90's Flashback!

Grunge, Pop-Punk, and Alternative: The 90s Music Triumvirate

Ask someone what comes to mind when you say "90s music", and odds are you'll get 8 or 9 "Nirvana"s for every 10 people. It's no surprise, really, since Nirvana was considered the epitome of the Grunge music movement. They were the group to open up the big old can of teenage angst. But even though Grunge was a genre unique to the 90s, we all know that there were at least 2 other genres that soared in popularity during our favorite decade. Alternative rock and Pop-punk music both dominated the airwaves (that weren't packed full of teen-pop like the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync) throughout the 90s. And although both genres continue to crop up in contemporary bands, Gen Y members know that the heyday of both occurred before Y2K.



Grunge: angst, distortion, and dynamics

Nirvana
Come as you are

Of course everyone knows that the big band of the 90s was Nirvana. The brooding, flannel-clad nonconformists took the airwaves and discontent teenage hearts by storm. Their surprising rise to fame has only been surpassed by their overwhelming influence on music since their unfortunate end with Kurt Cobain's death. Despite the band's relatively short lifespan, they still managed to record 3 studio albums of material, with 10 other releases of EPs, Live records and compilations. For their 3 studio releases, Nirvana had a whopping 20 singles, which goes to show just how popular they had become by the early 90s. Though it may have pissed Kurt off to know that Nirvana had become such a big name in the music industry, their songs are still in regular circulation and they are often cited as a significant influence on contemporary bands.

Check them out:

• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Come As You Are
• Polly
• Lithium
• In Bloom
• About a Girl
• The Man Who Sold the World

Other 90s Grunge bands include: Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden

Pop-Punk: fast, melodic brattiness

blink-182
What's my age again?

Along with Green Day and the Offspring, blink-182 headed the 90s genre of Pop-punk, giving snotty teens that weren't pissed off something to blast from their boom boxes and car stereos. Pop-punk was all fun and power chords with the occasional incoherence and allusion to masturbation (or entire song about it, see: Longview by Green Day). Although it didn't take root right away, by 1997 pop-punk had caught on thanks to Green Day's Dookie, the Offspring's Smash, and blink-182's Dude Ranch. blink-182 was known for their melodic toilet humor and catchy adolescent anthems, releasing 3 more albums before a hiatus in 2005, and returning in early 2009. Though Pop-punk doesn't hold a title as instantly recognizable and influential as Grunge and Nirvana did, this genre did have a very large appeal to the teens of the 90s and 2000s, and has spawned a contemporary wave of bands following in its footsteps.

Check them out:

• Dammit (blink-182)
• What's My Age Again? (blink 182)
• Feeling This (blink-182)
• When I Come Around (Green Day)
• Church On Sunday (Green Day)
• I Choose (the Offspring)
• Want You Bad (the Offspring)

Other 90s Pop-punk bands include: Rancid, the Descendents, Less than Jake

Alternative: post-80s grab bag of rock

"Alternative" is really a blanket term for music since the late 80s that doesn't fit exactly into one specific genre or another. As such, there are a shitload of "Alternative" bands out there today, with such different types of music that it is nearly impossible to pick a defining band like Nirvana is to Grunge. At its inception, Alternative was known as "College Rock", since bands of the genre were widely played on college radio stations as a reflection of college students' musical tastes. Scores, if not hundreds of bands like the Strokes, 3 Doors Down, Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox 20, the Gin Blossoms, and Oasis encompass the Alternative genre. With the advent of Grunge, windows opened for Alternative bands and their popularity soared, still lasting to this day. One of the most popular and recognizable Alternative bands is R.E.M., especially among Generation Xers, but by now anyone could name an Alternative band that they have in their ipod/iphone/mp3 player library.

Check it out:

• Hey Jealousy (Gin Blossoms)
• (What's the Story) Morning Glory (Oasis)
• Ain't That Unusual (Goo Goo Dolls)
• Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
• Pinch Me (Barenaked Ladies)
• Semi-Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind)
• Creep - Radiohead

Other 90s Alternative bands include: Tonic, Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket

90s music is a huge subject to talk about, go out and search for some artists outside of your 90s favorites. Regardless of your favorite genre, you'll find dozens of songs and artists to add to your library!
Look around Amazon.com and you'll find items like Non Stop '90s Rock,
or put your favorite songs and artists into Pandora and find new music as you listen!

Where Are They Now? pt. 1

Since All Saint’s Day (the day of the dead) has just recently passed, and since 2009 is drawing closer to its end, I thought we’d spend a bit of time looking back at some of the notable 90s icons, and seeing where they are today. A Then and Now, if you will. And you will.

R.I.P.

We all agree already that it's a sad thing that the 90s have passed by and left us in the new millennium with cold, unfeeling machines and up to the ears in text messages and "i-[product]"s, whereas BopIt and Simon (the game) just aren't cool anymore. But it saddens me to share with you the passing of some of the more cuddly familiar faces since the turn of the century.


Dolly the Sheep (1996-2003)

Remember all the talk when Dolly was first born? The first cloned mammal from an adult cell, "the most famous sheep in the world" (suck it, Lamb Chop), was a huge deal when the success story first hit the news. It was all over then, The Attack of the Clones was nigh (thanks a lot, Star Wars) and mad scientists were surely cooking up batches of look-alike killing machines from our stolen hairs.
Well, the takeover never happened, and six and a half short years later, Dolly the First Cloned Sheep died of lung cancer in 2003. The funny thing is, I know everyone heard about Dolly being born, but I can't remember at all if the news ever got out that she died. I didn't hear about it until I saw it online several months ago. Despite being more than half a decade late to the wake, I now share with you the sad reality that is a post-Dolly world. Since Dolly's successful birth, many other animals have been cloned, and scientists even suggest that cloning may eventually be able to reproduce extinct species such as Woolly Mammoths and dinosaurs. But hey, at least we weren't attacked by clones, right?

CHOOSE YOUR DEATH!

Gidget the Taco Bell Dog (1994-2009)

A lot of celebrities died this summer, but here's one you may not have heard about. Granted, Gidget didn't moonwalk or do kung fu or sell Oxiclean; she didn't direct movies or create guitars and she wasn't one of Charlie's angels. But dammit, she was cute and damn good at making us crave fast food!

After several years of being the face of Taco Bell, she played a role in Legally Blonde (something no man should have known before reading either this blog or that linked article) and lived in doggy luxury until the age of 15. Gidget's catch phrase lives on, buried in the minds of the 90s kids and their parents. Pop culture and Psyche!the90s remember her and the words that hijacked our brains: "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!"

Clash of the Consoles, pt. 2 (And the One Reason 90s Kids DID Want to Go to School)

Reason #3 kids wanted to stay home: Sony Playstation

Look at that sleek, savvy thing up there. That was one bitchin console when it came to us from Japan in 1995. It caught the attention of kids like wildfire with its impressive graphics and fast gameplay, and even though it lacked an iconic character like Sonic or Mario, it offered many popular game franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Frogger, the video game giant that is the Final Fantasy series, and a slew of sports and racing games. It catered to everyone; Hell, you could practically hear a choir of angels singing as you opened the box. This wonder machine has claimed millions of childhood hours worldwide, while parents’ suggestions to “go outside!” fell on deaf ears.

Ahh, Frogger…so many good times. So many angrily thrown controllers.

And the winner by a long shot: Nintendo 64

The granddaddy of classic video games, the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007; this console holds claim to the heavyweight champions of the classic video game world. It came to us in 1996 and hasn't stopped being great since. You haven't fully experienced video gaming until you've played at least one of these great titles. The number of hours 90s kids spent collecting stars, shells, swords and bullets, and stomping on, stabbing at, and shooting up colorful villains must be astounding. I know I spent a good 3 years of my life playing on this system. And regardless of where you look, these games make it on nearly every list of the top video games of all time. Of all time; this console offered games in the late 90s that beat out games powered by a 250GB Playsation 3 more than a decade later. Japan sure knows their video games. I've probably spent a couple hundred hours playing through the big-name titles time after time, how about you?

What are your memories? Let's get some feedback! Post a comment with your favorite console, game, or memory, or maybe your worst; frustrations are welcome as well. You know you played at least one of these games or systems, and you know you loved it. Now revel in it!

Ok, you've been waiting and suspecting since seeing the title of this post, now it's time to sate your curiosity. The one reason 90s kids did want to go to school was...

Oregon Trail

Yes it was. You remember this. Oregon Trail day. The day the class got to use the computer, and that was the best day of the week for damn sure. No one even cared that it was an educational game, we loved it anyway. The only thing that wasn't awesome about it was that eventually the class would be over (alas, the great despair of all video gamers), and you would have to go back to boring, actual learning.

Book learning sucks.

You led a caravan of settlers through the titular trail, you hunted deer, rabbits and oxen, and maybe died of dysentery. AND YOU LOVED IT.

AND, since I know how you really want it, I'll go ahead and indulge your pangs of nostalgia. There is an ONLINE VERSION OF THE GAME. Oh yes. Enjoy. Go die of dysentery. It'll be the best thing you've done all day.

Hooray for reliving 6th grade!