Australia and New Zealand
Bands INXS and Crowded House, who had risen to international fame in the 1980s, continued their success into the nineties. However, INXS saw a decline in popularity after the release of 1993's Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, which did not even reach the US Top 50 and on 22 November 1997, a few months after the release of the band's tenth studio album Elegantly Wasted, lead singer Michael Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney hotel room. Crowded House released two further albums, 1991's Woodface and 1994's Together Alone, which were both successful internationally, but disbanded in 1996 after playing their 'Farewell to the World' concert at the steps of the Sydney Opera House. Their greatest hits compilation album Recurring Dream, released in 1996, debuted at number one in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and reached the Top 20 in several European territories.
Australian singer Kylie Minogue, who quickly rose to fame in the late eighties, continued to be popular throughout the decade, most notably with songs "Confide in Me" and "Where the Wild Roses Grow", which she recorded with Nick Cave. The nineties also saw the emergence of pop/rock singer Natalie Imbruglia who gained a world-wide popularity with a cover of Ednaswap's song Torn, pop singer Peter Andre, pop band Human Nature, Tina Arena and R&B Hip Hop artists CDB and Deni Hines. Notable nineties Australian rock bands include Silverchair, Savage Garden, Powderfinger, and The Living End.
In New Zealand hip hop group OMC's single "How Bizarre" became the most successful New Zealand song in history, reaching number one in several music charts around the world, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and Austria. The nineties saw a surge in popularity of alternative rock music in New Zealand, especially the popularity of alternative rock bands from the independent music label Flying Nun Records. Successful alternative rock bands of this era include Straitjacket Fits, Headless Chickens and The Chills. Headless Chickens provided Flying Nun with their first number one New Zealand single in 1994 with their song "George".
Read more about this topic: 1990s In Music
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