Where it started, where it went and how the hell did it end up there
Who treasures pop music the most? And, who are those who really need the experience of going out to a dance club, attending a concert, or even just visiting a cafe where they play soulful tunes? Yeah, sure, nearly everyone is entertained by pop songs, just as everyone watches films and videos.
When exactly did R.E.M. peak? Was it during the chaotic live 1980s live shows, in the latter part of the decade when the group was reshaping American underground, or during its imperial 1990s phase? I’m not necesarily a fan of R.E.M. I simply think that “Drive” is one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 1990s and that this little group from Georgia is the most important alternative band of that decade.
Fastball was a band that seemed to hold a secret key to the success of 1960s pop, as well as a glimpse into the future face of pop music. Certainly, “The Way” is one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 1990s, and, in my view, one of the greatest singles of all time.
Pick your enemies, might just be the story of Blur’s career. Initially, a guitar-pop band enamoured with The Kinks’ story of ailing Britain, Damon Albarn picked a fight with Oasis, and the working masses took the side of the more melodically pleasing of the groups, the band from Manchester. But with “Coffee and TV,” surely one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the ‘90s, Blur proved it could merge quirkiness with tremendous choruses.
Maybe it’s a testament to the inquisitiveness of the average rock fan that Kyuss, a desert rock band, would be more famous now than it was back when it was active. Sure, “Green Machine” is one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 1990s and launched thousands of copycat bands. However, the real impact of the band is best appreciated nowadays.
Hippies, much like punk-rockers, have a habit of reappearing every couple of generations. And that’s very much what it seemed like fate had in store when it provided Blind Melon with “No Rain,” one of the biggest hits of the 1990s, and one of the greatest alternative songs of the 1990s.
U2 is a very, very serious band made up of sober, solemn individuals. But it’s when the group allows itself to go a little wild that things really start to happen in all the right ways. That is, in my estimation, what occurred for the electro-driven and Oriental-inspired “Mysterious Ways,” one of the most important alternative rock songs of the 1990s.
The most underrated member of a band is, almost without fault, the bass player. Then again, the reason why a band’s sound works or not will typically be the ability of the bass player.
Neutral Milk Hotel’s music was a minor miracle, a perfect set of songs and performances that happened in a particular space in time. It can never happen again! Neither Jeff Magnum nor its horde of imitators will be able to reach for it. But what do we have left? Songs like “Holland, 1945,” one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 1990s, and the quirky masterpiece that is “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.”
“Dutch?!” That was likely the reaction of most listeners around the world upon learning the origin of one of classic rock’s most Anglo-American-sounding bands, Golden Earring. The group, for the most part, wrote bombastic, bass-heavy songs that seemed tailor-made for fast cars driven on endless highways. Golden Earring is, in my estimation, one of the greatest rock bands of all time.