#3 Modern Rock Hits: The mid-90's heyday

OK so this is the first time I hear "Flagpole Sitta." So this is how "A Horse with No Name" was translated for the Fastball era.

no idea how you can go the last 15 years without hearing that song, or what that comparison means

Didn't listen to modern rock radio in '99 or watch the shows in which the song appeared, and the song has an impressive lift from that America song.

*is

Hear the plants and rocks and things
I swear to god it sounds like they're snoring

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
They cut off my legs now I'm an amputee goddamn you

flagpole sitta owns

In the desert, you cannot publish a zine
Cause there ain't no one raging a-gainst machines

I don't get Flagpole Sitta either, but Sad Sweetheart of the Radio is one of my favorite songs of all time.

So what exactly is the distinguishing feature of Modern Rock that makes it 'modern'? Like, what exactly makes Matchbox 20 more modern than the non-modern ('mainstream' in Billboard parlance) rock acts of its era?

Singing that sounds like you are on a toilet having a difficult time.

For better or worse Billboard scrapped the term "modern rock" a few years ago in favor of calling the chart "alternative songs"

My top songs from this selection: "Fade Into You", "Geek Stink Breath", "Brain Stew", "If You Could Only See", "Santeria", "Everlong", and "Flagpole Sitta". Torn between Mazzy or the Foos for my vote.

Looking at the list of modern rock #2 hits for this era I kinda wish they'd also been given their own poll, lots of gems there as well

I think I read somewhere that '97-'98 was right around the time when radio completely changed the rules on how songs became hits and as a result you got these incredibly generic shitsongs like "3 A.M." and that Everclear crap, neither of which would have ever gotten big in the early 90s.

For better or worse Billboard scrapped the term "modern rock" a few years ago in favor of calling the chart "alternative songs"

― some dude, Sunday, January 12, 2014 11:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

These songs are even less "alternative" than they're "modern"....

Voted for "I Got Id"

Pretty sure it charted higher than #3 on hot 100

it got to #7 on the Hot 100, mainly because the Merkin Ball EP was essentially a surprise non-album single by the biggest band in the world and went gold.

Pearl Jam's biggest Hot 100 hit: "Last Kiss" at #2 in 1999.

and those are their only two top 10 hits. the only Ten single that scraped the Hot 100 was "Jeremy" at #79, which gives you an idea of how little the chart reflected the popularity of rock bands in the '90s.

That's insane.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

iirc "jeremy" charted a few years after Ten when a bunch of the maxisingle imports were reissued stateside... prolly around the same time as Merkin Ball.

I recall getting a little frustrated because I spent $9.99 on the import Jeremy single to hear "Footsteps" ... I didn't know "Yellow Ledbetter" before buying it. And then a year or 2 later it wasn't very difficult to find for $4.99 at Circuit City.

yeah the '90s was a painful time to be obsessed with bands and look for rarities on absurdly overpriced import singles and bootlegs. one of the things i'm most happy that file-sharing killed off.

yeah but it built character

Mazzy Star by a country mile.

"Worst 90s import/rare/ripoff maxi-single buying experience" might be a good thread.

not a one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/Voodoo_People_02.jpg

not worth it fyi

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

1995 - Sponge, "Molly" 6

six voters down the.........draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain

So someone aside from me also voted for Citizen King.

Yay, I voted for the winner! Much as I love reminiscing about Everclear, it really is the song here with the most staying power. Just lovely. Kind of surprised that "Perfect" and "Wrong Way" could get votes but not "Angels of the Silences" - not that there's anything that special about the latter either.

my Recovering The Satellites fandom is powerful, but not as powerful as my The Colour And The Shape fandom

The most sought after import of my childhood was the Smashing Pumpkins' Rocket -- it had their cover of Depeche Mode's Never Let Me Down.

Wow, lots of love for Flagpole Sitta. That one was just too played out both at the time and then throughout college.

When I first got Limewire I had a ball getting all the stray B-sides and compilation appearances that would have cost a fortune to collect on CD or vinyl - that Smashing Pumpkins cover being one of them.