It’s unlikely we’ll ever see another decade in music like the 90s given our economic landscape. This means that today, artists like Dionne Farris and Erykah Badu would be too hard to market in today’s climate, because their sound would be deemed “too risky.” And for record companies, reducing risk means more trotting out of formulaic tripe. And Black radio was among the primary victims. When the FCC passed the landscape-changing media consolidation rules in 1996, it encouraged mega-companies to buy out indepedent, locally owned radio. A big factor is due to an economic system that continues to put pressure on companies to maximize profits at the expense of everything else. There are myriad reasons for this decline. In less than twenty years we have all but disappeared from mainstream radio. How many black lady musicians have debuted and been successful in the same 10-year time frame between 20? Beyond the standard nods to Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, it’s hard to think of many new artists. In compiling this list, I found there were at least 75 black women and groups who had major, charting hits in the 90s.

These 35 women are just some of the black solo artists and groups on mainstream radio within that 10 year window. The former was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks. SWV- “ Weak,” “ I’m So Into You.” Two of SWV’s many charting songs, “Weak” and “I’m So Into You” were among the group’s most famous.

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