Filed under: music, the Voices That Care decade, Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized
Here’s part 2 of my countdown of the 101 greatest hits of the 90′s. I might note that, since I stuck to American top 40 hits, only a small number of my very favorite albums are represented on this list, so I just thought I’d mention that, if the world were fair, this list would also have lots of Blur, Pulp, My Bloody Valentine, Sleater-Kinney and Elastica. That’s all.
Last week VH-1, the Revisionist History Network, decided to point its Magic Cultural Erasers at the prosperous nineties, presenting its (viewer-voted) list of the 100 Greatest Songs of that decade. Well, I’m a total dork for that sort of thing, and the nineties were sort of a big decade for me, being that it’s the only one I’ve lived through in its entirety thusfar. Yes, in 1990 I was a chubby little fourth-grader whose only cares in the world were what was going to be where on the American Top 40. Well that and a deranged teacher who threw heavy objects at us, made us cry and, if we came in to class with new shoes on, demanded that we let her “try them on” while we walked around in her old pumps all day. (Really!) And by the end of 1999 I had a job, a boyfriend, and a big boner for Alec Empire.
I made this list before I looked at the VH-1 one. I know that they had Smells Like Teen Spirit as #1, Liz Phair called Sex and Candy the best song of the decade, and the tubby harmonica guy from Blues Traveler lost a bunch of weight. (I thought he had died, actually, but I guess that was the bass player.)
Nerds: I compiled my list by looking at the Top 100 Billboard lists from every year of the decade, plus a whole bunch of the ARC weekly charts on rockonthenet.com Those aren’t Billboard, but they’re pretty close to the Pop Airplay Chart, plus they’re easier to look up online. Only songs that had an impact on the pop charts count for this list–that means no album tracks and nothing that wasn’t a genuine hit here in these United States of America. That means, sadly, no Common People, no Song 2, no Connection, and (surprisingly) no Oh Carolina. As for other factors–which songs I loved at the time but got tired of, which songs I hated at the time but love now, which songs were totally overshadowed by bigger but less good hits–there’s no math to that. I just went with a feeling. And since I’ve been readjusting the list (and narrowing it down from an initial 235) for about 12 hours now, I don’t want to hear about it. Just kidding, I do–I love comments!!
Also, in case you couldn’t tell, I’m on vacation right now and reeeeeeeeally bored. (more…)
