I think the 90’s was the last time I was able to kind of keep up with what was going on in contemporary music, mostly because I’m not counting the early 2000’s when I was using my Columbia House subscription to buy Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears CDs for Brittany Spears. But also that’s when I had a glorious combination of a broadband connection and Napster, which meant I could get all the music I’d wanted to buy but couldn’t afford when I was younger, and also dove into old scratchy recordings of blues records from well before I was born.
The 90’s were a tumultuous time for me too, given that I started the decade as a newlywed Jehovah’s Witness and ended it as a hedonistic atheist divorced college graduate about to move to another state to study creative writing. And I don’t want to get too precious about this, but I think the range of popular music available and like you said, our general inability to control what we came in contact with really made experiencing music in that decade something special, something that certainly doesn’t exist now in a shared cultural sense. Or maybe I just think that because of who I was in that time and how I needed new music to be something then that I don’t need as much now. Thanks for this piece.
Ah. I feel like I just got a Gen X pedicure, or something. SO PRETTY.
And dude. LYRICS. I guess there was always a poet in me because I was possessed to know them. But we didn't have the information singularity yet, so it remained mysterious. Now we do and posted lyrics are riddled with errors. Genius.com seems to have it together the best.
I spent the late Eighties/early Nineties trying to die so it feels so damn strange to still be alive to witness the ongoing revelations that the arc of modernity has been terribly PROBLEMATIC all along. I survived just to experience the climax of the consequences? WHEE.
BTW, your reference to Nirvana's "All Apologies" coincides with an essay I'm working on that I think is about how we are lost in a culture of spectacle. Sinéad O'Connor comes up. I didn't know she covered Nirvana's song. Shivers, man.
Thank you for sharing this. While I may not be familiar with the music you mentioned, your words resonated with me: "MOST of the music we listened to in the 1990s was not purchased by us." My upbringing revolved around tapes – some purchased, others home-recorded mixed tapes from the radio, borrowed from friends. Shortwave radio captivated much of my listening time as well (this is pre-internet, pre-computer early 90s). Before my venture to the U.S.A for college, I resided in Bangladesh, where we frequented stores catering to "Western" and "World" music. Armed with a list, these shops would duplicate tapes or, later, CDs. Some of these tapes came from Thailand. I vividly recall one of the premier "Western" music tapes in my family's possession being by Cliff Richard (he is a big deal in South Asia). A handful of these tapes still remain in my possession -- I kept them during two big continental moves! This era coincided with the dominance of Bollywood music on tape, which detrimentally impacted local music and the local tape industry.
It was from these stores that I was introduced to the likes of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dylan, Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and subsequently Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and numerous others. After moving to the U.S., I started buying CDs (I also fondly remember Columbia House) – primarily opting for secondhand selections.
Amy -- I have your 2020 playlist post bookmarked but haven't had a chance to dig in! Will spend some time with both playlists this evening. :-)
Amy, these songs brought me right back to all the mayhem! Also, I've always thought of you as an Offspring fan. :) Love you.
Why didn't anyone tell me?! I'd have bought a t-shirt or something! :D
I think the 90’s was the last time I was able to kind of keep up with what was going on in contemporary music, mostly because I’m not counting the early 2000’s when I was using my Columbia House subscription to buy Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears CDs for Brittany Spears. But also that’s when I had a glorious combination of a broadband connection and Napster, which meant I could get all the music I’d wanted to buy but couldn’t afford when I was younger, and also dove into old scratchy recordings of blues records from well before I was born.
The 90’s were a tumultuous time for me too, given that I started the decade as a newlywed Jehovah’s Witness and ended it as a hedonistic atheist divorced college graduate about to move to another state to study creative writing. And I don’t want to get too precious about this, but I think the range of popular music available and like you said, our general inability to control what we came in contact with really made experiencing music in that decade something special, something that certainly doesn’t exist now in a shared cultural sense. Or maybe I just think that because of who I was in that time and how I needed new music to be something then that I don’t need as much now. Thanks for this piece.
Ah. I feel like I just got a Gen X pedicure, or something. SO PRETTY.
And dude. LYRICS. I guess there was always a poet in me because I was possessed to know them. But we didn't have the information singularity yet, so it remained mysterious. Now we do and posted lyrics are riddled with errors. Genius.com seems to have it together the best.
I spent the late Eighties/early Nineties trying to die so it feels so damn strange to still be alive to witness the ongoing revelations that the arc of modernity has been terribly PROBLEMATIC all along. I survived just to experience the climax of the consequences? WHEE.
BTW, your reference to Nirvana's "All Apologies" coincides with an essay I'm working on that I think is about how we are lost in a culture of spectacle. Sinéad O'Connor comes up. I didn't know she covered Nirvana's song. Shivers, man.
https://youtu.be/SEVu1tcUGnc
Wow, I didn't know she'd covered All Apologies. It's haunting and beautiful. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this. While I may not be familiar with the music you mentioned, your words resonated with me: "MOST of the music we listened to in the 1990s was not purchased by us." My upbringing revolved around tapes – some purchased, others home-recorded mixed tapes from the radio, borrowed from friends. Shortwave radio captivated much of my listening time as well (this is pre-internet, pre-computer early 90s). Before my venture to the U.S.A for college, I resided in Bangladesh, where we frequented stores catering to "Western" and "World" music. Armed with a list, these shops would duplicate tapes or, later, CDs. Some of these tapes came from Thailand. I vividly recall one of the premier "Western" music tapes in my family's possession being by Cliff Richard (he is a big deal in South Asia). A handful of these tapes still remain in my possession -- I kept them during two big continental moves! This era coincided with the dominance of Bollywood music on tape, which detrimentally impacted local music and the local tape industry.
It was from these stores that I was introduced to the likes of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dylan, Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and subsequently Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and numerous others. After moving to the U.S., I started buying CDs (I also fondly remember Columbia House) – primarily opting for secondhand selections.
thanks again.