Billboard Modern Rock Hits - 1998

these are all annoying in one way or another, but the most tolerable and/or fun is either "One Week" or "Closing Time" or "Iris." the only one that isn't still on MR stations constantly is "Celebrity Skin."

"Closing Time" and "Fly Away" are good, but we can flush the rest of them.

Went with Hole over "The Way." I'm pretty sure this list was bullshit in reflecting what college radio stations were playing; it's closer to what my Top 40 had on its playlist. I was a deejay at my college station at the time and I remember playing Sonic Youth, stuff from the Pumpkins' Adore, the Roots, Beastie Boys, Air, Massive Attack, Eels, and, uh, other stuff.

I was completely ignorant of all radio---modern rock, r&b, pop, country, etc.---in the second half of the 90s, so none of these mean anything to me. I bought the Hole album for 33 cents during the dot com cd retail bubble & dug it, though the title song isn't among its highlights. I think I know "The Way" from some latter-day ad campaign? & I've heard "Iris" in doctor's offices & supermarkets in the ensuing years, & since I like a big syrupy power ballad once in a while, just like a soft drink is good a few times a year, I went with it.

hooker/waitress, model/actress

Was "modern rock" even supposed to pretend to reflect what campus stations were playing by 1998?

"Iris," a song I genuinely like.

"Iris" for me too

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

This was totally my jam in 9th grade when I first started dating.

Sex and Candy

yeah college stations have little to no impact on modern rock charts, especially in 1998

ended up voting for "Closing Time," which is probably the only song here my wife hates. never realized i liked it so much until i had to put up a fight to keep her from switching the station every time.

celebrity skin walks all of these

The Way is a real good song.

So what stuff were your college stations playing?

I have fond memories of most of these. "Celebrity Skin" got used too often for movie scenes where the "ugly girl" gets made over, and the Everlast song is genuinely terrible.

Voted for "Slide".

So what stuff were your college stations playing?

lol my college station was WHRB so likely they were playing something by some obscure Welsh duo playing slide guitar with their teeth

this has to be Hole, though I do kind of like Marcy Playground (St. Joe on the School Bus is an even better song than their big hit...lol typical ilxor! lol)

you can scroll down a bit to see the CMJ Radio 200 for 1998: http://books.google.com/books?id=u49RaKREnYEC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=%22cmj+radio+200%22+1998&source=bl&ots=5vKVopIi1x&sig=Qg5neiEUdcXC9TjvgzML13PnVvw&hl=en&ei=a2hATMfoG4G0lQeX1YXUDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22cmj%20radio%20200%22%201998&f=false

god I hate that neutral milk hotel album with such a firey passion

fortunately Permutation and Mezzanine are stone-cold jams

Oh, my station definitely played UNKLE, Beck's Mutations, Eels, nd maybe Rufus. Never heard Neutral Milk Hotel then.

I must have been passed out drunk the entire year.

^^^^ that summer was a vodka- and Miller Light-encrusted abyss.

It's Hole by a nose over Cake. At the time I rated "Closing Time" but never feel the need to hear it again. "Fly Away" was the first big LK single I _didn't_ like! The vocal sounds like he's imitating Jim Reid and that's weird.

lol:

http://books.google.com/books?id=J-Pim7dBEHEC&printsec=frontcover&lr=&rview=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Roots! The Latin Playboys! Quintron!

Also, I thought "modern rock" was for those commercial "alternative" stations that were in every city during that time, not for college rock proper.

it is, Alfred was confused i guess.

My lol was at the names on the CMJ charts. And those ads are always funny-sad: artists who barely or never made it.

voted iris

Would vote Iris, but I actually like Slide even more.

fun fact: McG directed the videos for 2 songs on this list ("The Way" and "One Week"), as well as three other #1s in '97 and '99. weird how alt-rock went through its own shiny suit era at the same time as hip hop.

i like "slide" and "what it's like" (though the latter had a truly deplorable radio edit that bleeped out like every other word in one of the verses). didn't really like "iris" that much. (out of the singles from that album, my fav is actually "black balloon.")

oh and i agree that i never want to hear "closing time" again.

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

"Closing Time," a perfectly lovely song that, unlike much of its competition here, doesn't make me cringe at all.

I feel like "Closing Time" encapsulates everything Coldplay has attempted to do for their entire career

I'm surprised by how much everyone here likes "Closing Time"! I kind of like "Iris" so I can't act too superior but ugh, "Time for you to go back to the places you will be from"?

(I suppose there are songs I like that perpetrate comparable crimes against the English language.)

I voted "Never There".

what a load of shit

"Celebrity Skin" is the best Cheap Trick song of the 90s.

"What It's Like," in the bridge, I keep expecting them to go into "When I See An Elephant Fly."

That song was the first time I noticed record scratching as radio censorship and it always made me lol. "Pulled out his scrick-a-scrick, went wermp, and wound up dead."

"One Week" over "Closing Time" and "Sex and Candy". The rest are either meh or I don't know 'em.

"closing time"

So what stuff were your college stations playing?

A fuck-ton of Komeda. (Radio K holler!)

God help me for this, but I voted for Lenny Kravitz.

this has to be "Sex and Candy."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

this has to be "Sex and Candy."

this poll is probably the only context where this sentence makes any sense

The finer things, Dan.

Fastball or Cake

what the hell just happened to me

oh and by the way, if "Out of my Head" by Fastball ever comes up on one of these charts i will fanboy the fuck out of that song.

'closing time' is great!

oh and by the way, if "Out of my Head" by Fastball ever comes up on one of these charts i will fanboy the fuck out of that song.

me 2

maybe on the "hot 100 #20 hits" poll

1998 might have been my peak year for modern rock radio listening so I've heard all these at least 100 times and sort of dislike them all equally at this point. Think I'm gonna vote for Hole.

i guess i'll be the lone vote for eve 6, lol

i have fond memories of about half?

oh shit, I'd completely forgotten about "The Way"

Hole. Would probably pick Fastway for (a distant) second place.

I think I confused it with that Sublime song, which is why I was ignoring it

The Way is...what I got. I said remember that.

lol

other Sublime song

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

guitar riff from "celebrity skin" is pretty sweet. never there is by far the best song here, but hell... not much competition. bad year for modern rock.

I love "The Way" by fastball. It's a nice story that doesn't seem to have any underlying social message. Just fucking driving away and disappearing and then the hills have eyes or something.

Fits Texas roots rock and ALT ROCK BUZZ FEST at the same time.

i will vouch for all goo goo dolls albums up to and including boy named goo but "iris" was where i decided enough was enough.

13 people voted for closing time?

Jesus Christ.

it's more scandalous that 5 people voted for "One Week"

2 worst:

Eve 6 - Inside Out
Goo Goo Dolls - Slide

The latter solely because of the "wanna get maaaa-reeeeed" line.

the ilx contingent that really gives a fuck about courtney love's post-live through this output is so weird

Celebrity Skin is a great song.

Eve 6 - Inside Out
Goo Goo Dolls - Slide

I don't think I know either of these.

One week.

. . .

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

this list is dogshit

"Violet" is a great song, "Celebrity Skin" is like slightly above "Greedy Fly" in the most-generic-'90s-riff-ever stakes

that generic '90s riff works every time

the ilx contingent that really gives a fuck about courtney love's post-live through this output is so weird

I dunno about anything else post-LTT, but America's Sweetheart is really good.

She was still singing and writing well.

Corgan wrote that riff, and the best part of that song (which is merely the fifth or sixth best song on the album) is her lyrics.

that eve 6 song is abominable

SD well yeah Violet is better than Celebrity Skin but it's better than most songs in general so.

I dunno if I voted in this poll but I would have voted for CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE