Born in the wrong generation

Violent & Funky · 11-30-2010, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

It's funny to me when I see a list like this because it's so obviously written by someone who doesn't remember the 90s very well. While it's true that bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Primus and Faith No More did okay in the 90s, they were not at all what the average high school kid was listening to. Some of those other bands, like 311, Korn, Green Day, The Offspring and 90s era Chili Peppers were low points, not high points of the decade. And Incubus was much more popular in the 00s than the 90s.

But the most important thing to keep in mind about the experience of living in the 90s is how far from representative that list is from the music that was really moving units back then. The biggest hits were by people like Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey and Puffy Daddy. Hell, one the biggest songs of the decade was "The Macarena" for fuck's sake.

All of this is not to say that the 90s didn't have good music, of course it did. Hip hop, trip hop, IDM, post-rock, etc., etc., there was tons of great stuff going on mostly outside the limelight. I'm just saying that living through the 90s was far from the musically mind-blowing experience you guys seem to think it was.

First of all, I was born in 1990 so yeah, I don't "remember" the 90s very well. Excuse me for still trying to join in on the conversation.

I don't know why we are talking about Top 40 radio. I don't give a **** about Top 40 radio, it almost always sucks. But mainstream *rock* radio was as great as it has ever been. A band like Primus went platinum *twice* for ****s sake. That is success, no matter how you try to twist it. Yeah, there was no internet, but MTV also didn't completely ignore the underground back then. Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth had very successful videos on MTV, while they were also giving indie legends like Pavement and Superchunk a nugget from time-to-time too.

You really have a misguided impression of what a "low point" is if you think those bands were the low point. Blood Sugar Sex Magik, KoRn, Dookie, Smash, and 311 are all very well respected albums that sold extremely well. I think its simply elitist to brush off such acts. Plus: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, and RATM were all clearly in the mainstream and awesome bands.

And you just completely ignored that the 90s were one part of the Golden Era of Hip Hop and plenty of those artists were in the mainstream...

**Janszoon** · 12-07-2010, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Violent & Funky

First of all, I was born in 1990 so yeah, I don't "remember" the 90s very well. Excuse me for still trying to join in on the conversation.

Easy homes. I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at the difference in perspective. I'm sure my take on the late 70s and early 80s is different than someone who remembers it well. It's just funny to me how different it is to experience the music of a certain period firsthand versus looking at it in retrospect with all crappiest stuff filtered out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Violent & Funky

I don't know why we are talking about Top 40 radio. I don't give a **** about Top 40 radio, it almost always sucks. But mainstream *rock* radio was as great as it has ever been. A band like Primus went platinum *twice* for ****s sake. That is success, no matter how you try to twist it. Yeah, there was no internet, but MTV also didn't completely ignore the underground back then. Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth had very successful videos on MTV, while they were also giving indie legends like Pavement and Superchunk a nugget from time-to-time too.

I think since you didn't really experience a lot of it firsthand you have some kind of mistaken impressions of the 90s. For one thing, for the first half of the 90s mainstream rock radio played stuff like Aerosmith, Tom Petty and Van Halen with a little Nirvana and Pearl Jam sprinkled in here and there as it got toward the middle of the decade. Around 1995 the mainstream rock stations largely changed format to be "alternative", but a lot of that was lame post-grunge stuff with more and more nu-metal as the 90s came to a close.

As far as MTV goes, I'm sure 120 Minutes (a staple of my early teens I must say) played Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. videos at one o'clock in the morning, but I would hardly call that stuff "very successful".

And as for Primus, they went platinum once in the 90s, not twice, and it took the album four years to reach that point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Violent & Funky

You really have a misguided impression of what a "low point" is if you think those bands were the low point. Blood Sugar Sex Magik, KoRn, Dookie, Smash, and 311 are all very well respected albums that sold extremely well. I think its simply elitist to brush off such acts. Plus: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, and RATM were all clearly in the mainstream and awesome bands.

It's elitist to have a different opinion from you? I'm sorry but the four albums you listed just don't do it for me. Each has a couple songs I like and a bunch of stuff I don't. Am I really required to love them? Do you love every single mainstream rock album that was released during your teens?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Violent & Funky

And you just completely ignored that the 90s were one part of the Golden Era of Hip Hop and plenty of those artists were in the mainstream...

I didn't ignore that, in fact I said the hip hop was one of the better things about the decade. But a lot of the best stuff wasn't super-mainstream.