"Tonight, Tonight" is the best song of the 90s.

[Falconeer]

Trying to better follow Schild's rules, I give my vote to Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve.

[Signe]

Iain, you need to sort out your Death in Vegas and Underworld links.  Noob.  

Also, I really love Underworld!  Especially Born Slippy.  

[Grand Design]

I went on a Youtube 90's music safari.  No Big Game, but a few keepers:

Cracker - Low
Dennis Leary - Asshole
Ugly Kid Joe - Busy Bee (I'm sure most would prefer Cat's in the Cradle.)
Tonic - Open Up Your Eyes
Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot

Also, I really love Underworld!  Especially Born Slippy.  

Underworld - Born Slippy - Hell yes.  I know it from the Trainspotting soundtrack.  I still listen to this regularly.

[Tale]

Also, I really love Underworld!  Especially Born Slippy.  

Do you know their pre-techno 1980s stuff? Underneath The Radar was a huge hit in Australia but apparently nowhere else.

[Tale]

Trying to better follow Schild's rules, I give my vote to Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve.

The Verve's video for Bittersweet Symphony is a parody of Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy. I went to look that up after avoiding it because I thought it was from the late 1980s. But it was released in 1991.

So here's another nomination!  Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

[FatuousTwat]

Oh, so this is about music videos?

I'm going to cease giving a fuck.

[Tale]

Oh, so this is about music videos?

I'm going to cease giving a fuck.

It was just an off-topic comment. The reason I started linking to YouTube on every song was that it's the easiest way to let people hear the song. The thread has nothing whatsoever to do with the videos. I nominated Unfinished Sympathy because it's an amazing song.

[Lantyssa]

It was just an off-topic comment. The reason I started linking to YouTube on every song was that it's the easiest way to let people hear the song. The thread has nothing whatsoever to do with the videos. I nominated Unfinished Sympathy because it's an amazing song.

No, it's part of Schild's criteria.

I'm not sure it matters.  The 90's mostly sucked for music.  Almost anything that was good wasn't popular enough to qualify for his ratings system.

[Engels]

Loser - Beck

[Tale]

The 90's mostly sucked for music.  Almost anything that was good wasn't popular enough to qualify for his ratings system.

I thought we had established that you're both wrong? We've filled a thread with awesome popular music from the 1990s - it was definitely a golden era for British music. Unfortunately the USA didn't seem to "get" Madchester or Britpop.

[Viin]

Not enough Bush in this thread.

[Tale]

[Lantyssa]

We've filled a thread with awesome popular music from the 1990s

Being subjective, I Fixed It For Me.

I didn't like most of what counted as 'popular'.  I didn't say no good music came from the decade, I just don't consider most of what was good to have been popular.

British bands probably were better during this period.  For example, Shakespeare's Sister did hit the rankings with their single, but I heard it on the radio once.  Their videos and songs were far better than that Tonight, Tonight that we kicked the thread off with.  But it's an opinion, and not within Schild's criteria, so it's worth a few grains of salt.

[SnakeCharmer]

90's music for me was a mix of Widespread Panic, Phish, Blues Traveler and a couple other bands of the same genre.

[Megrim]

I think a lot of you are missing the point. Tonight, Tonight isn't my PERSONAL FAVORITE song of the 90s. It's just sort of the unchallenged best song. Of course, coming up with a song that's better than Tonight, Tonight isn't hard. But coming up with a song that has an incredible video, incredible production values, super instrumentation, an important place on a very important album, the obvious opus of an incredibly popular band, blah blah blah - Tonight, Tonight is pretty much the best song of the 90s.

Personally? Wouldn't even be in my top 25. I love the song, but I'd put the entire track list of Losing Streak, And Out Came the Wolves, and Dookie before I'd even put a Smashing Pumpkins song anywhere near it.

Also, man, some of you all listened to some shit. Oh, and Nirvana still sucks balls no matter how many times you (the universal you), VH1, or some other asshole brings it up. ^_^ My hate for Nirvana runs really, really deep. I blame them for a number of things including but not limited to - shitty musicians becoming popular, emo music, shitty incoherent singing to hide the fact you can't sing, etc. etc. The list is long and makes me angry - and they weren't even remotely the best grunge had to offer, they were simply the most popular.

tl;dr: Best doesn't mean favorite. All the people that second Virtual Insanity should know that that was the closest one we could think of in terms of total package. Oh, and had I thought about it, I'd probably thrown Nada Surf's Popular on the list. Another song I didn't really "life" but deserves a place somewhere up there. Production was largely shit on that whole album though.

Fake Edit: Righ, you're fined 5 points for referencing Pulp's Common People instead of including a link to Shatner doing Common People, which is so vastly superior it's not even funny.

See, i read your first post in this thread and was like "yep yep, 8/10, solid troll".


Then i read the first paragraph of that and went into full mode. An important place on a very important album? Opus? Incredible? Bahahahahahaa. Oh my.

[Righ]

British bands probably were better during this period.  For example, Shakespeare's Sister did hit the rankings with their single, but I heard it on the radio once.  Their videos and songs were far better than that Tonight, Tonight that we kicked the thread off with.  But it's an opinion, and not within Schild's criteria, so it's worth a few grains of salt.

They were produced by the same guy that produced Tonight, Tonight (Alan Moulder). In both cases the production was weak enough that it should disqualify either based on Schild's "best" criteria.

[Margalis]

Tonight, Tonight isn't even close to the best Pumpkin's song, let alone 90's song. Like most of the stuff on Mellon Collie it's overblown shit compared to Siamese Dream. Important piece on an important album? Not really.

Seether and Hey Man, Nice Shot brought a smile to my face though. Also the Cranberries, "No Need to Argue" has got to be one of the best albums ever.

Almost anything that was good wasn't popular enough to qualify for his ratings system.

Pretty much. Why the hell does "best song of the 90's" factor in the video? It's basically "song that was played most on MTV." So yeah, Tonight, Tonight was sure played a bunch I guess. Yay.

I guess I'm old of those geezers that still listens to music for the music, not for Billy Corgan floating around in the clouds on angel wings playing a cardboard cello or some shit.

"One Headlight." Lol.

[schild]

Hey Man, Nice Shot

Good call.

One Headlight.

Like I said, this isn't about fucking liking them.

Why do people keep thinking that? If this was about liking it, I probably would've said some Aphex Twin or Rancid or some other band, rambled of any number of songs and been on my way. Actually, if it was about just liking it, I wouldn't have made a thread.

Pretty much. Why the hell does "best song of the 90's" factor in the video? It's basically "song that was played most on MTV." So yeah, Tonight, Tonight was sure played a bunch I guess. Yay.

Not as much as Smells Like Teen Spirit , and people said that (but the production on it was lolllll). Also, the answer for the 80s is obviously Thriller, so I'm not sure what's so unreasonable about asking for the same thing from the 90s.

[Ozzu]

Nominee for the worst song of the 90s:

Jimmy Ray - Are You Jimmy Ray? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skoPxPZmySs

A couple of other good ones that don't really fit into my preferred genres, but still enjoyable:

Fugees - Killing Me Softly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighu4gGlaUE
Outkast - Rosa Parks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z3niFJugp8

[Tale]

Nominee for the worst song of the 90s:

Millennium Prayer - Cliff Richard
Achy Breaky Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus while spawning Miley

[Signe]

I can't believe you posted a link to a Cliff Richard song.  I don't care if it was for worst.  Might as well start rambling off songs from Grease and Hairspray!  Bleh.

[Tale]

Click the other link for a good time.

[Grand Design]

Also, the answer for the 80s is obviously Thriller, so I'm not sure what's so unreasonable about asking for the same thing from the 90s.

Here's what's unreasonable, considering that last statement. 

Michael Jackson is a hell of a singer and performer, and he owned the 80's. 

Billy Corgan couldn't make a non-offensive noise emanate from his encephalitis-ridden melon if he had a voice coach, an ear nose and throat doctor and a gun pointed at his temple.

[Righ]

Why do people keep thinking that? If this was about liking it, I probably would've said some Aphex Twin or Rancid or some other band, rambled of any number of songs and been on my way. Actually, if it was about just liking it, I wouldn't have made a thread.

People keep thinking that because you said:

We came to conclusion that Smashing Pumpkin's Tonight, Tonight is the best song of the 90s bar none in every category. Music, Lyrics, Production, Video, everything.

That song is not "best" in any quantifiable way in any of those categories. So you clearly "like" it. It had a decent video, I'll give it that - I think it even won awards. But it wasn't the best video of the 90s by a fairly long shot. And the lyrics and production are such a fucking joke that it shouldn't even be rated as high as average. The string arrangement is decent. Whoopie. I assume that you got laid to it once.

[stray]

To sum up this thread:

"Your opinion is WRONG!" 

[Fraeg]

To sum up this thread:

"Your opinion is WRONG!" 

pretty much, anytime you place "best of" in front of something that is so subjective... it won't end up pretty.

I mean you can do "shipped the most units", won the most awards, etc. and smashing pumpkins might do pretty well.  but flat out "best" no way to pin the tail on that donkey.

with that said for me the "best song" is a no brainer.

Godflesh - Slateman  off of the Slavestate EP.

hmm in my book pretty much anything Godflesh trumps just about everthing else done in the 90s


these are decent

Pantera - Cowboys from hell or Cemetery Gates - 1990
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage 1991
Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole 1992
Britney Spears - Oops i did it again 1998     hey, it shipped a lot of units, had great production, and a sexy video
Emperor - The Loss and Curse of Reverence 1997
Dimmu Borgir -  Mourning Palace 1007 off of their only album you need to own, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Death - Individual Thought Patterns 1993

[Azaroth]

To sum up this thread:

"Your opinion is WRONG!" 

Here is one of the main reasons I didn't get into suggesting one song or another had the "BEST EVERYTHING!" of an entire decade.

Nobody will agree, names will be called, fistfights will break out.

[IainC]

Not as much as Smells Like Teen Spirit , and people said that (but the production on it was lolllll). Also, the answer for the 80s is obviously Thriller, so I'm not sure what's so unreasonable about asking for the same thing from the 90s.

Or Money for Nothing or A Kind of Magic or Rio or a host of others. Thriller would be in a shortlist but it isn't the automatic choice.

[Velorath]

Like I said, this isn't about fucking liking them.

Why do people keep thinking that?

Because you made it a matter of personal taste from the first post with your Nirvana comments.

[Lantyssa]

To be fair, Nrivana was overrated... 

[Fabricated]

Tumble in the Rough by Stone Temple Pilots is a better song than Tonight Tonight. As is most of the stuff from Soundgarden (Black Hole Sun and Blow Up The Outside World for singles).

edit: Oh shit, yeah, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" is better as well.

edit edit: Also since we're talking about music I'd like to let everyone know that some artists are trying to make me hate rap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeQmBPz5Vv0

I hope they ironically used that sample

[FatuousTwat]

Small list of my fav's of the 90's, I don't give a shit about music videos.

Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Cracker - Low
Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot
King Missile - Detachable Penis
Monster Magnet - Space Lord
Presidents of the United States of America - Lump
Stone Temple Pilots - Vaseline
The Cardigans - My Favourite Game (I think this most likely due to the fact that it was on the soundtrack of the original Gran Turismo, I played that game like CRAZY.)
Toadies - Possum Kingdom

I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton, probably a bunch I like better than these.

Edit: Almost forgot one of my all time favourite songs, Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tick Tock.

[Ozzu]

A thread about 90s music is never complete without a flying MC Hammer.

MC Hammer - Too Legit to Quit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdk1gwWH-Cg

 

[Azazel]

Music is alwyas going to be subjective, and similarly to what Stray said, the time when you're about 13-30 is your main time you're "picking up" on new music. I worked in music importing for a few years in the early 90s, and so that combined with me being 18 in '91 means that about 70% of my favourte music is from the 90's, despite what you chuckleheads think. What was good about the 90's? To fucking much to list, that's what.

There's still a ton of good stuff from before and a lot from since then of course, but that's my golden era.   

[Falconeer]

with that said for me the "best song" is a no brainer.

Godflesh - Slateman  off of the Slavestate EP.

Mmmmm love that song but my Godflesh faves are Mothra and Anything is Mine. In fact, I could give the title to the latter if only it had a video. Hell, talking about obscure, there's not even a sample on youtube.