can we reach consensus on what ten songs best define the aesthetic of 90s popular music

my first vote is for 'the impression that i get'

nope

i know but it will be lol to try

otm

I will vote for "The Impression That I Get" in most situations

Shed 7 - Dolphin

Babylon Zoo - Animal Army

are those real bands and songs

Kula Shaker - Tattva

Indulging in some light War of 1812 Trolling

Technohead - I Want To Be A Hippy

Vanilla - "No Way No Way"

The Levellers - One Way

Alisha's Attic - I Am, I Feel

These Animal Men - "Speed King"

Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out

Space - Avenging Angels

third eye blind - semi-charmed life

Martika - Martika's Kitchen

Stiltskin - Inside

Robbie Williams - "No Regrets"

Jimmy Nail - Crocodile Shoes

The Bluetones - Slight Return

Harvey Keitel - Some shit about having a flagpole up your arse

Alabama 3 - Ain't Goin to Goa

Reef - Place Your Hands

The Simpsons - Do the Bartman

Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want*

*I think we can all agree this to be the most significant rap single of the 90s

Nah there were loads better singles off that album.

and you forget

Collapsed Lung - Eat My Goal

H-Blockx vs Dog Eat Dog - Ich Bin Ein Nerdlinger

Guru Josh - Theme From Animal Hospital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTLten_2ke0

Young Disciples - Apparently Nothin'

Shawn Mullins - Lullaby

Faith No More - Epic

The Beautiful South - No Diggity

Blue Boy - Remember Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crePNBIQbTo

Genesis - Congo

Remember Me is much better than I remember it being. So it's a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Weird Al Yankovic - Two Symbols

Tbh I'm just gonna listen to MC Tunes for the rest of the night now.

xp ha - as I was posting I was thinking "I'd probably like Remember Me a lot better these days".

you guys need to start arguing about which ones of these belong in the ~definitive 10~

Green Day - Long View
Portishead - Sour Times
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Blackstreet - No Diggity
Snoop Dogg - Gin and Juice
Acen - Close Your Eyes
Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back To Me
Oasis - Wonderwall
Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea
Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Blue on Black

where is the ska punk?

zoot suit riot

ooh yeah, drop "Blue on Black" for some random Squirrel Nut Zippers song

Aerosmith - Livin' on the Edge

Also want to note that

third eye blind - semi-charmed life

― sonderangerbot, Thursday, January 13, 2011 11:36 AM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

unquestionably belongs in the ten.

Like, that one's solid. What are the other 9?

Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love To You

oh god no

"End of the Road" shurely

when i used to work music retail, one of Boyz II Men (they were in town for a show in '95) tried to steal a Prince cd...

This isn't the "best of 1990s popular music" thead.

I listened to R&B radio for a while in the mid-90s and there were more I'll Make Love To Yous than End of the Roads

cake song x
ben folds song y

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/artd/amg/music/bio/583722_smashmouth2_200x200.jpg

breeders cannonball

radiohead song a-z

Chumbawamba "Tubthumping"

"We'll B Missin U" if you wanna be cynical (defines the aesthetic of 'rap goes pop, becomes awful' + 'pop eats itself' [via sampling and remakes])

also it's a song about biggie dying :'(

OPM-Heaven is a Half Pipe

Pretty much any of that so-cal, sun bleached, frosted tip, rap-rock

would like to nominate luniz "i got 5 on it" but gangsta's paradise is probably more suitable

that OPM song is the best of the genre but maybe not the most representative for that very reason? I dunno, just thinkin out loud. it's a good pick but maybe gets edged by 3EB at the finish.

beastie boys - sabotage

Heaven is a Half Pipe is 2000/2001ish.

(3EB obviously verring into adult-contempo lite-rock territory even as they keep one foot in the cali swag district, which is why I give them the nod)

xp haha, well that settles that!

also: don't think anyone's said this yet, but I like Green Day's "Basket Case" for being a hit in its own right, as well as an obvious reference point of Blink-182, "Flagpole Sitta", MxPx, and a bunch of shittier music I don't want to remember right now

Thanks for asking. I'll be happy to define the aesthetic of the 90s in ten songs. Here are the first three.

1. Garth Brooks - Friends In Low Places (sleek country with that's me lyrics)
2. Ace of Base - The Sign (the dawn of the Max Martin era)
3. Collective Soul - Shine (post-grunge begins to take over)

I guess the way I see this list would be like, say, what songs would the ilxors from 2020 say are unquestionably 90s, the way we can say that songs like "Der Kommissar" and "Electric Avenue" were definitely 80s, even though many of us were born in 1985 or later and don't really have any grasp of the decade. I would see it as songs that were huge in the 90's that would probably be a total dud now. In other words, songs that ONLY could have became hits in the 90's. I think "The Impression That I Get" definitely belongs in a list like this. Here are my other 9:

Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life" (stole from another poster, but it's a great example)
Smash Mouth - "All Star"
Aqua - "Barbie Girl" (or "Cotton Eyed Joe")
Backstreet Boys - "Quit Playing Games With My Heart"
Hanson - "Mmmbop" (I say this mostly because of that weird breakbeat and record scratch in the bridge. That is as 90's as anything I could name)
Savage Garden - "I Want You"
"Macarena" - I know, I know, but I had to have something to represent the "Americanized Latin music" movement that made Ricky Martin and Enrique famous
House of Pain - "Jump Around"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week" (maybe should be something like "U Can't Touch This" instead, but there has to be something to represent the type of cute, clever, self-referential and really obnoxious alternative that dominated the airwaves)

Bonus track - Skee-lo - "I Wish"

sheryl crow - all i wanna do

Actually "December" by Collective Soul and "Freak on a Leash" by Korn fit this better than some of the songs I named

frogbs — cool list, but not every song has to be a punchline! the 90s can't be entirely dead-ends; it had to pave the way for the 00s, too!

I guess what I'm saying is: no "Believe", no credibility

^ good call

whoa goole super otm, that one is dead on

no doubt - "just a girl" btw

sheryl crow - all i wanna do is a great choice!

now I'm wondering whether "Ray of Light" deserves a spot — it seems to nicely capture a certain optimistic turn-of-the-milennium vibe

+ incorporation of watered-down big-beat sensibility into american pop?

or wait maybe madonna counts as british by the 90s. either way, it was a cool song!

Beck "Loser"

len - "steal my sunshine" (boookending beck - "loser")

'99, but w/e

[whoa xp grandavis]

Well yeah I guess "Believe" has to make the list as well for the auto tune alone. But that song's as big a punchline as any. For the record I don't find most of these songs (Macarena aside) to be "lol 90s". The Backstreet Boys one is actually pretty good. "Jump Around" is still popular. And Savage Garden did kind of pave the way for other groups. If nothing else it proved you could out-Michael Jackson the King of Pop himself.

"Steal my Sunshine" is a good one too, though I'd say that "Step On" by Happy Mondays is a better choice.

"Block Rockin' Beats" or "Smack My Bitch Up" for me are very 90's but still hold up today.

sheryl crow - all i wanna do

― goole, Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:25 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes

"Groove Is In The Heart" by Deee-Lite (1990 apparently)

Sorry, guess that doesn't define 90's popular music much, but it endures as a dancefloor filler in unlikely places for sure.

you guys:

The Spice Girls - "Wannabe"

^

i feel like 'insane in the membrane' was a bigger deal than 'jump around' (& they sound rather aesthetically similar) but this might have been distorted by my age at the time

they were both pretty huge, tbh; Cypress Hill seems more significant because it wasn't their only song

frogbs — I'm not saying "Believe" necessarily has to make the list — maybe u don't think it "defines the aesthetic of 90s popular music" because it's so much of a weird flukey novelty — just that there's another dimension to take into account beyond "lol 90s": the possibilities, doors that were opened, paths that were cleared for later artists... like, my 80s list wouldn't be all "Der Komissar" either, but it would try to reflect the influence of e.g. new digital technology that made it possible for such a song to exist, shifts in genre definition in response to novel musical forms and sounds, etc etc

"believe" totally, esp as points forward

i feel like 'insane in the membrane' was a bigger deal than 'jump around' (& they sound rather aesthetically similar) but this might have been distorted by my age at the time

although "jump around" was played at every wedding social, in "rock bars", etc. It was often the only safe call hip hop-ish choice in many environments...

Yeah but paved the way for what? I mean the 00's had a ton of flukey novelty hits but no real 'movements' as far as I can tell. I guess maybe "Survivor" by Destiny's Child might be a good one

"How Bizarre" exists in a strange bubble of time, in the sense I can't fathom how that song was such a hit in the US.

Also can't ignore neo-swing giants The Squirrel Nut Zippers hit "Hell"

Yeah but paved the way for what? I mean the 00's had a ton of flukey novelty hits but no real 'movements' as far as I can tell. I guess maybe "Survivor" by Destiny's Child might be a good one

if that fucking postal service song didn't spawn a movement...

xxp 00s movements will become clearer as we get further from the decade, hopefully... it's hard to do this kind of recent history but (at least occasionally) rewarding!

Kind of a stretch maybe, but even though it was released in 1989 the internet says that it was a hit (US) in 1991:

"Deeper Shade Of Soul" Urban Dance Squad

Kind of paved the way for a range of stuff like Fun Lovin' Criminals, Sublime, Sugar Ray ...

alanis morissette - Ironic

what abt cathy dennis?

what songs would the ilxors from 2020 say are unquestionably 90s

Whale - Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe
Belly - Feed The Tree
Sublime - What I Got
Blues Traveler - Run Around
Urge Overkill - Sister Havana
Gravity Kills - Guilty

"How Bizarre" exists in a strange bubble of time, in the sense I can't fathom how that song was such a hit in the US.

I dont know if I'd put it on a short list but yeah, it's the kind of thing (along with "All Star") that ONLY could have worked in the mid-90's.

BTW snowy I do kind of like some of your suggestions here, I think "We'll B Missing U" probably deserves to go in over "U Can't Touch This" because the latter is such a punchline nowadays, and at least there was some inherant humor to what Hammer was doing. Come to think of it the Puff Daddy song paved the way for a bunch of pop/rap that relies heavily on other previously famous songs ("You Spin Me Right Round", "Numa Numa", or that "oooo whatcha say" tune)

"Ray of Light" is kind of unique since it sounded so cool in its time but nowadays sounds very cheap and plastic compared to what we've heard lately.

From where I was sitting, Blur "Girls and Boys" was omnipresent, but I guess you couldn't have that *and* Oasis. The latter were probably more influential in terms of ushering in the dominance of lairy guitar anthems.

Oh, and something off Big Willie Style would also tick the pop/rap box:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/JiggyWitIt.png

bush - everything zen

"Deeper Shade Of Soul" Urban Dance Squad

was gonna mention this, decided not to when i realized it was 89. but oughtta count, sure.

rage against the machine - "killing in the name"

although "jump around" was played at every wedding social, in "rock bars", etc. It was often the only safe call hip hop-ish choice in many environments...

― Sanford, Thursday, January 13, 2011 12:48 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yah this i know, OPP was in that area too (somehow)

cypress hill is a venn diagram w/ 90s stoner culture too tho, they were on lollapalooza, etc

cypress hill is a venn diagram w/ 90s stoner culture too tho, they were on lollapalooza, etc
i think the Beastie Boys cast a bit wider of a net (lollapalooza, stoners, college kids, children...and i bet a lot of people in their 40s-60s in the 90s would've had a notion of what the Beastie Boys sounded like...whereas Cypress Hill would've been more anonymous to those same people)

ha well then jump around would be super-anonymous! i agree w/ the beastie boys tho

although maybe they are more 80s??

sabotage was huge and very 90s, but maybe the video more than the song?

yeah, i don't know how i got sidetracked to the beastie boys f/ house of pain...

good point

back to jump around vs insane in the membrane...
i do distinctly remember some 40-ish dad-types messing w/ a couple boats at a dock and they had "jump around" playing. Can't imagine they would've had any Cypress Hill in their catalogue...

(and those same guys probably eventually moved on to another 90s definer: who let the dogs out)

lololol
hate to admit it but you might be right abt that one

o shit

I mean talk about a song that is so embarrassingly dated it is impossible to even look for traces of aesthetic merit in it

checking that "who let the dogs out" was released kinda late ('98) had me thinking of "bad boys" by inner circle. found out it was released in '87(!) but released in US as a single in '93...

dj jazzy jeff & the fresh prince - summertime

dont confuse 'was popular with MOR schlubs in' w/ 'defined the aesthetic of' the 90s -- obv intertwined/related but not nec. the same thing. the aesthetics of 'jump around' still seem pretty close to 'jump' or cypress hill's stuff to me

xpost switch out Dogs w/ 'Whoomp! There It Is' for more mid-90s flava (or Rumpshaker)

smashing pumpkins - 1979
(prescient of much of '00s aesthetics i think)

Ace of Base - The Sign
The Cardigans - Lovefool
No Doubt - Just a Girl
Garbage - Stupid Girl
Cranberries - Zombie

Foo Fighters - Everlong
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Hum - Stars
Sublime - Santeria
Prodigy - Firestarter
Spacehog - In the Meantime

Primus - Jerry Was A Racecar Driver

xpost switch out Dogs w/ 'Whoomp! There It Is' for more mid-90s flava (or Rumpshaker)
i'll see your "whoomp" and raise you c+c music factory "gonna make you sweat (everybody dance now)

xpost Cranberries Zombie for sure

btw which Janet Jackson song: "If", "Got Til It's Gone", or "Together Again"?

Mariah Carey - Fantasy

xpost I'd pick "Runaway", the only Janet song I ever really liked and one of the 'neat' production tricks that never really got attempted too much again (in this case, the super-heavily layered vocals)

theme song to WWF Monday Night Raw.

sheryl crow - all i wanna do

― goole, Thursday, 13 January 2011 18:25 (4 days ago)

otm and i feel like if i heard this played somewhere now, if i ever went out, it would be awesome. it's very 90s but in a good way? hearing it in my head i can sort of see why halter tops, cargo pants and tramp stamps were appealing at one point.

i love sheryl crow. at least the hits.

Dudes why are you still posting, the answer was given 4 days ago:

Shawn Mullins - Lullaby

lmao

screw Mullins, who's got the Hooch?

Smashing Pumpkins - Frail and Bedazzled
Crash Test Dummies - Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm
Janet Jackson - If
Bone Thugz n Harmony - 1st of Tha Month
Counting Crows - Rain King

N-Trance- Set You Free

1990: Janet Jackson - Escapade
1991: Van Halen - Poundcake
1992: Joe Public - Live and Learn
1993: Biohazard and Onyx - Judgement Night
1994: Denis Leary - Asshole
1995: Everclear - Santa Monica
1996: (something off the soundtrack for Space Jam)
1997: B-Rock and the Bizz - My Baby Daddy
1998: The Offspring - Pretty Fly for a White Guy
1999: Len - Steal My Sunshine

Sonic Youth - JC
Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone
Radiohead - Street Spirit
Better than Ezra - Good
Yo La Tengo - Blue Line Swinger

TS: If vs. Escapade

Toadies - Possum Kingdom
Live - Lightning Crashes

first song that comes to mind when i think 90s is 'come out and play' by offspring and i am shocked to find nobody else thinks so

Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun

plus Beck, Alanis Morisette, Nirvana, Cypress Hill.

smashing pumpkins - 1979
(prescient of much of '00s aesthetics i think)

OTM

i like to be positive and think of ace of base when i think of the 90's.

thread needs more hootie

i sold a hootie cd today! for three bucks. to a teenage girl.

1997: B-Rock and the Bizz - My Baby Daddy

omg I luv u

everything in this thread is confusing

wtf no one knew "Better Off Alone" until 2000

This isn't the "best of 1990s popular music" thead.

Yes... Most of these answers are dead wrong.

i like to be positive and think of ace of base when i think of the 90's.

― scott seward, Monday, January 17, 2011 11:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

:D

lovefool for sure

Lovefool is one of my favorite songs, but does it really define the 90s aesthetic?

i def have always thought so

i mean when i think about 90s music that's like what i think of

this question is hard

it is, so i'm inclined to nod sagely at "insane in the membrane" and call it a day

ITT ppl have difficulty counting to 10

10 is just one with a vestigial zero, so...

Luscious Jackson was the first thing that popped to mind when I saw this thread.

Yes I also have difficulty counting to 10 due to the difficulty of such a question.

#1 Beck "Loser"

and the rest...
Soul II Soul "Back To Life"
Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now"
Toad The Wet Sprocket "All I Want"
Janet Jackson "That's The Way Love Goes"
Cranberries "Dreams"
Naughty By Nature "OPP"
Alice In Chains "Man In A Box"
Notorious BIG "Mo Money Mo Problems"
Elastica "Connection"
Sugar Ray "Fly"
Marilyn Manson "The Beautiful People"

There were too many types of pop music in the 90s to narrow it down to 10.

plus there are few things more horrible than threads in which people take turns posting lists of things

I totally get why you would pick "Dreams" but I feel very very strongly that The Cranberries should only be represented by "Zombie"

xpost jeez I'm sorry... why don't you wait until I post a list to complain about it..

I thought "Dreams" was a better pick than anything by Alanis/Jewel/Fiona etc

Not a better song, just a better answer for the question.

i'm not really opposed to list threads. life consists of the ways in which horror is accommodated.

Toad The Wet Sprocket "All I Want"

imo this is basically the terminal point of a certain 80s aesthetic — not genuine 90s music

I thought "Dreams" was a better pick than anything by Alanis/Jewel/Fiona etc

That's kind of a toss-up IMO; "You Oughtta Know" trumps a lot of other ESSENCE OF THE 90S songs you could name in terms of its critical impact but it does sort of stand apart in not really sounding like or having the same type of emotional impact of any of the other artists from that musical wing.

I think we're all best served by pretending Jewel never existed.

xp altho of course the 90s is defined at least in part by the persistence of dead and decaying 80s sounds etc etc
but something like the Jesus Jones song does a better job of building the bridge from there into the 21ST CENTURY

Really? The production of "Right Here Right Now" screams 90's IMO.

"Loser" by Beck
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
"Wonderwall" by Oasis
"Paranoid Android" by Radiohead
Two hip-hop tracks, including one G-funk track and one with more of a James Brown-influenced backing
Two dance tracks, including one lighthearded Eurodance number and one more progressive techno/electronica track.
One track representing black/death metal
One trip hop track

"You Oughtta Know" ... does sort of stand apart in not really sounding like or having the same type of emotional impact of any of the other artists from that musical wing.

maybe, but it's such a perfect exemplar of 90s alt-pop angst, at least as much so as "smells like teen spirit" or "killing in the name"

xp altho of course the 90s is defined at least in part by the persistence of dead and decaying 80s sounds etc etc

Yeah "All I Want" could have been easily switched with something like Belly "Feed The Tree" which sort of also fits what youre suggesting.

Geir nothing on pop radio in the 90's sounded like "Paranoid Android" and there was no deathmetal on the radio.

damn I wish I wouldve said Back to Life...

wasn't "Back To Life" 1988/1989?

Yeah it was '89 but "90's aesthetic" was the question.. and it charted in '90.

billstevejim: yeah I mean "Right Here Right Now" does sound like something new and 90s, but also something that hasn't had all the wrinkles ironed out yet — you can still kind of hear the different ingredients that go into the mix; they hold together in an awkward way that keeps it from achieving a sort of ahistorical judgment of 'good taste' (which is of course precisely what marks it as 'of its time')

or maybe I'm fulla shit, i dunno

Yeah it was '89 but "90's aesthetic" was the question.. and it charted in '90.

Not in Europe! It was #1 for four weeks in June 1989 (which was when I first heard it).

i heard the decade end...

311 - Down

unfortunately defines the aesthetic of 90s Modern Rock radio (chill)

ewwww

I would like to hear Darius Rucker cover "Man In A Box."

whitney houston - "i will always love you"

^ fits in there somewhere. moreso than jesus jones, i'd suppose.

I keep trying to think of songs that sounded "futuristic" when I heard them in the 90s, and thinking they'd be good candidates for this...in addition to obv. things like grunge & gangster rap, which sounded pretty retro in the 90s.

I confess that Marilyn Manson sounded pretty futuristic to me in the mid 90s, as did lots of nu-metal, because of the production.

I thought that all of the rave music I listened to from 90-94 would take over the airwaves one day. (It sort of happened but I didn't expect it to take 15 years)

along with marilyn manson: NIN - "closer", maybe "head like a hole"

I thought that all of the rave music I listened to from 90-94 would take over the airwaves one day. (It sort of happened but I didn't expect it to take 15 years)

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 8:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Was trying to think of a single rave track to represent all rave tracks... Maybe Let Me Be Your Fantasy?

theres nothing about this thread which asks for 'lists' contenderizer -- its asking for consensus & therefor should encourage discussion & debate & narrowing down, not expanding lists, in the overall picture

There were too many types of pop music in the 90s to narrow it down to 10.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:37 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is the 'fun' lol

ty deej

Was trying to think of a single rave track to represent all rave tracks... Maybe Let Me Be Your Fantasy?

That one does cover a lot of bases: breakbeat, piano house, female vocals, hoovers, 303 acid... about the only thing it's missing is a "Charly"-esque toytown sample.

Also UK no 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ugvkcy-_4

There were too many types of pop music in the 90s to narrow it down to 10.

I believe this is true for every decade in pop music since the 70s.

you can still do it if you turn your list of 10 songs into an elaborate metajoke about the 90s

Whigfield "Saturday Night"

One of my friends had made a tape with "Saturday Night" 20 times in a row (possibly different mixes, can't remember). That was a great tape.

xp i.e.

jerry = "scatman"
elaine = "nothin' but a g thang"
george = "mo money mo problems"
kramer = "jump around"

ross = "I wish..."
rachel = "semi-charmed life"
phoebe = "everybody's free to wear sunscreen"
chandler = some cake song??
monica = alanis morisette - "uninvited"
joey = "tubthumping"

Haha -- love it.

Have we reached a consensus?
Has TLC's "Waterfalls" been mentioned?