Feb 3, 2020
Topics: A Black Renaissance?, Mariah Carey, House
Party, In Living Color / The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Bonus Artist:
hidingtobefound)
1990 General Snapshots
1. George Bush Sr. President
2. January - United States
invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega, the deposed "strongman
of Panama", surrenders to American forces.
3. January - Douglas Wilder
becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes
office in Richmond, Virginia.
4. January - Mayor Marion Barry is
arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
5. February - James "Buster"
Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win the World Heavyweight Boxing
crown.
6. February - A smoking ban takes
effect on all domestic U.S. flights of less than six hours.
7. March - Greyhound bus drivers’
strike for higher pay.
8. April - STS-31: The Hubble
Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
9. June - Nelson Mandela tours
North America, visiting 3 Canadian cities and 8 U.S. cities.
10. July - George H. W. Bush signs
the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled
Americans from discrimination.
11. August - Gulf War: Iraq
invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
12. September - Chris Rock makes
Saturday Night Live debut.
13. October - Evander Holyfield
defeats James "Buster" Douglas to become the heavyweight boxing
champion.
14. November - Sharon Pratt Kelly
is elected Mayor of the District of Columbia, becoming the first
black woman to head a major U.S. city. She takes office January 2,
1991.
15. Top 3 Pop Songs
16. #1 "Hold
On" Wilson Phillips
17. #2 "It Must Have
Been Love" Roxette
18. #3 "Nothing
Compares 2 U" Sinéad O'Connor
19. Record of the Year - "Another
Day in Paradise" – Phil Collins
20. Album of the Year - Quincy
Jones (producer & artist) for Back on the Block
21. Song of the Year - "From a
Distance" performed by Bette Midler
22. Best New Artist - Mariah
Carey
23. Best R&B Vocal
Performance, Female - Anita Baker for Compositions
24. Best R&B Vocal
Performance, Male - Luther Vandross for "Here and Now"
25. Best R&B Performance by a
Duo or Group - Ray Charles & Chaka Khan for "I'll Be Good to
You"
26. Best Rhythm & Blues Song - "U
Can't Touch This" performed by M.C. Hammer
27. Best Rap Solo Performance -
M.C. Hammer for "U Can't Touch This"
28. Best Rap Performance by a Duo
or Group - Big Daddy Kane, Ice T, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, Quincy
D. III & Quincy Jones for "Back on the Block"
29. Top 3 Movies
30. #1 Ghost
31. #2 Home Alone
32. # 3 Pretty Woman
33. Other Notables:
34. Top 3 TV Shows
35. Cheers
36. 60 Minutes
37. Roseanne
38. Debuts: In Living Color, True
Colors, Brewster Place, The Fresh Prince
39. Economic Snapshots
40. New Home: 123k (previously
120K)
41. Avg Rent: 465 (425)
42. Avg. Income: 29k (27K)
43. New Car: 16k (15K)
44. Harvard: 13.5k (12.7k)
45. Movie Ticket: 4 3.50 -
same
46. Gas: 1.34 (.97)
47. Stamp: .25 (.25)
48. Social Scene: Pop Culture
Dominance and Influence
49. Politics: Colin Powell,
Douglas Wilder, Congressional Black Caucus @ 25 (John Lewis 2nd
term)
50. Business: Ebony/Jet, Russel
Simmons, Reginald F. Lewis
51. Sports: Magic Johnson, Michael
Jordan, Mike Tyson, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Barry Bonds, Ken
Griffey Jr.
52. Music: Michael Jackson,
Prince, Whitney, Janet Jackson, MC Hammer, Anita Baker
53. Movies: Eddie Murphy, Denzel
Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee, Robert
Townsend
54. Television: Oprah (Daytime),
Cosby (Prime time), Aresnio (Nighttime)
55. Open Comments:
56. Question: Assimilation? OK,
but who is changing who? Are we changing America or is America
Changing us?
57. Music Scene
58. Black Songs from the Top
40
59. #4 "Poison"
Bell Biv DeVoe
60. #6 "Vision of
Love" Mariah Carey
61. #8 "Hold
On" En Vogue
62. #11 "Do
Me!" Bell Biv DeVoe
63. #13 "Pump Up the
Jam" Technotronic
64. #14 "Opposites
Attract" Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair
65. #15
"Escapade" Janet Jackson
66. #17 "Close to
You" Maxi Priest
67. #21 "All Around
the World" Lisa Stansfield
68. #22 "I Wanna Be
Rich" Calloway
69. #23 "Rub You the
Right Way" Johnny Gill
70. #24 "She Ain't
Worth It" Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown
71. #26 "The
Power" Snap!
72. #30 "Two to Make
It Right" Seduction
73. #33 "Step by
Step" New Kids on the Block
74. #36 "I Don't Have
the Heart" James Ingram
75. #38 "Rhythm
Nation" Janet Jackson
76. #41
"Everything" Jody Watley
77. #42 "Back to Life
(However Do You Want Me)" Soul II Soul featuring Caron
Wheeler
78. #43 "Here and
Now" Luther Vandross
79. Top RnB Albums
80. January Tender Lover
Babyface
81. January Back on the Block
Quincy Jones
82. April Please Hammer, Don't
Hurt 'Em MC Hammer
83. June Poison Bell Biv
DeVoe
84. June Johnny Gill Johnny
Gill
85. August I'll Give All My Love
to You Keith Sweat
86. December I'm Your Baby Tonight
Whitney Houston
87. Featured Artist: Mariah Angela
Carey, (Songbird) singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and
philanthropist
88. Childhood - Born to Patricia
(Hickey), an Irish American mezzo-soprano opera singer, and Alfred
Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer. They got divorced when Carey
was only three. Her first public performance was at the age of six.
By the age of sixteen, she was skipping classes to write songs and
her brother, Morgan, paid for her first recording session. She
finally graduated from Harborfields High School, in 1987.
89. Career - Before Carey got her
big break, she worked as a temp and juggled with a few odd jobs
such as a beautician, hair sweeper in a salon, waitress and as a
coat check girl. After several years of struggling, Carey began
singing background vocals for the pop and salsa singer-songwriter
Brenda Starr in the late 1980s. Additionally, Carey wrote four
songs with Ben Margulies, which solely constituted her demo tape.
Margulies was a drummer, guitarist, piano player and singer. (One
of Margulies's bandmates went to high school with Mariah’s older
brother) Starr ultimately helped Carey land a record contract by
giving her demo tape to Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola.
In 1988, Mottola signed her***.
90. In June of 1990, her
self-titled album, ‘Mariah Carey’, which contained four No.1 hits
were released. It was the best-selling album of 1991 and has been
certified nine times Platinum.
91. Aside from her voice, she has
become known for her songwriting. Yahoo Music editor Jason Ankeny
wrote, "She earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston
and Celine Dion but did them both one better by composing all of
her own material." Also, according to Billboard magazine, she was
the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.
Additionally, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
lists Carey as the third best-selling female artist of all-time
behind Madonna, Rhianna, maybe Taylor Swift.
92. Open Comments:
93. Point #1 – Divas status is
earned. (She stuck to her guns re: song writing / Dunked on
everyone / Checked Eminem)
94. Pont #2 – Studio performer,
but not studio tricks.
95. Point #3 – The Christmas
Song
96. Question: Is Mariah a "Soul"
singer?
97. Movie Scene: House Party,” …an
infectious, engaging comedy starring the rap duo Kid 'N
Play.”
98. Plot: Although Kid has been
grounded by his father, he sneaks out for a party at his friend
Play's house. But Kid has no clue about the trouble that awaits him
in the form of three thugs from school.
99. Release date: March 9, 1990 /
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% 4.5 Stars
100. Budget - $2.5m, / Box office
- $26.4m
101. Open Comments:
102. Point #1: Cast is great
(Tisha & Martin broke out)
103. Point #2: First truly
successful "Hood" comedy franchise. (4! sequels)
104. Point #3: Not possible
without the success of Robert and Spike. Director said the project
only got the green light because of the recent box office success
of "black" movies.
105. Question: What are some of
your house party war stories?
106. Television Scene
107. #1 - In Living Color
(1990–1994): [IMDB Rating: 8.1/10] Keenen Ivory Wayans (@ wasn't
looking to do a TV show. In 1988, he was riding high on the success
of his cult hit I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and contemplating his next
movie. But he took a meeting with a fledgling network called Fox,
which made an offer he couldn't refuse. "They told me I could do
whatever I wanted," Wayans, 61, recalls. What he wanted was to do a
show like Saturday Night Live only much, much edgier. Homey Da
Clown, Homeboy Shopping Network, Men on Films, Fire Marshall Bill,
Oswald Bates, Wanda, The Fly Girls — the skits Wayans and his
mostly African American cast performed each week pushed the
envelope not just of TV's color barrier but of TV comedy, won an
Emmy and incubated the careers of stars Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and
Jennifer Lopez, and several members of the Wayans family.
108. Open Comments:
109. Question: Chapelle or In
Living Color?
110. #2 - The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air (1990–1996) [MDB Rating: 7.9/10]: A streetwise, poor young
man from Philadelphia is sent by his mother to live with his aunt,
uncle and cousins in their Bel-Air mansion.
111. Open Comments
112. Point #1 - Will and Jazzy
were supposed to do the movie House Party
113. Point #2 - Quincy is doing
the most! - Fresh Prince, a collaboration of Quincy Jones and the
then-married team of Andy and Susan Borowitz, was based loosely on
the life of Will Smith’s then-manager Benny Medina (and on the
lifestyle of Jones’ own family) and ran on NBC from 1990-96. NBC
was wary of a project starring a rapper, and the show was derided
at first by some for a lack of grit. Ultimately, critiques proved
ignorant, as the sitcom became part of the cultural DNA of the
1990s. “The Cosbys were affluent,” said Quincy Jones in 2015, “but
the Banks’ were wealthy. I don’t think you’d ever seen a wealthy
African-American family on television until Fresh Prince, and you
definitely hadn’t seen a kid from the hip-hop generation until
Fresh Prince.”
114. Open Comments:
115. Question: Why wasn't this
just "Different Strokes" - Pt. 2?
116. Vote: Best/most
important/favorite pop culture item from 1990?