To me, the best music of the 90's came around the middle of the decade when Alternative was popular since it was music I could really relate to.  IMO, music started going downhill around 1997 when The Spice Girls came on the scene, although some rap music is fun to listen to.

I agree, eightiesfan. Although I could do without the gansta rap.

early 90s with great dance music

1) Early '90s
2) Mid '90s
3) Late '90s

right in that order!

I like the music from the late 80s to early 90s.  It had a very light feel to it, after most of the super-synthy 80s stuff and before most of the 90s grunge and gangsta and all.

The mid 1990's.

The early '90's second. Since a couple '80's bands had hits like INXS, Guns N' Roses, The Cure, Janet Jackson, Beastie Boys, REM, Depeche Mode, Prince, Metallica, LL Cool J, Michael Jackson & Madonna, etc. , but there were many mindless garbage like Vanilla Ice, Nelson, Wilson Phillips, MC Hammer (Though I like "U Can;t Touch This"  :-X ), and Color Me Badd.  :P

Not to mention Madonna & Michael Jackson both went downhill after 1990/1991.

early 90s (which would account for 90-93 right?).

Tanya

I think the music and pop culture of the mid 90s best defined the decade. 

I like the early 90s in a close second. Wagonman, I know what you mean about the early 1990s.  I like that time too because it wasn't overly cheesy synthy 80s, but it wasn't yet grunge, grunge, grunge and gangsta rap everywhere.  I would have really dug the 90s if it stayed the course of the early 90s, it had that right balance of 80s and the best of the 90s... which at the time I thought it was going to.  But then sometime in 1993 everything made this sharp turn to the left.  

The late 90s really weren't all that bad, just a little too much stupid teeny bopper stuff like Britney Spears and N'SYNC, that's why I don't rate it high.  But the rest of the late 90s were actually pretty good.   

1) Early '90s
2) Mid '90s
3) Late '90s

right in that order!


Works for me, too.
:)

early 90s (which would account for 90-93 right?).

Tanya


Yep!


Early '90s = 1990-1993
Mid '90s = 1994-1996
Late '90s = 1997-1999

Well as a self-proclaimed hater of eighties music save Rap and Guns-N-Roses tracks, I have to say my pick would be for the mid-90s in general but the early 90's probably defined my years as a teenager. Cuts like 'Momma said knock you out' and 'November Rain' were in my cassette player on the regular. Also, I loved Mariah Carey until fantasy came out in I think '95ish. Her early 90's stuff was sweet.

But I think mid-90's (i especially recall in '94 when Greenday debuted at the MTV music awards) had better groups overall.

Late 90's was too littered with Backstreet Punks and out-of-sync. Pure cheese!!

Gangsta Rap hit the scenes about 1989-90!

Tanya

Fav period of rock music was 1990-1995. The Pixies, Nirvana, Mighty Mighty Bosstones came out with some good music then. I was in high school and I used to head bang to Nirvana's In Utero album. Alternative rock stars back then really had issues and the music reflected those issues(mostly drugs) , unlike today's rock musicians, who spend too much time trying to impress the media and get good music reviews.

I chose mid-90s when music was becoming original again instead of fabricated.

Mid 90'S.

In 1993 when Ace of Base and Real McCoy had a few hits up until the Spice Girls "Broke Up" in mid-1998.
When Britney Spears came along during Christmas 1998, that was the official end of popular music. December 1998 was the official month that popular music died.
Right now we really need Ace of Base and the Spice Girls back.

Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden....grunge :)

Well, I started listening to music regularly in the mid-90s, around 1994, so I'd have to say mid-90s. However, I am fond of many "dance" songs that came out during the early part of the decade, and most of the good stuff that was out during 1998-99, as well as music in between.

I'd say early 90's (songs such as M.C. Hammer's "U Can't Touch This", Biz Markie's "Just a Friend", Digital Underground's  "The Humpty Dance", Linear's "Sending All My Love", Anita Baker's "Fairy Tales" & Hall & Oates "So Close").  Most of these bring to mind good memories of my senior yr. of high school & shortly afterward.

I'd have to say mid 90's for second & late 90's third...

Yep!


Mid '90s = 1994-1996


Yeah I liked 1994-1996 the best when you had musicians like Lisa Loeb, Pearl Jam,  STP, Oasis, Better Then Ezra, Sponge, Collective Soul, Soul Asylum, Foo Fighters, Everclear, Fun Luvin Criminals, Weezer, Green Day, Live and stuff like that. I did like 1997-1998 when you had R&b acts like Usher, Dru Hill, Montell Jordan, Total, Brian McKnight, Next, R. Kelly, KiCi &JoJo, Tamia, Faith Evans, and Monica. 1999 was bad. The lone highlight of 99 was the Red Hot Chilli Peppers having a great year on the billboards that year.

1990-1993 had the late 80's Pop/R&B colliding with the Grunge era. Lot of mixture of musical styles during that time period of music. I like R&b Group PM Dawn from early 90's alot. I listen to some cuts off of Rap Group Tribe Called Quest's "The Low End Theory". Some of those cuts off that album are sensational.

early 90s with great dance music

I agree with this.  It was still close enough to the 80's for me not to hate it, and many of the dance songs were catchy. When my hubby and I first started dating (1992), we went to the dance club fairly often, so I have a lot of positive memories of that timeframe in music. Plus, at that point, just as in the eighties, any big-hair metal was good metal, IMO.  ;D

Plus, I NEVER got into the whole "grunge" thing. (probably pretty sad, seeing where I live!)  :-\\

After Nirvana and the other Seattle bands first broke out in '91, it started a revolution in music that I think peaked in about 1993 and ended in about 1995-96. Coincidentally, this was about the same time that Congress passed the Telecommunications Deregulation Act.

I LOVE late 90's music.
Being born in the late 80's, I don't have much of a recollection of early 90's pop culture, and I was way to young to relate to the grunge or gangsta rap of the mid 90's.
But the late 90's...it was cheesy and cheery, but that was my childhood, man! Gotta love 'em...

Mid 90s for me, but Early 90s and late 90s were OK too.  I wouldn't call 1993 early, though.  That was when gangsta rap grew more.

I thought about splitting these decades up evenly before, and came up with this mathematical chart(because I have too much time on my hands):

1.  12 months x 10 years = 120 months
2.  120 months / 3 sections = 40 months(3 years and 4 months)
3a.  early 90s = January 1990 - April 1993
3b.  mid 90s = May 1993 - August 1996
3c.  late 90s = Sept. 1996 - December 1999

I actually liked the late 90s too, when I was 17-19.  I gave up on popular music when I turned 20 for a while, but usually I'm off and on about that. 

^Cool chart.  I agree with that, especially putting 1993 in the mid 90s era, because '93 seemed more part of that time frame then it did the other early 90s years.  And late 1996 did seem more late 90ish. 

For me, my music era stops at 1996. it starts in 1969 and ends in 1996

for me its

mid 90s-I like the hip-hop soul, gangsta/jazzy rap, and post-grunge rock from this time

late 90s-last period i think music was still well above average; the teen pop exploded in mid 98-mid 2K, -but theres so much other good stuff to focus on for me(like DMX, Matchbox 20, Godsmack)

early 90s-probably 3rd because this is the period i just started to get into the overall pop culture, around 3rd grade(which was sept 92) before that im a little too young for the general pop culture to impact me much, im not into a lot of the rock/pop from 90-91, but i loved the New Jack sound.

mid-late 80s (1985-1989) New Jack Swing hit first began around this time.  Golden Age of hip hop, Native Tongues, gangsta rap, Afrocentric stlye.  African medallions!!!
Early 90s (1990-1993)  New Jack Swing transitioning into hip hop soul, gangsta rap!!!! 
Mid 90s   (1994-1996)  Hip Hop soul/ the beginning of neo-soul!!!!!

Even though I like some of late 90s stuff, but not as much as the ones I've listed above.

i'd say late 90s. :)

Early to mid-90's for me ('90-'96-ish).

Early-mid for me too. Late 90s stuff seems so cheesy to me.

defintely early 90's for me. dance pop music was still popular, at least for a couple of years in the U.S.. dance pop seemed to have stayed popular throughout the decade in Europe. i also just like the production on music better from that time

plus i can count many albums that i like from the early 90's, but not so many from 1995-1999. i have a hard time picking out albums to get from the mid to late 90's.

1990 - 1993, definately (but I rather want to say 1988 - 1993). Not the teenybopper stuff from the late nineties, lots of good dance music, and the 'cheesy' music in that period was often fun instead of annoying.

I don't like the late nineties, musicwise (if I ignore the nostalgic feelings). A lot of bóóóóring r&b stuff and even more boring softpop, all those Cheiron productions (Britney, Solid Harmonie, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync), etcetera. The French act 'Air' was a bright spot in 1998 / 1999 (thank God...).

Early '90s, and Mid '90s.

1991-1994 was great. Actually I like the entire decade, but that was really cool. Like where '80s artists could still chart, but you also had some groundbreaking alternative rock, R&B and dancepop. I think Paula Abdul was my favorite alltime artist that I associate with that time period, though. I really got into her initially back then.

I guess a complete idiot made this topic.  The Mid 90's was in no way the "Grunge" and "Gangsta Rap" Era.  Infact, Grunge and Gangsta Rap overall were such a small part of 90s music.  The only way you would ever hear Grunge Music on the radio is if you listened mainly to Alternative Rock radio stations, and the only way you'd ever hear Gangsta Rap music on the radio was if you listened to Hip-Hip radio stations.  Hardly any of that stuff was ever played on Top 40 radio, mainly because DJ's didn't think it appealed to Pop Radio.

Grunge only lasted from Late 1991/Early 1992 to about Early 1994 and then it made way for Alternative/Modern Rock.  Also, Gangsta Rap was only around for about a year, mainly in 1993, and it was basically just a musical fad at the time that disappeared within 10 months. Not to mention the songs hardly got much radio airplay anyway.

Nothing irritates me more than these young kids who are under the impression that the 90's was only about Grunge and Gangsta Rap, when in actuality it was more full of "Adult Contemporary", "Pop", "Rock", "R&B" and "Dance"

Even Rap music in the 90's was minimal. If you wanted your rap fix musically, you'd have to tune into rap stations just to hear them. Even Puff Daddy and Coolio didn't dominate the Radio like the charts may indicate that they did (They did great in SALES, but got a minimal amount of Airplay and took a backseat mostly to Adult Contemporary, Pop, Rock and Pure R&B/Soul).  Today in 2007 however, it's a completely different story.  Now DJ's are comfortable playing rap songs alot on Top 40 radio and they have welcomed rap completely as a mainstream music genre (Unlike it was in the 80's and 90's, where DJ's were still fickle about the Hip-Hop Genre as it was still kind of New)
  Thank you so much for clearing that up because I didn't think that the 90s was full of gangsta rap and grunge either.  I was there, so I can talk about it.  Hell, even New Jack Swing last longer than gangsta rap.  The 90s was full of RnB, Adult Contemporary, Dance, and House.  I don't know why they will think that the 90s was full of hip hop and grunge when it really wasn't.  Maybe that's why I like mid to late 80s and 90s so much because it was RnB influenced.  In my opinion and my observation, the 90s was more RnB influenced as far as pop is concern.  I mean, listen to how Celine Dion sing.  Her voice doesn't sound like a standard adult contemporary artists.  Even though she is adult contemporary, to me, she's more RnB influenced.

I agree on the last two points, although I can somewhat see how people would misperceive it. Grunge and gangsta rap didn't have that much influence on pop radio music, but they were very much a part of '90s culture overall. In terms of outside influences, slang, fashion, decor and all.

Yeah, 1991 to 1994 was really the bulk of this era, although I remember it felt more saturated in the mid '90s, even if it wasn't quite as innovative or fresh-cool by this time.

I voted for the late 90's, not for the teen pop, but a lot of good R&B artists came out then like Next, Joe, KC & Jojo, Jon. B, and Brian McKnight. It was a tough vote because I liked ALL of the 90's.

My favorite was the early 90's. I thought 1991 was especially great, with Paula Abdul's "Spellbound" and Guns N Roses' "Use Your Illusion I and II", among many others.  :)