The Nineties:A Look Back From The Rearview

Hello Buzz buddies. Here's another spontaneous post sans musical clip. This should please y'all's need for nostalgia if the '90s are your thing. I'd like to focus on songs that, at least in my humble opinion, made the decade great. Any Jane Child fans out there. To jar your memory Jane Child was the Canadian with the tri-level hairdo whose one mega hit was "Don't Wanna Fall In Love". At the start you knew it meant business. Such masterful production values. It sounded like a ready made hit. However it was "Welcome To The Real World" that grabbed my attention. The tune was grubby, grimy, and a little on the spooky side. If the apocalypse had a soundtrack, "Welcome To The Real World" would be on it. By contrast, lurching to the opposite end of the decade, "Hit Me Baby One More Time", had massive hit written all over it. And so Brit's coming out party began. Ice Cube scored early with "Today Was a Good Day" but i gravitated towards "Wicked". That's because his raw fury was on full display. It's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which put Nirvana on the musical map but "Heart Shaped Box" held compelling intrigue. Of course the decade wouldn't have been complete without Hanson's "MMMBop". In '97 you couldn't go three yards in either direction without hearing it. Catchy but I get why others find it excruciatingly annoying. Such is what hits radio does. Commerce often trumps art. I never failed to succumb to the charms of New Orleans stalwarts Better Than Ezra. "In The Blood" served its case well with a eye-catching video and bass heavy sound. Women were empowered by Alanis Morrissette's "You Oughta Know". I thought "Wow, she's angry. Better duck guys." It was so refreshing to hear unabashed venom. The more you were drawn into her acidic tirades, the more you found yourself inescapably drawn to them. Prince acquitted himself well with "Letitgo" Everything you admire about his artistry was on full display. Sassy like the man himself. For cuteness you couldn't top "The Distance" from Cake, one good reason to revel in your San Francisco residency. Nice this band can be loose jointed about its importance as a cultural entity. They don't come any weepier than Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart. Superb four-hanky effort and that's saying something coming from someone who doesn't tear up at much of anything all that easily. So...there's a snapshot of quality music from the decade in which that other Clinton tooted a horn. Thanks for taking my hand and strolling down memory lane. I'll jet back to the present for future posts.