Still some worth voting for, but the line between alternative and mainstream is getting increasingly blurred. The bland has started overtaking the interesting, but this is nothing compared to what’s coming.
Daughter. One of the greatest songs ever written, by just about the only grunge band to survive the 90s more or less intact.
Much as I wanted to vote for “All Apologies” and “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get”, this year I must go with the Lemonheads. Pure pop deliciousness, that.
Call it mainstream or whatever, I like nearly all of those songs. I picked Selling the Drama just to pick one.
Dadaist rap is the best rap.
I love the Beck album Mellow Gold (I think “Beercan” is my favorite song from it), but I went with Nirvana’s melodically and lyrically exquisite “All Apologies.” I hope this is about the MTV Unplugged version, but if it’s the noisier studio version, that’s okay, too.
Or, you could say that the main chart was going so far off into a new world of “‘R+B’ and dance music plus some hip-hop” that the “alternative” chart was shifting over as well, winding up musically not far from where the main chart was in some years from 1965 to 1990. Meaning, a rock and pop-rock core, leavened with other things*.
While it’s true that many hip, “truly alternative” bands you seem to have in mind are less apparent on this chart, in terms of general musical style it seems they are rather well represented, no?
*Including some “alternative hip-hop,” but not enough of this, in my opinion, unless you count the rap influence on artists like Beck.
There’s a tension here between appearing to classify by commercial popularity (“mainstream” vs. “alternative”) vs. by musical style (“dance and r+b” vs. “rock”). Of course, there is a racial aspect to this tension, though white acts and white fans are certainly an increasing part of the “dance and r+b” thing – in fact, I’d say by 2012 the popular music landscape would rather resemble that of 1982 (Katy Perry and Drake sharing a musical space like Madonna and Michael Jackson did).
Is this in reference to “Loser”?
I know folks tear their hair out over them, but if you ask me what song gets played to this day most often in my house, gotta go with Longview by Green Day. Just love that song as do my kids…
Another (oversimplified) way to say what I wrote in post #7 is that, when “rock” was more or less mainstream*, “punk” was alternative. When hip-hop/R+B became mainstream, “rock” was alternative, but where did that leave “punk”? (I’m using “punk” in the broadest sense – more an attitude than a musical genre). I think that’s one way of expressing what woodstockybird alluded to.
*“Oversimplified” because the Billboard #1s lists were never truly dominated by rock music, except for maybe 1964 (thanks to Beatlemania). In the 1970s, Led Zeppelin couldn’t outcompete Helen Reddy; and in the 1980s, R.E.M. didn’t stand a chance against Madonna.
Fantastic album, start to finish, too. Hard to go wrong with Green Day.
But I ended up going with Beck’s “Loser,” just because I remember it just sounding different to everything else going on at the time in modern rock, or at least what was played on alternative radio stations, drawing from all sorts of musical influences.
While a bit mainstream, I like this list a lot. There’s hardly a song here I wouldn’t want to hear again (The Offspring number comes close, but I’ll listen to it for nostalgia’s sake.)
All true and yeah, Loser stands out, too. Before the interwebs, I couldn’t figure he was saying “Soy un perdador” in the chorus - I’m a loser in Spanish.
I like that Offspring song okay. They’re kinda harmless but I love their song Self Esteem - smart lyrics.
Voted for Daughter, but could easily have voted for many others.
Tough call, but I love All Apologies, it’s the song I most enjoyed learning how to play on guitar (I was never that good and being able to play a song I loved was just awesome).
Yes, sorry if I was unclear. It doesn’t totally eschew words like some dadaist poetry, but I think he’s working in dada nonetheless.
“Loser” is still in common rotation on my USB stick so I guess it wins.
I think that your description was PERFECT! I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing out on some other Dadaist rap from this list.
If there was a poll for worst song of the 90s, I would choose Crash Test Dummies in a heartbeat. That song makes me want to stab someone repeatedly.
Why isn’t Weezer on the list? Buddy Holly! The Sweater Song!
At least it gave us Weird Al’s Headline News.