What the hell does VH1 know about music?
Wherein is the answer (A) A little (B) Some (C)VH who?
At A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago everyone is picking their top songs from the 1990s. I didn't realize we were supposed to pick from VH1's list of crap, so I picked songs that are actually fun to listen to:
None of these made VH1's list proving that channel is run by brain dead morons. What sort of gerbil would ever pick Alanis Morrisette over PJ Harvey? I wouldn't consider this list definitive, but not bad for 10 minutes of iPod scrolling. Put that on a CD, crank the car stereo, and start bouncing down the street.
update. Others to be considered:
At A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago everyone is picking their top songs from the 1990s. I didn't realize we were supposed to pick from VH1's list of crap, so I picked songs that are actually fun to listen to:
- Rub 'Til It Bleeds, PJ Harvey
- Mint Juleps and Needles, Brenda Kahn
- Girlfriend, Matthew Sweet
- Gunslinging Bird, Chuck D, Bill Frisell, Michael Blair, Don Alias, Greg Cohen, Art Baron (from Weird Nightmare, Meditations on Mingus)
- Window Seat, John Wesley Harding
- Fuck the Creationists, MC Hawking
- I Am Wondering, Laura Love
- Beeswing, Richard Thompson
- Over the Rainbow, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
- Not My Brotha, Me Phi Me
- Can I Kick It?, A Tribe Called Quest
None of these made VH1's list proving that channel is run by brain dead morons. What sort of gerbil would ever pick Alanis Morrisette over PJ Harvey? I wouldn't consider this list definitive, but not bad for 10 minutes of iPod scrolling. Put that on a CD, crank the car stereo, and start bouncing down the street.
update. Others to be considered:
- Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode
- Acoustic Motorbike, Luka Bloom
- Brrrlak!, Zap Mama
- Prodigal Daughter, Michelle Shocked
- Egoverride, Bob Mould
- Eurotrash Girl, Cracker
- Buck Naked, David Byrne
- Italian Leather Sofa, Cake
- Feels Like Home, Randy Newman/Bonnie Raitt (Faust)
- Gett Off, Prince
- Superman Song, Crash Test Dummies
- California Uber Alles, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
- Big Spender, The Robustos
- What's the Buzz, Indigo Girls, et. al. (Jesus Christ Superstar)
- Happy Phantom, Tori Amos
- Hip Length, Ursula 1000
- Hotwax, Beck
- Never Be, Prudence Johnson and Gary Rue
- Second Time Around, Rickie Lee Jones
- Pray to the Junkiemaker, Fishbone
- So In Love, k.d. Lang (Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter)
- True Dreams of Wichita, Soul Coughing
- Foolish Love, Rufus Wainwright
- Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel
- Someone To Love, Charles Brown
- 20th Century Man, Ray Davies (The Storyteller)
- 911 is a Joke, Duran Duran
- Moby Dick, Dread Zeppelin
- Mistress of the Senator, Audra McDonald
- I Know, Dionne Farris
posted by bill at 4:54 PM
3 Comments:
How many of these songs would sound out of place in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 00s?
The 90s were all about the post-post pop era.
Hard to pick any popular song from the 90s that definitively says '90s' and only '90s'.
Either it was recycled 60s jangly garage, recycled 70s punk with a metal tinge, recycled Eagles-ish soft country-rock, recycled 70s serious singer-songwriter anthems, recycled 80s hair band without the hair, recycled 80s Prince grooves (even the ones by Prince himself), electronica was the most semi-original form to arrive in the 90s, but a lot of that was applying a disco sensibility through a new wave filter using improved equipment.
And yet, all that said, it was a pretty good decade for music.
Interesting to see how few acts from that time (that weren't popular in the 70s or 80s already) are still touring big venues.
I missed a bunch of stuff because I thought it was 80s music. I guess the 80s ended for me January, 1992 when I moved to Atlanta. Atlanta does have some good college/community stations and that's what I primarily listened to. Also DJed when I went back to college and usually played the music no one else knew what to do with.
Just realized I forgot to add a Muffs song. They'd definately have to be in the top 10 for me. I never finished my "40 years of music" because after 1992 I really have no idea what is going on in popular/commercial music. Picking 20 songs from the top 100 for each year was futile as I didn't recognize enough to bother with. Artists I collected in the 90s were The Muffs, John Wesley Harding, and Laura Love. Everyone and everything else was hit and miss, whatever grabbed my interest.
I'm no pretender - I liked a lot of those VH-1 songs! :) But I also thought the VH-1 list lacked songs with any kind of definitive quality. Perhaps this is due to the reasons xwl cites, but I think it could just be a shoddy list. Anyway, I didn't recognize much off your first list, but your updated one has some reminders and more to work with, giving me something to do in my free music surfing time.
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