• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

90's music > *

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
There's lag with "era cultures". The culture starts after the decade begins, and continues after it ends. For example, the the 70s started around 74-75, and ended around 82.

And the '80s actually started in '78 or '79 or so. There was some overlap.
 
I am a music fanatic period. From the 40's to present. I have no real favorite genre. There was some decent music in the 90's but as a decade it is severely lacking by far and it gets even worse from then until now. New music is cookie cutter crap being served to kids too stupid to realize their gadgets are controlling their lives.
 
I am a music fanatic period. From the 40's to present. I have no real favorite genre. There was some decent music in the 90's but as a decade it is severely lacking by far and it gets even worse from then until now. New music is cookie cutter crap being served to kids too stupid to realize their gadgets are controlling their lives.

You are spot on.
 
The 90s were excellent compared to the bleak 80s, but not the best decade by a long shot.

The creativity and the great melodies of the 80s completely blow away the sameness and drab melodies of the 90s. Even the bad music of the 80s had some merit, except for maybe the pretty boy metal bands.. but some of their guitarists were decent technically at least.
 
I like a lot of music from now to the '60s (Except the '80s, what a fucking horrible decade for... well, everything), with the '90s being my favorite decade for rock.
 
I almost like 90's music now more than I did five years ago. There really is a damn lot of it good, it was the hey day or is that hay day of alternative rock.
 
80s music was ok but it's unlistenable these days due to all the cheap synths and drum machines. Most of the rock is dated sounding too, at least the hairband and popular stuff.

Anyway, I never loved music as much as I did in the 90s and will probably never love music the same way again. There's tons of bad 90s music like the boy bands but more good overall.
 
The 90s were excellent compared to the bleak 80s, but not the best decade by a long shot.

"Bleak" 80s??? I think you got that reversed. Without commenting on what decade is better, it's hard to ignore that 90s pop music brought in more introspective, melodramatic, wrist-splitting lyrics mainstream. This was further reinforced when its most iconic frontman blew his brain out.

I been to a lot of restaurants and what I usually hear playing are 80s pop because they are more upbeat. 90s pop are just flat out depressing.
 
The 70's and 80's absolutely destroys the 90's. The 90's sucked ass.

truth in this post.

90s had great stuff, but this is when auto-tune started to rear its ugly head (not as bad as 2000 and on, of course); but just about anyone started becoming a "pop star" in the 90s.

The cream of the 70s and 80s still rises above that of the 90s
 
This should be its own [blog] post, but I'll try to keep it as brief as possible:

The reason why people like "90's music" is for many of the same reasons people like "60's music." And that is that the outlier music (in the case of the 90's, grunge and "alt-rock") became mainstream, and the mainstream music (pop and most rap) was already mature at that point. If you look at the 70's, you have mainstream music most people hate (think "AM Gold" and the like), as well as "new" music -- disco -- that most people hate (now, although they loved it at the time). The "alternative" music of that time was burgeoning FM AOR/Rock radio, which is, to a lot of people, the only redeeming quality of the decade.

A similar statement can be made for the 80's, where the old stuff was similar to the 70's, and the "new" stuff -- new wave, or what we generically called "80's" music -- is, while not hated as much as disco, still considered more kitschy than good. The "alternative" in the 80's (college rock radio) never really caught on to the degree/had the impact of grunge/alternative rock. And 80's pop music is just about as well liked as 70's AM Gold.

In short, the reason why people love the 90's is because it holds a relatively unique place wherein the "new" stuff became well-accepted (grunge), and the "old" stuff isn't, for whatever reason, considered kitschy (or at least isn't considered kitschy yet, although I doubt it'll happen). There was just a weird confluence, where the established sounds were mature enough to stand the test of time (unlike, say, disco) and the new sounds were successful enough to become the de-facto standards (unlike, say, 80's new wave). That, combined with the universalization of rap music -- which can't be understated -- leads to an era where the music is just considered "better" than others.

The only other time this has happened was in the 60's, where the old stuff (early rock and roll) is still revered, and the new stuff (british invasion, psychedelic rock, etc) is considered canon.
 
On the 90's station on Spotify. Last few songs:

Ban66.png


I wish I died on 12/31/99. Nothing's been good since.

Dwell... I love to argue with you, but we agree on this.

Except I prefer Tupac and RATM over the songs you posted
 
I'm convinced the vast majority of people think the best era of music was whenever they were in high school and/or college.

I read something that said it was whatever wax popular when you were in your mid teens... Something about that's when that part of your brain developed.
 
I'm convinced the vast majority of people think the best era of music was whenever they were in high school and/or college.

Not true. Go to any hippie 70's rock band or similar and see all the comments of "I'm 13 and wish I was 51! None of my friends like this music!" with a bazillion thumbs up and one old guy saying that no one gives a shit what the kid thinks. The internet and hipster culture help cultivate this attitude.
 
I'm convinced the vast majority of people think the best era of music was whenever they were in high school and/or college.

If I had to pick an era, I'd say the 60s. Pop music really expanded during that time, and bands were open to influences from outside their genre. Everybody played together, and the music was better for it.
 
Not true. Go to any hippie 70's rock band or similar and see all the comments of "I'm 13 and wish I was 51! None of my friends like this music!" with a bazillion thumbs up and one old guy saying that no one gives a shit what the kid thinks. The internet and hipster culture help cultivate this attitude.

Doesn't that mostly confirm it? Certainly there are chunks of nostalgics, whether you call them hipsters, hippies, revivalists, traditionalists, retro, or whatever, but even in those cases, it was often the music they listened to as teenagers that they continue to adore.

Personally, I think every era has it's good stuff, and don't see much point in limiting myself to any particular part. I will say though that I'm enjoying the democratization of modern music in the past decade. Everyone wails about how horrible the big label productions are these days, without realizing that they're slowly becoming irrelevant. It no longer costs much to get excellent quality recordings, and you don't need a massive distribution system, so you're seeing a flood of fantastic small-label music.
 
Back
Top