Timeline of trends in music (1990-present)

1990s

1990 in music

International trends
- Barbadian artists like Gabby, Spice and Square One bring a new sound to Trinidadian soca
- Mari Boine's Gula Gula, and its titular hit single, bring Saami joik-based folk to popular attention
Music of Australia
- Aboriginal music undergoes a popular revitalization.
Music of India
- A vibrant electronica scene emerges in Goa, India.

Music of Japan

Rinken Band's surprise success led to the second wave of Okinawan music.

Music of Mexico
- Banda music evolves in Mexico out of norteño (Tex-Mex)
Music of Taiwan
- Building on the success of Song of Madness by Blacklist Studio, Rock Records releases Lin Qiang's Marching Forward, which began the era of New Taiwanese Song
Music of the United Kingdom
- The peak of twee pop's popularity. In the UK, it is centered around Sarah Records (Heavenly, The Field Mice (Skywriting), The Orchids); in the US, a much smaller fanbase is centered around Olympia, Washington's K Records and includes bands like Beat Happening
- Groups like My Bloody Valentine, Lush (Black Spring), Ride (Nowhere) and The Boo Radleys (Ichabod & I) begin to emerge and come to dominate the British mainstream.
- Bally Sagoo's Wham Bam launches a new scene of British Asian bhangra-dance music
Music of Puerto Rico
- Many of the biggest stars are playing Chilean nueva canción and Dominican merengue; the latter soon produces merengue bomba artists. Latin rappers like Vico C make Puerto Rico a center of hip hop in Latin America.
Music of the United States
- Hip hop and indie rock begin to influence metal, with pivotal releases by Primus (Frizzle Fry), Jane's Addiction (Ritual de lo Habitual), Anthrax (Persistence of Time), Sisters of Mercy (Vision Thing), Pantera (Cowboys from Hell) and Megadeth (Rust in Peace) revitalizing the genre
- 2 Live Crew's Nasty As They Wanna Be sets off a firestorm of controversy after it is banned in a Florida town as being "obscene"; the law is later overturned

1991 in music
- International trends
  - Mickey Hart's Voices of the Rainforest is the first commercial release of traditional music of Papua New Guinea to reach an international audience
  - A distinctively Scandinavian death metal scene emerges, especially in Norway at first, soon extending to Sweden and Finland with bands like Entombed (Clandestine), Amorphis (Dismet of Soul) and Therion (Beyond Sanctorum)
  - The Austrian band Attwenger releases Most, kickstarting the Alpine New Wave of folk and punk rock
  - Dance2Trance's "We Came in Peace" is considered the beginning of modern trance music, which evolved out of the moribund industrial-trance movement, said to have ended in this year, with Coil's Love's Secret Domain
- Music of Albania
  - The collapse of socialism leads to creative freedom and rapid cultural innovation in Albania
- Music of Brazil
  - Boi music begins to crack into mainstream markets in Brazil as the town of Parintins becomes a major tourist attraction and local musicians make an accessible form of the folk music
- Music of Canada
  - The Barenaked Ladies Yellow Tape becomes a hit and paves the way for an alternative rock revolution in Canada
- Music of Germany
  - With the reunification of Germany, the Rudolstadt festival helps to herald a new era of unity for German regional folk music
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Massive Attack's Blue Lines combines hip-hop with other elements, creating what would later be known as trip-hop
  - Spacemen 3 breaks up just as space rock breaks into the mainstream in Britain.
- Music of the United States
  - Releases by Melvins (Bullhead), Nirvana (Nevermind), Pearl Jam (Ten), Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger), Smashing Pumpkins (Gish) and Temple of the Dog (Temple of the Dog) solidify the sound of grunge in pop music
  - Garth Brooks' mainstream success with his third LP, Ropin' the Wind, sets the stage for the pop-country of the rest of the decade
  - A group of jam bands inspired by the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band start to become popular, drawing upon rock-oriented predecessors like Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic and Blues Traveler, mixing their sound with worldbeat and other influences; these include Phish (A Picture of Nectar), Dave Matthews Band, Rusted Root and Ben Harper, among others.
  - A Tribe Called Quest's Low-End Theory revolutionizes alternative rap, paving the way for its diversification of styles in the late 1990s
1992 in music
- International trends
  - Kyuss (Blues for the Red Sun) and Monster Magnet (Spine of God) help invent stoner metal
- Music of French Polynesia
  - Pascal Nabet-Meyer records himene tarava vocal music by the Tahitian Choir, which leads to the first international recognition for this form of Polynesian Christian music
- Music of India
  - Pratul Mukhopadhyay, Nachiketa, Anjan Dutta and, most especially, Suman Chottopadhyay lead a revival of various kinds of Bengali folk music in India and other parts of South Asia
- Music of Lebanon
  - Finally recovering from a long-running civil war, the city of Beirut begins to regain its once vibrant music scene
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - A combination of Britrock and grunge music helps to end the twee pop and shoegazing trends in Britain.
  - House and other forms of techno music begin to make it into the mainstream, led by pioneers like Leftfield ("Release the Pressure") Spooky (Gargantuan), and The Prodigy (Experience)
  - The compilation Artificial Intelligence is released, marking the beginning of intelligent dance music
- Music of the United States
  - Dr. Dre releases The Chronic, setting the tone and pace for gangsta rap in the rest of the decade, a slow, stoned West Coast rap called G Funk; Ice T's band Body Count loses their record deal with Warner Brothers after the song "Cop Killer" ignites controversy
  - The success of Arrested Development's 3 Years, 5 Months and Two Days in the Life of paves the way for the mainstream acceptance of southern rap, such as OutKast and Goodie Mob, and, eventually Master P and Juvenile
  - The hip hop crew WithOut Rezervation found the WOR festival in order to help Native American music reach younger audiences; Robby Bee & the Boyz From the Rez' Reservation of Education is an influential Native American hip hop album. The same year, the Joaquin Brothers played at Carnegie Hall, which is the high point in popularity for waila (a Tohono O'odham genre also known as chicken scratch)
1993 in music
- International trends
  - Radiohead (Pablo Honey), Stereolab (Transient Random Noisebursts with Announcements) and Tool (Undertow) release critically acclaimed debuts showcasing a new sound in hard rock and heavy metal
- Music of Albania
  - Ardit Gjebrea becomes Albania's first pop star after releasing "Jon"
- Music of Brazil
  - The MD MC's "Salvador Astral" is one of the earliest international hits by a Brazilian hip hop group; it kickstarts the scene in Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities
- Music of Colombia
  - Carlos Vives' Clasicos de la Provincia revolutionizes vallenato makes the singer into a superstar
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Aphex Twin (Selected Ambient Works 85-92), The Orb (Live 93) and similar artists reach the height of their cult popularity; this is the golden age of ambient music.
1994 in music
- International trends
  - The Alpine New Wave movement peaks in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland; bands like Hundsbuam are popular
- Music of Ireland
  - At the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, Michael Flately and Jean Butler's Riverdance performance group is formed to play between acts; it goes on to lead a wave of internationally popular set dancing groups
- Music of Jamaica
  - In Kingston, police begin shutting down stereo systems that play graphically violent dancehall and ragga lyrics; artists like Buju Banton (Voice of Jamaica) and Yellowman (Prayer) are already emerging with a more socially aware tone.
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Britpop's initial peak of popularity, with releases from Oasis (Definitely Maybe), Manic Street Preachers (The Holy Bible), The Verve (A Storm in Heaven), Elastica ("Connection"), Suede (Dog Man Star) and Blur (Parklife) dominating the British scene
  - Apache Indian appears on BBC Radio One, the first British Asian performer to do so, marking the beginning of mainstream acceptance for British Asian bhangra; Nitin Sawhney's Migration is a pioneering fusion of bhangra with flamenco, jazz and other influences
- Music of the United States
  - Punk pop breaks into the mainstream, with releases from The Offspring (Smash), Green Day (Dookie) and Rancid (Let's Go) achieving massive chart success
  - Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" is often cited as the last major hit of the grunge-era
  - After several years of domination by the West Coast, East Coast hip hop returns to critical acclaim and popular success with Nas' Illmatic and the Notorious B.I.G's Ready to Die; Master P's underground hit The Ghetto Is Trying to Kill Me marks the emergence of No Limit's stable of New Orleans-based hip hop artists; Da Brat's Funkdafied is the first hip hop album by a woman to go platinum.
1995 in music
- International trends
  - Power metal begins to break into the mainstream in continental Europe, with bands like Stratovarius (Fourth Dimension) and Tad Morose (Sender of Thoughts) being popular
  - Gabba (a form of techno music) emerges and is popular in Scotland and the Netherlands
  - Itzhak Perlman's In the Fiddler's Houseis by far the best-selling klezmer recording in history
  - Beck (Odelay), Tool (Aenima), Sepultura (Roots) and Korn (Life Is Peachy) release metal-influenced albums that dominate the year's sound in popular music
- Music of Albania
  - Albanian Radio-Television organizes a festival in Berat to help support traditional music
- Music of Belize
  - Ivan Duran of Stonetree Records begins the Paranda Project to record the remaining elderly, rural practitioners of paranda music among the Garifuna people
- Music of Jamaica
  - Dave Kelly's "Pepper Seed" introduced minimalist digital tracks into dancehall music
- Music of Serbia and Montenegro
  - Turbo-folk, a form of aggressive Serbian folk music, develops in industrial centers like Belgrade
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Goldie's Timeless marks the commercial pinnacle of drum n bass (jungle techno).
- Music of the United States
  - Punk-inflected ska becomes popular, especially by bands like No Doubt (Tragic Kingdom), Rancid (And Out Come the Wolves), The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones (Question the Answers), Reel Big Fish (Everything Sucks) and Sublime (Robbin' the Hood)
  - Mafioso rap, a largely underground phenomenon, peaks with Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Mobb Deep's The Infamous and AZ's Do or Die.
1996 in music
- Music of Belgium
  - A new wave of Belgian folk bands emerge from Herman Dewit's annual music courses held near Gooik; these include Ambrozijn, Fluxus, Marc Hauman & De Moeite, Laïs
- Music of Colombia
  - Carlos Vives, a soap opera star, becomes popular playing a vallenato-influenced form of salsa
- Music of Cuba
  - Timba music (a form of Cuban-born salsa) evolves out of charanga bands and songo
- Music of Finland
  - Tellu Virkkala's Suden Aika revolutionizes traditional Finnish runosong
- Music of Tanzania
  - Mr. II's "Ni mimi" establishes Tanzanian hip hop and launches the career of one of the nation's biggest future stars
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - DJ Spooky's Songs of a Dead Dreamer marks the beginning of illbient electronic music; Single Cell Orchestra (Single Cell Orchestra) and Spectre (The Illness) also release important illbient albums; Plug (Plug 1), Aphex Twin (Richard D. James Album) and Squarepusher (Conumber) emerge with drill n bass music.
  - The group Fernhill releases their first album, Ca Nos, which begins their reign as the most experimental and innovative of traditional Welsh bands
- Music of the United States
  - Industrial music achieves its greatest mainstream success with Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar
  - dc Talk's "Jesus Freak" is the first rock song to win the Dove Award for song of the year; this is the first time a non-traditional genre won the award for best Christian-themed song
  - The Fugees' The Score is a massive hit; the album's blend of reggae and hip hop is the beginning of an upsurge in western popularity for island music, presaging the future rise of Beenie Man, Buju Banton and Bounty Killer, among others.
1997 in music
- International trends
  - Groups like Hanson (Middle of Nowhere) and The Spice Girls (Spiceworld) signal a move towards dance-oriented pop influenced by Europop
- Music of Spain
  - Carlos Nuñez's A Irmandade das Estrellas goes platinum in a few months, leading to unprecedented fame for the Galician bagpipe virtuoso
- Music of Thailand
  - Luk Thung FM, the first all pleng luk thung radio station, goes on the air, heralding a revival of the genre
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Bands like Stereolab (Dots and Loops), Radiohead (OK Computer) and Portishead (Portishead) reflect a new British rock sound
  - The British Asian underground has become mainstream, and artists like Talvin Singh are stars
- Music of the United States
  - The death of the Notorious B.I.G, months after the murder of Tupac Shakur, marks the beginning of the end of the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry in hip hop as hip hop genres begin to splinter and diversify; Puff Daddy & the Family's No Way Out and Mase's Harlem World cement Bad Boy Records as the biggest label on the East Coast, while Death Row Records disintegrates
  - Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike release Sacred Path: Healing Songs of the Native American Church, which features an innovative, modernized version of traditional Peyote Songs
1998 in music
- Music of China
  - Nangma karaoke bars become common in Lhasa
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - The mainstream success of trance music reaches its peak with artists like Paul Oakenfold (Tranceport, Global Underground: New York) and Sasha + Digweed (Northern Exposure Vol. 2: West Coast Edition and East Coast Edition) releasing successful recordings.
- Music of the United States
  - Lauryn Hill sweeps the Grammies for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill; the album is a harbinger of the return of 1970s-style soul music
  - DMX's It's Dark and Hell Is Hot revitalizes the critical viability of East Coast gangsta hip hop
1999 in music
- Music of Puerto Rica
  - A major resurgence in plena results in international popularity for Plena Libre and other modern bands
- Music of the United Kingdom
  - Kathryn Tickell's Debateable Lands takes Northumbrian folk music in a new direction
- Music of the United States
  - High sales from Kid Rock (Devil Without a Cause), TLC (Fanmail), the Backstreet Boys (Backstreet's Back, Millennium) and Britney Spears (...Baby One More Time) show a popular emphasis in the US on pop- and hip hop-oriented acts.

2000s

2000 in music
- International trends
  - Pop albums dominate the charts and set records for sales - 'N Sync (No Strings Attached), Britney Spears (Oops!... I Did It Again), Nelly (Country Grammar), Backstreet Boys (Black & Blue), Creed (Human Clay), Destiny's Child (The Writing's on the Wall), Faith Hill (Breathe), Bon Jovi (Crush) and No Doubt (Return of Saturn) release top-selling albums
- Music of Canada
  - With the opening of the first urban-themed radio station in Canada (in Toronto), Canadian hip hop finally enters the mainstream en masse
- Music of Finland
  - Bomfunk MC's ("Freestyler"), HIM and Tik N' Tak succeed in bringing Finnish Suomi rock to the fringes of the mainstream in Europe.
- Music of the United States
  - O Brother Where Art Thou (soundtrack) is a surprise success, bringing bluegrass to the fringes of the mainstream.
2001 in music
- International trends
  - Napster's popularity peaks
- Music of the United States
  - Important nu-metal releases from System of a Down (Toxicity) and Tool (Lateralus) define the burgeoning scene; Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory is the top-selling album of the year in the United States.
2002 in music
- International trends
  - Several hyped garage rock and alternative country artists break into the mainstream, at least partially -- The Vines (Highly Evolved), The Strokes (Is This It), The White Stripes (White Blood Cells), The Hives (Veni Vidi Vicious), Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) and Ryan Adams (Gold, Demolition) achieve sales unheard of for such bands in recent years.