young Black men.

Heart 90s is a national digital radio station that broadcasts nationally on Digital One DAB from studios at Leicester Square in London. The a cappella anguish in Kelly's voice in the song's opening is brilliant, and it becomes an amazingly sexy song. This Scottish performer put together one of the catchiest and most unique-sounding hits on '90s radio, sounding much like a more pop-oriented Iggy Pop. The '90s began with the biggest art theft in history at the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

It plays music from the 1990s, such as those from Blur, Oasis, Nirvana, Primal Scream, The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Portishead, Guns N' Roses and The Stone Roses among others. Fat, Parliament-style funky beats, laidback rap vocals, words reflecting the violence of life on the street, and pop hooks combined for a tremendously successful new sound. Boy bands and divas dominated the pop and dance charts, while East and West Coast rappers gave hip-hop a fresh sense of urgency.

Tim’s Listening Party is the new podcast from The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess as he brings his world-famous Twitter Listening Party to Absolute Radio.

On a lighter note, the last "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip was published and the first successful air-balloon ride was made over the Pacific. Stereolab combined French pop with Krautrock to create one of the most unique sounds of the decade, and Portishead used the aesthetics of hip-hop to help introduce trip-hop. seemingly appeared out of nowhere, becoming a neo-folkie hit first on modern rock radio stations and then on the pop charts. Simpson was found not guilty of the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman.

As hip-hop was moving further into the mainstream, this group from Oakland distinguished itself by backing goofy raps with hot Parliament-Funkadelic-inspired funk. It was not really part of any album project but rather was added to the soundtrack album of "Dick Tracy. Germany was reunited after 45 years of separation, South Africa's Nelson Mandela was freed, Lech Walesabecame the first president of Poland, and the Hubble Telescope was launched into space. This tale about a girlfriend who "has a halo hanging from the corner" of her four-poster bed is instantly recognizable and memorable.

Although many people remember the video for its sweet "dancing bee girl," the tune itself is much darker, outlining the efforts of bassist Brad Smith to cope with his girlfriend's struggles with clinical depression. The record's theme—a long night of lovemaking with a hitchhiker—was initially controversial, but at its core it's a fun fantasy straight out of a romance novel. A Copper Age man was found frozen in a glacier, and on Christmas Day 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, officially ending the Cold War that had begun in 1947, shortly after World War II ended in 1945.