VH1's Greatest Songs of the 90's

[IrishCanadian25]

Recently, VH1 has trucked along it's mission to list and quantify music history with another one of its entertaining and controversial 5-hours top
100's, this time focusing on the Greatest Songs of the 1990's. A fair mix of criteria, including influence, musical importance, quotability, radio play, and over all fun factor, VH1 came out with this - and we need to dissect and discuss. if we don't the terrorists win.

Here are the Top 20-

01 Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
02 U2 - "One"
03 Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way"
04 Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"
05 Madonna - "Vogue"
06 Sir Mix-A-Lot - "Baby Got Back"
07 Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
08 TLC - "Waterfalls"
09 R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
10 Sinéad O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
11 Pearl Jam - "Jeremy"
12 Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"
13 Dr. Dre (Feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) - "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang"
14 Mariah Carey - "Vision of Love"
15 Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
16 MC Hammer - "U Can't Touch This"
17 Destiny's Child - "Say My Name"
18 Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
19 Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"
20 Hanson - "MMMBop"

Which songs were too high? Which were too low? Which were just right? Is there an uncorrected bias? Speak out and let us know your list for the Best Songs of the 1990's. Remember to explain and defend your choices - it's a debate after all.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Recently, VH1 has trucked along it's mission to list and quantify music history with another one of its entertaining and controversial 5-hours top
100's, this time focusing on the Greatest Songs of the 1990's. A fair mix of criteria, including influence, musical importance, quotability, radio play, and over all fun factor, VH1 came out with this - and we need to dissect and discuss. if we don't the terrorists win.

Here are the Top 20-

01 Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
02 U2 - "One"
03 Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way"
04 Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"
05 Madonna - "Vogue"
06 Sir Mix-A-Lot - "Baby Got Back"
07 Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
08 TLC - "Waterfalls"
09 R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
10 Sinéad O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
11 Pearl Jam - "Jeremy"
12 Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"
13 Dr. Dre (Feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) - "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang"
14 Mariah Carey - "Vision of Love"
15 Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
16 MC Hammer - "U Can't Touch This"
17 Destiny's Child - "Say My Name"
18 Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
19 Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"
20 Hanson - "MMMBop"

Which songs were too high? Which were too low? Which were just right? Is there an uncorrected bias? Speak out and let us know your list for the Best Songs of the 1990's. Remember to explain and defend your choices - it's a debate after all.

One of the best songs would have had to have been Whitney Houston - I will always love you, so that will pretty much guarentee stop spot in my list. Alanis Morissette with You Oughta Know is a close second, both songs I love, have such passion in them and are so original.

Queen were pretty much over in the 90's yet I feel they still deserve a mention, as they were amazing, and shaped a lot of songs and bands of today, especially with Bohemian Rhapsody, persoanlly my favourite song.

Britney Spears I don't agree with. I just don't think she's original, there are so many of the 'typical' female singer, and she's just an even more widespread version of one.

Mariah Carey deserves to be higher up, she truly is amazing. I have never disliked one of her songs. You can listen to her music whatever mood you're in, and I've even fallen asleep to a few of her songs before.

 

[Freedom 35]

Hanson in the top 20

bullshit

I watched some of that greatest songs of the 90s and I saw much better songs long before that. Hanson sucked I remember when they came out people attempted to make them huge but no one gave a fuck because they were straight up garbage. Id put every Backstreet Boys and *Nsync (gotta have the star) before mmmbop by Hanson man did that song suck

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I want to be with your pick of Bohemian Rhapsody so bad, Mrs. Will, but that song was actually released in 1975 on "I'm In Love with my Car." The
90's was a renassaince for the song due to Wayne's World, but it's actually from the mid-70's.

Speaking of a "renassaince" one could really make that case for females in the 90's. I mean, HBK makes a great point about maybe under rating Alanis and Whitney, but look at Sinead being as high up as she is! And Britney! And Hanson!

Speaking of Hanson, Freedom maybe they did suck, but can we really deny the fact that they made a major splash in music in the 90's? Worldwide sales of "Middle of Nowhere" beat 10 million. While Michael Jackson was on trial for touching kids, these three kids came out with southern squeakly-clean pop music and got over as a result. They didn't challenge anything, they just had fun. Sometimes that is what music needs.

My fiancee and I debated whether NSync should have been ahead of Backstreet Boys due to longevity and the fact that NSync launched more successful independent careers. As for Agulera, I'm just happy she's had a relatively drama free life - really she and Hanson were the only ones of that Boy and Girl band era to escape without becoming head cases.

 

[hbk&triple h]

I was just watching this last night and I must say overall the list of songs was pretty good.

On the top 20 the only one I have a problem with being so high is Dr. Dre's "Nothing but a 'G' Thang". Honestly, I am a fan of rap but that being so high is pretty outrageous to me.

And Hanson deserves to be on there Freedom but on the top 20 I don't know.

Now maybe this is just because I am a total Nirvana fan and love them but they absolutely deserve to be number one and there is no arguing that. This song has a huge impact on Grunge and Rock music and has created a sound for soo many other bands to use.

Otherwise, that list was great. But my only problem was that Freak On A Leash happened to be number 69. I found that a bit weird.

 

[a7xoff]

Hmm. Some interesting songs up on that top 20 list. I figured that I'd know all of the songs on that list, but as it turns out I really don't. No surprised tosee groups like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. I'm surprised N*Sync's Bye Bye Bye didn't make the list. That was one of those songs that you'd hear on the radio like 1000 times a day. So I'm kind of surprised about that. Smells Like Teen Spirit at number 1 over Metallica's Enter Sandman at 18 I don't agree with at all. I think Metallica has a much larger fanbase then Nirvana had. Even in the 90's you turn on a hard rock/metal radio station you heard Metallica. I didn't even hear Smells Like Teen Spirit until the lat, late 90's so I really don't see how it's ranked number 1.

 

[Kasey]

VH1 lists are only funny when Michael Ian Black is poking fun at them. Overall, the selection of their "best of" lists gives me a royal pain in my ass. Nice to see Nirvana on the top of the heap, though. It's not everyday that a single song destroys an entire music movement in about ten seconds. Take that hair metal.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

VH1 lists are only funny when Michael Ian Black is poking fun at them. Overall, the selection of their "best of" lists gives me a royal pain in my ass. Nice to see Nirvana on the top of the heap, though. It's not everyday that a single song destroys an entire music movement in about ten seconds. Take that hair metal.

Oh, no Kasey! Not you too! Why the hate on hair metal!?

I personally love VH1's lists. They give me something to watch in the rare occassion I am watching TV, and I am one of those people who tries to quantify and list EVERYTHING in the world. I love the debates about music more than just about anything.

The Best Songs of the 90's list is one of my favorites because 1) I went to High School in the 90's and it brings back a mess of nostalgia, and 2) the list tries to rate songs across ALL genres, forcing those debating it to keep an open mind on the music in order to be relevant. I am not a fan of boy bands, Britney Spears, the Spice Girls, Hanson, or the Macarena, but damn if I can't sit back and objectively state that the songs they produced were HUGE in the 90's and deserve recognition.

Also, the list itself GIVES recognition to non-pop chart songs like "Enter Sandman" and "Nuthin but a G Thang" admidst the safety songs like "I Will Always Love You" and "I Want it That Way."

Hmm. Some interesting songs up on that top 20 list. I figured that I'd know all of the songs on that list, but as it turns out I really don't. No surprised tosee groups like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. I'm surprised N*Sync's Bye Bye Bye didn't make the list. That was one of those songs that you'd hear on the radio like 1000 times a day. So I'm kind of surprised about that. Smells Like Teen Spirit at number 1 over Metallica's Enter Sandman at 18 I don't agree with at all. I think Metallica has a much larger fanbase then Nirvana had. Even in the 90's you turn on a hard rock/metal radio station you heard Metallica. I didn't even hear Smells Like Teen Spirit until the lat, late 90's so I really don't see how it's ranked number 1.

Just because Metallica had a larger fan base doesn't mean "Enter Sandman" deserves to be in a class with "Smells Like Teen Spirit." In fact, a lot of Metallica fans chastised the Black Album for being the start of the sell-out period for Metallica. No, Sandman did not launch Metallica nor any major musical genre. Teen Spirit pulled angst-laden Grunge Rock out of the Seattle garage and threw it DIRECTLY into the faces of society. It single handedly turned America's youth on its ear and made enough noise for people to notice. S.L.T.S. also paved the road for bands like Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam to get huge, and as a result songs like "Jeremy." Enter Sandman did none of that.

 

[Grubbs0621]

This topic hasn't been posted in for about a month, but I just watched the show again the other day, and the topic is still on the front page, so I think it is worth of being brought back to life.

Just because Metallica had a larger fan base doesn't mean "Enter Sandman" deserves to be in a class with "Smells Like Teen Spirit." In fact, a lot of Metallica fans chastised the Black Album for being the start of the sell-out period for Metallica. No, Sandman did not launch Metallica nor any major musical genre. Teen Spirit pulled angst-laden Grunge Rock out of the Seattle garage and threw it DIRECTLY into the faces of society. It single handedly turned America's youth on its ear and made enough noise for people to notice. S.L.T.S. also paved the road for bands like Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam to get huge, and as a result songs like "Jeremy." Enter Sandman did none of that.

Completely agree. Smells Like Teen Spirit completely changed the face of 90s teen and pre teen even, and shaped our generation. There is a reason why almost 14 years after Kurt's death, Nirvana still gets a ton of play time on the radio.

I would like to bring focus on the bottom of the list.

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_greatest/127759/episode_featured_copy.jhtml

There is the VH1 Page with all the songs. Who feels which songs were rated way to low?

I am surprised "Stay" by Lisa Loeb is only 93. She is the only unsigned artist to ever have a #1 hit. That is HUGE. Could give a sense of hope to so many struggling artists out there. Not to mention, the song itself it so commonly heard today. Surprised it isn't around 50-60ish.

I am also surprised Meredith Brooks' "Bitch" came in at 79. I mean, that song instantly became an anthem for PMSing girls across the planet. And they still sing it to this day.

Also, despite being fairly high at 37, I am surprised "Good Riddance" by Green Day was NOT higher. I mean, to this day, that song is still played at so many events. Everyone knows this song, and sings it. It is the National Feel Good Song basically. Should of been a top 20.

I agree with most of the Top 20 as well.

 

[hartattack88]

i thought it was a good list. at least hanson have talent! id rather listen to them than the emo bull shit going on now. i knew teen spirit was gonna be number 1, it always is. good song, but a bit over played. pearl jam is probably my favorite band of the 90s.