TOTP: The Story of 1990

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Top of the Pops

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The Story of 1990

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Mark Cooper

Matt O'Casey

Top of the Pops: The Story of 1990

BBC One - Top of the Pops, The Story of 1990

How Top of the Pops embraced the new sounds of hip-hop, dance and the indie underground. 

How, at the start of the 1990s, Top of the Pops learned to embrace the new sounds of hip-hop, dance and the indie underground. With contributions from Adamski, Seal and Betty Boo.

After the global political upheaval of 1989, from the Berlin Wall to Tiananmen Square, the start of the 1990s soon demonstrates that the new pop grammars of hip-hop and dance all too often bewilder the entertainment-focused, old-school institution that is the BBC’s weekly chart show. 

Adamski, Orbital, 808 State and Eurodance sensations Snap! struggle to translate their brand of cool beats to the BBC’s need for entertainment, musicianship and random dancers, while the likes of Betty Boo, MC Tunes and Beats International introduce the British take on hip-hop to the studio. In a year in which even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and John Barnes embrace rap, these breakthrough hip-hop artists have to share the Top of the Pops stage with some big balladeers, including Sinead O’Connor and Maria McKee. 

As the Milli Vanilli scandal breaks internationally, Top of the Pops begins to question and change its own miming policy. Hip-hop kids and the indie underground start entering the pop mainstream, as Liverpool’s finest football freaks The Farm demonstrate. But despite the new zeitgeist, the battle for the Christmas Number 1 is an almost traditional stand-off between the old guard (Cliff Richard) and the young pretender (Vanilla Ice).

Contributors include Adamski, Seal, Betty Boo, Orbital, Norman Cook, 808 State, MC Tunes, Lindy Layton, Peter Hooton from The Farm and Penny Ford from Snap!

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