The song that represents the END of the 90s

Windowlicker

the 90s never ended

great thread concept

stones at altamont

'1999'

assassination of john lennon

Wilson Phillips - "Hold On"

http://musicflame.net/images/cliff-richard-the-millennium-prayer-single.jpg

At the time I plumped for 'The Sunshine Underground' as far-too-obvious soundtrack to all the millennial bluster but 'Windowlicker' is probably a better choice in terms of it's range of ideas, influences and effects (both senses). I'm sure the ENTIRE WORLD and all cultures therein would agree.

I think this is a good thread idea, actually. That being said, I don't understand the Iris thing. But, that being said, in some weird ways, that big hit by Train in the early 2000's somehow qualifies for this category for me in some way. Like the last gasp of '90's alt-rock or something...

"Girl All The Bad Guys Want"

Len, "Steal My Sunshine"

big tunes from Dec '99 i remember thinking were good but seemed mostly inappropriate for release at that point: well, most of them of course but Q-Tip's 'Breathe And Stop' ("millennium on your mind are you running out of time hope you're skipping every line cos i'm gettin mine") stood out.

also funny to use Q-Tip as representing both start and end of the decade

As in the song that brought the sounds of the 90s to a dead-end, or the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that set a new precident for this decade?

If the former:
http://www.mtv.com/shared/media/news/images/l/Limp_Bizkit/sq-limp-durst-rolling-smack-int.jpg
Rollin'

I was hoping more people would answer with bands that took the 90s alternative rock style but made music that was more of a morphing into the alt/rock style of today. Like when all the good "grungy" alternative rock acts started disappearing from the radio to a new sound that was half gritty and half new style.

The lyrics to iris "when everything is meant to be broken, I want you to know where I stand" has some of the cool 90s grit going on.

The Strokes - Last Night

^ single was in 2002 but the album released immediately post-9/11

Also Durst possib otm!

"Summer Girls" by the Lyte Funky Ones.

Real Talk.

Or Korn's "Got The Life"

pedantic xxxxpost

I think the actual lyrics are "I just want you to know who I am"

snare drums sounded horrible in the late 90s

J-Lo "Waiting for Tonight".

The video featured her going into the woods for a Y2K Rave.

At the time I plumped for 'The Sunshine Underground' as far-too-obvious soundtrack to all the millennial bluster

what?

omg AFRIKA SHOX ftw

Whatever song that represents the end of "the 90s sound" to you is fine. I wasn't looking for the last concert you went to.

THE YEAR 2000 IS ON THE WAY -- SOME SAY
THE YEAR 2000 -- IT'S BEEN HERE SINCE YESTERDAY

the end of the 90s was probably somewhere around 2004

Don't know for sure, but I'll wager it was produced by The Neptunes.

idioteque

U2 certainly made two records (Pop and All That You Can't Leave Behind) that were emblematic of the late 90s and early 00s.

indeed

Rollin' totally. I remember wandering around that godforsaken Leeds festival site in 2000, when lots of 90s rock royalty like Pulp and Primal Scream and Oasis and whoever were on the bill, alongside Slipknot and Limp Bizkit and Blink 182 and Alien Ant Farm and whoever, and thinking "I don't understand this music but the kids love it and they're getting massive crowds and blimey the 90s are actually over."

fortunately Idlewild were also on the bill to bind us all together

The one that went "CUT MY LIFE INTO PEE-SEZ".

GET UP COME ON GET DOWN WIV THA SICKNEZ

OOH AHH AHH AHH AHH

OK, "Rollin'" is the answer because the video has them playing atop the World Trade Center.

"all the small things" video

If we're gonna go with Limp Bizkit, why aren't we going with "Faith?"

"all the small things" video

-- J0rdan S., Monday, February 18, 2008 4:39 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Nails the stupid Napster-kid-rock AND teenpop in one TRL-sized morsel. This might be the winner

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good band good song nice to see the twin towers respect

If we're gonna go with Limp Bizkit, why aren't we going with "Faith?"

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 18 February 2008 21:40

Think "huge-shorts" metal was still just considered a pretty minor fad at this point.

ya 'all the small things' is a definite contender, for some reason. "i have heard the future and it sounds like green day six years ago" kind of deal there.

OK, "Rollin'" is the answer because the video has them playing atop the World Trade Center.

Well, now it all makes sense to me.

Where's the valet? Hey, yo... Yo, red cap.

All right parnder, keep on rollin, baby, you know what time it is.

Also, Rollin was three albums deep for them. The 00s were already in full effect, guys with POD and Papa Roach and Korn and NSYNC and Blink 182 and everything

I stand by Summer Girls.

if we were gonna go w/ limp bizkit i'd personally choose "n 2 gether now"

durst pulls in method man to do a song and it actually spends a week atop modern rock chart

Yes but none of those other Limp Bizkit singles got to Number One in the UK, in fact they didn't make much impact at all. (xpost)

Don't know for sure, but I'll wager it was produced by The Neptunes.

-- chap, Monday, February 18, 2008 9:13 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

much more of a 'start of the 90s' vibe surely?

lol 00s obv.

yep.

I remember wandering around that godforsaken Leeds festival site in 2000

Was that when they had the riots? Now I know who started them.

no the riots were a couple of years later.

The end of the fucking 90s was whatever song Fred sang when surfing on that piece of plywood at Woodstock 99. End thread.

It's "Faith"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GauWyL5FTKw

The selfish fucking self-indulgant five minute prelude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYwLkvrG6R0,

Annoying all the security guys trying to get out there. Begging all the girls to sit on guys's shoulders (and by proxy show boobs), starfucking cause they Vern Troyer in the wings. People getting sexually assaulted in the moshpit. It's all there.

Bye '90s.

if limp bizkit faith ended the 90's i wonder what will be the end of the 00's...

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That was the best concert i have ever been to.

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Now that is a great lead singer that is amazing to his fans. Freds my mother fuckin idol.

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:50 Dude thos are some NICE titties

i don't think limp represent the 'end' coz they didn't characterize the 90s... or the 00s really but matt's right that they represented something ominous and horrible. fortunately it buggered off right quick.

Limp Bizkit totally characterized a decade marred by mindless violence, entitled rich assholes and self-obsessed internet users. What the fuck are you thinking?

Easy Whiney... you had a point for a second, but I feel like the '00s has had more than its fair share of mindless violence and entitled rich assholes.

i would give thought to "the real slim shady" wherein em officially took over the trl set by pwning their favorite bands.

also maybe "like i love you"-- or even more specifically his performance of it on the vmas-- bcuz it effectively singled the end of nysnc (they outlasted bsb not including shitty bsb comeback) and the boy band era which was obviously the defining musical trend of the decade.

durst on plywood @ woodstock might be the best one though

Easy Whiney... you had a point for a second, but I feel like the '00s has had more than its fair share of mindless violence and entitled rich assholes.

-- jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, February 18, 2008 5:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

I'm saying that Limp is an '00s band. They signal the end of the '90s by surfing a big piece of plywood up Kurt Cobain's ass

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s9341.jpg

How about "Willennium"? :)

The only genre that did really, well, not disappear but become smaller and less important, in the 00s was electronica. So maybe one of those kitchy Eurotrance records that were hits in 1999 then. ATB or Alice Deejay or something.

http://991.com/newGallery/Artful-Dodger-Re-Rewind-The-Cro-176354.jpg

I remember in the late 90s that whole 80s retro craze starting that typified this decade... Les Rhythmes Digitales, DMX Krew, all that shit.

The Strokes I think are a good general symbol of the End of the 90s ... 1) people started wearing jeans again, skinny ones! and 2) people started listening to rock again... the second half of the 90s was basically pop, electronic, and various trip, jazz, flip, and hip hops.

there was a time when ppl didn't listen to rock and didn't wear jeans? i must've been out of the country

oh, yeah ... this is the New York City area I'm talking about. Indie crap was like what, Soul Coughing, and mainstream stuff was hip hop or pop. I remember only the dorks in school listened to what remained of rock in the 90s.

fucking a

I remember in the late 90s that whole 80s retro craze starting that typified this decade... Les Rhythmes Digitales, DMX Krew, all that shit.

The Strokes I think are a good general symbol of the End of the 90s ... 1) people started wearing jeans again, skinny ones! and 2) people started listening to rock again... the second half of the 90s was basically pop, electronic, and various trip, jazz, flip, and hip hops.

-- burt_stanton, Monday, 18 February 2008 23:18

I don't but all this "Rock is Back" bollocks that surfaced around 2001, every decade since the 60s has had huge, successful rock bands, including the 90s. Rolling Stone just wanted something else to write about other than Celine Dion and Creed. I remember everyone wearing jeans in the 90s... just a bit baggier.

eh i think burt is kinda on to something - and im speaking in the most general of terms here but for a while around the turn of the century in new york rock was not that cool - mostly people were all in to some various other shit whether it was whatever individually named electronica microgenre or playing rare-groove records or whatnot - and then one day everyone was all lol im in a rock band again

i know this sounds really dubious - but thats at least what it felt like at ground level to this guy (i dont really remember anything abt jeans tho)

i live in the midwest where people never stop rocking or wearing jeans

the sunscreen song, duh

although the $$$ denim craze did get rolling around then and khakis got a lot less popular so maybe...

there's a bit of a divish here between 'last track of the 90s' (and 'windowlicker fits that pretty well kinda) and 'first track of the 00s'.

i thought the strokes were fucking lame, maybe it was different in new york, but i can't see how any one of their songs could mark the start of a whole decade.

lol unless the new decade started the day after the release of MARQUEE MOON amirite!?!?!11!?/

as for limp stuffing one up kurt's ass -- who gave a fuck about kurt cobain in 1999? (don't answer that, i guess.)

i live in the midwest where people never stop rocking or wearing jeans

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, February 18, 2008 11:44 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^ this, only east anglia instead of midwest

i live in the midwest uk, where people never stop rocking or wearing jeans

lol xpost

The 'rock is back' bullshit was some of the bullshittiest bullshit to ever be bullshitted. And anyone unthinkingly perpetuating it are even worse bullshitters.

Jann Wenner, 2000: "Oh god, why the FUCK can't people listen to their Mick Jagger solo records like I tell them too. Minion! Find some miserable band and claim rock is back!"

Minion: "It never left, sir."

Wenner: "FUCK YOU!"

What I'm thinking is, the fashionable rock was was jazzy trip flip hop microgroove, or it was spacey ambient post-rock, or groovy LES jazz rock. I remember after the Strokes people were all about straight ahead rock, and it wasn't Rolling Stones, it's what people were saying on the ground... nobody under 50 reads that thing.

well a lot of people in nyc thought the strokes were lame too but that just furthered their ridiculous ubiquitousness. so while their music might not be particularly innovative it was just around a lot then and was said by some to be a signal of some shift. but whatever it was unavoidable in bars (and at my house). also worth mentioning that it came out right after (and before if you count the uk version which a lot of people had) 9/11.

ned is right - rock never came back - its been ded lol

"it's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive"

"Windowlicker" sounded like something new to me, along with a lot of 2step and proto-grime "garage rap". I thought that's what pop music in the 00s was gonna be like, hahahaha...

Indie really looked on the ropes in 99-00 as well. Melody Maker went under, only ultra-MOR stuff like Coldplay and Travis selling. Remember loads of people whining about manufactured pop, but didn't give a shit 'cause there was loads of good hip hop/r'n'b/electronic/electro/techno/garage/2step/whatevs.

windowlicker looked backward and forward, or so it seemed, maybe.

The song that represents the END of the 90s is the last song you heard before you did your first WWW search for something music-related.

waht was 1st napster song lol

What in 1996? On the school computers looking for "hardcore" and not exactly getting DJ Slipmat.

How about when those French house people started using 4/4 beats with more empasis on the snares again? Sure, this began already in 1996-97, but it sounded pretty different by then while in the oughties it has been pretty much the rule outside R&B/hip-hop at least.

Defined a decade.

I mean, that fact 140-150 bpm beat with thumping 909 bass drums and hardly any difference between the 1-3 and 2-4 is one of the most obvious trademarks of the 90s, found almost nowhere else, other than on late 80s Technotronic and Inner City hits and a few Aqua influenced early 00s kid-dance tracks, plus in trance in general.
The straight 120 bpm 4/4 disco beat, however, was almost nonexistant for most of the 80s, until the French started picking it up again towards the end of the decade.

Almost nonexistant for most of the 90s, I mean

idioteque

j0rdan speaks the truth re. "like i love you": if any song represents the transition from capital-p pop to everything going 'urban' (for a while: partially reversed in hot 100 terms by itunes era) that obviously does. over here, it's actually the song that made justin (actually the other singles off 'justified' did that even more): he was known for the britney connection, and n'sync were popular enough i guess, but never anything like as big as bsb. 'no strings attached' peaked at something like number 15 here.

in uk chart terms, i'd go for some number-nine-and-quickly-out eurohit that nobody really remembers. "just the way you are" by milky (aug 02) possibly. the lingering death throes of the late 90s, clinging on even in the weeks leading up to the downing street memo. after that, the new divisions (which killed blair's entire geopolitical idea of britain, though he never realised the fact) were well and truly with us, and before too long they'd fundamentally altered the fabric of the charts from what it was at the turn of the century. most of 2000 (not the final weeks obviously) are still 90s to me. i mean, the very fact of "moi ... lolita" getting into the uk top 10, though it is five months after the twin towers fell, belongs far more to the late 90s than to anything that followed.

for me, 99/00 was the uk singles chart's peak in my experience, precisely because corporate-indie had yet to recover from the collapse of britpop, and it seemed like it might have permanently failed. fuck the haters.

defining the sound of these two decades is half of what I was getting at

Eminem's "My Name Is"

"Get Low" = first song of 2000s

^this might be otm but i'm too lazy to think of other candidates right now

(im sure some ppl would argue "b.o.b" or another outkast song)

maybe "i just wanna luv you" if you wanna talk about neptunes reign or "h to the izzo" ushering in kanye

also some ludacris songs

"get low" is a really good one though

early 00's= dubious "garage" revival...endless bands with "the" preceding their names...plus lotsa hype about electroclash

yeah the right answer is probably "fell in love with a girl" esp. when paired with video

I heard "Mockingbirds" on the radio the other day, and it made me think of life in the 90's

Grant Lee Buffalo - Mockingbirds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6nBQ7sYBpU

Although that wasn't the question, I guess. Then I'll go with Le Tigre's "Deceptacon."

I'll go with New Radicals, "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough."

Blur's "Tender" seems to me to be the end of the 90's, particularly when it got stopped from being number one by Britney's "Baby one more time" which was the start of the 00's

In one sense - "I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun" by Westlife.
In another sense - "Steal My Sunshine" by Len.
Mental block following my bus accident means I cannot remember much about this period without looking it up.

Yeah really we're looking at 'event' singles, big hits that felt like they couldn't really have happened any earlier given fashions, musical climate etc. The Artful Dodger felt like a break between what came before and the start of what felt like the first 'new' music of the 00s. Rollin' wasn't the first nu-metal single by any means but felt eblematic of its arrival in the UK.

The Strokes were the first big 'haircut indie' band and seemed to signify a big sea-change from Britpop hangover to something else. Britney keeping Blur off #1 seems to fit as well for a different reason.

I can't quite place an equivalent moment in rnb or hip-hop, mostly because 1997-2003 feels like a mini-decade in itself.

artful dodger is a sound choice.* like limp bizkit, though, it feels like part of a mini-epoch of its own, that ended about 2002. there isn't really a big decade-defining sound in any decade.

*i wonder if it couldn't have happened earlier though. 'rip groove' happened.

I remember trying to count how old I’d be
When the clock struck twelve in the year two G
is possibly my favourite lyric ever

I think Artful Dodger's good, and 2001 had 'Do You Really Like It?', '21 Seconds' and 'Can't Get You Out of My Head', none of which could've been nineties records. I don't think any Spice Girl has been to number one since, which is also a pretty good marker.

goddamn it 'rip groove' bangs.

OTM. But its something of a different beast nonetheless.

wieny 10000% OTM. fred durst at woodstock.

Then I'll go with Le Tigre's "Deceptacon."

DFA Remix = first track of the 00's

"get low" a good call too

Umm, the spiceys still had top ten hits solo after 2000, but for number ones, here:

1 Emma Bunton What Took You So Long Apr 2001

1 Geri Halliwell It's Raining Men May 2001

that's it.

"What Took You So Long?" is a lovely record. First number one of the noughties I really liked.

Correction: first number one of 2001 I really liked since there were plenty of good 'uns in 2000 (as well as plenty of crap 'uns).

I can't quite place an equivalent moment in rnb or hip-hop, mostly because 1997-2003 feels like a mini-decade in itself.

-- Matt DC, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 1:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

This is kind of otm (and why I suggested "Get Low", because that one changed everything)

The straight 120 bpm 4/4 disco beat, however, was almost nonexistant for most of the 80s, until the French started picking it up again towards the end of the decade.

wtf a lot of well-selling American and British house music between '86 and '96 did this before the French

for me, 99/00 was the uk singles chart's peak in my experience, precisely because corporate-indie had yet to recover from the collapse of britpop, and it seemed like it might have permanently failed. fuck the haters.

99: "The Man Who"
00: "Parachutes".

And pop indie survived. Of course. It's the best current music after all. :)

2000 was a total blip

2000 was like the last cry of the 90s

http://www.kompaktkiste.de/cd/_artist/kwerk/cdem562.jpg

Blur's "Tender" seems to me to be the end of the 90's, particularly when it got stopped from being number one by Britney's "Baby one more time" which was the start of the 00's.

I'll go with this as well.

confession:

I had to google "Windowlicker", which makes me question how era-defining or ending it is. Plus, i guess i think of Aphex Twin as hella 90s.

I did not have to google Windowlicker. And Aphex Twin is hella 90s.

Electronica=hella 90s.

Unless it's called electro, electroclash or eurotrance.

aphex is hella 90s but windowlicker was atypical and that's why it feels not-90s. but this is, again, LAST SONG OV 90S, so being hella 90s is not a mark of disqualification.

Carrot Rope. Last song on the last Pavement album

"Windowlicker" was kind of electro, so you may have a point there. But Aphex Twin is a bit too leftfield (with a lower case "l") to really have much impact.

Possible parallel: "Rollin'" (top of Twin Towers) as end of the 1990s; "Don't Cry" by G'n'R (top of an L.A. skyscraper) was the end of the 1980s.

Aphex Twin sounds nothing like Leftfield.

Windowlicker is significant because Aphex was seen as the standard-bearer for 90s modernism and it's his last record that felt remotely 'new', as opposed to drill and bass retreads or acid revivalism.

Aphex Twin sounds nothing like Leftfield.

Which is why I stressed the lowercase l.

"Have you never heard of irony, Baldrick?"
"Yes sir, of course I have. It's a metal like goldy and silvery."

Some really great picks on this thread for start of the 00's - "Deceptacon," the "Fell In Love With A Girl" video, "Idioteque," things that just seem hard to imagine as existing in the 90s. And for talking about something that firmly, undeniably spelled the END of the 90s I guess that makes sense. But somehow the side of the thread that interests me more is trying to put a finger on the last song OF the 90s, the dead-ending of the decade's exhausted musical project (whatever that might mean).

I vote "No Way Out" by Stone Temple Pilots, or "Pinch Me" by Barenaked Ladies (especially the video)...

Will 2k

I like Doctor Casino's argument (end of 90s vs. start of 00s) and the suggestion of things by Stone Temple Pilots and Barenaked Ladies, though I've never heard the songs in question. STP and the Ladies could only have existed in the 90s, and can be viewed as self-limiting mechanisms: inevitable yet toxic byproducts of the decade.

Similarly, "Pretty Fly for a White Guy"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31C6CF5CGPL._AA240_.jpg

The particular thing that strikes me about "No Way Out" is that it was a comeback attempt - the first time an alt-rock band found itself in the position of having to <i>make</i> a comeback attempt, no longer the de facto music of today, but the music of yesterday. The thing about "Pretty Fly" is that I think it hit entirely new constituencies. I'm thinking in terms of age demographics here - people who were fourteen when it came out thought it was something fun and new, and went on to buy future crappy novelty Offspring songs. With STP, nobody who wasn't around for the first wave even came close to caring. This is also about the point at which it started to feel depressing and boring when someone would list "alternative" as one of their musical interests on Geocities, etc.

In the same vein, "Go Let It Out" by Oasis, but that's such an explicit 60s throwback that it's hard to really make it work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fell_in_Love_with_a_Girl

I'm listening to Bellybutton by Jellyfish now, from 1990. This record still strikes me as totally 90s: guys in Cat In The Hat hats, bright colors, lots of acoustic instruments (strings, pianos, horns). And I was thinking that maybe the end of this sound was The Soft Bulletin, for better or for worse: all the things on Bellybutton but jacked so loud that it sounded like it was gonna burst. So that's my vote, the last song on The Soft Bulletin, whatever it was, "Sleeping On The Roof" or something (and maybe the remixes at the end of the record are the birth of the 2000s or something).

An involved discussion in the pub resulted in "This is Hardcore" being declared the death knell of britpop.

I'm listening to Bellybutton by Jellyfish now, from 1990. This record still strikes me as totally 90s: guys in Cat In The Hat hats, bright colors, lots of acoustic instruments (strings, pianos, horns). And I was thinking that maybe the end of this sound was The Soft Bulletin, for better or for worse: all the things on Bellybutton but jacked so loud that it sounded like it was gonna burst.

If you were right, then I would have loved the 90s. I most certainly didn't.

I am really surprised that no one has followed up on Fell In Love With A Girl. When you combine that song with Hate To Say I Told You So by The Hives, and Last Night by The Strokes, it pretty much ended the dominance of electronic music in the US.

I think those "garage" singles reset the clock for music in the first half of the decade.

it pretty much ended the dominance of electronic music in the US.

I loved the White Stripes and Hives songs both, but I don't remember this dominance of electronic music before that. What specifically do you have in mind? The "electronica" thing was several years earlier, although there were still a few random semi-high-profile singles along those lines (like BT & M Doughty's fabulous "Never Gonna Come Back Down"), but I remember chart rock as being pretty MOR post-alt-rock (things like Third Eye Blind's "Never Let You Go," Everclear's "Wonderful," etc), and chart pop being the stereotypical boy band/girl idol mix...

Brandy - What About Us? comes to mind.

Prml Scrm: Kill All Hippies

Geir, a lot of 90s US "alternative" music has sounds like that on the first Jellyfish record: early Posies, early 90s REM, PM Dawn. Both grunge and gangster rap splintered the marketplace, but you still hear these sounds throughout the 90s: most of the fans made their way into the jam band scene (you saw those Cat In The Hat hats at Phish shows), but there's also the Elephant 6 scene.

This is all just my US perspective, and particularly my Georgia-Texas perspective, which colors my view of the 90s. At least in the main scenes I traveled in, Britpop was mainly a less texturally-interesting version of this stuff: some great songs, but mostly just guitar combos (same could be said of GBV and Pavement, but they fit in better because of the whimsical lyrics I think).

that's interesting 'cos to me I see that Jellyfish/ Shiny Happy People/ World Party thing as the end of the late-eighties acoustic pop thing. I'd put, say, aztec camera, fairground attraction, deacon blue in the same rough category. Can see the lineage to Phish fans, but not so much to Elephant6?

See, it's funny (and again, it may be that I spent so much time in Athens that my view is blurry), but I see the lineage of these sounds more in Elephant 6 than in Phish etc. I'm thinking of the usual suspects: OTC, Elf Power, Apples in Stereo. I guess I see the relation between all these in the instrumental textures: mostly not rocking out with guitars (and when this sound breeds with electronic sounds in Chicago, you get Tortoise etc: see, isn't this kind of armchair genealogy fun?).

Thomas, you mention bands like Aztec Camera that I don't know: I'm too provincial. But in the US (particularly Georgia), if there are 80s influences, it's Camper van Beethoven. I think a lot of the influence was political: there was a feeling that we needed to be better progressives, but prog rock in the US had become sort of right-wing (emphasis on chops rather than "feeling it") and so progressives needed a new sound. Bringing in DIY string and horn sections met the challenge.

Crowded House are another example.

And I can see some musical similarities between them and Elephant 6 bands. But for me, Elephant6 took the Sgt Peppers template and made it dirty & lo-fi. If anything, what distinguishes the early nineties stuff we're talking about is that it's understated, nicely recorded, organic and "tidy"-sounding.

I kinda see most of those E6 bands as being a US counterpart to stuff like Super Furry Animals or Gorkys over here

"Beautiful Day" opened the door for "Fell in Love with a Girl".

on SFA and Gorky's: totally, those two bands were the ones from the UK that stuck the most among the scene in the US I'm talking about.

I got the impression that the E6 bands were trying to get a high 60s sound, but didn't have the cash. But I don't think that's all they were trying to get. And you're right that Jellyfish was nicely recorded, on a major label. I don't think Jellyfish was particularly understated though: "The King Is Half Undressed" is an enormous sounding record, with rock signifiers (climaxes, etc.) but with different textures than usual in rock (first Lenny Kravitz album another one that fits here in the early 90s).

yes and yes on jellyfish and lk.

in my thinking, the difference there (and with presidents, ween...things i cant think of) was the split between "alternative" and "indie". jellyfish didnt want to be a bar band or do the van circut, they wanted to be stars, which is much more the british formula. and the sort of thing current us blogrock-pop seems to go for. a twist on what can be huge vs. going for a certain sound cause yr into it.

think you're roughly OTM about alternative vs indie. ( not sure abt the "british formula" tho, or the implication that "indie" bands don't want to be famous)

also I somehow still think of Jellyfish et al as "grown-up" bands, even though I'm now probably older than they were at the time.

yeah, thats a good point, they did seem grown-up

the disinterest in fame is an exaggeration. however, there is a very different approach between pavement (or better yet something like slint) and say (trying to remember big nme/mm rising stars circa 93)gorky's. much of this due to the fact that the uk is smaller than new england and with 2 major weeklies and sundry monthlies. the overall nature of getting out of yr basement and into other peoples ears and minds is just very different, even for bands doing the "different" thing.

granted, not every small uk group of the time went for the via the nme to the highstreet to the world formula either.

Geir, a lot of 90s US "alternative" music has sounds like that on the first Jellyfish record: early Posies, early 90s REM, PM Dawn

PM Dawn no. Absolutely not. There's not even the slightest hint powerpop in any hip-hop that has ever been made.

Early Posies, yes, but exactly how many Billboard Number one singles did Posies have?

Generally, the 90s were about hip-hop, dance and grunge. And you don't get much further from Jellyfish than hip-hop and dance. Surely Britpop had quite a bit in common with Jellyfish, but that was in terms of influences in common, not that Jellyfish was ever an influence on Blur or Oasis.

Jellyfish have influenced acts such as The Feeling, The Hoosiers and Orson though. So I would say the Jellyfish influence is considerably more evident in the 00s than it was in the 90s.

Generally, the 90s were about hip-hop, dance and grunge.

Not in the US---though I know that puts my post in danger of being just another UK≠US post. Dance was mostly a niche thing in the US in the 90s (cf. the reception of Dig Your Own Hole over here). Not hip-hop or grunge, they were major, lots of chart play. But "alternative" radio stations were a big deal, and they played a lot of the stuff mentioned here, Jellyfish, Posies, etc. These weren't college stations; and I don't have listener numbers but I think these were popular stations---so even if they weren't up to grunge's sales, they were still big enough time to be remembered as part of the 90s, and not just in a niche way.

cool where did you get the "not equals" sign from?

btw I agree; the alternative bands were very television-friendly, probably moreso than grunge until it really went mainstream around 93/94.

sorry I know you were talking about radio but this was all over the telly too.

totally! I'm embarrassed to remember how excited I was to hear, like, Jesus Jones on some tv show or ad.

btw on my mac keyboard it's just option = to get ≠

true...slight bits of house, contmep r'n'b, and touches of techno slipped into the mass culture here, but otherwise not the decade of dance europe saw.

and indeed stations like dre became syndicated "alternative" radio mid dial in swaths of the country (later 90's saw the rise of 2 alternative channels in my home town upstate)...their playlists were different from most student run college stations and community channels.

in certain regards, ok computer might be the end of the 90's...but....im not entirely willing to go there (given that it excludes a shedload of other trends despite its iconic popularity)

wdre that is

Vanity compels me to point this discussion towards one of the more well-attended threads I've ever thrown: Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

(Note, not sure how relevant it is to this thread b/c I keep getting this one and the "what aspects of this decade will seem weird in the future" one confused...)

http://www.kkbox.com.tw/funky/album/72274.jpg

Here it comes the party of a lifetime
31st of December
Man I remember when the ball dropped for 90
Now it's 9-9, ten years behind me
What's gonna happen?
Don't nobody know
We'll see when the clock gets to 12-0-0
Chaos, the cops gonna block the street
Man who the hell cares?
Just don't stop the beat
No time to sleep, yo it's on tonight
K-C you feeling me right? (Yeah)
2-0-0-0, the Will 2 K
The new millennium, yo excuse me Willennium (yeah)
It can't get thicker than this (Big Will)
Slick like Rick I can't miss
(And we gonna party like it's 19)
Hold up it is

(K-Ci)
Here it comes another year
Come on everyone, new millennium
Here it comes another year
Everyone, new millennium

There's a party tonight
Everybody was drinking
The house was screaming
And the bass was shaking
And it won't be long
Till everybody knowing
That twelve o'clock the roof will be blowing
Drinks on me, up the cups, and
Midnight coming at full thrust, and
Dick Clark holding it down, and
The second hand rolling around (Na, na, na, na)
Hundred thousands deep, world wide press
Hate to be the man that gotta clean this mess
Same resolution, get the money
Ain't where we've been, it's where we gonna be
Get ready to hum, ol' lang syme
Cause a person that know the words is hard to find
First soul train line of the year
Four, three, two, one

(K-Ci)
Its here and I like it
Gonna pack the dance floor
Rock the dance floor

[K-Ci]
Here it comes another year
Come on everyone, new millennium
Here it comes another year
Everyone, new millennium

(K-C)
Yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah

I remember trying to count how old I'd be
When the clock struck twelve in the year two g
Medianoche finally near
This will be that anthem amongst the cheers
Just the man to usher it in
Big Will bringing the heat
K-Ci bringing the plan
Ringing it in, waiting for the ball to drop
That 2000 vault we breaking the lock
Let hip-hop keep blazing the charts
May the past keep a warm spot in your heart
May the future hold more joy then pain
Hands in the air waiting for confetti to rain

(K-Ci)
Its here and I like it
Gonna pack the dance floor
Rock the dance floor

(K-Ci)
Here it comes another year
Come on everyone, new millennium
Here it comes another year
Everyone, new millennium

There's a party tonight
Everybody was drinking
The house was screaming
And the bass was shaking
And it won't be long
Till everybody knowing at twelve o'clock
At 12 o'clock
Say what? Say what? Say what? What?

(K-Ci)
Here it comes another year
Come on everyone, new millennium
Here it comes another year
Everyone, new millennium

True dat, true dat, true dat
Yo London, uh come on
Yo Bangkok, come on, come on
LA, ha, ha
The NYC
Come on, say what? Say what?
Yo Philly, come on, hey
Hey Tokyo, come on
Everybody say what now
Say what now, saw what now
Come on, come on, come on

It's no "Wild Wild West".

will smith's greatest hits poll coming right up

yes plz

Dance was mostly a niche thing in the US in the 90s

C&C Music Factory did pretty well in the US already early in the 90s, didn't they?

Dance music was kind of like novelty/comedy records in the minds of most American teenagers at that time, though.

I'm all about reviving decade/time-themed threads right now - I really liked this one.

"Bittersweet Symphony" just SOUNDS like a good song to close the 90's.. and it was pretty close to the point when alt-rock radio turned to shit anyway. I believe this song signified the end of the 90's, even though it came out August 97 and wasn't played on US radio until early 98.

"Faith" was the song that signified the beginning of the awkward transitional period that started in late-98 and ended around 9/11/01. Sonically speaking, the 90's and the 00's both have little in common with this time period. This would have been the time when TRL was at its peak in popularity.

"Last Night" kicked off the whole 00's indie-rock explosion.

So to answer the initial question, "Porcelain" by Moby.

"Idioteque" always sounded to me like the beginning of something new, rather than the end of a time period.

Miss Kittin - "Frank Sinatra" (came out in 2000 too!)

The tone of this was just such a big 'fuck you' to 90s utopian inclusiveness in club music. Really marked a change. Also because of the overt lack of any funk/US influence and the first time I remember an italo-tinged record being a club hit (except maybe for "Space Invaders are Smoking Grass".

OR

Kelis - 'Caught out there'

At the time it seemed like a novelty hit, we weren't to know that everything would sound a bit like it in a few years time...

Dance music was kind of like novelty/comedy records in the minds of most American teenagers at that time, though.

Huh?

'Dance' music (ie C&C, etc.) was pop - you couldn't escape it on Top 40 radio at the time.

NSYNC - "Bye Bye Bye"

I guess the song that represents the start of the 00s then would be The Strokes' "The Modern Age" (specifically, the EP version that was named an NME Single of the Week in January of 2001 and started the whole "garage rock revival" thing)

The start of the 00s was either Aaliyah's "We Need a Resolution" or that NERD song about politicians sounding like strippers etc

The last song of the 90s was Len, "Steal My Sunshine." Sung almost as a challenge as to what would follow...

The end to an innocent, self-indulgent, relatively happy decade - the sunshine got stolen, and how

You know, to get something to represent the 00s, you should really get something really obscure that only a small circle of net fans have heard of, as that is indeed the most archetypical trend of the 00s.

Everything in between (Eminem, talking about you) '99-'01 was transitional like someone else said. Strokes/"return of rawk!" was hyped up bullshit that died off by what, 2003? and was no real "shift" at all. That White Stripes 01 record was the only good to come out of all that

The 2003 Lil Jon single signals "the start of the end of the beginning" of the decade hahaha - we're in mid-decade by then with crunk. The Neptunes/Timbaland sound is so ubiquitous its completely dominant in pop. Eminem's popularity dips by his '04 attempt at a comeback, there are a ton of boring as fuck artsy-psych folk-rock bands with animalistic names everywhere, and the transitional period is completely over

But the 90's proper ended 3-4 years earlier with "Steal My Sunshine," believe me

>>You know, to get something to represent the 00s, you should really get something really obscure that only a small circle of net fans have heard of, as that is indeed the most archetypical trend of the 00s.

-- Geir Hongro, Thursday, August 7, 2008 2:08 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link<<

Maybe to a small circle of net fans (that is the most whatever-trend). But I don't know if you're just being sardonic Geir. Most music fans still don't go home everyday and read all the exciting obscure music blogs on teh internets, come on now. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was not exactly "obscure," yet most would agree it signified the beginning of the decade and to discuss obvious large cultural markers you should talk about what resonated with...the larger culture

I'd like to just pretend Limp Bizkit/Korn just never happened though, who am I to talk

"No Distance Left To Run" - Blur.

Right Here Right Now - Fatboy Slim

Maybe to a small circle of net fans (that is the most whatever-trend).

It is net trends that I am speaking of. The stuff that sells in "mainstream" amounts usually does so either to 11 year old kids or to 50 year old housewives. Those who are actually interested in music are to an increasing degree checking out stuff within genres that they know they already like, stuff that is unlikely to get a mainstream audience, but which is still very much available on the Net, for downloading or for purchase on CD from independent net shops.

Song that sounds like the 90's being thrillingly sucked into a grinder and contemptuously spat out: Earl Brutus - Male Wife

Song that sounds like the final 90's firework into the sun: Grandaddy - He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot

Song that takes the whole house down and fucking enjoys itself: The Monsoon Bassoon - Commando

Song that kisses the 90's goodnight: Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling

Song that quietly mourns: The Beta Band - The Cow's Wrong

I like a lot of the ideas bouncing around here now - particularly the "transitional period" reading of the turn-of-the-millenium, which yeah, doesn't sound much at all like the stereotypical 90s or the stereotypical 2000s - although I think you could argue that while Backstreet and Bizkit were both short-lived eras, there are certain things that have continued on in the tapestry of the 2000s - mainly Sum-41-esque pop-punk singing, whether in that genre or in emo-based things. So I dunno.

One thing I think is really fabulous is how diverse the readings of the 90s are - in one post it's a happy, innocent time that was brought to a crashing end with Woodstock 99 (or whatever) - for others it's a vacuous, self-obsessed decade of Clintonian compromise and/or inane, baseless earnestness. (I could speculate that this has a lot to do with what age you were when all this went down, but I suspect it'd break down quickly.)

So to follow up on my first paragraph there, I'm starting to think it's that first Linkin Park hit, at least in terms of "beginning of the 2000s" in a history-tracing, "Rocket 88" sense - but in terms of a bomb going off and people going "my god, we're in a new era," it just didn't have the impact.

lou got it quick.

for others it's a vacuous, self-obsessed decade of Clintonian compromise and/or inane, baseless earnestness.

wtf does this even mean??

the awkward transitional period that started in late-98 and ended around 9/11/01.

I know I've said this countless times on ILM but ^ this period of music was the worst thing ever

Song that sounds like the final 90's firework into the sun: Grandaddy - He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot

You mean, "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" never happened?

they happened after the 90's had ceased to be

plus HSHDHTP is actually millennial in lyrical bent and concept

plus it is grander and more "statement"-y than anything on those records

"Bittersweet Symphony" is a good call. It feels like the end of something. Or maybe Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".

Yeah, if we're going to go for anything that feels like mourning the end of things I vote for the Grandaddy song. Great track.

>> for others it's a vacuous, self-obsessed decade of Clintonian
>> compromise and/or inane, baseless earnestness.

>wtf does this even mean??

I thought it was kinda clear, oh well. If you remember the 90s badly, one reason might be that the decade seemed politically cynical, soulless, the era of ass-covering, equivocation, post-Atwater spin-in-advance, hairsplitting, and the dead-ending of identity politics. I'm not sure what, if anything, I saw in this thread that reminded me of that and I'm too lazy to go look for it.

On the flipside, a lot of people seem to remember the 90s as too-positive or too-earnest - despite all the chatter about GenX and the Age of Irony, you had a lot of can-do spirit mixed in, perhaps personified in someone like Eddie Vedder, who never sang as if he didn't mean it. That was the notional discursive purpose of grunge, right - "real" over "fake," except the "real" was also linked (sometimes?) with irony and distance. Reality bites, I guess.

(Was "Reality Bites" supposed to be a reference to "sound bites" or did it mean, like, this really bites? I always assumed the latter but the former just occurred to me as a possibility.)

I love this thread!

Would it be wrong to say that the 90's was obsessed with the idea of experimentation and innovation? It seems like the constant melding of genres (rap-rock and various forms of electronic/hip-hop/pop combinations) and the emphasis on creating original sounds (Rage Against The Machine guitar solos, record scratching, bizarre sampling, down-tuning to the point where your guitar sounded like a muffled growl) were part of a constant effort to break new ground sonically. Hard rock acts were obviously a big part of this, but it can even be heard in the production on N'sync's "pop" or any Barenaked Ladies single, which was always caked in gaudy production choices and silly samples. As someone who grew up on guitar magazines in the 90's, it seemed like every other week someone was inventing a new effects pedal or guitar tuning or bizarre production trick.

In stark contrast, I'd say the 00's have clamped down hard on the idea aimless of experimentation and replaced it with an emphasis on appropriating classic ideas from "timeless bands". A premium is placed on picking the right reference points and arranging them in tasteful ways. Where a 90's rock critic might have praised a band for seeming wholly "original", a rock critic in the 00's praises a band for sounding like a combination of bands from the traditional rock cannon.

Strokes/"return of rawk!" was hyped up bullshit that died off by what, 2003?

In the US maybe, in the UK it felt like a total paradigm shift. Any guitar sound from the 90s suddenly became totally unfashionable and most ubiquitous haircut indie springs from the Strokes.

(Actually, maybe until a year or so ago)

(nu rave feels like an extension of this to me)

"the awkward transitional period that started in late-98 and ended around 9/11/01."

I know I've said this countless times on ILM but ^ this period of music was the worst thing ever -- Curt1s Stephens,

the very first post - I'll go with 'Goo Goo Dolls' - Iris which first came out in the latter half of '98. That was sort of the first post-90s-like sound to me. - seems to me the hit song that started the transitional period... and it doesn't suck.

It'll be interesting to see whether The Verve's comeback is big enough to cause a shift away from post-Strokes guitar sounds.

"Would it be wrong to say that the 90's was obsessed with the idea of experimentation and innovation?"

Yeah, especially since most of what I remember as the dominant sounds of the '90s are really retro-oriented and pretty staid (Grunge, indie). Hell, even the "experimental" stuff like rap rock and electronica was really more about diluting the vanguard edge with rock sensibilities.

Answer is super easy in all ways.

Semisonic - "Closing Time"

I associate "Closing Time" with
* the death of earnest AOR 90s bar ballad rock
* the death of the dot com
* the beginning of the death of denim white dudes on the top of the charts (definitely those above the age of 23)
* the death of Cheers (and I liked the show, but Cheers-orabilia then was really really annoying)
* the death of Zima
* the death of the death of grunge

the awkward transitional period that started in late-98 and ended around 9/11/01.

I know I've said this countless times on ILM but ^ this period of music was the worst thing ever

I only partially agree. I started listening to top 40 radio a lot during the summer of '99 and I remember that there was an abundance of fantastic singles. Nu-metal was only beginning its Satanic dominance on the market and I can't imagine myself falling in love with the possibilities of pop music had my first experience come a year later listening to Creed, bizkit, etc. instead of the relatively diverse pop songs that came out of the year before in the summer of 1999.

A transition period? Yes, but it wasn't all bad.

In stark contrast, I'd say the 00's have clamped down hard on the idea aimless of experimentation and replaced it with an emphasis on appropriating classic ideas from "timeless bands". A premium is placed on picking the right reference points and arranging them in tasteful ways. Where a 90's rock critic might have praised a band for seeming wholly "original", a rock critic in the 00's praises a band for sounding like a combination of bands from the traditional rock cannon.

I feel like the '00s are way more interesting sonically than the '90s, especially the past few years. But I'm 10 years younger than most of the people on this thread so that's probably why I think that.

I guess mostly I feel like there are fewer rules in pop music now - musical technology is more accessible & you can have a bunch of teenagers making beats on FruityLoops and it can go #1 (e.g. Soulja Boy)

(I love Soulja Boy btw)

"Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" by the Flaming Lips

Prince - "1999"

ok, if we are being technical (but outside the spirit of this thread), someone should mention that phish song on the new years show where they do "power outage" lyrics or something like that... (I remember my friend hoping they would do that song and then him telling me that they did)

In stark contrast, I'd say the 00's have clamped down hard on the idea aimless of experimentation and replaced it with an emphasis on appropriating classic ideas from "timeless bands"....

I feel like the '00s are way more interesting sonically than the '90s, especially the past few years.

I think that comment was suggesting that the 90's had more experimentation within the mainstream. The 00's have lots of indie-rock experimentation, but there was no indie-rock explosion in the 90's, so back then it had to be done in a certain way so that it could be considered a profitable commodity or whatever.. So yeah, I agree with that comment, although I also agree that most of the experimentation was merely combining sub-genre X with rock elements so the singles could receive airplay on alt-rock stations (xpost)... And I usually like that concept, so I don't see how that's such a bad thing. I like modern indie experimentation as well, but I do miss the concept of brilliant straight up rock music, which is difficult to find with new bands these days.

Bittersweet Symphony sounds so much more epic than Closing Time..

spice girls- "wannabe"

I heard it and I said "this is the end"

then I got my gun

I know I said it months ago, but it's the song with Fred Durst performing on the roof of the World Trade Center.

what's that phish song called? (I tried looking up the setlist once, and the lyrics for the song at midnight, but I didn't think the song fit)

there was no indie-rock explosion in the 90's

Huh? I agree that there's something vibrant and exciting to 2000s indie - not that I'm listening to hardly any of it, mind, I feel a bit old and Dylan's-Mr.-Jones-like - but if you asked me what decade the indie rock explosion took place in, it would have to be the 90s, the decade of Matador, K, Kill Rock Stars, etc. Or are you just saying that the sonic diversity of that stuff was lower?

there was no indie-rock romance explosion in the 90's

stacy's mom

things that happened to indie rock in the 00's:

* a few more indie rockers realized it was ok to admit liking mainstream pop music and disco
* recording costs and ease of overdubs and correction tools became far far cheaper and prevalant thanks to digital recording technology

That's primarily it. The musical influences are pretty much the same as they ever were (except there are now more 90's indie rock influenced 00's indie rock.)

the decade of Matador, K, Kill Rock Stars, etc.

This is true, but in the 00's bands on independent labels actually charted... a rare occurrence in the 80's and 90's. R.E.M. and Nirvana helped to spread word of these "underground" bands long ago, but today technology makes it far easier to discover new music. Also today, there's far more music on indie-labels used to help sell products & in movies. I imagine that once upon a time it was difficult to find a Guided By Voices or Liz Phair CD at a store like Sam Goody. It feels several times more popular than it did 10-20 years ago.

the '90s didn't die properly until "hey ya."

This is true, but in the 00's bands on independent labels actually charted

They charted because more mainstream music followers stopped buying records before indie music followers stopped buying records.

I just wrote a short article arguing that Soulwax's ""Many Djs" mix was the album that kicked off and defined the noughties.

Wow, great thread!

2ManyDJs is a decent enough call for the start of the noughties (came out in 2001) - that's answering the wrong question though isn't it (and it's not a song)?

End of the '90s for me meant the Cornelius remix of Coldcut's 'Atomic Moog 2000', Aimee Mann's cover of Harry Nilsson's 'One', Lou Bega's 'Mambo No.5' and TLC's 'No Scrubs'.

Party round my house, back then!

Don't really like it, but J-Lo's "Waiting For Tonight"?

Somehow I see J-Lo's entire US pop career as part of the 'transitional period' - I mean the whole genre of "Female Singing Over Ja Rule's Growls" feels neither of the 90s nor of anything going on right now...to me anyway.

Hey, how about "Back That Ass Up"?

The end of the fucking 90s was whatever song Fred sang when surfing on that piece of plywood at Woodstock 99. End thread.

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, February 18, 2008 5:11 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yellow by Coldplay. Seriously. Sadly.

For indie, this probably happened somewhere in between "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton," "Kill All Hippies" & probably The Strokes or something.

Yellow by Coldplay. Seriously. Sadly.

I suggested Travis for roughly the same reason. That style started with "The Man Who", not with Coldplay's debut.

And it was not sadly. :)

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oh great. sorry guys, not sure what happened there...

Here I was coming to say "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" by the Flaming Lips...only to find I already posted it a year ago.

Not too long ago I read about what a game changer the Nick Drake VW Ad was for television advertising (the "Pink Moon" Drivers Wanted ad from 2000). They make a pretty compelling case that that ad, perhaps more than any radio hit I can think of from the era, represents the death of the 90s and the beginning of the 00s. Obviously the song isn't from either decade but the tone of the ad and the use and selection of the music prefigures a dozen trends from the 00s.

Kind of like how the '97 VW commercial with "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha" exemplified the 90s even though the song was from '82

It'll be interesting to see whether The Verve's comeback is big enough to cause a shift away from post-Strokes guitar sounds.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, August 18, 2008 5:12 PM (1 year ago)

Laugh out loud.

I still stand by my OP Goo Goo Dolls - Iris (hard to explain why.. something about the feel of the song and the lyrics). Come 2000 the transition to 00's is complete with Coldplay's Yellow.

Both the 90's and 00's have a lot of melancholic stuff now that I think about it. 90's dudes are more like "yeah, I'm broken, I'm a wreck of a human being, buzz off or whatever".. 00's dudes are more like "I promise you I'll learn from my mistakes" (Coldplay - Fix You)

Coldplay's "Yellow" might as well be Travis' "Writing To Reach You", which was actually from 1999.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRCkAumK5b4

(OK, it's from 1996, but making dance melodical enough to appeal to people like me probably killed dance for the dance-diehards)

Coldplay's "Yellow" might as well be Travis' "Writing To Reach You", which was actually from 1999.
― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Saturday, March 20, 2010 6:31 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

heh, well according to me the 90's ended with Iris in mid '98 anyways :/
I'm not gonna strain my brain on this

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btw "Children" is part of the autogoon canon via

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UygocrMJAto

XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF7UnkMhPwI

Once "Play" had saturated the ears of every radio listener, supermarket shopper, dinner party diner or anyone not hiding in a bunker in outer Azerbaijan, I don't think anyone wanted to hear stuff that sounded like that ever again. Enter electroclash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXYAJoDWCk

I agree with windowlicker. Not true for everyone but it was the first 'pop' song I heard with such an insane format. I was 13 or 12 at the time and I had a difficult time trying to understand what were those sounds supposed to mean but only at the surface, the song was catchy enough to hold attention even if I had no idea what I had just heard.

"Complicated" is actually a quite good call. Pink also had a similar hit with "Don't Let Me Get Me" around the same time, and that kind of manufactured "powerpop" sounded like nothing that had been on the hitlists in the 90s.

K, here's some singles from 1999 that kind of felt 'important' from my perspective that year:

Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Bjork - All is Full of Love
Blondie - Maria
Blur - Coffee + TV
Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
The Cardigans - Erase / Rewind
The Flaming Lips - Waitin' for a Superman
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat
Len - Steal my Sunshine
Placebo - Every You Every Me
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue
Madonna - Beautiful Stranger
Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
Moloko - Sing it Back
New Radicals - You Get What You Give
OutKast - Rosa Parks
Ricardo Villalobos - 808 the Bassqueen
System of a Down - Spiders

Oh forgot a few... it seems 1999 was a bigger year for me than what I remember... all of this bring memories of high school:

Backstreet Boys - I Want it That Way
Cher - Believe
Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle
Eminem - My Name Is
Fatboy Slim - Praise You
Santana - Smooth
Smashmouth - All Star
Robbie Williams
Ricky Martin - Livin La Vida Loca
TLC - No Scrubs

Got Your Money?

Mogwai's "Come on die young" and/or GYBE "Slow riot for new zero kanada" for being post-rock's death rattle

The Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch
Since it was one of the first new songs I remember hearing that sounded more like it was out of the 80s.

Also, while not actually a song, I also tend to associate the end of the 90s with the closure of Grand Royal Records in late 2001.

That's probably the best answer so far.

Yeah, closing of Grand Royal definitely counts for something, symbolically.