Special Edition: 90's Music Retrospective

musically speaking, the 90's kinda sucked. (i'm referring specifically to popular music.) especially when you look at the decades that preceded the 90's.

the 40's and 50's had the rat pack, billie holliday, all manner of jazz and blues greats, and elvis. things were nascent. there was a sense of novelty to the decade, and a quiet sense of rebellion among youth.

in the 60's, the rebellion became outright. there was free love, hippiedom, and rock and roll. musically, they had the beatles, the doors, jimi hendrix, bob dylan, the band, the who, the kinks, the monkees, the mama's and the papa's, and on and on.

the 70's had funk, disco, and metal. disco was hopelessly decadent, and funk was experimental. metal was angry.

the 80's were interesting. postmodernism was just setting in. computers were invading popular culture. in music you had the smiths, the pixies, hair metal, peter gabriel, talking heads, r.e.m., phil collins, echo and the bunnymen, and MTV when they actually played music videos. i never really like 80's music until recently, but looking back the era did have some very good bands and artists.

and then there's the 90's.

when it comes to popular music, the 90's pale in comparison to every other decade. when you look at the popular bands from the 90's, there are about 4 greats: nirvana, pearl jam, smashing pumpkins, and radiohead. these are the artists that are emblematic of the 90's. nirvana and kurt cobain are credited for saving the world from endless hair metal with "smells like teen spirit." with nirvana, "alternative music" became mainstream. pearl jam was right there with them.

other bands came around, like soundgarden. sonic youth. but none of them really reached the pinnacle that cobain's or vedder's or corgan's bands got to. and to the detriment of the alternative music genre, no alt. band ever surpassed what these bands did musically or lyrically and achieved such commercial success. the airwaves were filled with copycats, with every bandleader sounding like vedder or playing like cobain or vice versa.

i understand the importance of nirvana, pearl jam, and the smashing pumpkins has to a lot of fans. and many people likely know their music much better than i do. but i don't think anyone can refute the fact that no other alt. bands have ever come close to making music as good as these original bands did and have had as large an impact on the culture in general as these bands have.

radiohead is an exception. their sound in and of itself has evolved, and they stood out from the crowd. i don't really know how to specifically work them into this current line of thought, though.

but the disappointment of the alt. genre is only half the story of the 90's. the other half is even worse: boy bands, britney spears. throw up.

boy bands were cultural fads and corporate hacks. their pretty voices were only secondary to their pretty faces, which were the main impulse for all their pre-pubescent fans. they were all the negative aspects of consumerism incarnate: shallow, petty, cheap, and discardable.

and britney spears has and always will be a little bit loopy. worse things have been and could be said. but that's for somebody else.

personally, i'm quite disappointed that my generation did not have a band or sound that we could rally behind and march as one to. or heck, not to be so philosophical about it: that we could all listen or dance to together. when "smells like teen spirit" came out, i was 9. i kinda missed that moment in rock history by a bit. by the time i could appreciate music, it sucked, and i listened to christian music and dave matthews band instead. when compared to the other eras, the selection of great popular music that would be destined to become timeless was pretty slim.

a case could be made to the redeem the 90's. in fact, if someone could make one, i'd love to hear it. were there any bands i overlooked or was there anything i got wrong? or was i hopelessly spot-on? gosh, i hope not.