The Centre for Musical Training and Promotion is founded with a grant from the European Fund for Development, helping to accelerate a process of cultural development through expanded opportunities for touring and recognition in Niger
Many of the biggest stars are playing Chilean nueva canción and Dominicanmerengue; the latter soon produces merengue bomba artists. Latin rappers like Vico C make Puerto Rico a center of hip hop in Latin America.
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
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
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
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
Garth Brooks' mainstream success with his third LP, Ropin' the Wind, sets the stage for the pop-country of the rest of the decade; it is the first country album to debut at #1 on the pop charts
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
Pratul Mukhopadhyay, Nachiketa, Anjan Dutta and, most especially, Suman Chottopadhyay lead a revival of various kinds of Bengalifolk music in India and other parts of South Asia
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
Suede releases their debut, Suede, after much hype from the music magazines; the recording sells faster than any other in British history at the time
Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted is the first mainstream lo fi pop release
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)
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
A showcase brings together many of Congo's biggest names in the country's musical history, including Koffi Olomide and Papa Wemba, helping to revitalize Congolese music, long suffering under the shadow of the Parisian soukous scene
Superstar Joseph Kamaru becomes a born again Christian and switches from Kikuyu pop to gospel music
Samba Mapangala breaks up his band, Orchestre Virunga as Nairobi begins to lose its reputation as a haven for Congolese musicians
Pop-disco is popular, and only a few of the long-running Congolese or Swahili bands maintain popularity in adopting that sound, among them Les Wanyika, whose [Les Les Nonstop '90 was a major hit
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
LTJ Bukem's "Music" is the beginning of ambient jungle
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
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 Madagscar
Tarika, a popular roots revival band, emerges from the break-up of the long-running Tarika Sammy
4 Heroes's Parallel Universe adds jazz influences to jungle music, while Sub Dub begins the evolution of illbient
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
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.
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
Ivan Duran of Stonetree Records begins the Paranda Project to record the remaining elderly, rural practitioners of paranda music among the Garifuna people
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
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.
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
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.
