In terms of popular music, the 90s
sucked. Aside from the rare quality of, say, the Rage Against the Machine debut, Massive Attack's Mezzanine or OK Computer (yes, it is good), what I remember mostly from the hit lists were a drudgery of boring ass RnB hits, boy bands and god awful dance music like DJ Bobo, Aqua, Wigfield.
It's like this was new music and it was gonna be popular no matter how shitty it was or how little effort actually went into making it.
Do you agree? Show me some examples of boring ass 90s music!
Like what is a papaya coconut and why does it deserve a song? Yech!
What about Blue by Eiffel 65??? That song was a bop
Pop music in any era has always been overrun with corny crap. Take the 70s for example. Afternoon Delight, Disco Duck, the Pina Colada Song, Muskrat Love, Do You Think I'm Sexy, Barry Manilow's entire career, I rest my case.
90s pop was at least formative on my childhood and so I can't bring myself to truly hate stuff like boy bands and eurodance.
That being said, the 90s did curse us with Achy Breaky Heart and I'm Too Sexy and Puff Daddy and Smash Mouth and LFO, so I get you. But it's not unique in having terrible fads and pop music. Every decade has its crap that rises to the top.
Quotegod awful dance music like DJ Bobo, Aqua, Wigfield.
I'm sorry, but I love "Barbie Girl".
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 04:43 AMThat being said, the 90s did curse us with Achy Breaky Heart and I'm Too Sexy and Puff Daddy and Smash Mouth and LFO, so I get you. But it's not unique in having terrible fads and pop music. Every decade has its crap that rises to the top.
This LFO?
Nope, this LFO. Corny white boy rapping abound.
I remember when this came out and even back then I thought it sucked.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 04:43 AMThat being said, the 90s did curse us with Achy Breaky Heart and I'm Too Sexy and Puff Daddy and Smash Mouth and LFO, so I get you. But it's not unique in having terrible fads and pop music. Every decade has its crap that rises to the top.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! "Walkin' on the Sun" is a decent song!
As a general response to this thread: I spent all of my teens and the early part of my 20s in the 90s as an artsy—then art school-attending—pop music hater, but even I have to acknowledge that there was plenty of great pop music during that time. "Barbie Girl" is great fun and so is "Cotton Eyed Joe". Ace of Base and Deee-Lite were brilliant. "Wicked Game" was the sexiest song ever. "Ray of Light" was mind-blowing. "Boys & Girls" was, at least for me, a first tentative step into understanding my own fundamental queerness. And, of course, "Bittersweet Symphony" was the anthem to end all anthems.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 26, 2023, 06:05 AMQuote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 04:43 AMThat being said, the 90s did curse us with Achy Breaky Heart and I'm Too Sexy and Puff Daddy and Smash Mouth and LFO, so I get you. But it's not unique in having terrible fads and pop music. Every decade has its crap that rises to the top.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! "Walkin' on the Sun" is a decent song!
Fair enough! Doesn't really do much for me but it's better than a lot of their other hits. I suppose they didn't start getting really obnoxious until the early 2000s when children's film soundtracks consumed their career, haha.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 04:43 AMFair enough! Doesn't really do much for me but it's better than a lot of their other hits. I suppose they didn't start getting really obnoxious until the early 2000s when children's film soundtracks consumed their career, haha.
They did children's films soundtracks? Damn.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 26, 2023, 06:30 AMQuote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 04:43 AMFair enough! Doesn't really do much for me but it's better than a lot of their other hits. I suppose they didn't start getting really obnoxious until the early 2000s when children's film soundtracks consumed their career, haha.
They did children's films soundtracks? Damn.
Well, not entire soundtracks, but they did do a lot of songs for kids' movies back then. Allow me to share with you this nugget, from the 2003 Cat in the Hat movie, a film I swear I only saw in theaters because my little sister dragged me to it.
To me, the 90s weren't all that bad, but then again, I didn't listen to top 40 in the 90s, which was indeed godawful. I mean if I had to hear My Heart Will Go On one more time...
But, I'm an indie guy so I listened to bands like Nirvana and Radiohead. Later I would get into Elliott Smith and Wilco among others.
And I'd argue the 90's and 00's are both way better than the music we hear today (outside the top 40 anyway)
I think you guys are focusing too much on the good memories and not enough on the bad.
It's a weird decade because, as someone interested in electronic music at the time, I couldn't quite understand why we had ground breaking artists like Aphex Twin breaking through to the mainstream with complex, organic, multi-layered music and at the same time, we had artists and producers who made basic shit like this:
You have like 5 goddamn tracks here. Vocal, drums, awful house chord samples, this dumb melodic bass sample counter melody and for some reason this stupid jawharp (?) sample that they've smeared over the thing.
Other decades have their shitty pop, but Barry Manilow was never this cheap. I definitely think the 90s, early 90s in particular, has a bad case of these very cheaply produced cash grabs being able to gain significant popularity.
God dangit, now I'm agitated again. I need another break from this awful 90s music.
edit:
Quote from: tristan_geoff on Jan 26, 2023, 03:09 AMWhat about Blue by Eiffel 65??? That song was a bop
It's a travesty, argh.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 26, 2023, 06:21 AMAs a general response to this thread: I spent all of my teens and the early part of my 20s in the 90s as an artsy—then art school-attending—pop music hater, but even I have to acknowledge that there was plenty of great pop music during that time. "Barbie Girl" is great fun and so is "Cotton Eyed Joe". Ace of Base and Deee-Lite were brilliant. "Wicked Game" was the sexiest song ever. "Ray of Light" was mind-blowing. "Boys & Girls" was, at least for me, a first tentative step into understanding my own fundamental queerness. And, of course, "Bittersweet Symphony" was the anthem to end all anthems.
Out of those, Wicked Game was a very sexy ballad and it's a good song. However, for every Wicked Game, there was something like this (since you mentioned Rednex):
And about Cotton Eye Joe, I guess it was decent - or at least Rednex must have thought so as they repackaged and resold that song an additional two times as The Way I Mate (http://"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvQMgNi9C8") and Old Pop In An Oak (http://"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YuJZzuHDf8"). Check out the similarities.. and they also both charted here. It was so much about the cash grabs.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 26, 2023, 02:37 PMI think you guys are focusing too much on the good memories and not enough on the bad...
I have never heard either of the songs you posted before, so even though they're not great, I don't think they were really part of the pop landscape over here in the 90s. To me, the shitty pop music of the 90s was the pop R&B garbage churned out by the likes of Mariah Carey and Color Me Badd. I like R&B, but I feel like the late 80s and early 90s were its artistic nadir.
Do you agree?
Not really, but I understand and respect your point of view.
my favourite decade is the 90s ;)
Show me some examples of boring ass 90s music!
I still don't like Britney music, her song "baby one more time" in my opinion it was so annoying and boring even back then.
Hey fire! Welcome :)
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 26, 2023, 03:23 PMQuote from: Guybrush on Jan 26, 2023, 02:37 PMI think you guys are focusing too much on the good memories and not enough on the bad...
I have never heard either of the songs you posted before, so even though they're not great, I don't think they were really part of the pop landscape over here in the 90s. To me, the shitty pop music of the 90s was the pop R&B garbage churned out by the likes of Mariah Carey and Color Me Badd. I like R&B, but I feel like the late 80s and early 90s were its artistic nadir.
It's a fair point. Pop music may have been shittier here in Norway than across the pond :laughing: a lot of the awful artists I remember from the radio were from Scandinavian countries like the aforementioned Dr. Alban, DJ Bobo, Aqua, Whigfield, Redneck, Daze, E-Type, Toy Box, also don't care for Ace of Base.
Maybe it was a problem with Europe. Eiffel 65, 666, 2 Unlimited, Vengaboys. So much crap.
But also stuff like Moby's Play seems poor to me in hindsight. You steal soul music and just add breakbeats to it? What's up with 90s breakbeats in general? The new agey stuff like Enigma and Masters of Chant. What about the punk covers trend spearheaded by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes?
There's loads of good 90s pop.
There was a lot of good Euro dance and things about back then.
Take a look at Pure Shores by All Saints or this for good 90s pop:
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 26, 2023, 08:26 PMBut also stuff like Moby's Play seems poor to me in hindsight. You steal soul music and just add breakbeats to it? What's up with 90s breakbeats in general? The new agey stuff like Enigma and Masters of Chant. What about the punk covers trend spearheaded by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes?
Well, I like "Play" and Enigma and Me First & The Gimme Gimmes. So there. ;D
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 26, 2023, 05:52 AM
Nope, this LFO. Corny white boy rapping abound.
I remember when this came out and even back then I thought it sucked.
I'd never heard this one before, but boy. It sucks hairy ass. Thanks for sharing :love:
Now, I actually don't HATE this song (because I find it funny), but the music video and the song encapsulates many of the dumb things about the 90s. Take a look at the themes here. Listen to the stupid 90s Enigma drum sample they put on it. Now this is well done for its time, but it's still kinda stupid.
To me, it seems typical of the 90s that it featured some the worst output from artists who were beloved in earlier decades. Image and how they should present themselves sometimes got a little messy.
There's a 90s stupidity that's hard to describe in words. It's cheesy, maybe mysterious? It's like the 90s movie The Prophecy where Christopher Walken, playing the angel Gabriel, and everyone else is always perching on things like birds. Because they're angels, right?
(https://theschlockpit.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/the-prophecy-1995.jpg)
(https://horizondream.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lucifer-mortensen.jpg)
(https://www.idiomanic.com/wp-content/uploads/prophecy-screenshot.jpg)
This could only be cool in the 90s. What were they thinking? :coldsweat: I feel like whatever the source of this stupid was, it also leaked into No More I Love Yous and certain other songs from that time.
Whoa, now you're going after Annie Lennox? Damn.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 08:48 AMWhoa, now you're going after Annie Lennox? Damn.
I'll go after anyone. Metallica? David Bowie? Prince? Meat loaf? Cher? They all got 90s musical blood on their hands.
It's the decade that made Bono awful.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 08:57 AMI'll go after anyone. Metallica? David Bowie? Prince? Meat loaf? Cher? They all got 90s musical blood on their hands.
It's the decade that made Bono awful.
I think the first two U2 albums of the 90s are among their best releases. David Bowie continued his 80s trajectory of making some good music without being nearly as good as he was in the 70s. Prince continued being Prince, even with the temporary name change. Meat Loaf and Cher had a couple good songs, like in previous decades.
The only artist you mentioned that I think really went off a cliff in the 90s was Metallica, and even they had one reasonably okay album at the beginning of the decade.
To be honest, I don't hate 90s David Bowie even if his output seems weaker and his whole personae a little out of place. I'm not a huge Prince, Meat Loaf or Cher fan in any case, so I'm not actually frustrated with their 90s output. I do think artists that were well established before the 90s typically had an artistic decline in the 90s, so like Madonna is worse (despite tremendous successes with frozen, secret, ray of light, etc), Michael Jackson got way way worse, Metallica really did make some weird decisions. It affects many, so I'm fairly sure
@Trollheart is not gonna say the 90s are the best decade for Iron Maiden f.ex.
This is understandable, though, as they're artists from another time who kinda tried to adapt and / or got new 90s producers to do their albums etc. It's not unique for the 90s, but for the sake of argument I'll say that 90s grime tended to put a little extra dirt on these things.
For U2, I don't listen to their 90s albums (that's a long time ago), but I think they're pretty good (even if I prefer earlier stuff). But something happened to Bono's ego which, if you look back at concert videos from that time, is pretty cringeworthy. It's narcissism to a degree that would put Morrissey to shame. Specifically, I'm thinking back on the the Zoo TV tour with the black clothes and the big, buggy sunglasses where he would also show up as character MacPhisto on stage.
And I'm thinking maybe he was always like that, but the 90s spin on it is just a little more awful.
Pink Floyd did well, I think. Pulse is an okay album, but the tour was tremendous. And they managed to do it without falling into the many 90s pitfalls of the time. No weird costumes or contrived attempts at being cool or anything. Of course, it was also their farewell, so..
I'll maintain that U2 didn't get really awful until the 2000s. Even Pop has some great moments.
I also love 90s Bowie, but I will agree on Prince.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 27, 2023, 03:57 PMI'll maintain that U2 didn't get really awful until the 2000s. Even Pop has some great moments.
Oh yeah? I have one word for you- Zooropa.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 11:32 AMAnd I'm thinking maybe he was always like that, but the 90s spin on it is just a little more awful.
He was always like that, but my take on him in the 90s is that it was when he stopped taking himself as seriously.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 11:32 AMPink Floyd did well, I think. Pulse is an okay album, but the tour was tremendous. And they managed to do it without falling into the many 90s pitfalls of the time. No weird costumes or contrived attempts at being cool or anything. Of course, it was also their farewell, so..
Pink Floyd is where were switch sides in this debate. :laughing: They were a shadow of their former selves by the 90s and only released one tepid studio album. They had been a band that was constantly evolving from album to album in the 60s and 70s, but once Gilmour took the wheel all they seemed to want to do was rehash
Dark Side of the Moon. It's not even like the 90s made them lame either, they were already a reanimated corpse of a band in the 80s, they just continued shambling along into the 90s.
Quote from: Rubber Soul on Jan 27, 2023, 04:22 PMOh yeah? I have one word for you- Zooropa.
One of their best albums imo!
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 04:31 PMQuote from: Rubber Soul on Jan 27, 2023, 04:22 PMOh yeah? I have one word for you- Zooropa.
One of their best albums imo!
That's how I felt about Achtung Baby. Then they released this, uh, gem. I'm not sure what was worse, the songs that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, or that foot fetish video with the Edge. Yeah, I'd go with the foot fetish video.
Zooropa is fairly meh besides a couple/few tracks, but kudos to them for trying something else. It definitely feels like they were searching for something during the 90s. Pop seems very 90s contrived in terms of aesthetics, but some good songs still.
I bought the Passengers album they did with Brian Eno in the mid 90s. Also not great, but some good/pleasant songs there.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 04:30 PMPink Floyd is where were switch sides in this debate. :laughing: They were a shadow of their former selves by the 90s and only released one tepid studio album. They had been a band that was constantly evolving from album to album in the 60s and 70s, but once Gilmour took the wheel all they seemed to want to do was rehash Dark Side of the Moon. It's not even like the 90s made them lame either, they were already a reanimated corpse of a band in the 80s, they just continued shambling along into the 90s.
Of course they were after Roger Waters left and they getting tied up in various court drama. Wright was always a little on the fence anyways and Gilmour and Mason probably had other things they wanted to do. I like late era PF, but it's hard to argue they're a better band than before.
I just think they handled the transition into the 90s like they didn't care or notice much what decade it was, which is nice. :laughing: so much LARPing otherwise. Also Pulse is one of my favorite live records ever. It had a red pulsing LED light on the spine!
Quote from: Rubber Soul on Jan 27, 2023, 04:40 PMThat's how I felt about Achtung Baby. Then they released this, uh, gem. I'm not sure what was worse, the songs that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, or that foot fetish video with the Edge. Yeah, I'd go with the foot fetish video.
I think of
Achtung Baby and
Zooropa as sort of an unofficial double album, so it's surprising to hear of someone loving one and hating the other.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 04:46 PMI bought the Passengers album they did with Brian Eno in the mid 90s. Also not great, but some good/pleasant songs there.
Wow, I had totally forgotten about that album! I'm not sure if I've ever even heard it
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 04:46 PMAlso Pulse is one of my favorite live records ever. It had a red pulsing LED light on the spine!
I remember it well. I worked in the electronics section of a department store when that album was new and I remember watching all the blinking lights on the shelf going in and out of sync.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 05:09 PMWow, I had totally forgotten about that album! I'm not sure if I've ever even heard it
You probably remember the single Miss Sarajevo that also featured Luciano Pavarotti :)
This is the closest that album ever got to sounding like a U2 album. The rest of it sounds more like an Eno album.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 05:09 PMI remember it well. I worked in the electronics section of a department store when that album was new and I remember watching all the blinking lights on the shelf going in and out of sync.
I think it was my second PF album after the wall, so that was my first meeting with a lot of their older material. The second disc where they play dark side and wish you were here is a lot better than disc 1 with newer material :laughing: Disc 1 starts with a very nice version of Shine on you [...], though.
I think the whole concert vid is on YouTube now.
Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 27, 2023, 05:23 PMYou probably remember the single Miss Sarajevo that also featured Luciano Pavarotti :)
This is the closest that album ever got to sounding like a U2 album. The rest of it sounds more like an Eno album.
I just listened to "Miss Sarajevo" on YouTube. I don't think I've ever heard it before. Looking at the Wikipedia page, I don't think it even charted over here.
I should give the album a listen though. I like Eno.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 04:48 PMI think of Achtung Baby and Zooropa as sort of an unofficial double album, so it's surprising to hear of someone loving one and hating the other.
I can understand why. Zooropa has a couple of more oddball elements in some songs, like I couldn't imagine Numb or Lemon or The Wanderer fitting in at all with Achtung Baby. I love both albums but they do have some subtle different vibes going on.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 27, 2023, 10:49 PMI can understand why. Zooropa has a couple of more oddball elements in some songs, like I couldn't imagine Numb or Lemon or The Wanderer fitting in at all with Achtung Baby. I love both albums but they do have some subtle different vibes going on.
One thing that's always been funny to me is that, for some reason,
Zooropa has always felt like an EP to me even though it's almost as long as
Achtung Baby. I think it might have to do with how it was written, on a break from the Zoo TV tour. It gives it a sort of experimental vibe.
Quote from: Janszoon on Jan 27, 2023, 11:24 PMQuote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 27, 2023, 10:49 PMI can understand why. Zooropa has a couple of more oddball elements in some songs, like I couldn't imagine Numb or Lemon or The Wanderer fitting in at all with Achtung Baby. I love both albums but they do have some subtle different vibes going on.
One thing that's always been funny to me is that, for some reason, Zooropa has always felt like an EP to me even though it's almost as long as Achtung Baby. I think it might have to do with how it was written, on a break from the Zoo TV tour. It gives it a sort of experimental vibe.
This is funny cause you put in words something that was bugging me a bit about Zooropa. It DOES feel like more of an EP. Maybe it's because it's a bit more all over the place? Achtung Baby was a lot more cohesive to my mind. Pop too. Also if I remember correctly, Zooropa did have fewer (but possibly longer?) songs.
I agree, I've been saying this to people for ages. Good era for alternative though.
This is an interesting concept, the 90's had some absolute shite like Radiohead garnering attention. On the other hands grunge and pop punk bands really knocked it out of the park here and there. Of course if we're talking pure pop maybe? but that has been shit forever and continues to be shit today.
Just re-read topic, honestly based on this criteria popular music gets worse each decade
@Guybrush maybe you're just too old to have tried to listen to the popular music that has plagued us since the 90's. To call it shite is offensive to faeces.
Continuing on this point, (woo triple post). The 80's are the clear worst decade of modern music (starting in the mid 50's) in terms of an overall quality level. Sure popular music keeps getting worse, but music as a whole peaked in the 70's completely crashed in the 80's and has improved since. Just look at the metal of the 90's and onward.
EDIT (even fucking good non-metal music sounds the same in the 80's, that fucking sound that plagues the future of current music,)
My point is, an I am so fucked at this point, is that popular music of the 90's is a product of the 80's essentially removing the soul of music, and every year since then has been cursed to be utterly shit because the formulka was figured out in the 80's and just iterated on ad infinitum.
Quote from: Comus on Feb 05, 2023, 07:16 PMContinuing on this point, (woo triple post). The 80's are the clear worst decade of modern music (starting in the mid 50's) in terms of an overall quality level. Sure popular music keeps getting worse, but music as a whole peaked in the 70's completely crashed in the 80's and has improved since. Just look at the metal of the 90's and onward.
I have to disagree with you here, there's a lot of great music from the 80s. Pop, new wave, no wave, post punk, hardcore punk, grindcore, hip hop, dub, goth, college rock, electro, industrial, EBM, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, noise rock, world music, folk, house, techno, Italo disco, acid jazz, free jazz and avant garde music was thriving. There was a great deal of variety and a lot of fantastic music.
I too think the 80s is a pretty good decade for popular music. It's also true that it's a decade that supercharged the commerciality of music even more and I can sorta get the argument that some soul may have been lost. But no decade's pop music is as soulless as the 90s.
One thing that's definitely happening is popular music is getting less diverse for each decade. There are scientific studies about this so from a diversity point of view, it has gotten progressively more shitty. I believe that's basically due to natural selection. You have certain discoveries that happen in music, like distorted guitars or the synthesizer, that open up a lot of new possibilities and leads music to branch out into new shapes and forms. This happened more often before and less and less today. When there's no big events to mutate music into radically new directions, you're left with a culture that only tweaks what has come before, shedding off the varieties that were less competitive / culturally viable (which causes variety to decrease) and just distilling the forms and shapes that kinda work. This makes music dull.
So popular music is getting duller as a whole, but is it getting worse? You might have to define very clearly what worse means. While I don't like much pop music today, I generally think the quality from a production point of view seems rather good compared to before. It just doesn't grab my attention very often.
My argument is basically that you won't find cheaply produced, absolute shit trash music in the hit lists today to the extent that you did in the 90s. You always find it, of course, but it's a matter of how bad is it and how much of it is there.
And I don't think a mention of Radiohead as an example of shit in a decade that had I'm blue dabadi dabadai can be taken seriously.
Quote from: Janszoon on Feb 05, 2023, 07:46 PMQuote from: Comus on Feb 05, 2023, 07:16 PMContinuing on this point, (woo triple post). The 80's are the clear worst decade of modern music (starting in the mid 50's) in terms of an overall quality level. Sure popular music keeps getting worse, but music as a whole peaked in the 70's completely crashed in the 80's and has improved since. Just look at the metal of the 90's and onward.
I have to disagree with you here, there's a lot of great music from the 80s. Pop, new wave, no wave, post punk, hardcore punk, grindcore, hip hop, dub, goth, college rock, electro, industrial, EBM, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, noise rock, world music, folk, house, techno, Italo disco, acid jazz, free jazz and avant garde music was thriving. There was a great deal of variety and a lot of fantastic music.
Sure, lots of great music. Nowhere near the 70's, nowhere near the 90's.
I'll admit my biggest beef here is with eurodance which has got to be the worst thing to ever hit pop music across pop history.
Like this putrid, soulless junk:
Then there were the boy bands.
Grunge came and went quickly. I wasn't all that interested in Blur or Oasis, but britpop may have been one of the more tolerable pop trends of the decade.
Edit:
Remember how these guys became super popular again?
Quote from: Comus on Feb 05, 2023, 09:36 PMSure, lots of great music. Nowhere near the 70's, nowhere near the 90's.
To me those three decades are equally good, even if they each have their own things they excel at.
I was reminded of The Kelly family recently. A girl I was friends with for a little while in the late 90s had them as her favorite band.
This song she played over and over.
I dunno 😐 I can see the hit potential, but the 90sness of the production and the layer of cheese is just too thick.
Here's a song I actually like a lot, but the video brings up a lot of 90s tropes that, when put together, do seem ridiculous to me.
They seem to live in a shack with gaps in the paneling. They got cockroaches. He's a long-haired, troubled hunk with dark moods and a cross on a chain. It's so rough and dramatic.
Yet I find it hard to describe in s concise manner what's wrong with this. Is it the way this style seems so unironic and self-unaware? Maybe it has to do with the way the 90s told these kind of stories and the way they liked to express big emotions at that time 🤔 it's kinda solemn and ridiculous at the same time.
Can't believe Hynde ever agreed to make that video. :o
I'd be out the door at first sight of those massive cockroaches. :laughing:
Nice song, though.
Although the 90's did have most of the KLFs more noteworthy output ............
KLF - Last train to trancentral
This piece of pretty awful 90sness popped into my head recently. I generally have a pretty high tolerance for cheesy boyband music, but stuff like this makes me glad that it's not popular anymore. Pretty cool bassline though at least.
yeah that song does have a decent bassline but the rest of it just feels like they're going through the motions. Cant remember too many boy bands from the 90's but I did once trade an East 17 CD single for a friends cassette copy of REM - Out of Time so I remember them at least. I still dont mind this song.
East 17 - Its Alright
Quote from: Meatwad on Sep 24, 2023, 12:27 PMyeah that song does have a decent bassline but the rest of it just feels like they're going through the motions. Cant remember too many boy bands from the 90's but I did once trade an East 17 CD single for a friends cassette copy of REM - Out of Time so I remember them at least. I still dont mind this song.
East 17 - Its Alright
Yeah, for sure. I was exposed to a
lot of boybands between 1997 and 2002 since my sister was obsessed with them. They also played a lot of that stuff on Radio Disney, which she listened to a lot. I was more into pop punk and nu-metal back then, but I also liked some of the boyband stuff, at the time I did anyway. Some of it still hits that nostalgic sweet spot but there were a lot of derivative songs from that era that have aged like milk as well.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Sep 24, 2023, 12:04 PMThis piece of pretty awful 90sness popped into my head recently. I generally have a pretty high tolerance for cheesy boyband music, but stuff like this makes me glad that it's not popular anymore. Pretty cool bassline though at least.
This comes on the radio when I'm training if I have the 90s station on.
Agree with everything you said. It's painful to listen to. What makes it worse is those accents.
The one guy (Ritchie) is a cool guy though, from near me and is good on Twitter.
I think its the perception that the 80's was this golden era for popular music (lacking significant rock music output) with Michael Jackson reigning as the king of pop may impact on the 90's unfavourably, but I couldn't disagree more that the 90's was the worst decade for pop music. It was better than the 00's, the 10's, and honestly could well be better than the 80's.
JX - You belong to me
When you're looking back through the mists of time, you are probably cherry picking things from that decade that you like.
But take a random 90s week and look at whatever the Top 20 hits are that week and it's probably gonna be turd after dookie. And the number 1 might be something like this:
So while there were good songs, the low points were so low.
Quote from: Guybrush on Sep 25, 2023, 08:12 PMWhen you're looking back through the mists of time, you are probably cherry picking things from that decade that you like.
But take a random 90s week and look at whatever the Top 20 hits are that week and it's probably gonna be turd after dookie. And the number 1 might be something like this:
So while there were good songs, the low points were so low.
Everyones cherrypicking songs here to make their point. Thats how debate goes.
Not sure Limp Bizkit's "Faith" is all that random and truly emblematic of pop from the 90's.
Do you believe that the 00's and the 10's haven't pumped out their fair share of aural pop turds too ?
The 00's did feature the abomination known as Crazy Frog and that obscenely annoying Axel F cover. Would much rather listen to Limp Bizkit than Crazy Frog.
Quote from: Meatwad on Sep 26, 2023, 01:24 PMEveryones cherrypicking songs here to make their point. Thats how debate goes.
Not sure Limp Bizkit's "Faith" is all that random and truly emblematic of pop from the 90's.
Do you believe that the 00's and the 10's haven't pumped out their fair share of aural pop turds too ?
The 00's did feature the abomination known as Crazy Frog and that obscenely annoying Axel F cover. Would much rather listen to Limp Bizkit than Crazy Frog.
As it is, the entire Eurodance genre is hot turd AND was massively popular, so I could cherry pick forever. The 00s and 10s are gonna run out of contenders before the 90s does.
Crazy frog is the absolute worst. I was in high school when it came out, hated it back then and still hate it.
The 2010s were far worse than the 90s. Eurodance and Limp Bizkit are at least fun. The 10s gave us Imagine Dragons, Tekashi 69, Justin Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Ed Sheeran, Lil Pump, the list goes on.
Eurodance was corny but it wasn't as ubiquitously inescapable as some of those artists and their impact on culture. Though I admit I am American so I understand the European experience is likely different.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Sep 26, 2023, 05:09 PMEurodance was corny but it wasn't as ubiquitously inescapable as some of those artists and their impact on culture. Though I admit I am American so I understand the European experience is likely different.
Yes, it probably was because Eurodance was inescapable here throughout the decade. Early on, we had artists like DJ Bobo, Haddaway, 2Unlimited and Dr. Alban. Towards the end of the decade, there was artists like Vengaboys, Toybox, Dr. Bombay, E-Type, Aqua and 666. It just seemed like it would never go away - unlike the often fondly remembered grunge which didn't last long at all.
On the more spiritual side of things, the 90s was also kinda awful at times.
I assume Eva Cassidy might have been instrumental in cementing the kind of soulful slow cover that really can suck the soul right out of anything remotely fun.
I'm just gonna partly blame her for songs like this (https://youtu.be/pGXf3r7hieQ?si=Z3Vw7WL4dmaU55ZY).
Then we got new age electronic music like this which, despite its good intentions, I just find kinda ridiculous 😅 indigenous culturally inspired music doesn't seem more genuine or cool if you add a breakbeat to it.
Combine the two and add a dash of Enya's reverbs and you get the awful,
awful 90s junk that is Gregorian and their Masters of Chant albums.
A real hit with 90s spas and massage parlours, I'm sure.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Sep 26, 2023, 05:09 PMCrazy frog is the absolute worst. I was in high school when it came out, hated it back then and still hate it.
The 2010s were far worse than the 90s. Eurodance and Limp Bizkit are at least fun. The 10s gave us Imagine Dragons, Tekashi 69, Justin Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Ed Sheeran, Lil Pump, the list goes on.
Eurodance was corny but it wasn't as ubiquitously inescapable as some of those artists and their impact on culture. Though I admit I am American so I understand the European experience is likely different.
We didn't really get too swamped with Eurodance in the 90's here in OZ either. I mean we did get that awful Eiffel 65 song "Blue" with the excruciating autotune, Aqua (I actually like "Barbie Girl" if you enjoy it ironically, but the rest of their stuff was rather forgettable) and the supremely appalling Vengaboys, but we still had plenty of local music charting and other pop from the US and UK.
Even the Eurodance hits that did chart well out here (like Snap) is stuff I enjoy more than not. Maybe its just a case of not being swamped with a certain genre too much. As you say, Eurodance and Limp Bizkit are at least fun (even if Fred has always come across as a massive douche lol). And I agree with you that all of those from the 2010's you mention are :poop: :poop: :poop: . :laughing:
If anybody really has to hate on a song from the 90's Id rather it be Cher's "Believe" than Eurodance since it seems to have started the whole autotune nonsense and is possibly the worst pop songs from the 90's.
Snap - The Power
Quote from: Guybrush on Sep 26, 2023, 05:34 PMYes, it probably was because Eurodance was inescapable here throughout the decade. Early on, we had artists like DJ Bobo, Haddaway, 2Unlimited and Dr. Alban. Towards the end of the decade, there was artists like Vengaboys, Toybox, Dr. Bombay, E-Type, Aqua and 666. It just seemed like it would never go away - unlike the often fondly remembered grunge which didn't last long at all.
Oz had a couple of 2 Unlimited songs that charted well, one Dr Alban tune, one Haddaway tune, 2-3 hits from Vengaboys and 2-3 hits from Aqua. The rest of those mentioned I have never heard of although DJ Bobo vaguely rings a bell (but maybe I only came across him on Eurovision because I dont think he had any big hits down here).
Out of all of those only the Vengaboys really did my head in. Aqua probably had a couple of hits too many for what they were, but I actually like the humour in Barbie Girl which I dont think people really got as most folks took it pretty literally since its a pop song. On a side note (to prove that "Barbie Girl" may have been more tongue in cheek) one of the members of Aqua formed the group Lazyboy around ~2005ish and put out this rather amusing tune ..... :)
Lazyboy - Underwear goes inside the pantsAqua - Barbie Girl
If you think the 90s had crap pop music. It's definitely an age bias. I bet you loved 80s pop but if you hate on 90s pop it definitely shows how old you are.
Myself like Mrs. Waffles had our formative years during the 90s so we probably treasure a large majority of 90s music in general as being better. From 90s hip hop to 90s R&B shining along with boy bands and the techno dance scene.
Quote from: DJChameleon on Sep 27, 2023, 06:57 PMIf you think the 90s had crap pop music. It's definitely an age bias. I bet you loved 80s pop but if you hate on 90s pop it definitely shows how old you are.
Maybe, but I was born in 82 so I had formative years in the 90s too. But I also knew Rednex was bad the first time I heard them 🤔
All these songs were on the hit lists here. A fun challenge is listening to the refrains and see if you can tell them apart.
Don't get me wrong - there's lots of music I love from the 90s. It's just the amount of straight up trash reaching popularity is unmatched by any other decade, I think.
I don't know Rednex outside of Cotton Eyed Joe which I loved. I was definitely a singles person for the 90s I barely listened to full albums.
One hit wonders exist in all decades though. Some of them aren't the greatest but they were made popular and people enjoyed them as a one off.
Yeah, I was born in '89 so I'm a little bit younger then both of you. I was exposed to most 90s music for the first time when I was in the single digits, I wasn't old enough to be musically discerning. So I enjoyed a lot of stuff I wouldn't probably give any time to if I'd heard it now at 34 rather than as a kiddo in the 90s.
And for what it's worth, I'm 100% with Guybrush on Cotton Eye Joe. I actually loved it when I was a 6-7 year old kid, but it's just irritating to adult me.
I love Childish Gambino's cover of this but 1998 song from Tamia.
I saw this today. This is pretty much what the mainstream 90s were like to me.
I miss musical diversity in the charts, but man.. There was such a lot of soulless crap being made.
I wholeheartedly agree, 90s pop music is abysmal, I would rather have silence.
Horrible thing I am about to admit about myself, but as a child I enjoyed The Backstreet Boys. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I couldn't be more sorry.
Quote from: robhr on Jan 28, 2024, 03:39 AMI wholeheartedly agree, 90s pop music is abysmal, I would rather have silence.
Horrible thing I am about to admit about myself, but as a child I enjoyed The Backstreet Boys. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I couldn't be more sorry.
BSB was and is still so good.
Now if you said you were an NSync fan then you should be sorry for that. Or a 98 Degrees fan.
There are certainly worse offenders, like Urban Cookie Collective who has two hits, I think, in that Top 20 video.
Typical 90s. Even when it's upbeat, it feels kinda dreary and cold. The music is mostly just some house chords and samples to a breakbeat or house beat and centers around about four bars worth of actual music with some generic vocals.
IMO you shouldn't be apologetic for enjoying music. The Backstreet Boys were a hugely popular band, I liked them too. If their music was enjoyable you to you at the time, or even now, there's nothing wrong with that.
Quote from: DJChameleon on Jan 28, 2024, 10:09 AMBSB was and is still so good.
Now if you said you were an NSync fan then you should be sorry for that. Or a 98 Degrees fan.
98 degrees were absolutely terrible but NSync werent that bad. Just a pale imitation of Backstreet Boys.
This shit slaps !! Turn yo speaker to eleven bruh ...... :laughing:
Pinball matters !! :laughing:
More proof that 90's pop was hard ....... :)
C + C Music Factory smacks !! ;)
Quote from: Meatwad on Feb 04, 2024, 02:22 PM98 degrees were absolutely terrible but NSync werent that bad. Just a pale imitation of Backstreet Boys.
Agree but I just like to play into the boyband wars that happened back then between the two groups. For the most part if you were a fan of one you couldn't be a fan of the other.
Quote from: DJChameleon on Feb 04, 2024, 08:47 PMAgree but I just like to play into the boyband wars that happened back then between the two groups. For the most part if you were a fan of one you couldn't be a fan of the other.
My sister bought into that feud hard, she was very much team BSB even though she still watched the NSYNC videos whenever they would come on TRL, lol. And then we all got older and found out that both of them were managed by the same person and signed to the same label, haha.
At the time that feud peaked (1999-2001 or so) I was getting more into rock music and defining my own tastes. I liked a lot of boyband songs, but more in passing just because of how inescapable they were.
Quote from: Meatwad on Feb 04, 2024, 02:42 PMC + C Music Factory smacks !! ;)
I can't hear that song nowadays without thinking of this masterpiece.
A decade when Enigma's Principles of Lust was a charting radio hit couldn't have been that bad?
Staying Power.....Right up there as I listen to them both a lot still.
Great Memories for Me with this Artist.
oh my Ears....
George Michael Cover....
https://youtu.be/tWItLE1Orzg?si=xeNZYpAfNw35xaOr
is that for real.....put your clothes back on tis not improving matters. :laughing:
now this is real and tis pretty wow..