22 Songs MTV Brasil introduced us to in the 90s

In October 1990, MTV went on air to, without exaggeration, make a revolution in the behavior of young Brazilians. The craziest and most anarchic channel on TV has made history in many ways, such as AIDS prevention campaigns. But also, in the decade when the internet took its first and still timid steps, it was responsible for introducing bands and singers and taking them to the top. Some great ones are still there today. Others…

To celebrate these 28 years of MTV’s life in Brazil — in the US it went on the air in 1981 — the awesome.club selected some of these artists who owe much of their career in the country to the broadcaster. That had their clips presented by people like Astrid Fontenelle, Luiz Thunderbird, Gastão Moreira, Edgard Piccoli, Sabrina Parlatore and many others. Come with us!

It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, hit that MTV ‘produced’ in Brazil. The song that became a symbol of the grunge movement, born in Seattle, with the band led by Kurt Cobain. The group was short-lived, as its singer and guitarist committed suicide in 1994. Dave Grohl, the drummer, created another big hit, Foo Fighters, which continues touring the world.

‘Ironic’ is not the only hit from the album Jagged Little Pill, which in 1995 made the Canadian singer an international star. Other songs boosted the album’s sales, which worldwide has sold over 25 million copies to date.

MTV didn’t just help launch bands and artists with enduring careers, but also those near-disposable hits. The English electronic rock band is one of them. ‘Unbelievable’ played frantically in the early years of the station, won the radio and dance floors. Never again, however, was he able to score an equal hit or sell as many copies of an album as “Schubert Dip”.

Speaking of throwaway pop, rapper Vanilla Ice exploded with his hit that began with a sample of “Under Pressure,” Queen’s big hit with David Bowie. Rejected by his peers who actually rapped, the musician whose name was Robert Matthew Van Winkle sold millions of copies of his second and only hugely successful album.

Another one of bands or artists of one hit only. The trio was formed by a Russian singer, a Russian DJ and another Japanese made a dance floor classic that is still heard today, in the original version or in remixes. The band was short-lived: three albums were released over a four-year period, from 1990 to 1994.

The band from Brasilia had already made a lot of noise on their debut album, mixing rock and northeastern rhythms, but it was with “Lavô Tá Novo” (1995) that they really took off. Still with Rodolfo on vocals, the album was like “I Saw You Saying (That You Say That You Saw)”, but none was bigger than “Eu Quero Ver o Oco”.

Marisa Monte was already recognized, especially by critics, in the late 1980s. But the arrival of MTV and the tireless repetition of the video for “Beija Eu”, released when the station was less than a year old, made the singer from Rio de Janeiro become popular, including a trophy at Video Music Brasil (VMB), the channel’s annual video clip awards.

Some of the most famous actresses in Brazil in the 1990s starred in the most daring clip of the career of Skank, a band whose popularity has everything to do with the station. Paloma Duarte, Carla Marins, Ingrid Liberato, Paula Burlamaqui. If you lived through those years, you know what we’re talking about.

Sex symbol in the early 90’s, singer Sebastian Bach had his image well explored by the band in clips like “18 and Life”, which was on MTV almost every hour. On the same album that bore the group’s name, there was also another big hit, “I Remember You”. Soundtrack to any rocker novel from the early 1990s.

Another band whose success in Brazil has everything to do with MTV, which mixed funk with hard rock and was introduced to the public by the incredible aesthetics of the “Epic” video, which at the end showed a fish struggling out of the water to the sound of a melancholy piano. The Californian quintet toured Brazil several times, where it was even more successful than in the US.

In the American alternative circuit, the band had been successful since the 1980s, but managed to reach a huge audience worldwide with the album “Out of Time”, which had as its flagship “Losing My Religion”, another song that was a hit on Brazilian MTV, with daily airings and several times in the first place of the station’s chart, the “Disk MTV”.

Another band that was “born” along with the grunge movement, along with Nirvana. Pearl Jam had a bunch of hits with their album “Ten”, which also had “Even Flow” and “Jeremy”. The end of the movement that emerged in Seattle, however, did not kill the band, which continues on successful tours and with activism on several fronts as one of its most important brands.

Any teenager who played guitar in the 1990s had one of their greatest desires to play the Extreme hit. The band had a huge success in Brazil carried by the black and white video of the song that had only voice and guitar. And, of course, vocalist Gary Cherone and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, especially, were well explored as sex symbols.

“I don’t ride on this bumba anymore / They found a piece of junk in the back seat”. It was impossible for a living being in Brazil in 1997 not to be impacted by the band’s only hit from São Paulo. They were never able to repeat the success of the lyrics that talked about a suspicious cigarette found inside a bus. Recently, in August of this year, the band’s guitarist, Marcello Cassettari, died in a silly way: he got out of the shower, slipped and hit his back on the toilet, suffering internal bleeding.

Still on “suspicious cigarettes”, Planet Hemp pioneered activism for the decriminalization of marijuana, with provocative lyrics and melodies that mixed rock and hip hop. The members suffered repression and were even arrested. With the end of the band, Marcelo D2, also with a lot of help from MTV, became a star as a solo artist.

Two decades before the feminist movement took on a global dimension again, the British quintet broke out internationally singing the strength of women. Emma, ​​Geri, Mel B, Mel C and Victoria — who would later become Victoria Beckham — are still friends to this day, singing at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London and rehearsing reunion tours.

The immediate reference was the Village People, but the trio of bombshells didn’t dress up so openly. It was a mixture of good humor and irony that just as it took MTV’s most wanted lists, went away just the same. Nobody really knows where the trio of English people are, who, you see, still exist, but now as a duo.

It wasn’t a one-hit band, but almost. ‘Everything About You’ was a huge hit, but they also featured “Neighbor” and a cover of “Cats in the Cradle”, originally a folk song recorded in the 1970s. With far less success. Just as it appeared and exploded, the Californian group disappeared.

The London-based singer, songwriter and producer didn’t have a single hit with “Crazy.” There was even a song included on the “Batman Forever” soundtrack, “Kiss From a Rose”. Discreet and talented, the Nigerian-born musician was married to top model Heidi Klum and was one of the technicians on the American version of the reality show “The Voice”.

Another band, like so many, whose success is essentially linked to the existence of MTV. The group led by singer Gwen Stefani ended, but she continues to be successful in a solo career and in appearances as well as a coach in the American version of “The Voice”.

Like other examples on the list, the Californian group was already successful in the 1980s, but MTV was instrumental in making it a major music star in Brazil. The band led by Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea is still active and appears frequently for tours here.

Two decades after breaking out in Brazil with the support of a video that was performed to exhaustion, the hit of the band led by Linda Perry returned to success when included in the soundtrack of the series “Sense 8”. “What’s Up” was the only hit for the group, which recorded only one studio album, released in 1992.

And you, tell us what other songs you remember that were very successful in Brazil with a little help from MTV. Leave your comment that awesome.club want to know your favorites. And all these clips, of course, would be presented by one of the station’s classic VJs. Who knows, Luiz Thunderbird.