The discussion about the role of hip-hop's rise in the early 90s brings to mind a related occurence from the late 90s. In 1999, WCW, which had overtaken the WWF as the biggest wrestling promotion with the nWo angle and Hulk Hogan's heel turn in 1996, had fallen back into second place. One of WCW's creative head Eric Bischoff's ideas to heat the product up was to bring in Master P's No Limit Soldiers as a babyface faction (leading to a big appearence at the Superdome in P's native NOLA). They were positioned against Curt Hennig's West Texas Rednecks faction, who even performed their own anti rap country song "Rap is Crap."
Of course, the predominantly white fanbase of the historically Southern WCW, particularly the older fans who grew up in the mid 80s watching Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes feud through the Carolinas, rejected this formulation immediately. The West Texas Rednecks quickly became the beloved babyfaces, even getting country radio airplay for "Rap is Crap," while the No Limit Soldiers were roundly booed. Bischoff, trying to be on the cutting edge, had spurred a backlash from WCW's most ardent, longtime fans.
Hey, thanks for this anecdote. I'm not nor ever was the biggest wrestling fan so its good to have this additional info.
I'm sure there is a lot more of this type of thing occurring at the time in a variety of forums. I remember distinctly in Philadelphia in the late 1990s there was a radio station whose tagline for a bit was something like "The best of the 80s and 90s, without the rap". It did get some backlash, but the fact it existed in the first place showed there was a market for "rap-free" culture.
As this story suggests, I think these cultural shifts in 1990s are far more important than understood. Partly, its because historiography on the 1990s has only just really begun and its mostly focused on politics at the national level to the extent it exists. John Ganz's book is really the first to move a little beyond this. I think its very fertile ground for future exploration.
The discussion about the role of hip-hop's rise in the early 90s brings to mind a related occurence from the late 90s. In 1999, WCW, which had overtaken the WWF as the biggest wrestling promotion with the nWo angle and Hulk Hogan's heel turn in 1996, had fallen back into second place. One of WCW's creative head Eric Bischoff's ideas to heat the product up was to bring in Master P's No Limit Soldiers as a babyface faction (leading to a big appearence at the Superdome in P's native NOLA). They were positioned against Curt Hennig's West Texas Rednecks faction, who even performed their own anti rap country song "Rap is Crap."
Of course, the predominantly white fanbase of the historically Southern WCW, particularly the older fans who grew up in the mid 80s watching Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes feud through the Carolinas, rejected this formulation immediately. The West Texas Rednecks quickly became the beloved babyfaces, even getting country radio airplay for "Rap is Crap," while the No Limit Soldiers were roundly booed. Bischoff, trying to be on the cutting edge, had spurred a backlash from WCW's most ardent, longtime fans.
Hey, thanks for this anecdote. I'm not nor ever was the biggest wrestling fan so its good to have this additional info.
I'm sure there is a lot more of this type of thing occurring at the time in a variety of forums. I remember distinctly in Philadelphia in the late 1990s there was a radio station whose tagline for a bit was something like "The best of the 80s and 90s, without the rap". It did get some backlash, but the fact it existed in the first place showed there was a market for "rap-free" culture.
As this story suggests, I think these cultural shifts in 1990s are far more important than understood. Partly, its because historiography on the 1990s has only just really begun and its mostly focused on politics at the national level to the extent it exists. John Ganz's book is really the first to move a little beyond this. I think its very fertile ground for future exploration.