The 98 Best Songs of 1998: Pop’s Weirdest Year

98. The Foo Fighters, "Walking After You"
97. Mase feat. Total, "What You Want"
96. Semisonic, "Closing Time"
95. Iggy Pop and Françoise Hardy, "I'll Be Seeing You"
94. Foxy Brown, "Hot Spot"
93. The Donnas, "Rock & Roll Machine"
92. Spoon, "Metal Detektor"
91. The Spice Girls, "Stop"
90. Korea Girl, "Under the Sun"
89. Willie Nelson, "Darkness on the Face of the Earth"
88. Next, "Too Close"
87. The Drive-By Truckers, "The Living Bubba"
86. Saint Etienne, "Lose That Girl"
85. True Love Always, "Spring Collection"
84. Maxwell, "Everwanting: To Want You to Want"
83. Mono, "Life in Mono"
82. Black Box Recorder, "It's Only the End of the World"
81. The Rondelles, "Safety in Numbers"
80. Hall & Oates, "Promise Ain't Enough"
79. Total, "Trippin'"
78. Savage Garden, "Truly Madly Deeply"
77. Sarah McLachlan, "Sweet Surrender"
76. Master P, "Make 'Em Say Uhh!"
75. Everclear, "I Will Buy You a New Life"
74. Kahimi Karie, "Watashi No Jinsei, Jinsei No Natsu"
73. PJ Harvey, "Is This Desire?"
72. Deborah Cox, "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here"
71. Quickspace, "Hadid"
70. All Saints, "Never Ever"
69. Liz Phair, "Johnny Feelgood"
68. Third Eye Blind, "Losing a Whole Year"
67. Brandy, "Almost Doesn't Count"
66. The Gerbils, "Crayon Box"
65. Mogwai, "Small Children in the Background"
64. Backstreet Boys, "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
63. Silkk the Shocker, "It Ain't My Fault"
62. The Boredoms, "Super Shine"
61. Hanson, "Weird"
60. Julie Ruin, "Radical or Pro-Parental"
59. Buffalo Daughter, "Socks, Drugs and Rock & Roll"
58. Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)"
57. Belle & Sebastian, "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song"
56. Sheryl Crow, "My Favorite Mistake"
55. Stardust, "Music Sounds Better With You"
54. Chocolate Genius, "My Mom"
53. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, "Toledo"
52. Juvenile, "Ha"
51. The Dixie Chicks, "There's Your Trouble"
50. Fatboy Slim, "The Rockafeller Skank"
49. Cher, "Believe"
48. Neutral Milk Hotel, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
47. Pras Michel feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mya, "Ghetto Supastar"
46. Imperial Teen, "Yoo Hoo"
45. Destiny's Child, "No, No, No (Pt. 2)"
44. Boards of Canada, "An Eagle in Your Mind"
43. Sparklehorse, "Sunshine"
42. Wyclef Jean, "Gone Til November"
41. Robert Pollard, "Subspace Biographies"
40. The Verve, "Bitter Sweet Symphony"
39. R.E.M., "At My Most Beautiful"
38. Placebo, "Pure Morning"
37. Divine, "Lately"
36. Robbie Williams, "Strong"
35. Black Star, "Definition"
34. Ivy, "I've Got a Feeling"
33. Pulp, "Help the Aged"
32. Monica, "The First Night"
31. Silver Jews, "The Wild Kindness"
30. Massive Attack, "Angel"
29. Prince and the New Power Generation, "Mad Sex"
28. Air, "Sexy Boy"
27. Lucinda Williams, "Metal Firecracker"
26. Elliott Smith, "Bled White"
25. Jermaine Dupri feat. Jay-Z, "Money Ain't a Thang"
24. Garbage, "Push It"
23. Beastie Boys, "Intergalactic"
22. Catatonia, "Road Rage"
21. DMX, "Get at Me Dog"
20. Alanis Morrissette, "Thank U"
19. Mya, "It's All About Me"
18. Gang Starr feat. Inspectah Deck, "Above the Clouds"
17. Sonic Youth, "Hoarfrost"
16. Madonna, "Ray of Light"
15. Cadallaca, "Pocket Games"
14. Noreaga, "Superthug"
13. Hole, "Celebrity Skin"
12. Lifter Puller, "Nassau Coliseum"
11. Big Pun feat. Joe, "Still Not A Player"
10. The New Radicals, "You Get What You Give"
9. Jay-Z feat. Amil and Ja Rule, "Can I Get A..."
8. Lauryn Hill, "Lost Ones"
7. Marilyn Manson, "The Dope Show"
6. Cat Power, "Metal Heart"
5. Aaliyah, "Are You That Somebody?"
4. OutKast, "Rosa Parks"
3. Natalie Imbruglia, "Torn"
2. Nicole feat. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott & Mocha: "Make It Hot"
1. Harvey Danger, "Flagpole Sitta"

via https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-98-best-songs-of-1998-pops-weirdest-year-628131/

spotify list https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ygnVtWJPl5PvhCcoo1XAT?si=e3c93e0e379e4d40

so anyway, I don't know that list list is brilliant or exhaustive, but really a fun listen - it was a very good year!

choices not too obvious, decent diversity

recently learned my partner's 19yo niece is a big Harvey Danger fan and knows other songs by them

is this what ILM is now

we're not sick, but we're not well

lol

fwiw the recent peoples_pop 1998 poll was great - that kind of format is a much better way to explore years of yore than simply going with what some irrelevant zine dictates

a poll which also featured 100% more Feel It than this

list is not dictated by some irrelevant zine, it's an idiosyncratic list by Rob Sheffield

in my experience that tends to yield more fun results than aggregating ballots

anyway it's all about loving music and finding new ways to explore so pls insert results from the poll you refer to

haha but yes, feel it, tamperer, maya, what a jam

peoples_pop format is absolutely the opposite of ballot aggregation - everybody who participates gets at least one nomination into the poll, so you end up with literally every participant's taste represented. ROB Sheffield is undoubtedly a very learned and broad-minded music fan but he is only one man. I will withdraw 'irrelevant zine' as being overly mean-spirited tho

idk why it capitalised Rob there

also if this could become a discussion about why 1998 is pop's weirdest year - a sort of unrooted in-between time with a thousand different strains of pop vying for supremacy - then good, bring it on

(the p_p winner, Teardrop, isn't even here, funnily enough! Angel is better tho I agree lol)

xp yeah that's an interesting perspective - I was thinking while listening to the playlist that it really is very diverse in sound and that it would perhaps be difficult to make as "weird" a list for 2022

but not sure if the list is actually representative of pop in '98, and if I get to choose non-mainstream "pop" I could probably do a pretty eclective '22 list

I am a sucker for that late 90s sound though so very enjoyable listen either way

you could do a list for any of the last 10 years that dwarfs 1998 for outlandish experimentation, diversity, etc - but it was notable just how unformed and downright shonky much of the music right at the heart of the mainstream was at that point - and if you're someone who values a bit of shonkiness, that makes it a time of fruitful pickings

there's an argument that 1998, from a Western cultural perspective, was close to peak wide-eyed naive optimism. look at the songtitles in this list! yeah a few had the millennial tension early and a few knew how fucked it all was but this really does feel like a time when people thought infinity was possible, right here, right now

and then there's poor Elliott Smith, oh boy, he knew. thankfully most were more naive

I looked at the wikipedia page for 1998 in British music, and I feel like this entry in the 'events' section is an important piece of supporting evidence for 1998 as 'a sort of unrooted in-between time':

29 August - The Chart Show is dropped from ITV and is replaced with CD:UK, which ran until 2006.

It’s interesting how many of these I’ve never heard of, or haven’t knowingly heard.

But at this point in my life the radio/mainstream pop was not a priority at all, unless I was driving with a friend or we were hanging out watching MTV or whatever.

Lord, what a sweet R.E.M. song “At My Most Beautiful” is and always will be.

I’d be interested to see Rob’s list for this year in albums.

Most of this list is not good but at least there's Quickspace! It does feel like a good stab at representing the fact that there was a lot of different stuff going on, but I don't think it makes for an actually great list.

there's an argument that 1998, from a Western cultural perspective, was close to peak wide-eyed naive optimism.

Really? I would have thought this was more the case wrt 1990, in the immediate post-Berlin Wall days.

There may have been two peaks?

The Jesus Jones era xp

RIGHT HERE
RIGHT NOW
*BANGIN’ GTR SOLO*

also if this could become a discussion about why 1998 is pop's weirdest year - a sort of unrooted in-between time with a thousand different strains of pop vying for supremacy - then good, bring it on

I'll bite - why would this have been more true of 1998 than, say, 1971? Pop music didn't feel very weird or eclectic to me at the time.

I haven't read the actual piece yet, though, since Rob Sheffield's writing and opinions annoy me almost as much as late 90s pop did. Some songs I like on that list tbf.

Well, if we're accepting the premise, there wasn't just one weird year for pop, it's cyclical - sometimes the zeitgeist is a little more established, sometimes a little more unprecedented. But it is all about perspective, sure.

I'm pretty sure that "weirdest pop year ever" does mean his premise is it was weirder than any other year!

I agree that it would make more sense to look at these things more in terms of cycles.

Zines have gotta sensationalise a little; they'd die otherwise!

the bizarre-est year in pop history was 1996, which marked the release of “how bizarre” by omc

I wanna know the rest

I’ll have to read the piece, but this just looks like a list of diverse tracks (including some pretty left-field stuff); shouldn’t it have to be a list of pop singles to declare it’s “pop’s weirdest year”?

1998, when Boredoms ruled the pop charts

A lot of qualitatively okay songs on the list that I nonetheless never want to hear again.

I was living in Brighton, just stated Uni, at the time, and everything felt-like novelty singles and post-Britpop bloat, with some exceptions (Destiny's Child, that Mono track, Outkast, Cher). I often think, "I'm glad I was finally at the center of a musical movement in my late teens, but why did it have to be fucking Big Beat?"

Big Beat was kind of mad though! Not many acts as downright strange as the Lo-Fidelity Allstars have emerged as a major UK chart force since then?

Obviously as this list is American it needs Savage Garden in there instead

peoples_pop format is absolutely the opposite of ballot aggregation - everybody who participates gets at least one nomination into the poll, so you end up with literally every participant's taste represented

Sounds like half a good idea to me. Why not give everyone at least one pick, and compile those songs into a playlist? Why bother polling anything? If it's all about loving music and finding new ways to explore?

How are you going to guarantee Twitter participation or a narrative unless there's a shiny little button to click, and horses to back? 'Here's a playlist folks, discuss!' doesn't work

So the answer is Twitter engagement?

Well, how would you like to get people re-engaging with the music of the past? The peoples_pop polls have completely revitalised my love for finding out about old music (as opposed to new, which I'll always be into) - the current 1966 poll has been full of amazing discoveries

1998 was probably the first year I fully immersed myself in popular music, by essentially watching nothing but MuchMusic at the time. It does feel a little weird to me that "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" is considered to be part of 1998, as I tie that song's release chiefly with the fall of 1997.
I don't know if I agree with 1998 being pop's weirdest year. I still think that probably goes to 1995 or 1996, when pop music seemed to be in a lot more of a state of flux and not really sure what it was doing. The era when Folk Implosion had a top 40 hit, and music videos by The Presidents of the United States of America and Beck being in heavy rotation seems a lot stranger to me.

Yes, I agree with that… by ’98, it felt like things were settling back into safe, conventional lanes.

(Again, talking about actual mtv/top 40, not weird stuff at the margins that exists every year)

There might be a UK/US divide here, although that doesn't explain Rob Sheffield, unless he is nominatively determined

Well,it may or may not be the year I've heard the most songs from, but 1998 is def the year where I have the most complete or comprehensive overview of the international pop-adjacent landscape. I was 14 years old so funds were very limited, but I read absolutely everything from cover to cover and constantly interrogated people who were older than me about their favorite music. Whatever I didn't get to actually hear at the time, I went back for as soon as the opportunity to pillage arose.

The problem for me is engaging with current music, honestly. When I think about it, I really do believe it fostered my engagement to be able to have one on one conversations with someone in a record store, someone selling books on the street corner or someone in a band. "Hey, I got $15 and only $15, what do I need the most?" and sort of focus on one or two things at a time.

It felt oppressively drab to me at the time. Looking back, distanced from saturation airplay, it's much easier to have some affection for this stuff.

2Pac - Changes
Tamia - So Into You
Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me

very good additions dyl

Totally forgot Kiss me was a 1998 song.

The year felt like a low point to me, as well, as still does in retrospect – despite a few good discoveries here (...I'm not sure that listing "Kiss Me" helps make the opposite case, lol; fine song, though)

Yeah, I must have been on another planet. "Oppressively drab" is very much the picture these lists are painting, if nothing else this has shown me how distorted my own perspective was, or how & why I developed a kind of tunnel vision around this time.

I mean this was my favorite track of 1998 by some distance at the time (and we could argue about "pop" or "song", like, if someone wants to insist this is "indie", yeah, you're not mistaken). This track meant the world to me and defined what I thought was happening in the moment... and it has 128 views on youtube lol.

I remember when I heard "Millenium" by Robbie Williams I thought it was like the perfect pop song. The bridge on it is fantastic. I don't think I've liked anything else he's done though.

"Intergalactic" was such a huge single for 12 year old me, first time I ever really felt like I "got" a big radio single, and the Beasties immediately became my favorite group. That video fit in so well with whatever aesthetic MTV was going for at the time. Also loved that the guys were "older" (though younger than I am now, lol) and therefore didn't really care about being cool

"The Way" by Fastball I also have really great memories of. It's so cool when a mediocre/generic band can whip up a perfect single like that. I remember my Mom saying "this sounds like the Beatles"

"You Get What You Give" was another obsession - iirc my classmates thought the song was "dumb" which I couldn't understand. It's such a likeable song isn't it? One time my Dad was driving me somewhere and it came on the radio, I remember asking him to turn it up and seeing what he thought and he just said "it's kind of annoying". Really? Well it's held up hasn't it?

1998 was also the year of "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies which I'm guessing nobody on this board really likes, blew my little mind back then though. So many pop culture references...oooooh how do they do it?? I guess I give 'em some credit for finding the one period in time where something like that could be a huge hit.

Speaking of..."Circles" by Soul Coughing...I heard it once and spent years trying to figure out what the hell it was

I was also way into Fatboy Slim back then - was very amused by how "The Rockefeller Skank" had this breakdown which coalesced into this very loud, very obnoxious noise, like an engine revving up in your bedroom. It's still funny to me when that track comes on in public and all the conversation has to just stop during that section

Crazy to think this was all within a single calendar year. And that "Barbie Girl" was only one year prior

I mean if I’m honest my top 10 songs of 1998 would probably be the Mezzanine album. 13 year old me was obsessed with that one.

the music industry was about to be completely flipped in a couple of years by napster and mp3 players. 1998 is kind of the soundtrack of the beginning of the end.

Mezzanine to this day is one of the very few albums I will listen to without skipping. Don’t care how many ads the songs ended up in.

Ultra Naté - Found a Cure

would take this over the ubiquitous "Free" now, it's like a forgotten disco classic but with beefed-up drums.

I'm surprised at the minimal discussion of Madonna, Garbage and Cardigans in 1998 here - I was 10 in 1998 and only had a dozen albums, all taped from my parents collection or when I loaned them from the library, but I feel like they were the Big Deal albums of the year?

I got really into Saint Etienne at this time thanks to Good Humor which has a perfect single in "Sylvie" on it, but I never actually got to hear the full album until years later.

I'd like to pretend I was a really cool 10-yr-old and was only listening to cool stuff from Daria but there was so much else going on that was painfully uncool that I'm unreasonably fond of still:

Karen Ramirez - Looking For Love
David Morales - Needin' U
Mousse T vs Hot N Juicy - Horny
Aqua - Doctor Jones
Bamboo - Bamboogie
Camisra - Let Me Show You

I thought about that Karen Ramirez track too!

I was thinking about Closer than Close and wondering if that too was 98, but no, 97. I’m sure it stuck around for ages and ages cos I was definitely still seeing it on mtv in 1998. Supposedly sold 8 million units!

apparently Rosie Gaines HATES the version of Closer Than Close that was a hit and had to be reluctantly coerced into the follow-up "I Surrender" which follows the same template

The Chart Show is dropped from ITV and is replaced with CD:UK, which ran until 2006.

this was a HUGE deal for me. Obviously this was pre-Youtube, so music videos were only something I saw when I went to my cousin's house whose parents were rich enough to have cable TV and The Box (Smash Hits You Control). I love the music video as an artform - I think pop is about performance as much as it is about songcraft, and videos can be a great tool for understanding who an artist is and what they're saying. I love videos like "The Boy Is Mine" where it's all drama and posturing, and I love stories like "Music Sounds Better Than You", and I love things that are just aesthetically interesting like "Let Forever Be" (was that 1998?). So when it got replaced for what was mostly Steps and solo Eternal miming at Ant & Dec it did feel like the spectacle of pop was over for me.

Also, The Chart Show had the specialist charts. That's how I got into dance, rock and indie. And because it was, essentially, the only hour a week I could watch music videos, it was essential viewing. So if I wanted to see eg the new Garbage video, then I was also sitting through a B*Witched hit or a dodgy graphic with the latest speed garage snippets. So I was exposed to all kinds of stuff I wouldn't have naturally found, but was drawn to. Part of it was just having very "indie" parents and wanting to be cool (ugh) but I think it's because of The Chart Show that I found myself being into Bjork when everyone else at school was into Spice Girls.

Anyway 1998 is peak nostalgia for me. I remember it so vividly - it was the last year before I started high school and everything became awful in the way that everything is awful for camp pre-teen boys who prefer pop music to football, but it was the point I was old enough to have my own taste and identity, so I was very passionate about what I was into. My pal has a podcast where he talks about pop music and he asked me to chat about 1998, my five best/worst picks and every UK number one of the year, so if you want to dive deep into what was on uk radio then with some attempts at insight and humour you can play it here.

Karen Ramirez - Looking For Love
David Morales - Needin' U
Mousse T vs Hot N Juicy - Horny
Aqua - Doctor Jones
Bamboo - Bamboogie
Camisra - Let Me Show You

― boxedjoy, martes 28 de junio de 2022

I unironically like all of these. My mind is a bit blown, always assumed that Karen Ramirez song was by Everything but the Girl. It’s been decades since I heard it. Thanks for reminding me about it.

Let Forever Be was 1999. I remember catching the video and thinking it was one of the coolest and weirdest things I'd ever seen. I remember watching a ton of MTV trying to see it again. It didn't occur to me until a few months ago that I could just look it up on YouTube lol

xp its a cover of an EBTG song and I don't think it's an accident how much the cover resembles "Missing"

TIL!

Yeah just heard the EBTG song and that’s not the one I remember, it’s the Karen Ramirez one but the melodies are so EBTG that it must have registered as an actual EBTG song in my head.

98-99 for me boxedjoy - watched a lot of MTV during the day for the mainstream stuff, taped songs off the radio etc - and then at weekends when I was a bit older was babysitting and watched a lot of late night MTV music programming, so stuff like Add N to X, Squarepusher (my God, how many times did I see the video for Come on my Selector? Fucking loved that one) and…that weird trance song with the video with teddy bears tripping balls that maybe I imagined? A good mix anyway.

In terms of 1997 songs that bled into 98, this

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

was a school disco staple in 1998 and well into 1999, and also the song I had my first shift kiss to in 98, so it is forever associated with it. Apparently it was first released in 1997, though it had a Europe-wide rerelease in 1998. Cringe.

Frogs I will not tell you which of your embarrassing choices I agree with but I am here to offer you my solidarity!!

its Robbie Williams I know

also, if you've never done it, I can strongly recommend doing the BBC version of "Perfect Day" as a group at karaoke, and seeing everyone try to do their best impressions

its Robbie Williams I know

also, if you've never done it, I can strongly recommend doing the BBC version of "Perfect Day" as a group at karaoke, and seeing everyone try to do their best impressions

i was going to point to vengaboys "we like to party" as an example of 1999 being easily weirder than '98 but apparently that did originally did come out in '98 (america being behind the curve on european dance novelties as usual)

oh and i also forgot to mention madonna's "frozen" earlier which is an absolutely amazing song. i don't think i knew much about madonna back then as i was just starting to gradually get tuned into pop culture at that time, but the song blew my mind whenever i heard it. it seemed so spooky and mysterious when it'd come on at night as my mom drove me home from a cub scout meeting (lol) or w/e

AAAAMGLADASPAAAANID WIT'CHOOOOOOO

Ok! so. 1998. year of the vocoder. unlikeliest artist who used one on a track that year? i nominate yummy fur.

Otm on “Frozen”, I used to find that song so haunting and beautiful. I mean it still is but back then I used to dream of nightclubs that would play music like that all night

“Rat of Light” is the one I remember getting played all the fucking time and I always thought it was cool but I probably like it more now. In an alternate universe that’s a big hit for Rush.

Was surprised to watch VH1 later on and find out about Madonnas 80s stuff :)

Please don't fix that typo, you've created something beautiful

My Top 10 for a couple of year-end polls in '98:

1. "Doo Wop (That Thing)," Lauryn Hill
2. "Flagpole Sitta," Harvey Danger
3. "Got You (Where I Want You)," the Flys
4. "How's It Going to Be," Third Eye Blind
5. "Cruel Summer," Ace of Base
6. "Fireworks," Tragically Hip
7. "Ray of Light," Madonna
8. "Too Close," Next
9. "Amnesia," Chumbawumba
10. "I Know Where It's At," All Saints

Love the top two as much as ever. #3 is forgotten, haven't heard it in years myself. Fine with #4, #5 (the original's better, of course), and #7. #6 was the first Tragically Hip song I ever loved (still do)--mostly I hated them before that. Haven't heard the last three in ages, not sure how they'd hold up.

In an alternate universe that’s a big hit for Rush.

Weird, I actually remember someone making that comparison in early ILM days. I never really heard it. Maybe I should revisit.

Madonna's "Ray of Light" = Rush

I cannot hear that at all, or at least I can't hear past how much I loathe Rush.

You just have to imagine Geddy Lee singing "faster than the speed of light she's flying..."

lol I'm glad I'm not the only one who hears it

idk it's got kind of a proggy vibe to it. long vocal melody that bounces around the scale, somewhat out-of-time guitar riff. plus it's pretty long. and I can see Geddy nailing the vocal

lyrics are a bit more Jon Anderson though

A friend comparing "Beautiful Stranger" to CCR, now that I get.

According to Wikipedia, “Ray of Light”

is based on the track "Sepheryn" (1971), by English folk music duo Curtiss Maldoon (consisting of Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon. (…) Before the final chorus there is a synth solo again, reminiscent of a 1970s pro-rock record. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, this was a link to the origin of the song from "Sepheryn".

Haha I knew that but had completely forgotten it.

One thing that just came back to me: every other song released in 1998 had a vocoder on it, and yet every single fucking time one of these songs was reviewed the writer made it sound like they'd never heard a vocoder before. 'what is that ka-raaazy contraption?!'

tbf a couple of them were early uses of Auto Tune, but really??

_was not familiar with Swing My Way, what a wonderful song_

Same - what a beat

about a decade ago when i was in the midst of one of my several bass music phases, i happened across a social media posting from envyi (the singer of the duo) basically expressing that she viewed her brief time in the music industry's mainstream negatively and may have even regretted it. i know that feeling like you've been chewed up and spat back out is a pretty common experience in the business but it was still sad to see. i wonder how she felt about her hit (and her vocals) serving as the aesthetic foundation of quite a few hits so many years later, and tho it doesn't appear that either she or k.p. had writing credits on "swing my way," i hope they were able to get some sort of benefit out of it

The Rush -> Ray of Light thing I remember that Pearl Jam (in 1998!) used to make the same observation (and covered it during that time)

https://www.mtv.com/news/1433079/pearl-jam-explains-why-madonna-the-who-and-others-turn-up-in-their-set/
(there was an actual interview with them saying that on TV, I remember being re-broadcasted in MTV Brasil at the time)

98 singles from 97 releases:
1. Deftones "Be Quiet and Drive"
2. KP & Envyi "Shorty Swing My Way"
3. Third Eye Blind "Losing A Whole Year"
4. Busta Rhymes "Dangerous"
5. Missy Elliot "Beep Me 911"

98 tracks:
1. Hum "If You Are To Bloom"
2. The Cardigans "Erase/Rewind"
3. Hum "Green to Me"
4. Jennifer Paige "Crush"
5. Britney Spears "Baby One More Time"
6. Sheryl Crow "My Favorite Mistake"
7. The Cardigans "Hanging Around"
8. Busta Rhymes "Gimme Some More"
9. Outkast "Rosa Parks"
10. Eagle Eye Cherry "Save Tonight"

Special designation:
Cannibal Corpse "Sentenced to Burn"

― billstevejim

Love this list

what is it about 1998 that makes it so much fun to think about musically

i have no idea but it’s def the only year of the ‘90s i’ve made retrospective lists for

about a decade ago when i was in the midst of one of my several bass music phases, i happened across a social media posting from envyi (the singer of the duo) basically expressing that she viewed her brief time in the music industry's mainstream negatively and may have even regretted it. i know that feeling like you've been chewed up and spat back out is a pretty common experience in the business but it was still sad to see. i wonder how she felt about her hit (and her vocals) serving as the aesthetic foundation of quite a few hits so many years later, and tho it doesn't appear that either she or k.p. had writing credits on "swing my way," i hope they were able to get some sort of benefit out of it

Yeah, that's a drag... looks like this single was essentially their only release(?)

Dyl - did you happen to make any (publicly accessible) playlists reflecting your "bass music phases"? Thx

hmmm i just checked, it seems all i made was an old itunes playlist that combined mostly prominent songs from mid-/late-90s r&b/bass compilations (so so def bass all stars series, rhythm & quad 166, and then there was bass -- the latter not being on digital services it would seem, + r&q 166 not being on some?) plus a handful of others along that vein, definitely my fav bass style but certainly not everything i like. not a bad playlist but if i'd make one today i would go a little deeper! i would make a youtube version of the playlist to share but then you all would be able to quickly find a clip of me playing a video game posted on my account which would obviously be unacceptable :P

The year-end AT40 list for '98, for what it's worth...

1	IRIS	GOO GOO DOLLS
2	TORN	NATALIE IMBRUGLIA
3	TRULY MADLY DEEPLY	SAVAGE GARDEN
4	3A.M.	MATCHBOX 20
5	ALL MY LIFE	K-CI & JOJO
6	I DON'T WANT TO MISS A THING	AEROSMITH
7	REAL WORLD	MATCHBOX 20
8	AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME	BACKSTREET BOYS
9	YOU'RE STILL THE ONE	SHANIA TWAIN
10	CRUSH	JENNIFER PAIGE
11	NEVER EVER	ALL SAINTS
12	TOO CLOSE	NEXT
13	TOGETHER AGAIN	JANET
14	MY HEART WILL GO ON	CELINE DION
15	SEX AND CANDY	MARCY PLAYGROUND
16	THE WAY	FASTBALL
17	UNINVITED	ALANIS MORISSETTE
18	I'LL BE	EDWIN McCAIN
19	WALKIN' IN THE SUN	SMASH MOUTH
20	ONE WEEK	BARENAKED LADIES
21	I WANT YOU BACK	'N SYNC
22	GETTIN' JIGGY WIT IT	WILL SMITH
23	THE BOY IS MINE	BRANDY & MONICA
24	SHOW ME LOVE	ROBYN
25	I'LL NEVER BREAK YOUR HEART	BACKSTREET BOYS
26	HOW'S IT GOING TO BE	THIRD EYE BLIND
27	YOU MAKE ME WANNA...	USHER
28	TEARIN' UP MY HEART	'N SYNC
29	CLOSING TIME	SEMISONIC
30	ANYTIME	BRIAN McKNIGHT
31	KISS THE RAIN	BILLIE MYERS
32	JUST THE TWO OF US	WILL SMITH
33	TUBTHUMPING	CHUMBAWAMBA
34	FLY	SUGAR RAY
35	TIME OF YOUR LIFE(GOOD RIDDANCE)	GREEN DAY
36	EVERYBODY(BACKSTREET'S BACK)	BACKSTREET BOYS
37	JUMPER	THIRD EYE BLIND
38	WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT	FIVE
39	FROZEN	MADONNA
40	ARE YOU THAT SOMEBODY?	AALIYAH
41	SAVE TONIGHT	EAGLE-EYE CHERRY
42	THIS KISS	FAITH HILL
43	MY FAVORITE MISTAKE	SHEYL CROW
44	THANK U	ALANIS MORISSETTE
45	I DON'T WANT TO WAIT	PAULA COLE
46	ADIA	SARAH McLACHLAN
47	GO DEEP	JANET
48	KIND AND GENEROUS	NATALIE MERCHANT
49	DO YOU REALLY WANT ME	ROBYN
50	HOOCH	EVERYTHING
51	IF YOU COULD ONLY SEE	TONIC
52	I DO	LISA LOEB
53	LULLABY	SHAWN MULLINS
54	SEMI-CHARMED LIFE	THIRD EYE BLIND
55	THE MUMMER'S DANCE	LOREENA McKENNITT
56	PUSH	MATCHBOX 20
57	JUMP JIVE AN' WAIL	BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA
58	ARE YOU JIMMY RAY?	JIMMY RAY
59	INSIDE OUT	EVE 6
60	BRICK	BEN FOLDS FIVE
61	TO THE MOON AND BACK	SAVAGE GARDEN
62	RAY OF LIGHT	MADONNA
63	BECAUSE OF YOU	98 DEGREES
64	SEARCHIN' MY SOUL	VONDA SHEPARD
65	LOVE YOU DOWN	INOJ
66	WISHING I WAS THERE	NATALIE IMBRUGLIA
67	MY ALL	MARIAH CAREY
68	MY FATHER'S EYES	ERIC CLAPTON
69	TO LOVE YOU MORE	CELINE DION
70	ALL CRIED OUT	ALLURE FEATURING 112
71	MY WAY	USHER
72	TIME AFTER TIME	INOJ
73	THE POWER OF GOOD-BYE	MADONNA
74	I WILL WAIT	HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH
75	NICE AND SLOW	USHER
76	GHETTO SUPASTAR(THAT IS EHAT YOU ARE)	PRAS MICHEL FEAT. OL' DIRTY BASTARD & MYA
77	HANDS	JEWEL
78	NO, NO, NO(PART 2)	DESTINY'S CHILD FEATURING WYCLEF JEAN
79	CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOU BABY	SMASH MOUTH
80	PINK	AEROSMITH
81	CRUEL SUMMER	ACE OF BASE
82	...BABY ONE MORE TIME	BRITNEY SPEARS
83	THE FIRST NIGHT	MONICA
84	ME	PAULA COLE
85	WHAT WOULD HAPPEN	MEREDITH BROOKS
86	FROM THIS MOMENT ON	SHANIA TWAIN
87	TURN BACK TIME	AQUA
88	BITTER SWEET SYMPHONY	THE VERVE
89	HEAVEN	NU FLAVOR
90	I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN	UNCLE SAM
91	SLIDE	GOO GOO DOLLS
92	MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS	THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. FEATURING PUFF DADDY & MASE
93	SAY IT	VOICES OF THEORY
94	LIGHT IN YOUR EYES	BLESSID UNION
95	I WILL BUY YOU A NEW LIFE	EVERCLEAR
96	TOUCH IT	MONIFAH
97	HOW DO I LIVE	LeANN RIMES
98	FLAGPOLE SITTA	HARVEY DANGER
99	I KNOW WHERE IT'S AR	ALL SAINTS
100	BACK TO YOU(LIVE)	BRYAN ADAMS

Matchbox 20's "Real World" arguably the New Jersey of '98 singles.

they had two huge singles from their next album tho

In the car earlier, I heard "Real World" -> "Cruel Summer", for that hardcore '98 flava

There's something about "Real World" – and its guitar tone specifically – that is so deeply ingrained with the late-90s aesthetic, it's hard to even articulate how much it sounds like 1998 felt (if u know what I mean...)