There were many cast members on Neighbours who were able to successfully translate their success into a music career, however after Kylie Minogue I think Natalie Imbruglia was the most successful due to how popular she managed to be in America with this album. I feel this is due to her going down the Alanis Morissette route with this album by making an album about her raw emotions rather than the usual bubble-gum pop that her co-stars settled with.
Well, it seemed inevitable that these guys would return to their loser personas they had from their album Smash earlier in the decade, sure Ixnay on the hombre was a commercial success but it didn’t reach the highs they achieved with the likes of “Come out and play” and “Self esteem.” Indeed, not only was this album their most successful, but it also spawned their biggest hits that still resonate with audiences to this day.
There was a lot of hype going into Living end’s debut album given how their double A-side that served as the advanced single was one of the biggest hits of the decade. The hype was effortlessly met when they released their album despite punk rock in general not being among the more popular genres in Australia over the years, it looked like these guys would be household names going into the new millennium and they likely would’ve been were it not for digital piracy ruining the music industry.
Fatboy slim was originally a member of Beats international who scored a massive hit at the start of the decade with “Dub be good to me,” fast forward eight years and he has one of the biggest albums of the decade with this EDM classic. I was surprised that the songs weren’t bigger here back in the day, although I guess the album itself more than makes up for their lack of chart presence here.
This is another highly successful album from the decade that was declared as one of the most inessential albums to come out of the 90’s by the A.V club, I’m guessing because they weren’t fans of Ally McBeal back in the day and really didn’t like the scenes where Vonda Shepard would perform these songs in the night club. Audiences obviously disagreed as this was by far the most successful album in that article.
Nu metal was quickly becoming one of the most popular genres in the mainstream thanks to its popularity on the American music program TRL (Total request live for non-Americans reading this.) As a result, we have the third album from Korn which proved to be a huge worldwide success due to the campy antics of the band, indeed the music videos were among the flashiest of their time.
Although their previous album was a massive success for them, it was this album that made Powderfinger a household name thanks to how much love it received from Triple J upon its initial release. It received a massive boost in popularity this year when they went on a highly successful tour, thus setting them up as one of the most popular and endearing bands of the new millennium.
Well, they billed this as a once in a lifetime event, so of course the Brothers Gibb would see massive success with this live album given how they gave such a great show that audiences wanted whatever they could help them remember the great time they had. Sadly, this was their final successful album during their time together as Maurice would tragically pass away in 2003.
This was the first volume of U2’s most comprehensive greatest hits package, it was so comprehensive that they didn’t release the second volume for another four years as they wanted to include their next album in the retrospective. In the meantime, we have their album looking over the success they had in the 80’s complete with a song that only briefly charted in 1989 becoming a hit upon its release.
So, we all love this movie again, right? I’m just checking because for a little while, this film like so many others who achieved its level of success received a ton of backlash from hipsters who hate anything that achieves overwhelming mainstream success. The film is of course a classic as it tells a compelling romance that took placed on the doomed vessel whilst being (reasonably) respectful to those who unfortunately lost their lives in the journey.
This was far and away the most successful Triple J album during the 90’s, it was twice as big as the rest of the albums so far and was a sign that the stations influence was only going to continue to grow I the new millennium. Unfortunately, I don’t know if this is true for sure as this was the last year where the AMR charts existed as they ceased publication in 1999, as such I’ll be using the ARIA album charts from here on out which unfortunately excludes all of these albums from their rankings.
Things were looking good for George Michael following the success of his album Older when news broke out that he was a queer man, I’m not sure why this was a big deal, but it was for some reason as his public image took a hit as a result of this revelation. In any case, he released this greatest hits package to test the waters to see if his fans cared about his sexual identity, it turns out they didn’t because it was a huge success for him.
Following the eventual success of her debut album, Jewel was able to find more immediate success with her follow up which was a continuation of her spiritual poetry that helped her win an audience both with her music and as a bookseller as she published a book of poetry that became a New York times best seller. Even with all of this success, Jewel’s popularity would begin to decline going into the new millennium.
Madonna has seen massive success throughout the decade with each of her albums, although I don’t think she was expecting this album to be the biggest of the decade considering it was a return to form to her indie roots. She was clearly trying to appeal to the indie crowd which she succeeded with flying colours as this was not only a huge success for her but arguably her most critically acclaimed album in her catalogue.
Hole is best known for their frontwoman Courtney Love and her relationship with her husband Kurt Cobain, I’m not going to repeat any of the conspiracies surrounding her on this site but suffice to say she’s had a bad reputation in the music industry for several decades at this point. Here she scores her band’s biggest album as they went in a more pop friendly direction compared to their earlier work.
It had been a long while since Phil Collins troubled the charts here in Australia and an even longer while since he did so as a solo artist, however like many successful greatest hits packages this decade, he was able to find success with this album which I’m sure gave him great solace in knowing that his fans enjoyed his back catalogue from when he was scoring hit singles worldwide.
We haven’t seen Cher on one of these lists for a while, have we? Well, here she is with the album which many argue introduced autotune into the music industry as the title track was the first hit to become as such with the tool. Thankfully the rest of the album doesn’t have this gimmick, meaning that Cher only used the program as a feature to signal her comeback rather than to hide her perceived vocal deficiencies.
These guys had been active throughout the entire decade and yet it was only their third album which made them a household name in Australia, I’m guessing it was due to the lead single which featured a very creepy video depicting what I assume is a CGI baby experiencing its first thoughts in what I’m guessing is the mother’s foetus. Whatever the case, this album was a massive success for the duo and one that put them on the map of both the alternative and EDM scenes.
This was released exclusively in Japan the previous year for reasons I can’t seem to fathom, I know that Kylie going indie was a strange phenomenon, but she had already done that with her previous album, and it went over well with audiences. In any case she released it internationally this year where it was a huge success for her despite lacking that obvious hit single, although considering how well it did with Triple J listeners, I don’t think she minded too much.
They may have only ever had one hit on the Australian charts, however Lighthouse family were able to at least score a massive hit with their second album here thanks to how inescapable that one hit was for them down under. The duo did try to recapture their international success going into the new millennium; however, their third album was a massive flop which led to their breakup in 2003.
This was the debut album from the British boy band Five, I would’ve said these guys were a little late to the boy band wars that began in the first half of the decade with Take that and East 17 except that they were more firmly in the second round of those wars with Backstreet boys and N sync. They came in second place in Australia due to how many hit singles they managed to achieve here back in the day.
City of angels is an American remake of a film known as Wings of desire, a French film from the 70’s about a fallen angel falling in love with a mortal woman and the conundrum that ensues from there. It’s an admirable remake of a foreign film, although like most Hollywood remakes it removes the cultural identity of the original to appeal to a more mainstream audience. At least the soundtrack was a huge success.
From what I can gather, the Main event was a charity concert which had John Farnham, Olivia Newton John and opera singer Anthony Warlow putting on a show that was a massive success during the final months of 1998. As such the showrunners issued this live album which captures the best moments of the concert which became a huge success for the program.
This was an album that likely would’ve not even been released here in Australia were it not for Ricky’s involvement with the FIFA world cup this year, after all this was released entirely in Spanish save for the big hit he performed at the games which was included as a bonus track when it was released here. No doubt this led to him recording his next album mostly in English which took the world by storm the following year.
There was an episode of South Park which was a parody of Live aid that aired in the shows second season, the episode was such an instant success that the showrunners convinced Chef’s voice actor Isaac Hayes to have his label release a soundtrack to the episode which contained his covers as well as a bunch of songs that appeared in the episode. The soundtrack was a success and likely inspired the theatrical film.
This is the most successful entry in the Wild FM series (at least during AMR’s run) given how it almost managed to top the charts like the seasonal compilations on this list. Although we’ll never truly know, I’m curious to see how lucrative this series would be if they were incorporated on ARIA’s main chart.
Evidently the success of that EDM cover of the signature track from the Beastie boys was all that was necessary for their latest album to find success here back in the day, although I guess the lead single would’ve also made a strong case for them to make it big due to how shamelessly goofy it was. This was their only success here in Australia as the rest of their catalogue was a huge flop down under.
One of the very select few Adam Sandler flicks to be a critical darling, the Wedding singer tells the story of how the titular wedding singer becomes disillusioned with love following him being stood up at the alter at his own wedding only to rediscover love when he receives positive attention from a cocktail waitress who is engaged to a man who isn’t treating her right. As the film is set in the mid 80’s, the soundtrack is filled with 80’s classics which resonated with audiences of the late 90’s.
This was the third time that this soundtrack became a success here in Australia, this time it was due to it being the twentieth anniversary of the film and it being rereleased to cinemas this year to massive success.
This was the final album from Pearl jam that fans would consider to be part of their classic period, mainly because this was the last album of theirs to have any trace of grunge as they would move on to adult contemporary with their subsequent albums. Admittedly I feel that they wanted to make the move here but didn’t fully commit to it so that they could ease their fans through the transition.
There were plenty of British RNB girl groups of the decade, however with the possible exception of the Spice girls (depending on how you define their music) this was the most successful group in this category thanks to how inescapable their debut album was. They were previously known as All Saints 1.9.7.5. due to two of the members being born that year, however they dropped the date when they released this album.
This was originally a flop for Lauryn Hill due to hip hop not having much presence in Australia, however it saw a surge in popularity this year when it won the album of the year at the Grammys thus breaking through our prejudice against hip hop (and female hip hop at that.) Unfortunately, this was the last anyone would hear from Lauryn as her mental health would see a sharp decline in the new millennium.
This was only a modest success upon its initial release here in Australia, I guess this was because it felt too out of place with all of the teen pop that was making it big this year (this was certainly the case according to ARIA.) It was given a second chance here when one of the tracks became the theme to the Adam Sandler flick Big daddy which helped it become a worthy follow up to their self-titled debut.
This was the debut single from B*witched, an Irish family group who briefly took the world by storm by combining teen pop with traditional Celtic music that won over a bunch of audiences back in the day. This formula only worked out for their debut album as their second album was such a failure that it flopped hard for them.
We Aussies have always loved a good pub anthem, the radio station Triple M decided to cash in on this love by releasing this compilation album collecting 30 of the best pub anthems to make it big down under which resulted in its massive success.
We have another entry from the 100% series on this list, again it was covering the summer of 1997/1998 due to how hectic that time was in the music industry down under.
This was the penultimate album that Smashing pumpkins released in their career before they called it quits the first time, it was another successful album from the alternative scene which proved why they wanted to keep making music even though they couldn’t handle the fame very well.
While this didn’t live up to the standards set up by her previous album Jagged little pill, this album from Alanis Morissette was a huge success regardless thanks to it retaining the anger she displayed on that album as well as her exploring other facets of her life that connected with audiences. She did have one more somewhat successful album in the new millennium, but by then Avril Lavigne had taken over as the Canadian voice of a generation.
Well Mariah Carey did have a bunch of chart toppers on Billboard this decade (and likely would’ve had more if the chart format hadn’t changed in America in 1991) so it seems fitting that she would release a greatest hits package themed around how many number one hits she had in her home country.
I did mention that Regurgitator’s second album was rereleased as a DVD, here’s the DVD in question as it became a huge success for them this year due to the novelty of the technology taking over the world. It’s hard to say how many other albums benefitted from this gimmick as ARIA inconveniently bundled these with the main albums as opposed to AMR which counted them separately from each other.
Autumn of this year was an interesting time for the Hit machine franchise, so much so that this entry managed to be a massive success despite its lower placement among these albums.
I guess you can say these guys are the slightly older versions of Killing Heidi, they broke through before the latter band were “unearthed” by Triple J and were likely going to become one of the biggest Australian bands of the new millennium until Ella Hooper and company stole their thunder with their album. For what it’s worth, Killing Heidi are also a one album wonder as their follow ups also flopped here.
I guess Neil Finn wanted to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Tim by releasing this solo album following the demise of his band Crowded house, he was off to a good start in his solo career as this was a huge success for him upon its immediate release both here and in his native NZ. He would struggle to retain his popularity going into the new millennium much like his contemporaries.
This was always meant to be the second album to come from Jeff Buckley, in fact it was meant to be released the previous year but was delayed until this year due to his tragic death in 1997. When it was finally released, fans immediately fell in love with it, although naturally this would be the last they would get from him now that he was no longer with us.
The third entry from the Wild FM series was a bit of a bust, likely due to it being caught between two years and thus failed to appear on a yearend list. It picked up with the fourth entry where it finally broke the series into the top ten on the AMR charts.
Winter was a hectic time for this franchise, this album was only slightly less successful than the previous entry but was a massive hit regardless.
One of the more successful films to be critically panned this decade was Godzilla, audiences were impressed with the CGI (which admittedly still holds up pretty well) but critics felt the storyline to be rather lacking and that it was little more than style over substance. The soundtrack was better received given how it was a collection of tracks from the alternative scene of the day.
There haven’t been that many action films to have a successful soundtrack here in Australia, one of the lucky few comes from the film Armageddon mainly due to the theme song becoming one of the biggest hits of the decade as well as Aerosmith’s biggest hit in their entire catalogue. The film itself is cheesy melodrama, but you can say that about most action films of the 90’s which is why people still love it.
It had been almost a decade since Dire straits released an album, however that didn’t mean their legacy had died out as indeed this greatest hits album which came ten years after their previous album was a huge success for the band three years after they called it quits for good.
This album covers the summer period of 97/98 which allows it to be a decent success despite failing to live up to the standards of the Hit machine franchise.
Given how he was seeing massive success with his earlier entry on this list, it only makes sense that Andrea’s (then) most recent album would suddenly find success here in Australia a year after its initial release. This confirmed the opera singer as the real deal as well as restoring the popularity of classical music given how the 3 tenors were seen as yesterday’s news by this point.
It took them fourteen years, but Cold chisel were back with a new album and fans were delighted to see them return as it was an instant success for them this year. While this would be the last big album from them and Jimmy Barnes, they would go on to retain their popularity throughout the 21st century.
This will be the only appearance from Marilyn Manson on this side of my site, I guess we Aussies weren’t that interested in the shock factor he offered up in his music as many will tell you (me included) that his music was rather standard when divorced from the context of his stage antics.
There were many music programs in Australia over the years, one of the more popular ones albeit only for a little while was Ground zero which I guess was meant to be the 90’s equivalent of Bandstand and Countdown as it was a hybrid of having live performances and showing music videos. The show was such a success in season one that a CD was released containing tracks that were performed live on the show.
This was a huge flop upon its initial release the previous year, although thanks to the renewed interest in “Baby did a bad bad thing” due to its involvement with Eyes wide shut, this album became a success here in Australia for Chris Isaak. Unfortunately, there weren’t any more gimmicks he could benefit from going into the 00’s, meaning this is the last taste of success he achieved here.
Although this wasn’t his first album he released, this was the first album that found success for Ben Lee thanks to the lead single nearly being declared the best song of 1998 according to listeners of Triple J. This allowed the general public to check out where this track came from which allowed it to climb up the charts for the singer/songwriter this year.
At least the Hit machine franchise had decent songs to include on their albums this year, this wasn’t the case for the 100% series which really struggled to include worthy choices which costed them their success.
Nick Cave had a surprisingly good year in the Australian music scene this decade, not only did he score a huge hit with Kylie Minogue three years prior, but he also managed to have his albums see mainstream success for the first time earlier in the decade. This greatest hits album was released to help fans discover his older work which he had over a decade of at this point.
This is the only album to come from the British duo Propellerheads, it was a decent success here in Australia given how the likes of the Chemical brothers and Portishead were seeing an increase in popularity around this time. These two never released another album together which resulted in them calling it quits in the early 00’s.
This is the final compilation album I’ll be featuring on this site, mainly because the AMR charts ceased by the end of this year and ARIA didn’t bother releasing their compilation charts until the 21st century.
Michael Crawford was on a roll when he released this album as he was able to still have success even after the hype from the Phantom of the opera died down throughout the decade. Indeed, he would continue to find success into the new millennium proving how devoted his fanbase was.
