Let’s Groove: Australia’s Mid-'90s R&B Surge

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Let’s Groove: Australia’s Mid-'90s R&B Surge

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peter andre, deni hines
L: Peter Andre. Photo by Jill Douglas/Redferns/Getty Images. R: Deni Hines. Photo by Eric CATARINA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images. 

In the late '80s, funk, soul and R&B artists enjoyed huge hits around the world… but not that often in Australia, apart from megastars like Prince and Michael Jackson. From Anita Baker to Pebbles, Alexander O’Neal to The Jets, there is a long list of big international acts that missed the mark here. 

Even Janet Jackson was not unstoppable, flopping locally with songs like “When I Think Of You” and “Rhythm Nation”, and while Bobby Brown was eventually successful in 1989, his New Edition band-mates Johnny Gill and Bell Biv DeVoe took until the mid-’90s to match that.

So if Australia wasn’t interested in the biggest R&B tunes from overseas, what hope did the homegrown scene have? Artists like Rockmelons, whose brand of polished pop/funk produced mid-sized hits like “Rhymes” and “New Groove” in 1987-88 and even greater success in the early ’90s, were the exception rather than the rule.

But something changed towards the middle of the 1990s. Thanks in part to Bobby Brown, and acts like Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men and Color Me Badd, who started making real headway in Australia, R&B became a bigger deal here. Soon enough, the singles chart was flooded with new jack swing, vocal harmony groups and productions from the likes of LA Reid & Babyface and Teddy Riley.

Just as hip-hop had slowly broken down Australia’s defences (and paved the way for Sound Unlimited Posse to become our first commercially successful rap act), so too did R&B prove irresistible, and by the mid-’90s, our own R&B artists started to find a receptive audience.

Leading the charge was Peter Andre, who took his body-thrusting lead from Michael Jackson and used the runaway success of his pop cover of “Gimme Little Sign” to unleash songs with a funkier bent, like the appropriately named “Funky Junky” and “Let’s Get It On”.

Given the proliferation of all-male vocal harmony groups like Boyz II Men, Shai, Silk, Riff, All-4-One and countless others during the early ’90s, it was only a matter of time before their Australian counterparts found their footing. Hailing from Sydney’s western suburbs, Kulcha enjoyed a steady stream of success, landing seven top 40 hits that ranged from the new jack swing of debut “Shaka Jam” to slow jam “Fly Girl” to Hall & Oates/Paul Young cover “Everytime You Go Away”.

South of the border, Melbourne four-piece, CDB followed more or less the same rulebook, performing well with originals “Hook Me Up” and “Hey Girl (This Is Our Time)”. But it was their cover of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove” that became their biggest hit, only blocked from number 1 by “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio featuring L.V., one of the decade’s top sellers. Elsewhere, Boys In Black and Past To Present also made some inroads on the chart.

In terms of female artists, Deni Hines launched her solo career off the back of earlier collaboration with Rockmelons on a new version of “Ain’t No Sunshine”, and follow-up hits “That Word (L.O.V.E.)” and “It’s Not Over”. Going it alone, she opted for a slick British-style R&B sound for her debut solo offering, “It’s Alright”, which saw her return to the top 5.

It took its time, but thanks to mid-’90s hits like these, R&B solidified itself as an important part of the local music landscape.

Enjoy more of the decade's top tunes with our Hits of the 90s playlist on Spotify:

Listen to Hits of the 90s on Apple Music:

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