[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Chicago, Bobby Brown, Poison, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Bette Midler, Milli Vanilli, Will to Power, Anita Baker. End description]
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Choose your favorite song from 1989
1. Look Away by Chicago
2. My Prerogative by Bobby Brown
3. Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison
4. Straight Up by Paula Abdul
5. Miss You Much by Janet Jackson
6. Cold Hearted by Paula Abdul
7. Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler
8. Girl You Know It's True by Milli Vanilli
9. Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley by Will to Power
10. Giving You the Best That I Got by Anita Baker
Voting ended onMay 25, 2023
NINETEEN EIGHTY NINE the number another summer!
Okay Public Enemy didn't crack the top 10 so I'll stop.
But yes, we've reached the end of the 1980's. Soft rock and ballads are still a surefire way to perform well on the charts regardless of the changing trends. But one of those changing trends I'd like to shine the spotlight on is the rise of new jack swing, with the chart presence of Bobby Brown (formerly of New Edition), Paula Abdul, and Janet Jackson. The genre, with its fusion of r&b, funk, hip-hop, and dance will largely be associated with the 1990's, but these artists and tracks helped to set the foundation before we move into the next decade.
Another artist on here I want to talk about is Milli Vanilli. Not because of the song itself, but because it's a weird moment of music history and I want to talk about it. Girl You Know It's True was the duo's most popular single, but it was also the song that led to their downfall. For those who don't know, Milli Vanilli was one of the first major instances of an act being caught lip syncing during a performance after the backing track kept skipping. This wasn't a case of an artist lip syncing to their own tracks either, but rather it was revealed they were lip syncing to someone else's voice. The story goes to some rather sad places and it's questionable how much control Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan (the two men making up Milli Vanilli) had over their careers. According to the producer, Frank Farian, the session singers were brought in because he didn't believe the two men to be capable of singing themselves. Their request to sing on the album following the controversy were turned down and the group was fired. To this day, Milli Vanilli remains the only musical act to have a Grammy Award revoked by the Academy (seriously if you look up the 1990 award for Best New Artist, it still says "none"). While we won't get a major lip syncing scandal like this until Ashlee Simpson's 2004 SNL incident, the debate over lip syncing will continue in the coming decades. Especially with the rise of dance music, and artists like Martha Wash demanding credit for the use of their voices.
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