The Cicada Apocalypse!: or 5 Ways Brooklyn Has Changed In the Last 17 Years
Let’s not, for even one second, pretend that what was happening in music in 1996 wasn’t absolutely amazing. I mean, that was the year that Bone Thugs-n-Harmony brought us “Tha Crossroads.” That was the year that Alanis Morissette defined what “Ironic” meant to all of us, which is why almost nobody knows what the definition of “irony” even is. And, of course, that year was dominated by Mariah Carey, just as every year really ought to be dominated by Mariah Carey. But I digress. Because what about the Brooklyn music scene? What was going on there?
Well, in terms of what was culturally dominating in 1996, when I myself was little more than a larvae (or at least it felt like it because I had finally convinced my parents to let me get contact lenses and thus went around blinking a lot and all bug-eyed), nothing was more Brooklyn than Biggie. Biggie was, um, huge. So, maybe the cicadas would have been pretty sure that he would go on to define Brooklyn music for the next 17 years, but they’d be wrong. Because 1996 saw the release of Jay-Z’s debut album “Reasonable Doubt,” which, while not Jay-Z’s most commercially successful record, is totally, obviously his best. But it’s also interesting to note that musically, at that time, Brooklyn was still years away from being associated with indie rock or the DIY music scene that has developed here in the last decade. Back then, there was Jay-Z, there was Biggie, and that was kind of it. Basically, cicadas, everything’s changed.