1. That's What Love Can Do / Boy Krazy
2. Go West / Pet Shop Boys
3. Everyday / Phil Collins
4. Linger / The Cranberries
5. If I Ever Lose My Faith in You / Sting
6. Again / Janet Jackson
7. Cannonball / The Breeders
8. Rooster / Alice in Chains
9. It's Alright (The Guvnor Mix) / East 17
10. One Last Cry / Brian McKnight

11. Come Undone / Duran Duran
12. What Is Love / Haddaway
13. Fields of Gold / Sting
14. Will You Be There / Michael Jackson
15. Wanna Girl / Jeremy Jordan
16. Tribal Dance / 2 Unlimited
17. Stay / Eternal
18. I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) / Meat Loaf
19. Creep / Radiohead
20. The River of Dreams / Billy Joel
21. Cherub Rock / The Smashing Pumpkins
22. Things Can Only Get Better / D:Ream
23. I Like to Move It / Reel 2 Real feat. The Mad Stuntman
24. Anything / Culture Beat
25. Soul to Squeeze / Red Hot Chili Peppers
26. I Don't Wanna Fight / Tina Turner
27. Found Out About You / Gin Blossoms
28. Heaven Help / Lenny Kravitz
29. What's Up? / 4 Non Blondes
30. For Tomorrow / Blur

1 New Order - Regret
2 Pet Shop Boys - Go West
3 Björk - Venus as a Boy
4 Björk - Big Time Sensuality
5 Bjork - theres more to life than this
6 Björk & David Arnold - Play Dead
7 New Order - World
8 Helmet and House of Pain - Just Another Victim
9 Metallica - Sad but True
10 Pet Shop Boys - Can You Forgive Her?

11 Bjork - Human behavior
12 Saint Etienne - Who Do You Think You Are
13 Sunscreem - Love U More
14 Gloria Estefan - Go Away
15 The Cult - The Witch
16 New Order - Young Offender
17 New Order - Liar
18 New Order - Everyone Everwhere
19 New Order - Ruined in a Day
20 New Order - Spooky
21 New Order - Times Change
22 New Order - Chemical
23 New Order - Special
24 Bjork - violently happy
25 Bjork - crying
26 Bjork - venus as a boy
27 Camouflage - Suspicious Love
28 Depeche Mode - One Caress
29 Duran Duran - Come Undone
30 Tears for Fears - Break It Down Again
31 Depeche Mode - I Feel You
32 Bjork - One day

Gotta add Mr. Jones by Counting Crows. It straddles 1993 and 1994 but I'm pretty sure I heard it in 93, since the album was released a few months before the single was released in December. For twenty years or so, the song has made me think of autumn 1993, and so I think I must have heard it and it left an impression at that time.

To me, this is one of the most 90s songs in existence (and one of the best in existence), and it really sounds like the 1993/1994 alternative rock era.

If anyone asked me to explain alternative rock from 1993-1994, when its early 90s phase was done (Gin Blossoms / Hey Jealousy) but it hadn't changed into its full mid 90s form (like Dave Matthews Band), I'd simply play them Mr. Jones. THAT'S what 93-94 alternative sounded and felt like. Good vibes! Melancholy but upbeat, attitude but clearly vulnerable. The honesty of the song is, I think, what makes it so distinct, and it comes off in the lyrics, sound, and video.

I decided I have to provide a link to the song and video in case someone interested is unfamiliar with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oqAU5VxFWs

I also decided I have to elaborate on the song. It represents "90s nihilism" in an interesting way. It's not an aggressive embrace of it like, say, the nonsense lyrics combined with the louder sound of Nirvana, but instead is more reflective. For example the way he says, "Believe in me, 'cause I don't believe in anything, and I wanna be someone who believes." In some of the lines about his feelings of emptiness you can hear in the way his voice has a cracking effect at some points the vulnerability he's expressing.

He also sings about how he wants to turn on the television and see himself because "when everybody loves you, you can never be lonely." So he takes the desire to seek fame and just blatantly expresses that it's a way to keep loneliness or sadness at bay, and yet he wants it anyway. That's very 90s, though a lot of the striving in the 90s wasn't this self-aware. He's sort of accepted society's prescription for emptiness - striving for attention, stuff etc. - and yet he's sort of seeing through it at the same time. Yet he's calm about all of it; the song spans melancholy and energetic attitude, but never gets aggressive or morbid.

This calm dealing with the existential issues of life, I think, fits 1993 quite well, as times were more optimistic than, say, 1991 due to economic recovery and the end of the Cold War, but they hadn't yet started moving toward the harder phase of triumphant consumerism that we'd start to see appearing in the mid 90s with the beginning of the tech boom, and which of course developed in the late 90s and 2000s (after the tech boom it was the real estate bubble driving the hard-charging consumerism).

I think around 1992 to 1994, U.S. culture was generally optimistic and sunnier because of the end of the Cold War and the early 90s recession, and because of the waning of heavy-handed (Reagan)/paternalistic (Bush Sr.) conservatism - even before Clinton's election it was wearing off - and yet all this hadn't yet gone to the country's head. I can remember in the mid to late 90s much stronger crassness, attitude, U.S. military triumphalism (like saying we're the new Roman Empire on an AM radio station that a neighbor of mine listened to when he'd sometimes take me to school, and I could tell by the broadcaster's voice he was exulting in this idea, like he was ready for U.S. to blow some countries up*). Back in the earlier 90s, this sort of attitude hadn't reasserted itself in the culture, though it's risen and quieted in phases throughout U.S. history.

The song even begins in an anxious mood, goes through upbeat phases, the ending has an upbeat rock sound, but then at the very end it goes back to anxiety and uncertainty when the singer says "we're gonna be . . . big stars." And the fact that the video is band members jamming in a cozy apartment at night fits the mood.

All this helps sum up why I think the early 90s were better than the late 90s. Yeah, crime was higher and the economy wasn't booming (though a lot of folks didn't benefit much from the late 90s boom), but the country felt like it was more down to earth. The alternative and grunge music breakout was part of this because people were ready for something more down to earth. Alas it couldn't last, perhaps because certain people like to take things too far.


*This, and other memories of the growing harshness in the tone surrounding discussions of U.S. power and its role in the world, is why I say the right-wing was spoiling for a fight well before 9-11-2001. They were clearly eager to kick some country's ass to feel powerful despite the relative peace of the Clinton years. Or perhaps this peace frustrated them and made them want it more

Bittersweet / Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Another alternative 1993 song that fits into the cultural mood I described above.

1. That's What Love Can Do / Boy Krazy



Did you like this cover of it? I kinda prefer it...

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Did you like this cover of it? I kinda prefer it...

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I really don't, I think the Boy Krazy version is far superior. Johnna Lee Cummings injects so much more strength and feeling into the song, whereas the cover is a wispy piece of fluff that's on par with a Radio Disney production.

Techno Syndrome / The Immortals

AKA the Mortal Kombat theme. I believe it's originally from 1993 when the first game was released. I can recall the game's release but don't recall this song from that time, but might have just forgotten. It's either from 1992 or 1993, but didn't get really popular until 1995 with the Mortal Kombat movie, and then it was everywhere in the later 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwWPadFsOA

1. Tag Team - Whoomp!
2. Cypress Hill - Insane In The Brain
3. Naughty By Nature - Hip-Hop Hooray
4. 2Pac - I Get Around
5. Salt N Pepa - Shoop
6. Zhane - Mr. DJ
7. SWV - Right Here (Remix)
8. Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
9. SWV - Weak
10. Souls of Mischief - '93 Til Infinity

1. Salt-n-Pepa - Shoop
2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Mary Jane's Last Dance
3. Tag Team - Whoomp! There it Is
4. The Immortals - Techno Syndrome
5. Hardrive - Deep Inside
6. Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)
7. Robin S. - Show Me Love
8. Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray
9. Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
10. Haddaway - What is Love