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The spike in one-hit-wonders during the 90s wasn't surprising to me. I had the unenviable position of working as a line cook and construction worker during the
by colkassad 2y ago
The spike in one-hit-wonders during the 90s wasn't surprising to me. I had the unenviable position of working as a line cook and construction worker during the 90s and listened to the radio 6+ hours a day. It's actually fun to listen to those hits these days. There are so many songs that I've forgotten about that I would listen to over and over again before they were overtaken by a new hit. Superman, burning beds, seether (whatever that was), bands named after boxes and chairs, ten different Eddie Vedders with arms wide open...listening to them now brings back a lot of memories so it's hard to hate them today as much as I did then. I remember exactly where I was (sitting in the parking lot of a Shoney's in Charlottesville, VA) when I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. Typical FM radio before that was hair metal and classic rock.
My favorite, though, was Seven Mary Three. I saw them in Virginia Beach in a bar with no air conditioning, it was miserable but they had some seriously catchy tunes. Less then a year later I was painting a high school in Orlando and the song Cumbersome came on the radio with the announcer stating "can you believe these guys are unsigned???". Not too long after they were all over MTV. Second place goes to seeing No Doubt open for a forgotten band in '91. They were incredible. When I heard I'm Just a Girl for the first time on the radio I knew who it was before being told.
- emseetech 2y ago| seether (whatever that was) I was about to jump to Veruca Salt's defense, but apparently there was a band called Seether? I must have missed that.
- colkassad 2y agoThank you for reminding be of the band's name. Hearing that one four times a day was painful. It's stuck in my head now again and I haven't listened to it in twenty years.
- lazystar 2y agoaahhh Seether... loved their song "Remedy", it was on the radio a lot when I was in high school. Saw them live in Portland in 2006, great show.
- mjb 2y agoBack in high school, my buddies and I snuck in to a few Saron Gas (their pre-Seether name) shows at Roxy's in Johannesburg. We were under age, and couldn't afford the R20 cover. They were really talented, and put on a great show (one of the top club shows I can remember).
- LostMyLogin 2y ago> The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion with the deadly chemical known as sarin gas. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seether https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seether
- lc9er 2y agoOne of their guitarists came out of my local scene. I shared a stage with the guy a number of times. After a few years and albums, he left the band and became a teacher. It was one of the events that started taking the air out of the rockstar dream.
- etrautmann 2y agoAs of now Seether has > 1B plays on Spotify - can’t be that obscure or forgotten…
- emseetech 2y agoNo I just don't remember ever hearing them. Their first hits were in 2002 and I wasn't listening to the radio by then. They were named after the Veruca Salt song though.
- pfdietz 2y agoMy favorite one hit wonder was The Insiders, "Ghost On the Beach". That was 1987, so just before the 90s.
- colkassad 2y agoI've never heard that one. Thanks for pointing it out. They remind me a little of The Connells...check out Scotty's Lament and Stone Cold Yesterday with my favorite being Fun & Games[1]. I think they were five years too early...I was obsessed with them in high school. Another early one-hit-wonder is from Deee-Lite, "Groove is in the Heart" (1990). I still watch the video from time to time...the woman can dance like no other. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHFvG0KGcWc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHFvG0KGcWc
- DidYaWipe 2y agoDeee-Lite brings to mind "Doin' the Do" - Betty Boo "Hippychick" - Soho "I'm Free" - the Soupdragons "Unbelievable" - EMF
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- samstave 2y agoAn interesting thought to think about is how sense of Smell is related to memory (from an evolutionary perspective the sense of smell-mem link was to ensure we Humans knew when something was not OK to ingest) But in modern times, now you can have smells link or lock memories in... So for you as a line cook - you have a bunch of experiences with these songs linked to whatever you were smelling at the time which then locked the 'nostalgia' into memory - so now in the Reverse RAG situation, you hear a song and your memories of those times are really strong. And to quote the magnanimous Steven Wright: "Memories... they're really the only thing you have to think back on"
- Measter 2y agoI have a weird second-hand memory by this. Back in the 90s, when I was still in school, we were having a bit of a relaxed period. My teacher had the radio on and was marking some stuff, while we kids were doing whatever. At one point, while I was talking to him, Stairway to Heaven started playing, and he told me that every time he hears that song he remembers the taste and smell of a cheeseburger he had when he visited the US years before. Now, every time I hear that song, I think of cheeseburgers.
- samstave 2y agoIve noticed in my life; My brother has an exceptional sense of smell... and he had a wonderful memory. I personally, have a compltely retarded_sense of smell, and a poor mem. I was extremely involved in martial arts (pre-olympic, blah blah) and got hit in the nose a lot) -- I had a photographic mem until I was about ~14 which I originally thought of as the first time I smoked pot -- but really it was when I started Martial arts... ((I used to take tests in Biology whereby rather than doing the test, I would re-draw the entirety of the chalkboard of the class for that test - and not answer a thing) (I have memories from 6 months old... where a girl named Wednesday attempted to smother me in my crib with a pillow) ((hippy commune, 1970s, Sanf Francisco -- yes my mom was friends with Jim Jones -- I have incredible memories)) but I relegated my mem loss to various things -- but I have a REALLY poor sense of smell currently. and a poor mem as such. (However, I can tell you every single passwd Ive ever typed into a machine. The first ISP passwd I was given in the early 90s by netcom auto gen was "FblQ00Ho" in ~96-ish... ((part of my frustration in IT when someone says they cant recall they passwd)) We should have a device that provides a scent when someone selects a secret - and then have them select the passwd induced by the scent. (I dont give a heck about how nuts the above sounds... its real. thats why its called NOSE-To-LOGIA nostalgia. (I love dissecting etymology) -- I wrote the following joke eons ago about photographic mems as such: "I have a photogenic memory... Whenever I think back on myself - I look fantastic"
- WalterBright 2y ago> can you believe these guys are unsigned??? I prefer unsigned for guys that don't go negative on me.
- tomcam 2y agoNICE
- cheschire 2y agoOh don’t be too quick to dismiss the absolute value of some of the more negatively viewed bands of the time.
- graydoubt 2y agoExactly, that's the most significant bit about them.
- taneq 2y agoThat’s OK until you’re counting down to something and instead of telling you you should stop, they just get really positive.
- tomcam 2y ago> Ten different Eddie Vedders with arms wide open That line needs to go in a song
- ErikAugust 2y ago"If I was Eddie Vedder Would you like me any better? That's it, I quit, I don't Give a shit" Local H, "Eddie Vedder", 1996
- LocalH 2y agohighly underrated band (not associated with them, although I do share a name with their frontman)
- ErikAugust 2y agoHa, awesome name and username.
- chrisco255 2y agoIt's crazy, I heard Mmm Bop the other day and didn't even hate it a little bit. It was probably the most annoying song of the 90s and yet the nostalgia kept me du bopping right along.
- dole 2y agoMmm Bop was brought to you by the Dust Brothers, responsible for the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique.
- herval 2y agothe lyrics hit _very_ different when you're old enough to understand them too
- xhkkffbf 2y agoYou've got fame-- and then in an MMMbob it's gone.
- williamdclt 2y agoThat’s a funny thing to say given the band were literal children!
- PaulHoule 2y agoI think about highly productive artists who, at some point, keep making records but can't make hit records anymore. I'd include David Bowie, Neil Young, Billy Joel, Duran Duran, Yes, KRS-ONE, just for a few. Sometimes I listen to a late discography and enjoy it consistently, such as Neil Young [1], other times it seems like an artist really loses their way, like Frank Zappa did once he got his Synclavier. Other artists wander in the dark for years and come out with something better than they ever did [2] Despite all this, some artists put on an amazing live act despite no new hits, such as Public Enemy and the 38 Special/Foghat show my son won tickets to last year. [3] I used to have reductivist explanations such as "struggles with music technology" or "too old to rock and roll" but after hearing a lot of late music that I like, despite being unpopular, I think every artist follows a different trajectory. [1] Except for the polemical Monsanto Years [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer_(album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer_(album) was one of the few things my evil twin found me that I won't disavow [3] Answering problems in so many ways: members who passed away were replaced with other illustrious rock and rollers -- I wasn't expecting to hear "Play that funky music white boy" or an instrumental from the Heavy Metal soundtrack but these were great, Foghat even paid a songwriter to make a new song that fit in perfectly with their set.
- BLKNSLVR 2y agoFrom vague memory, I'm not sure Frank Zappa lost his way, but actually found what he'd been looking for the whole time. Prior to the Synclavier he was forced to use humans to bring his compositions to life, and therefore his compositions were written with this in mind; a forced compromise of sorts. Can't be too upset though given his prolific album releases prior to his Synclavier moment.
- PaulHoule 2y agoYou're right, he was such a misanthrope that he didn't enjoy working with musicians, yet, he worked with so many brilliant musicians that made his work great. I think of his albums where he heavily overdubbed concert footage, probably peaking in The Man From Utopia which just sounds like the greatest concert you never went to.
- acomjean 2y agoThe 90s were a bit crazy. Primus, faith no more, Dee lite all in heavy rotation on mtv. Umass spring concerts included phish, beastie boys, bostones one year, Dylan and the Wailers (without Bob Marley) the previous. I worked security for Perl Jam playing the student union ballroom. Lots of that music holds up really well. Eve6 if my underrated band of choice. Phish had some fun weekend camp out with fish concerts/fests in Maine and Upstate NY. It ended kind of badly with riots at the Woodstock 99 concert. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_%2799 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_%2799
- marxisttemp 2y agoEveryone here is talking about rock music, but electronic music was also just on fire during the 90s. No decade since has come close to the perfection of the 90s across so many genres of electronic music. House, gabber, jungle, so many electronic genres are still just trying to reach the peaks they hit in the 90s. I say this as someone who was 5 years old at the turn of the millennium, so this isn’t some sort of nostalgia filter.
- an_aparallel 2y agoI agree, the lack of social media, secrecy in production techniques, dawn of digital technology, big names in synthesis pouring millions into r&d was an amazing combo, and most importantly production heavily sampling and dubplate culture....hard to replicate that!
- randysalami 2y agoAny recommendations?
- redwall_hp 2y agoI tend to listen to a lot of electronic music, and am always looking for new recommendations myself. My taste for 90s stuff has typically run more toward Eurodance/Eurobeat and House and J-pop for more recent things. Here are some random recommendations: Daft Punk Anything on the "Blade" soundtrack Pretty much any Eurobeat featured in the anime Initial D. e.g. Dave Rodgers, Manuel, Fastway, Go2, m.o.v.e. 2 Unlimited - Get Ready, Twilight Zone, Tribal Dance, No Limit Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam Le Click - Tonight is the Night La Bouche - Be My Lover Mr Vain - Culture Beat Black Box - Ride on Time, Strike it Up, I Don't Know Anybody Else (technically 80s, early house music) The Shamen - Move Any Mountain Livin' Joy - Don't Stop Movin' Bonus, more recent: Destination Calabria (Alex Gaudino, Crystal Waters) Bonus, 1979: Kraftwerk's album "The Man Machine"