When the Wall fell, popular culture rose to a new level of social relevance. Wind of Change? More like a tsunami! The Nineties washed over the increasingly globalized media landscape in a tidal wave of catchy tunes, cult movies, TV series and show stars. FACES rolls up the decade – and publishes an encyclopedia on the age of grunge, girl groups, GZSZ and – Bravo Hits.
Are you more likely to get Heino to take off his sunglasses than the Smurfs, Vangelies, Depeche Mode, Westbam, Paul McCartney, Die Toten Hosen, DJ Bobo, Meat Loaf and Janet Jackson? Wrong. Thanks to Bravo Hits!
The CD floods the music market, a gold-rush atmosphere, best-of albums appear en masse, digital remasters, the evergreens sell half their back catalog a second time. The madness went so far that in the spring of 1992, the youth magazine whose journalist always had to be in the photo during interviews launched its first compilation. 26 more Bravo hits will be added by the end of the decade, as well as spin-offs for Christmas, black music, cuddly rock…
Episode 109 of the series, which has become a mainstay of the youth media empire, will be released in May 2020. It’s amazing: from Volume 3 onwards, every single Bravo hit in Germany, Austria and Switzerland occupies the top spot in the charts! The recipe for success? What readers vote into the charts is what’s on them. During the Nineties, for example: boy and girl groups (*Nsync, Salt’n’Pepa), Europop (“Saturday Night”, Scatman John), commercial rock (“Narcotic”), power pop crooning (“Words”), summer hits from “Macarena” to “Coco Jambo”, crossover from the Guano Apes or H-Blockx, rap from 2Pac to Freundeskreis. In fact, all the acts mentioned at the beginning are represented with (at least) one song on a sampler of the educational and photo story booklet. Except Heino.
