# 25 years later: well-known songs from the 1990's, 2000's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349 "2013-04-10T19:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/21 "2013-04-11T21:04:28Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > The best, last hope of originality in music is the Internet: Gangnam Style may have been over-the-top and stayed around too long, but it certainly wasn’t anything we’d seen before. By that I think you mean it exposed a lot more people to Korean pop music. I don’t know that it was groundbreaking otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/22 "2013-04-11T22:28:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > By that I think you mean it exposed a lot more people to Korean pop music. I don’t know that it was groundbreaking otherwise. Well, what I meant was that what I heard on the Top 40 stations didn’t sound like Psy, and that the Internet also is opening up the market for World music as a genre, which should produce some new sounds. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/23 "2013-04-12T00:39:44Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Well, what I meant was that what I heard on the Top 40 stations didn’t sound like Psy, and that the Internet also is opening up the market for World music as a genre, which should produce some new sounds. Like I said, it didn’t sound like anything new to my ears. Kind of like a cross between Baja Men (“Who Let the Dogs Out”) with Ricky Martin and maybe some Black Eyed Peas or similar 00s pop dance music thrown in. I don’t think that song would have sounded out of place in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/24 "2013-04-12T01:05:22Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Outkast’s “Hey Ya” is one of the biggies of the 2000s that will be remembered. With all us old fogies explaining what “shake it like a Polaroid picture” means ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/25 "2013-04-12T01:30:42Z")
I asked my sister (17) and she said with confidence: - Carly Rae Jepson: Call Me Maybe - Justin Bieber: Baby - Beyonce: Single Ladies - Katy Perry: Firework - Kanye: Stronger, Niggas in Paris - Eminem: Lose Yourself, Eight Mile, Real Slim Shady - Various Adele - Various Lady Gaga ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/26 "2013-04-12T02:45:49Z")
Sure, anything by Brittany Agulara or Boys4Men will survive a couple decades. SFC Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/27 "2013-04-12T03:24:21Z")
The name of the group is Boyz II Men ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/28 "2013-04-12T03:29:59Z")
I think in some ways what songs will be popular 20 years from now are unknowable - it depends as much on the artist continuing to tour or make new albums as it does on the qualities of the song itself - Living on a Prayer being recognizable is probably as much about Bon Jovi still being recognizable, still touring and doing public performance, as it is about the song itself having some transcendent “classic” quality. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/29 "2013-04-12T04:15:59Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > I asked my sister (17) and she said with confidence: > > - Carly Rae Jepson: Call Me Maybe > - Justin Bieber: Baby > - Beyonce: Single Ladies > - Katy Perry: Firework > - Kanye: Stronger, Niggas in Paris > - Eminem: Lose Yourself, Eight Mile, Real Slim Shady > - Various Adele > - Various Lady Gaga Those are pretty good choices. I have a quibble with one of the Kanye picks. “Niggas in Paris” is a good song, but it doesn’t strike me as a song people would know the lyrics very well to, and it doesn’t strike me as a song that would be clearly remembered. It may well be, but I’d say “Gold Digger” would be a more obvious pick. “Stronger” I can’t argue with, though. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/30 "2013-04-12T04:45:26Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Not knowing anything about you, did you listen to your parent’s music? I didn’t - my Dad liked Big Band music, Broadway shows, and his one nod to music that hit the top-40 when I was growing up was Neil Diamond. > > All which I couldn’t stand as a kid. Kind of. My dad liked mellower classic rock and folk rock, so yeah, I like his music enough. My mom mostly listened to gospel and blue grass. I liked both in as much as I didn’t mind listening when she had it on, but didn’t listen to it on my own. My mom was vehemently against anything hard rock/heavy metal and bought into the whole “Satanic” music thing when I was a kid/teen, but totally mellowed with age. I was stunned when she bought my son an AC/DC t-shirt for Christmas a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Mole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/31 "2013-04-12T05:49:39Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#): > > [While that’s a good song, I don’t think that it is widely remembered these days.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRMhVMkQG0)😃 Weird! I listened to that song today on an alt rock station giving away Coachella tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/32 "2013-04-12T07:07:26Z")
Yes, it’s true. Rock’n’Roll anthems disappeared with the eighties, replaced by less crowd pleasing music like alt rock, rap and teenie pop. There’s still some classic anthems for the 90’s and noughties generation, though: Oasis’ **Wonderwall** , The Killers’ \*\* Human\*\*, Coldplay’s **Viva La Vida** … and, of course, The Baha Men’s **Who let the Dogs Out.** ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/33 "2013-04-12T12:25:03Z")
I have a feeling that there will be Classic Alt/Rock stations and these will play Nirvana to the point of absurdity. “Come… as you are…” will be on the same level as “On a dark desert highway…” is now. . ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/34 "2013-04-12T12:35:26Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m really not hearing a lot of music that is similar to early/mid '90s alternative right now. However, specifically w/r/t Gen X, there is current music that sounds like the late 90s nu-metal / rage rock, which was popular with both gen X and Y. “Post-hardcore” is the politically correct term for the current sort of music right now, for music that incorporates the postgrunge distorted guitars and screaming of the late 90s. However, this music also incorporates some melodic keyboards and Autotune, but it’s similar to nu metal incorporating other elements of hip hop back in the late 90s such as rapping and scratching. ETA: I have no clue as to whether it’s played on the radio or not. But it’s sufficiently popular that many of the lyrics show up in Google typeahead. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/35 "2013-04-12T13:21:36Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > I asked my sister (17) and she said with confidence: > > - Carly Rae Jepson: Call Me Maybe > - Justin Bieber: Baby > - Beyonce: Single Ladies > - Katy Perry: Firework > - Kanye: Stronger, Niggas in Paris > - Eminem: Lose Yourself, Eight Mile, Real Slim Shady > - Various Adele > - Various Lady Gaga Yup, that’s a real solid list. I think just about all of those would be a hit at a 2025 Karaoke bar. I’d add in a few Maroon 5 songs - even older ones are still in heavy rotation. If we’re going all the way back to the 90’s we already have pretty strong evidence that songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit and Even Flow aren’t going anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/36 "2013-04-12T13:29:25Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > Yes, it’s true. Rock’n’Roll anthems disappeared with the eighties, replaced by less crowd pleasing music like alt rock, rap and teenie pop. I’m not entirely sure I’d go with “less crowd pleasing.” I just think crowds shifted directions in taste. 80s hair rock and similar music was hardly loved by everyone. I’d say about 50% of my grammar school peers loved it, and 50% hated it, either liking more dance music type stuff, heavier rock music, or rap. I mean, I’m looking through the top 100 lists for the 90s and 00s, and there’s _tons_ of songs there that will survive. I can’t see why the 80s would be more ripe for hits. We’ve got: I Will Always Love You, Whoomp! There It Is, (I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You), all that Ace of Bass crap, I Will Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That), Gangsta’s Paradise, Waterfalls, Kiss from a Rose, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman, You Gotta Be, some of those Hootie & the Blowfish songs, probably a few Alanis Morisette tunes, I Believe I Can Fly, Wannabe, MMMBop, Semi-Charmed Life, The Freshmen, Mo Money Mo Problems, some Cheryl Crow, You’re Still the One, Gettin’ Jiggy With It, Yeah (by Usher), I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, Candle in the Wind, Tubthumping, Believe, Baby One More Time, Kiss Me, a few Sugar Ray tunes, All Star, Fly Away, La Vida Loca, Crazy, Bootylicious, Fallin’, Hot in Here, a number of Black Eyed Peas songs, Ignition, Crazy in Love, Get Low, Beautiful, In da Club, and so on and so forth. I think there’s plenty of memorable songs from the 90s and 00s. And that’s just scratching the surface. I’m probably missing a bunch of Green Day, Coldplay, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/37 "2013-04-12T13:29:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Like I said, it didn’t sound like anything new to my ears. Kind of like a cross between Baja Men (“Who Let the Dogs Out”) with Ricky Martin and maybe some Black Eyed Peas or similar 00s pop dance music thrown in. I don’t think that song would have sounded out of place in 2003. No, you’re right, it wouldn’t have sounded out of place in 2003; it also didn’t sound much like anything else in the Summer of 2013. My guess is anything that’s been covered on any KidzBop album has a good chance being remembered 20 years down the road. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/38 "2013-04-12T14:13:58Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > No, you’re right, it wouldn’t have sounded out of place in 2003; it also didn’t sound much like anything else in the Summer of 2013. That’s true. It had that fun, whimsical feel and a catch silly dance to go with it. It’s amazing to see how this song captures the spirit of young and old alike. At weddings, you have grandmas and grandpas trying to imitate the “ropin’/ridin’ the horse” moves. It’s great fun and was interesting to witness how it just seemed to explode in a couple week’s time. One wedding, no one heard the song. Two weeks later, every single body in the room is crowding the dancefloor. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/39 "2013-04-12T14:47:22Z")
Since people keep mentioning airplay - how much are younger music fans even listening to the radio at this point? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349/40 "2013-04-12T15:05:55Z")
As I’ve said here earlier, there will never again be ONE song or ONE artist or ONE movie or ONE televison show that an entire generation embraces, as there were in earlier decades. There are too many TV networks, too many musical genres, et al., for everyone (or even a huge plurality) of the population to rally around. But I expect that all the millions of girls who wept for Leo and Kate in\*\*\* Titanic \*\*\*will retain a soft spot in their hearts for “My Heart Will Go On.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-years-later-well-known-songs-from-the-1990s-2000s/655349.md?page=3)