top 100 production tricks of the 90s

100. mix your live drums to sound like sampled breakbeats

99. telephone voice

98. record scratching in songs that have no actual sampled music coming off the turntable or anywhere else

97. pretty acoustic guitar REALLY high in the mix of easygoing good-times and/or confessional/wisdom songs (see: "Hooch"; "What It's Like")

97. Fade-in with looped snippet of heavily-filtered vocals

95. Bonus points if fade-in snippet is taken from a movie, perhaps a cult classic, perhaps Tarantino riffing on cult classics, or perhaps the movie whose soundtrack the song is on.

AHH Doctor Casino you kind of stole mine. Acoustic guitar hook in the verse + sludgy electric guitar in the chorus.

kinda going with that:

94. quiet verse/LOUD CHORUS

98 is really good

93. disco breaks (bonus points if taken from an already-ubiquitous song)

92. Echoey non-chord soft solo guitar intro - perfected in Lisa Loeb's "Stay"

91. Michael Buffer

90. Sample of previous hit single playing on a tinny radio

89. That Max Martin synth-sweep leading into orchestral stab

94. quiet verse/LOUD CHORUS

more of a songwriting trick than a production trick

also not exclusive to the 90's...see every power ballad ever!

http://gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/nitpicking.jpeg

88. "When The Levee Breaks"

Chopped-up breaks.

86.(?) - secret bonus track at end of cd

85. Secret bonus track before the beginning of a cd ("Nick Cave & The Dirty Three Remind You That Zero Is Also A Number")

not really production tricks

84. Synth chime opening track (e.g. Taylor Dayne's "Tell It To My Heart", Celine Dion's "If You Asked Me To", etc.)

Surely that's an 80s trick?

83. korg m1 preset no. 17 "organ2"

aka robin s "show me love"

84. Pretending the eighties never happened.

*82

synth chime opening track (e.g. Taylor Dayne's "Tell It To My Heart"

It's from 1987.

Yeah, I realized that after I posted it, but it was still on the radio when I was a kid in the early 90s, so I remember it as part of the general radio landscape.

And she was inescapable too: seven consecutive top tens.

81. recording vocals through a megaphone

95. Bonus points if fade-in snippet is taken from a movie, perhaps a cult classic, perhaps Tarantino riffing on cult classics, or perhaps the movie whose soundtrack the song is on.

Or right in the middle- make a Springsteen song better by dropping in Tom Cruise.

Regulators
we regulate any stealing of his property
and we damn good too
But you can't be any geek off the street,
gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep!
REGULATORS!!! MOUNT UP!

98a. non-rap '90s alterna-hits with tasteful, tasty turntable work

80. Big expensive string section over noisy guitars.

89. That Max Martin synth-sweep leading into orchestral stab

Orchestral stabs in general.

79. Random slacker chatter to fill out the intro or middle 8, ideally something with vague intimations of a stoned college party lifestyle. Must suggest an 'as found' slice of hipster life, like a bit of overheard inconsequential conversation by the keg, or alternately it must be presented as an answering machine recording.

78. If a rock song does not end with a fade-out over repetitons of the chorus, it should end with one last, bleak note from the guitar, sustained by feedback and maybe some overdubbed hoots or moans from the lead singer... or end very abruptly with a quick, skronky outburst.

77. To max out CD length, gin up a maximum of one 2 minute sound collage or 'jam' with found sounds, chanting, heavily effected (or affected) vocals, and more feedback. Require the band to produce an elusive but off-the-cuff title, perhaps the nickname of a local wino or burger joint, suggesting their refusal to assign specific content or meaning. The next track - surprise! - is a bracing and straightforward rocker.

76. Extra digital guitar effects filtered through more extra digital guitar effects until it's lost almost all of its tone, ie Jagged Little Pill

Bonus points if fade-in snippet is taken from a movie
what we've got here is failure to communicate

75. I had to look this up, but the drum loop from "Ashley's Roachchip."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoJoI7SZiXI

76. 'Ah Yeah!'

77. 'Woo! Yeah! Woo! Yeah!'

78. The Kick Horns

71. Entire track starts off filtered and EQ'd to sound muffled, like it's playing underwater, before filter and EQ is gradually restored to its "correct" settings, to give the effect that the track is getting clearer sounding.

78. If a rock song does not end with a fade-out over repetitons of the chorus, it should end with one last, bleak note from the guitar, sustained by feedback and maybe some overdubbed hoots or moans from the lead singer... or end very abruptly with a quick, skronky outburst.

78b. End on the IV chord