I would be lying if I tell you Mariah Carey was well known in France when Music Box was released in 1993. She was pretty much the opposite of a star – none of her albums charted, she received no certification and only one of her singles made the Top 20, I’ll Be There, mostly thanks to the original Jackson 5 song being famous.
In 1990, Jean-Jacques Goldman already proved switching from solo albums to be a part of a trio was a brilliant idea as he repeated his past success easily. In 1993, at the time of releasing a second studio album, the trio Fredericks Goldman Jones target was proving themselves successful in the long run.
In the same way several divas exploded internationally at the time, years 1988-1991 saw the first two female superstars in France emerge: Mylène Farmer and Patricia Kaas. They released two million selling albums each in those years. With 1993 record Je Te Dis Vous, Patricia Kaas was the first to face the three-peat challenge.
If the period 1997-2002 saw many albums reach blockbuster status, in the first half of the 90s much less albums got really big, but they did it in an incredible fashion. First Patrick Bruel in 1990 with Alors Regarde, second Francis Cabrel in 1994 with Samedi Soir Sur La Terre, third Celine Dion in 1995 with D’Eux.
First released in October 1994, the Cranberries album No Need To Argue was the follow up of an album that failed to make any kind of impact. It made itself no impact when issued, completely missing charts.
In a year 1994 full of successful soundtracks – Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Farinelli – the album from Disney blockbuster movie The Lion King topped them all.
France was one of the countries where Nirvana explosion in 1992 was the most impressive. Even if their third album In Utero failed to sustain the newly gained status of the band with Nevermind, Unplugged In New York was a great come back in top form. Obviously, the passing of Kurt Cobain a few months prior this release surely helped, but it wasn’t only about the sad event.
Soundtrack success is often very binary – hit or miss. The hit may be tremendous during about a quarter along with the movie as it has been seen with Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Dirty Dancing or the Titanic soundtracks. Other soundtracks get ignored and disappear.
The half French half Italian artist Richard Cocciante is undoubtedly most well known as the composer of blockbuster musical Notre-Dame De Paris.
As mentioned in Savoir Aimer breakdown, first three Florent Pagny albums sold quite poorly in early 90s.