Anthems 90s

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The Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed in 1983, and after 14 years of grinding – including a minor appearance in Clueless and a major performance at Lollapalooza in 1995 – they finally landed their first (and only) major radio hit. Ska was peaking in the UK when the Bosstones formed, and the group would subsequently become godfathers to America’s ska scene, influencing bands like No Doubt and Sublime. From its punchy horn section to its tart groove, “The Impression That I Get” just might be the catchiest song on this list. My Bloody Valentine – Only Shallow (1991) The second single of their debut album Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, ‘What’s Up?’, actually originates from before the group started, with Linda Perry having written it before then. The title does not appear in the lyrics, but the phrase “What’s going on?” features heavily in the chorus. Linda Perry fought to get her version of the song released as she disliked the reworked version that featured different lyrics. Written and produced by the legendary Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, this inspiring gospel/R&B song reminds listeners to, “keep your head up to the sky” and “to hold on to your dreams.” In 1991, this song went all the way to No.3 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop songs chart. 63: Deborah Cox: Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here While it was a hit in the US, her biggest ever, it did poorly in the UK and I actually couldn’t find how it placed on the Irish charts. Just a Girl” was a breakthrough for No Doubt in more ways than one: It was the first song that Gwen Stefani wrote without her brother’s input and No Doubt’s first song to chart. The famous visual that featured Stefani sporting a crop top and a bindi between her eyebrows would define the singer for years, but even if the video had never been made, “Just a Girl” would’ve assured both her and No Doubt’s stardom. Oasis – Wonderwall (1995)

It was his first single since his arrest by undercover police officers for performing a lewd act in public, which prompted him to come out as gay. The lyrics to the song disparage the incident and include the lines “I’d service the community, but I already have, you see” (he was given community service for the incident). Michael has said he wanted to lighten the stigma around cruising, and, for me, it lightened the stigma around being gay in general. Art Alexakis got personal on Everclear’s sophomore record, Sparkle and Fade, channeling his traumatic upbringing into tunes that were either explicitly autobiographical (“Heroin Girl”) or fictionalized versions that were detailed enough to be someone else’s truth (“Pale Green Stars”). Even “Santa Monica” can’t fully escape the drugs and death that haunt the album, but it at least offers the possibility of a life beyond them. Fastball – The Way (1998) There’s one more thing that makes ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ the song of the decade, and that’s Samuel Bayer’s now iconic video. His lo-fi, sepia-saturated take on a school concert that descends into madness – complete with slo-mo cheerleaders, smashed up guitars and smoke and fire in a sports hall full of sweaty headbanging teens – was as disturbing and anarchic as the song itself. Everyone watched it. Everyone knew they would never forget it. Tim ArthurLeave it to Mariah Carey, the girl next door, to make pure lust sound so naive, so syrupy sweet, that it could be read as something pious to a passerby. Leave it to a diva at the height of her fame to describe being horny as feeling “kinda hectic inside,” and to articulate it by singing more dizzying runs than an amusement park’s worth of rides. It feels right that she wrote, produced, and recorded “Fantasy” in only two days, roughly the amount of time a person can live solely on the giddiness of a flirtation and the anticipation of an eventual release. Here’s what love at 26, the age at which she put out the song, could feel like. It’s what you want love to feel like for the rest of your life, too. The music video features a police helicopter flying around Los Angeles, catching people, gay and straight, kissing or having sex in public. George Michael is dressed as a police officer and dances in a public toilet that looks more like a nightclub. You would’ve been foolish to dismiss Cibo Matto as a mere novelty act for their food-centric lyrics. Their debut Viva! La Woman is kitschy, sure, but it’s also vivid and inventive, and nowhere were they more kitschy, vivid, or inventive than they were on “Sugar Water,” a hypnotic hybrid of trip-hop and pop. Cocteau Twins – Cherry-Coloured Funk” (1990)

The 4 Non Blondes got their start in the San Francisco bar scene, especially lesbian bars, which garnered them a significant following of queer women. The music video relies heavily on computer-generated imagery and features Soviet imagery and iconography. The single got to the top spot in Ireland, the last single of theirs to do so to date and their fourth Irish number one. The Village People only managed number 15.

The single was released in October 1991 as promotion for the band’s Greatest Hits II album, just six weeks before Freddie Mercury died. A heartbreakingly beautiful song, it reached number 17 in the Irish charts. More than 20 years after its initial release, “It’s Friday night and the weekend’s here, I need to unwind” remain some of the most resonant words in R&B history. With a swinging beat and soft, lush production, Zhané’s “Hey Mr. DJ,” from the duo’s debut album, Pronounced Jah-Nay, is the perfect representation of R&B’s prime objective: to be the sonic expression of the soul of the everyman and everywoman. 4: Montell Jordan: This Is How We Do It One of the essential Y2K R&B cuts, Blaque learned a lot about making sing-a-long jams under the tutelage of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC. And thanks to the remix, you get to hear J.C. Chasez from N’Sync sing about his “Timbs, baggy jeans and thug appeal.” 53: INOJ – Love You Down Built on a mandolin riff, the song was the unlikely hit single from their album Out Of Time (1991). Its success was largely due to the critically acclaimed music video, which earned it airplay on both MTV and VH1 (and probably drew my attention to it). I loved the song initially as I was already at the age where I was questioning religion, and I took the lyrics at face value. You’ll see a lot of grunge and Brit-pop represented below, but alternative was a worldwide phenomenon, and that’s why you’ll also see artists from Mexico, Iceland, France, and more.

Tevin Campbell was everyone who ever tried to find the courage to talk to their crush. “Can We Talk” was all about the angst of teenage love, longing and words left unsaid. 41: Hi-Five – I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)

Refused: “New Noise” (1998)

If only every song about unrequited love sounded as upbeat as Blues Traveler’s Grammy-winning smash. “Run-Around.” is a breezy, jammy gem of a pop song that scratches the same itch as Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and the Grateful Dead’s “Touch of Grey.” Blur – Song 2 (1997) This is by far Babyface’s most successful and most recognizable song. With Babyface broken-hearted and unable to move on from his love, hopefully, the answer was “soon.” 58: All-4-One – I Swear One In A Million’ was the fruit of Aaliyah’s first collaboration with Missy Elliott and Timbaland. A club ballad that fused elements of funk, electronica, and trip-hop, and put Aaliyah’s ethereal vocals on full display, it was the perfect distillation of all the pervasive sounds of the era. As one of the best 90s R&B songs, it would turn Aaliyah into the decade’s patron saint of R&B. 28: Selena – Dreaming Of You

Total is by far one of the most underrated R&B groups of the 90s. Written by and featuring Missy Elliott, this sexy song about losing your cool over your boo is catchy and bouncy. “Trippin” would become the biggest hit of their career after going to No.7 on the Billboard Hot 100. 47: 702 – Where My Girls At Oasis have two further songs inside Greatest Songs of the 90s Top 10 – ‘Wonderwall’ at Number 3 and ‘Live Forever’ at Number 5. ‘Champagne Supernova’ narrowly missed out on the Top 10 at Number 12. The chart success of Sublime’s “What I Got” (and its parent album) was without a doubt bittersweet for the band and its fans, as frontman Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose just months before the single was released. But it would be reductive to tie that success to Nowell’s passing, as the tune’s loping guitar melody and warm synthesizers would’ve almost certainly made “What I Got” a hit – think of it as a Grateful Dead mantra for skate-punks and frat boys. The Sundays – Here’s Where the Story Ends (1990) Songs mean a lot when songs are bought / And so are you,” Stephen Malkmus snipes on “Cut Your Hair,” a sarcastic shot at an unscrupulous music industry and the fame-hungry bands willing to play ball with it. Ironically, “Cut Your Hair” was the closest Pavement would get to a hit, peaking in the Top 10 of Billboard’s US Alternative Airplay chart. Perhaps that’s why Malkmus steered Pavement toward shaggier, less commercially-friendly sounds on the subsequent Wowee Zowee. Pearl Jam – Alive (1991) Played during the closing credits of The Lion King, the song was originally to be performed by characters from the movie , but John objected to its comical nature. He wanted it to follow “Disney’s tradition of great love songs” and said it had the potential to be used to “express the lions’ feelings for each other far better than dialogue could”.Despite his renown as one of the first gangsta rappers, Ice-T was adamant when he formed Body Count that the group be seen as a metal band. But “Body Count’s in the House,” the first proper song on the band’s eponymous album, functions like a hip-hop posse cut, featuring Ice-T introducing his bandmates – guitarists Ernie C and D-Roc, drummer Beatmaster V, and bassist Mooseman. The Breeders – Cannonball (1993) Unless I missed something, this is the first song on my list(s) that won an Academy Award. Unusually for Elton John, the lyricist is not Bernie Taupin but Tim Rice. Dave Grohl could have been a Heartbreaker. After Nirvana’s tragic end, Grohl was invited to play drums for Tom Petty, but turned the offer down to start his own band. The yearning “Everlong” proved that, at his best, Grohl could be nearly as strong a songwriter as Kurt Cobain, plugging in his guitar and making it sing an anguished, burning love song. Garbage – Stupid Girl (1995) The late Keith Flint first joined the Prodigy as a dancer, and with the group’s third outing, The Fat of the Land, he became the group’s frontman as well. It’s his menacing-yet-impish vocals that appear on “Firestarter,” a twisted rave-up that would’ve almost certainly become an international hit regardless of who was singing on it. Flint’s boasts could be menacing – “I’m the fear addicted, danger illustrated,” he barks – but there was something about the way he invited you to be a firestarter, too, that made it impossible to look away. Pulp – Common People (1995)