Needs more Green Day, and some freaking Beck and some Garbage.
Alice in Chains. . .jesus. Effing stop sucking them off, already. They were fine, but they’re not God.
Find the River doesn’t belong on this list. It’s a great song, but it doesn’t belong on this list. Substitute “Bang and Blame.”
Crappy list. His love of specific bands way too clearly colors this.
When I used to make mix tapes, I’d be sure to be really careful to not include multiple songs by the same group unless they really really needed to be on the tape. There’s a finite amount of space after all, and if I wanted to listen to a Bruce Springsteen album I could just listen to the album.
For this list of 200 greatest songs it’s like he had no reason to filter or think critically because the list is so huge, so he could just put almost whole albums on there. I guess this is what happens in the age of the ‘playlist’ where size is only limited by how long you feel like listening.
My mix tape/CD rule of thumb has long been no more than two songs by the same artist. If you love a particular band it’s so tempting to put more than that (with 60-90 minutes to fill, why not four, five, or six songs by your favorite artist?), but I eventually realized that was just self-indulgent.
I cant really tell what the criteria for this list was, it seems like grunge + post-grunge rock, with a smattering of random 90’s tracks to balance it out.
Wheres the 10,000 maniacs, Dave Matthews Band (ick), Phish, Barenaked Ladies, Kid Rock (double ick) or Limp Bizkit? I think these bands helped to define subgenres within alt-rock during the nineties.
How did the Wallflowers get 2 spots on the list (one in the top 10!!!)?
Why does “Beautiful Disaster” by 311 deserve a spot on the list but not “Down”?
What about the Filter selection, “Take a picture” but not “Hey Man Nice Shot”?
Was “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” or “1979” a better song than “Today”?
How about the RHCP “Otherside” was listed in the top 20, but “Scar Tissue” (which won a freaking grammy, Best Rock Song) was at 193?
What about the ever present pop-alt songs of the late 90’s like Sugar Ray’s “Fly” or Fuel’s “Shimmer”?
“Jeremy” at 163 :dubious:?
I’d feel better about this list if I knew what the author’s definition of best was. Other than that it is still a little nostalgic.
Yes to the former, no to the latter. “Today” might have been their first radio-friendly hit, but it’s not their best song from the 90s.
It’s been said already, but it bears repeating:
Bruce Springsteen?
WTF is everyone’s obsession with Radiohead? They suck, and that’s one of the most whiny, non-musical songs I’ve ever heard. And seriously, Black and Jeremy as the two PJ songs? Okay, Jeremy WAS the biggest song in the world for a time, but if they put half of Alice in Chain’s discography on there, then I can’t believe they didn’t find a place for State of Love & Trust, Even Flow, Alive, Porch, Leash, or any given song on Yield, just for starters. It’s also pretty sad that They Might Be Giants wasn’t included at all. At the least, Birdhouse In Your Soul…same thing with Gin Blossoms - as much as people are embarrassed to admit they like them, Follow You Down and Hey Jealousy are both great songs are were almost as big as Smells Like Teen Spirit was.
Umm, and Springsteen is ALTERNATIVE rock? Since when?
(so yeah, basically everything Lamia said)
I’d say the opposite–“1979” is the Pumpkins’ best song, and “Bullet” is their second-worst (“Disarm” being the worst)
I’d put Cherub Rock or Rocket above anything on Mellon Collie.
I would guess whoever wrote this was probably not of age to actually remember the early 90’s. I mean, yeah, the Seattle bands were very popular at the time, but not to the extent his list would have you believe. There was alot of other stuff too. Is Jane’s Addiction even on the list? The early 90’s with no Janes Addiction?
:smack: I completely forgot about They Might Be Giants! Im starting to think that a majority of this list was defined by stuff that got heavy rotation on MTV + Alice In Chains.
and where are the Shoegaze bands?
As much as “Only Shallow” deserves to be ranked above every single song on that list, I don’t know that it had much of a radio presence. Which bands/songs were you thinking of?
Yeah I don’t know if shoegaze should count as “alternative”, not that I know what that means. Would you have heard MBV on a modern rock station during the 90’s? I figure “alternative” is stuff that MTV would play in their regular rotation, not just on 120 Minutes. It could include other stuff but on a list with so much Stone Temple Pilots and no Fugazi, Melvins or even Helmet?
If we open it up to shoegaze then how about Beat Happening, Bikini Kill, Thee Headcoats or a thousand other bands in a dozen indie genres.
:eek:Seriously? I’m curious, could you give me a random cross-section of music that you do like?
Everyone knows their real best song is Mayonaise.
Anyway I hate all these stupid long lists because it just reminds me of how little music I’ve heard and how little time there is for everything. Then I download some random samplings and pat myself on the back for having impeccable taste–I mean all those bands that I’m unfamiliar with suck so bad!
Shoegaze. I only knew who three of those bands (The Catherine Wheel, The Verve, Swervedriver) were in the 90s…
In the case of this list, “alternative” means “bands with heavy radio support.” This list includes a lot of faux-alt stuff like Third Eye Blind. See anything by The Magnetic Fields on there? And no P.J. Harvey?
There is very little variety on this list. It’s mostly male, mostly hard rock and at first glance it looks to be entirely white. I’m not going to go over it carefully to be sure.
That list is proof that “alternative” ceased to have any meaning in the 90s.
How many black rock acts are there though? I can think of Lenny Kravitz, Living Colour, Splender, a few members of the Dave Mathews Band and a member of Sugar Ray. I’m sure there’s more, but
Did alternative even have any meaning in the 90s? Looking a post above yours, why is Third Eye Blind “faux-alternative”, but PJ Harvey is “alternative”? What’s the difference, the amount of airplay one received over the other? The fact that one was mainstream while the other was mostly confined to college radio.
To quote another rock artist, “It’s still rock and roll to me”.
This is the first thing that jumped out at me. Alice in Chains? Really??? Is the Rock Czar an AiC roadie or something? They are not a bad band, but they hardly deserve to dominate the list as they do.