Saturday, April 21, 2007

Best Songs of the 90's

If there's one thing our generation will be remembered for it will probably be the terrible music we've had to endure for most of our lives.

The only real exceptions to this have been:

1) The 80's (Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Genesis, Tears for Fears, The Police, Wham, Culture Club, etc.), and

2) That short period in the mid 90's that peaked right around 6th grade (1994-1995). For whatever reason, you had lots of good bands from across the spectrum that were putting out good music. Rock music was actually cool to listen to and didn't involve excessive yelling, grunting, spiked hair, tattoos, goatees, and white trash. In short, rock music was something you'd hear on college campuses and on MTV, not in Strip Clubs or GoArmy.com commercials.

By late 7th grade, things started to turn sour (think No Doubt, the Goo Goo Dolls, and the Macarena), and I'm sorry to say that things still have yet to turn back around since.

So here's my top 15 songs from that 5th - 7th grade period, and they might as well be the best songs of the whole decade because it never got any better after this.

P.S. - There are clearly some strange bedfellows here. I'm sure if Silverchair knew they were being lumped in the same category as Hootie and the Blowfish they would collectively commit suicide, but I don't really care. It all felt the same to me at the time. Also, I thought this list up in about 10 minutes so I'm sure I've left some good stuff off, but hey too bad.

15. "Run Around" - Blues Traveler
14. "Self Esteem" - The Offspring
13. "Loser" - Beck
12. "Today" - Smashing Pumpkins
11. "I'll Stick Around" - Foo Fighters
10. "Tomorrow" - Silverchair
9. "Big Empty" - Stone Temple Pilots
8. "Basket Case" - Green Day
7. "Good" - Better than Ezra
6. "Interstate Love Song" - Stone Temple Pilots
5. "Mr. Jones" - Counting Crows
4. "When I Come Around" - Green Day
3. "Ants Marching" - Dave Matthews Band
2. "Let Her Cry" - Hootie and the Blowfish
1. "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" - REM

Honorable Mentions: "Better Man" - Pearl Jam, "1979" - Smashing Pumpkins, "Mmmm...mmmm...mmmm...mmmm" - Crash Test Dummies, anything off Live's Throwing Copper album.

4 comments:

MacKenzie said...

No Weezer?

Ryan said...

This list is damn near perfect. All songs are still just as good today. I guess you can never sound outdated when you write great melodies and lyrics.

But you forgot: Oasis, Collective Soul, Everclear, Nine Inch Nails, Sublime.

Joe said...

It is a damn good list.

Each of those songs, or collectively really, are the soundtrack for that awkward phase of growing up and figuring out what you're turning into.

Speaking of soundtracks,
Great movie soundtracks of the 90's:
Angus
Both Wayne's Worlds

Joe said...

On the Goo Goo Dolls:

A Boy Named Goo was a REALLY good album. There were some quality 90's-type rock songs on there. However, "Name" was THE breakout single for the Goo Good Dolls, and I believe they thought, "hey, 'Name' sold us an assload of records, why not start making only whiny radio friendly crap?"

Now, I do not think "Name" is whiny crap. I think it's a great song. I'm talking about the crap songs like Black Balloon and Slide (the song every girl named Alison SWEARS has their name in it.) The Goo Goo Dolls took a nosedive after A Boy Named Goo. Plus, Johnny Reznik is a giant turd anyway.