I have digital cable. As part of the package, there are music channels. As I over research the party playlist, I have been listening to find material. Several of the main channels that I have been listening to .....
Party Favorites
Oldies
70's
80's
90's
Pop

What I am finding out is that I recognize music from every channel except the 90's. So I thought about that for a while.

What occurs to me is that number 1 daughter was born in 88 and number 2 in 91. At that point, I sorta morphed from the cool young crowd and got involved in child rearing. I lost touch with popular music in the 90's. I actually picked back up in the 2000's when my "offspring" started listening to popular music - although now, I am the "older generation".

What is really hitting me, though is that I don't think I missed much? I have not heard a lot on the 90's channel that I like.

You missed out on all the grunge and the last death throes of good metal.

Grunge is/was one of my favorite genres. It was a good time for me: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, Green Day. Not all of those (esp. Green Day) are technically grunge, but they all got played on my favorite radio station, back when radio was tolerable.

The other movement I liked was Britpop, with Oasis being one of my favorite bands for a few years. Their first two albums: Definitely Maybe and What's the Story Morning Glory and the compilation The Masterplan are classic. Blur and Elastica were also worthy bands.

R.E.M. made it big in the 90s. Automatic for the People and Monster are two of theirs that I still play a lot.

As far as pop, yeah, I tuned that out as well. Teen pop was big, with Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys and Hanson. I remember Hanson's "mmm bop" was a mindworm and a half in the late 90s. And the Spice Girls ... yeah, you didn't miss much on the pop side of things.

Pop music isn't really supposed to be remembered, it's a flavour of the month. The music industry seemed to be a little lost in the 90s, imo, with much of the companies pushing pop acts and the emergence of emo bands. Nothing like some fake anger in your music.

And music was found in the '00s? I don't think so...

Y'all forgot the granddaddy of grung. Neil

I said music seemed a *little* lost in the 90s...it got more lost in the 00s. Don't worry, Simon Cowell will have an epiphany one of these days and realize he should have been selling vacuum cleaners or something.

Nine Inch Nails
Faith no More
The Age of Electric
Collective Soul
Smashing Pumpkins

Some other popular bands during that time - Silverchair, Bush. Not a big fan of those.

The sad thing about the 90's is while there was some decent music, dynamic range compression or what has been called the "loudness wars" became popular in the studio.

A few wonderful albums were made by The Tea Party that did not sacrifice on sonic qualities in the studio and are very good quality rock recordings that will sound excellent on linear speakers.

I would recommend listening to the albums Splendor Solis and The Edges of Twilight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tea_Party

Good list.
The 90s did have some great music. You just had to turn off the radio & TVs and go buy it.

I also think the 90s had some really good music, and agree with the lists above. The majority of music I listen to probably was either recorded in the 90s or is by bands that were at their most popular in the 90s.

How could I forget Weezer? Blue album, 1994, and churning out hits ever since, even if most of them have been in the 2000s.

Juliana Hatfield had a couple of dynamite albums.

Bob Mould formed Sugar (shout out, BrenR!) and then had some more solo albums.

My favorite Ministry album is still Psalm 69 from 1992.

Other acts I like from the era: Belly, the Breeders, the Cranberries, Radiohead, Morrissey, Alanis Morissette, Liz Phair, TMBG, Hole, the Presidents of the USA.

Barenaked Ladies!

Please slap yourself for me, Ken.

Tool would be a big one from the 90s.

*snicker*

I don't know if any of these have been mentioned, some qualify as 80s AND 90s:

Black Crows
Tragically Hip
GNR
Sinead O'Connor
Bryan Adams
Live
Red Hot C. P.
Crash Test Dummies
Blue Rodeo
John Mellencamp
Counting Crows
Hootie and the Blowfish(only because Ken used the BNL card)

Come on, man. Hootie and BNL aren't even on the same continent. Besides, JP started it with Oasis.

I'm Too Sexy, Right Said Fred!

Since we are listing groups from that period, two big omissions that caught my eye are Queens of the Stone Age and Rage Against the Machine.

Is one of them on tour in Europe or something?

Also add Our Lady Peace to the list.

Remember Dishwalla and the Gin Blossoms. If you were listening to the radio in the 90's, you were bound to hear them.

The later part of the 90's had a huge album by Third Eye Blind. Their self-titled is brilliant and the recording and production are top notch.

How about the Spin Doctors? Man, that snare drum sounds really good, how does that drummer achieve that sound! Very underrated band of the 90's.

Ugly kid Joe! Hehehe.

Deftones did some cool shit during that period as well. They had a couple of really good albums!

Another Canadian band to add to the list, Matthew Good . They had some decent stuff, good enough to listen to on the radio.

Another Matthew - Matthew Sweet.

Everclear, Garbage, the Lemonheads, and Cracker.

I very much enjoy Matthew Sweet. I'm gonna have to grab some of his CDs and put them in my rotation queue.

It is not that I just listened to the radio.....it is that I didn't listen to anything. Sort of a "Rip Van Winkle" period. Waking up from the RVW period is one of the things that attracted me to this forum in the first place. I had to update my gear....

Here are the 90s standout artists I just culled from my music library:

Tori Amos
Beastie Boys
Jeff Buckley
Built to Spill
Cake
Eric Clapton (Unplugged and From the Cradle)
Holly Cole Trio
Crash Test Dummies
Cheryl Crow
Dada
Ani DiFranco
Ben Folds Five
Foo Fighters
Fountains of Wayne
G. Love and Special Sauce
Great Big Sea
Patty Griffin
Ben Harper
James
Jewel
Jude
Keb' Mo'
Mark Knopfler
Live
Aimee Mann
Lyle Lovett
Loreena McKennitt
Sarah McLachlan
Medesky, Martin & Wood
Pearl Jam
Pink Floyd (Division Bell)
Pink Martini
Tom Petty <--deserves to be bolded
R.E.M.
Radiohead
Roger Waters
Sting
Stone Temple Pilots
Sublime
They Might Be Giants
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Van Morrison
Violent Femmes
Tom Waits
Weezer
Wilco

pmbuko: Good call on Aimee Mann. I really like her stuff.

I had to look up Aimee Mann. I thought I remembered her from Til Tuesday fame and amazingly I was right.

But I had her till Wednesday.

Thanks for the list. I sorta slept through the 90's, music wise. I checked the first one one your list, Tori Amos, and I like what I hear. There's a lot to check out here. Thanks.

There are great artists waiting to be discovered in every decade or era. You just have to sift through a lot of dreck to get there. Fortunately, it seems the longer past the era you are, the more the dreck falls away.

Explain oldies, then. Don't try and tell me that bubblegum pop isn't dreck.

Nostalgia.

Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink are my favorites of her albums. My wife and I have all of them except for a couple of the bootleg albums that were released a few years ago.

Natalie Merchant was very popular in the mid 90's, soon after she left 10,000 Maniacs.

Did I not notice NIN? Or Marylin? Helmet. King's X. Crowded House, Wilco, Ozzy's Randy Rhodes years. There's always great stuff. Always. (and waayyyyy baaaad: the 90's = The Marcarena, too!)

Here ya go, kiddies: I bought my first 45 in 1959! I was six years old and it has never stopped. Looking back, I see no holes, no points where either the bad AND/OR the good of linear history just drops out then reappears.

I've never been at a loss to find great "new" music in any year of any decade. New things by old favorites and new things by new things.

The hunt is a big part of the fun. Then I can have them all for "my own" until everyone else finds them. Like No Doubt and The Rembrandts (awful thing, that "Friends' theme!)

"Now" is always an awesome time to be alive and listening.

Like they say, it beats the alternative.

The Offspring, Blind Melon and Korn also had some big albums in the 90's.

Oh, yah! Blind Melon...the "Bee Girl" song!

You can't forget Salt-n-Pepa either Adrian.

Ok!! since the gloves are coming off...Miss Dee-Lite, Groove is in the Haw-eee-ahhh-aa-rrr-t!

What about that I Touch Myself chick?

And you can't forget about this winner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKKONgfNONU

What about the Bloodhound Gang? They had some catchy songs in the 90's.

Why, exactly, is this thread still on topic?

Did we get Crash Test Dummies on the list yet?

Yupper.

I suppose I could have actually gone back and read the thread, but I am intensely lazy.

Sir Mix a lot... Jeesh

Metal turned to Grunge in the early 90's and I kinda tuned out. Nu-Metal came along but it doesn't do it for me as much, they might as well use three basses half the time rather than two guitars and a bass, and there are no solos .

I dug out Seven Mary Three - American Standard out of a dust collection. I have to say this is a really strong pop rock album of the 90's. Every single song on this album is good for this type of genre. Great tunes on a hot summer day while working oustide or just relaxing enjoying a beer or joint or whatever..

Wow, I never thought I meet another TMBG fan! IMO, they should be bolded as well. Almost 30 years of fantastic, unique, and beautiful music. One of my favorite bands off all times. I've seen them live several times and they always put on a great show and are very funny and gracious to the fans. They even sent me an autographed movie poster when I ordered their film "Gigantic" from them directly.

The cool thing is that they make a lot of kids music now, and my kids LOVE them now too!

I have most of their releases, and I was lucky enough to see them live. I also met them after the show, much to their chagrin. My friend, who I went with, was an autograph hound at the time, and he'd heard what hotel they were staying at, so we were waiting at the entrance for them. They definitely seemed uncomfortable with the encounter, but they were nice enough to sign my friend's skull (plastic skull, not the one he uses to store his brain). We were actually staying at the same hotel, so after we hooked up again with the rest of our party, we went to the elevator to go to our floor and the two Johns were disappointed again as they were in the elevator we caught. It was a little awkward going up, and they couldn't get away from us soon enough. Ha ha. Good times. I'm sure I got a little of that story wrong since some time has passed, but the important detail of them being freaked out by us is an enduring truth.

Charles, I've figured out why Regina won't visit.

Awww, Regina. If only Mark wasn't so smart, we'd have a chance.

Such a great story! I could see them being uncomfortable since they are such down to earth kind of guys. Nice to see another fan!

I really like them, but I'm afraid I've only got Flood. I keep meaning to get more of their stuff, but I never remember when I'm buying CDs...

Ken, your kids (and you!) will love their "kiddy" music. They have 3 kids CDs out... "Here Comes the ABC's", "Here Comes the 123's", and "Here Comes Science". Every single one is a gem.

The versions with the DVDs are definitely the way to go. Also, you're forgetting that No! was their original children's album, and it's still my favorite, though that one doesn't come with a DVD.

Oh, but I forgot that No! is an enhanced CD, so there is a visual/interactive component to it.

No!, I'm not! I have it too, as well as their bedtime story book. My kids love them a whole lot. My little one (will be 3 next week) always says "Daddy, music, basement!". I take him downstairs, pop in a TMBG DVD and watch him dance around. Then, the older boy comes down and they both dance like maniacs. It's wonderful.

Ha ha. I kind of miss getting so much enjoyment out of the little things. Now it takes such a huge fix to get the tiniest buzz.

Yeah, I've been a casual fan for a long time. Have never made it to any of their shows, though. I do recommend anybody with young kids run out and pick up the three albums mentioned here. I'm not sure if they all come with a DVD, so make sure you get the ones that do. The animations add so much to the experience.

Now, who would like some cake?

I baked a frozen cherry pie last night. Does that count?

WE WANT CAKE - WE WANT CAKE!

I didn't discover CAKE (Band) until the last few years but they started in the the early 90's. Check out "Short Skit, Long Jacket" track on their Comfort Eagle album (2001). Nice punch on the M80's.

-Dave

Still on topic???

Well, yes. You need to be edumacated on the excellent music of the 90s.

Toadies.

You might know this band by the song Possum Kingdom. It is a great song. Excellent use of time signatures and the whammy bar.