#263 - Revisiting 1996: 30th Anniversary LPs Pt. 1

WorkTape continues its look back with 1996, a year that might be remembered for what was taking over just as much as what was beginning to fade. Jamiroquai’s Travelling Without Moving somehow feels even more at home today than it did then, while the arrival of the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys signals a pop-group boom that would soon become impossible to escape. Elsewhere, Aaliyah’s One in a Million, Blackstreet’s Another Level, Prince’s Emancipation, and New Edition’s Home Again capture an R&B landscape getting fresher and more adventurous while established artists wrestled with how (or whether) to change with it. Some of this music sounds remarkably current, some is gloriously stuck in the ’90s, and together it captures a decade right in the middle of becoming something new. Stay tuned; our trip through 1996 is only getting started.🎧 Episode Highlights:Does Travelling Without Moving sound better now than it did in 1996?Did Jamiroquai successfully revive ’70s funk without simply imitating it?Can much of the boy-band explosion be traced back to Max Martin?Was Blackstreet’s Another Level proof that Teddy Riley could evolve beyond new jack swing?Did Prince’s freedom from Warner Bros. ultimately hurt his quality control?Was New Edition’s Home Again a genuine comeback or a nostalgia play?