By Johnny Yoo (ArtSci ’12)
Contributor

With the growing trend of electronic dance music (EDM) at Queen’s and throughout the world, I’ve been talking to my friends a lot lately about different genres of music. Top 40 is overplayed, auto-tune has no musicality, and trap (a hybrid music genre, usually incorporating elements of hip-hop, crunk, house, dub and hardstyle music) is catching on.

As a DJ, it’s interesting to see people react to the music I play. I’ll drop a new banger at Stages and everyone will go crazy, or I’ll loop something about ‘raise your hands’ and sure enough, everyone will raise their hands. But as soon as I play a Lauryn Hill or Biggie Smalls track, everyone just stops. People will come up to me and tell me I’m playing ‘garbage’, demanding I play something with a ‘good beat’. What’s that even supposed to mean? It’s also interesting because as soon as I go play in Vancouver or Toronto, people go nuts for throwbacks like TLC, Aaliyah, or Nas.

It’s time to dig deep and go back to a decade where music wasn’t just about raging and going wild; back to when it was about a chance to escape from reality through the love of sounds and passion, when icons were trendsetters and not followers. It’s time to go back to when music was simply … music.

At the end of the day, a DJ has to cater towards their audience, but I think that it’s time for an education of 90s R&B for people in Kingston to be more well-rounded when it comes to their choice in music.

If you’re ready to ramp up your musical education, here are my picks:

Classic ladies: Mary J. Blige, 702, TLC and Janet Jackson.

Slow jams: Brian McKnight, Boyz II Men and Blackstreet.

Favourite albums: Usher’s 8701 and My Way albums.

Current favourites: K.P. and Envyi’s “Shorty swing my way.”

Don’t forget: Ginuwine, D’Angelo, Aaliyah, R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, 112, Brandy, Joe, Jodeci and Avant. And who could forget Michael Jackson, easily one of the most iconic artists of all time.

While this is but a small taste of a huge palette, these are some of the most iconic artists of the 90s. Though it may not be your favourite genre of music, the next time you hit Alfie’s Throwback you’ll be able to recognize many of the jams.

Stay tuned for more from our Music Exposed series!