This was the bestselling album of the 90’s worldwide, although it sort of cheated for this accomplishment by being released twice in the latter half of the decade. The first time it was a traditional pop country effort, while the second was slightly modified as a more pop oriented album to transition the Canadian starlet into a more mainstream audience.
This was one of many albums that initially sat on shelves ignored due to a lack of promotion that the artist in question received from the mainstream this decade, however much like many others we’ve looked at on these lists, Matchbox 20 had their fortunes changed a year after this album first came out by having the singles receive heavy airplay around the world. This led to be band being one of the more successful throughout the following decade.
Well, they may have received a ton of backlash over the years (much like many artists whose success appeared to have happened overnight) however there’s no denying just how inescapable this debut album from one of the last Australian artists to make it big internationally was. This was through a combination of Daniel Jones admittedly savage production as well as Darren Hayes captivating vocals throughout the album.
Even though I’m a decently huge fan of Baz Lurhman’s work, I have to say that I’ve never particularly cared for his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Something about the way he modernises it whilst saying faithful to the old English dialogue of the play just rubs me the wrong way for some reason. That’s not to say I disklike everything about the film, indeed the soundtrack is one of the best to come from the decade thanks to how much shameless fun the tracks are.
Even though this album was an initial success thanks to the wacky singles released to promote it, audiences found that there was a more mature side to this Danish band and that they were indeed a band who played their own instruments rather than dancing around to a backing beat like so many other kiddie bands of the day. This resulted in the album being the most successful from an EDM act this decade.
This was technically the soundtrack to the film of the same name which starred these five very powerful women in music, and while it has its fans, it’s really hard to watch unless you’re a superfan of this group as the story is a meandering mess and its metacommentary can make most modern media blush. At least the music is still fun and catchy, bolstered once again by the strong personalities of the girls themselves.
This was a stellar year for music targeted towards a younger audience given how Hanson managed to become a huge overnight success worldwide with their debut album, although this is more along the lines of a pop rock album that just happens to be made by underage musicians rather than kiddie pop like other popular songs from the late 90’s. It’s a shame this album was released before the two younger brothers finished going through puberty as their pre-pubescent vocals do hold back the full potential of the album.
Britpop was at the height of its popularity by the late 90’s, so much so that there was little chance that this third album from the Verve was going to fail here even though the mediocre reception to Oasis’s third album was beginning to poison the wells of the genre. Even though this was a massive success for the band, it would prove to be their last album for a decade due to legal disputes involving the lead single and its sample of a Rolling stones track.
Named after the controversial left-wing politician from the 70’s Gough Whitlam, these guys made a huge splash with their third album due to it being heavily promoted on Triple J which was likely due to how unique they sounded compared to their contemporaries from the time. The album received a massive boost in popularity when the former prime minister himself announced them as having the best single of 1997 with “No aphrodisiac.”
Following the success of her previous two albums, Celine decided to continue exploring different ways to bring to life genres that piqued her interest with this album which resulted in it being yet another success for her. While reviews have always been positive towards her music, this was when her haters really got out of control given how this album contains her Oscar winning ballad from Titanic which helped the film become the highest grossing of the twentieth century.
This is an album that had a very extended shelf life here in Australia as it was a hit upon its initial release due to it being the Corrs second album following the success they had with Forgiven not forgotten. It was given a second wind in the mainstream when they started finding success in their native UK with “Runaway” and their cover of “Dreams” which helped them score a best seller in Australia.
Following the success of their debut album from, Regurgitator released this album which was an instant success for them and became even more successful thanks to the success of the third single and its bizarre music video involving a poorly CGI girl dancing to the track. The success of this video led to them reissuing the album as a DVD (remember those kids?) which allowed you to play the album on a DVD player as well as a CD.
Although they found moderate success with their previous two albums, it was this album from Radiohead that finally made them a household name due to how much critical acclaim the album has received since its initial release. The album continues to be considered as one of the greatest ever made to this day.
Well, you don’t have one of the biggest albums of the decade an immediately fall into obscurity (unless of course you have bad management and/or had that success through novelty) so here we have this follow-up to Live’s previous album Throwing copper, which was a massive success for them, just not as much as their previous effort. The band would continue to find success well into the new millennium, proving that rock music was far from dead in the 2000’s.
Aren’t we all glad we can enjoy music meant for teenage girls without the fear of getting harassed by some toxic music snob from the alternative scene? Here we have the second album from the Backstreet boys which hilariously declared them to be back, the reason this is hilarious is that their debut album wasn’t a big success for them whilst this was one of the biggest of the decade thanks to their blend of teen pop and RNB on the album.
Andrea Bocelli was a blind opera singer who was quite popular throughout Europe during the 90’s prior to him releasing this greatest hits package in order to appeal to an English-speaking market, indeed it took a while for this album to make it big worldwide given how it was released in 1997 but only picked up speed a year after its initial release. When it did become a hit, he had no issues with his subsequent follow-ups.
It looked like these guys were ready to grow up from their previous album Smash as this album has a much more mature tone to it than the rest of their catalogue, however though it was a huge success for them, it appears that fans really appreciated them for their loser persona as evidence by their next album being their most successful despite them returning to that persona.
This was released ten years after the band’s magnum opus Diesel and dust, presumably to remind audiences of their back catalogue as the band’s popularity had been in sharp decline since their 1993 effort Earth sun and moon. The album proved to be a massive success for them, proving that their fans had simple grown tired of their newer music and still had plenty of love for their older music.
This is one of those bands I could’ve sworn were so much more successful than they actually were, admittedly I’m more familiar with their 00’s material which seems to be when digital piracy was at the peak of its popularity which likely affected their overall success. In any case, we have this debut album from the band which you guessed it, received heavy promotion from Triple J to boost its popularity.
While he was never exactly the most successful artists in Australia, Paul Kelly did have enough of a legacy for this greatest hits package to become a huge success for him about a decade after his last big hit “To her door.” Indeed, several of his songs have endured on oldies stations more so than some of the biggest hits of all time down under.
This was all set the become a flop for Green day given how it didn’t create much buzz for the trio despite coming off of two successful albums from earlier in the decade, however one of the songs on here was chosen to play over the series finale of Seinfeld which boosted the albums popularity almost a year after its initial release. It did them no favours in retaining a fanbase which resulted in their popularity dwindling in the 00’s.
With all of the love their back catalogue has received thanks to the disco backlash finally being seen as the bigoted mistake that it always was, it seems that the Brothers Gibb were prime for a comeback which is exactly what they achieved with this album which saw them continue the adult contemporary approach they had with their previous comeback ESP to massive success. This would lead to a highly successful live album the following year.
This was the fourth year in a row where a Triple J compilation album was among the most successful albums in Australia, although I’m basing this list on the AMR charts as these albums naturally didn’t chart on the ARIA charts due to ARIA considering them compilation albums and thus excluding them from their rankings.
One of the better rom coms of the decade was My best friend’s wedding, a film about how Julia Roberts realises that she’s in love with her best friend and tries to win him over his fiancé who’s played by Cameron Diaz (I swear it’s better than I’m making it out to be.) The film spawned a successful soundtrack due to its lead single being a cover of one of the most romantic songs of the 60’s.
There was so much hype going into this album given how the second advanced single wound up being the most successful song of the decade in Australia, heck even their previous album managed to find success during the height of that song’s popularity here. Fortunately for these guys, the hype was met as they were able to achieve massive success from this album both from the mainstream and the alternative scene.
This was the first greatest hits package that John Farnham released around this period; it was meant to cover his comeback period whilst the second he released would look over his pre comeback period from a decade prior. Naturally this was the more successful of the two albums as it contained some of his most iconic work.
This proved to be even more of a success for Silverchair than their debut album, I’m guessing because they were able to expand their sound and not come off as much a rip-off of Pearl jam as they did on their previous album. Their popularity continued well into the new millennium, proving that they have a dedicated fanbase that were willing to follow their antics.
Enya had a surprisingly good decade as she managed to rack up three successful albums in the 90’s, so much so that this greatest hits package she released became a massive success for her proving how popular she was in the new age genre. Unfortunately, the new age genre was beginning to lose its popularity as less people wanted to meditate to music from the likes of her and Enigma.
Even though this was meant to be Janet’s spiritual album, it was apparently a very difficult production due to a lot of personal drama she was going through at the time. It appears that it was worth persevering through those inner demons as she released what’s often considered to be her finest work thanks to the direction the album takes, it’s also one of her most successful largely thanks to the second single dominating the charts worldwide.
Cake was never a band you were meant to take seriously, just listen to their Gloria Gaynor cover on this album and you’ll understand that they’re in the same leagues as POT USA and other comedy bands from the 90’s. That said, people did take these guys seriously which led to a bit of a backlash to their music, specifically from Ms. Gaynor who didn’t appreciate their take on her signature track which likely fuelled the success of their second album.
One of the more popular films of the 90’s was the Full Monty, a film where a bunch of unemployed British men put on a striptease show with hijinks ensuing from there (forgive me but I haven’t seen it yet.) As the plot revolves around a musical theatre of sorts, the soundtrack was a huge success due to it having a bunch of popular songs that the cast use during their shows.
This was the biggest seasonal compilation for this year; it covered the big hits in Australia from our summer of 1996/1997 due to it having a strong selection of songs to choose from that period.
Well, this was back in the day where sequels to soundtracks were a thing, and to be fair the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack from earlier didn’t have every song that was included in the film so it makes sense this edition would also be a success here in Australia.
This was the final album that Faith no more released during their time together, although they have since reformed so perhaps there’s a comeback waiting to happen given how older artists seem to have little trouble with making it big over the newer talent these days. In any case, this album once again was a much bigger deal here in Australia than their native America which no doubt led to them throwing in the towel initially.
Well, they were a trio and yet insisted they were a quintet, OK jokes aside this was a huge breakthrough for Ben Folds five who managed to take the Australian music scene by storm due to the lead single becoming heavily promoted on Triple J this year. They remain a one album wonder here likely due to the station not promoting any of their other material, however this was a quirky album for them to get their hands on.
It appears that KD Lang found her niche as the perfect gift for Mother’s Day as this album was all set to flop here in Australia only for it to rebound on the charts when the special occasion rolled around. As such, KD Lang decided to market her music from here on out as the perfect gift for our mothers and releasing her albums during the early to mid-months of the year.
Given how these three men were proven to be the real deal when it came to singing on their songs, there wasn’t any issues with the Frank Farian made band to find success with their debut album which admittedly was a lengthy process given how his previous band Milli Vanilli caused quite the scandal at the start of the decade. This no doubt led to the Latin craze which the boys sadly weren’t a part of.
While this wasn’t the inescapable success that her second album was a few years prior, this did allow Tina Arena to continue her international appeal which led to her releasing several albums in the new millennium in different languages that naturally didn’t chart here in Australia. She would occasionally release albums in English that did find success here, although those tended to be few and far between.
One of my personal favourite films of the decade was Men in black, mainly for the chemistry between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones but also for the sci fi humour that is right up my alley for comedy. The film had a soundtrack which was a massive success likely due to one of its stars contributing the theme song to the film which remains one of the most well-loved movie themes of all time.
It may have nearly been a decade since he last troubled the charts in Australia, but again we have a greatest hits package from an older artist to see massive success this decade due to their fans loving their older material but not having much love for their newer material. I do like the name he gave this album, implying that he felt like he deserved better and that he gave it his all.
This was U2’s venture towards pop music, or more specifically pop music as dictated by the 90’s alternative scene as there was a lot of distortion on this album that is atypical of U2 albums. It wasn’t well received at the time and to this day remains one of their worst albums according to their fans, although its success means that at least there was some love for this album back then.
This is an album comprising of many Cuban musicians assembled by Ry Cooder, Ry of course was the man who scored a massive hit twenty years prior with his cover of an Elvis Presley classic in the southern hemisphere, meaning this was the album that finally got him out of the one hit wonder bin here in Australia but not in NZ as this didn’t even chart over there.
Given the popularity of their previous album load, Metallica decided to double down on their more mainstream sound by releasing this sequel to that album which proved to be slightly more successful due to it having more hit singles spawned from it. Again, this was well received at the time by everyone except for their diehard fans who felt betrayed by their abandonment of their older sound.
Bet you didn’t know that Baz Lurhman had a music career, didn’t you? Granted this is more of a compilation album of songs from his first two films Strictly ballroom and Romeo + Juliet which he released following the success of the latter this year which did quite well here in Australia as well as in the UK where his song “Everybody’s free” became a chart topper there.
It looks like Hit machine took a page out of the 100% series by combining the spring and summer seasons into one release, it somewhat paid off as this was a decent success but nothing that noteworthy compared to previous years.
I did mention when I featured their debut album that the Foo Fighters saw more success with each subsequent album they released, although this appears lower on this list compared to what their debut would appear, that’s mainly because rock music took a back seat to all of the pop featured on this list so far according to the ARIA charts which wasn’t the case on the AMR charts where it reigned supreme.
I guess all you need to make it big here in Australia is to have a huge hit on Billboard (even if it’s on the airplay charts) take this album from the Wallflowers who likely wouldn’t have had any success here if the lead single didn’t tear up the radio in America upon its initial release. Like many alternative bands of the late 90’s, these guys as a one album wonder due to them failing to have any other radio fodder in America.
This was a big hit on the AMR charts but not so much on the ARIA charts, I guess it was the nostalgia baiting that the singles had that allowed this to perform better on the former charts as I can’t imagine too many of us Aussies genuinely being a hip hop track where Puff Daddy (more commonly known as Diddy) is spitting rhymes as opposed to his east coast cliental.
The winter of this year was a hectic time for the music industry, as such we have another appearance from the 100% series to help people get into the big hits of this time in Australia.
Given the overwhelming success they achieved with their previous album, Oasis decided to go big with their third album which resulted in it dividing fans and critics alike due to them not holding back with their ambitions. It was a success worldwide due to how big they were; however, many believe that this was the beginning of their decline due to how hard it was to get on board with their antics.
Hanson were so inescapable this year that they managed to release a Christmas album which became a huge success for them, although it isn’t one of those seasonal albums that reappears at the end of every year like the ones that Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé released.
The last contemporary Christian artist to find success here in Australia was Amy Grant from the start of the decade, enter Bob Carlisle who managed to connect with audiences here with this album which may have failed to spawn a hit, but regardless comforted us in a way that it was a success.
Well, the band were certainly a shadow of their former selves when it came to their studio output, however at least they still managed to put on a live show whenever they could stand each other long enough to do so as this live album was a massive success for them a decade after their last successful album.
Does anyone remember the This is your life series? Basically, it was a show where a celebrity would appear and have their life read out to them with other famous people in their lives appearing as guests during the program. The 12th man decided to parody this phenomenon by having him read out the life of Australian cricketer Bill Lawry and hijinks ensuing from there.
This was actually the 22nd volume of the 100% series, I’m guessing it was due to the confusing naming convention that this album wasn’t as popular as it could’ve been, but it could also be a lack of good selections to choose from on this album.
This album covers all of the biggest hits of autumn this year which explains its success here, although it could’ve made some better choices which explains why it wasn’t as big as the earlier entry on this list.
Following the success of his duet with Kylie Minogue on his previous album, Nick Cave no longer had any issues with finding success in our mainstream which came with his album he released this year which was able to compete with all of the pop music (albeit only on the AMR charts)
Well, I did mention these guys earlier on this list, so it seems fitting that I talk about another British EDM act that saw massive critical acclaim back in the day that didn’t have much of that success translated to our mainstream for whatever reason. I guess I should bring up that many of these alternative bands and artists did see more success on the AMR charts which seemed to be less biased towards pop music.
One of the more beloved alternative bands of the 90’s was Tea party, a Canadian band who saw little success in the mainstream worldwide but did see enough of it with this entry to make an appearance on this site. Curiously, it was more of a success on the AMR charts, likely due to that acknowledging our indie scene far better than ARIA did at this point.
Although they had issues with finding success with their debut album from earlier in the decade here in Australia, this wasn’t the case for Portishead for their second album (at least on the AMR charts) likely due to them having the full endorsement of Triple J when it was released. Even though they were becoming critical and commercial darlings, they would sadly call it quits by the end of the decade.
Her popularity had begun to dwindle by this point in her career, although she was still several years off from hitting a low point both in her career and personal life, so she was able to keep the momentum going with this album. The theme here is about a self-discovery, with the tracks about becoming a butterfly being an obvious metaphor for transforming into your true self.
Spawn was a popular comic in the 90’s that was well known for having its titular superhero be a person of colour, this was the soundtrack to the film adaptation which was panned by critics but was appreciated by audiences likely due to it being considered a compilation album for many alternative acts of the moment.
One final entry from a band that made it big through Triple J, this time it’s Jebediah who saw massive success with this album thanks to being promoted by the station and for placing several entries on the 1997 yearend list. They did see moderate success with their next album; however, their popularity didn’t last long in the new millennium.
OK time for a conspiracy theory as this album didn’t even chart on ARIA and yet was a massive success on the AMR charts, I’m not sure why other than this only being a success with older audiences upon its initial release and ARIA mainly focusing on music that resonated with younger audiences around this time.
