Just when I thought it couldn't have got worse than the 25 year poll...
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:49 (thirteen years ago) link
(voted Roxette fwiw)
...and unlike the 1985 poll, VH1 didn't include these on countdowns so I know the tunes of none of them.
― skip, Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:56 (thirteen years ago) link
I know every single one of these. The bottom two are the worst. "It Must Have Been Love" is Roxette's second-best ballad (after "Fading Like a Flower"), but "Step by Step" is NKOTB's finest moment; the canned disco strings sound surprisingly fresh.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought the Mariah and Bon Jovi ones sounded okay at the time, too. And I had loved the over-the-top upbeat Latin freestyle on Sweet Sensation's debut album from 1987 or so, but by 1990 all those freestyle groups had slowed to dullish ballads. So I'm voting for NKOTB.
― xhuxk, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:29 (thirteen years ago) link
It fascinates me how Sweet Sensation, Exposé, Stevie B, Cover Girls, and Timmy T suddenly scored hits years after freestyle's prime...yet were all slushy ballads.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Maybe there's a rough equivalent between this phenomenon and hair metal's biggest hits (i.e. also ballads).
It was a relevance grab, surely. (I'd have been fine with freestyle going ahead full speed for another five years at the time, but sadly it didn't.)
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:33 (thirteen years ago) link
rough equivalent between this phenomenon and hair metal
Those two genres had a lot in common -- even some of the same makeup and haircuts, and stolen girl group drumbeats. (See: first Cover Girls and Poison albums, especially.)
― xhuxk, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
And fwiw, Timmy T's "One More Try" from '91 was an excellent ballad. (For some reason, freestyle boys -- see Noel, too -- were often better at being wimpy and sentimental than freestyle girls. But the girls totally killed on the fast stuff.)
― xhuxk, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:38 (thirteen years ago) link
"Cry Tough" as performed by the Shirelles just came to mind...and it's not bad. xp
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:38 (thirteen years ago) link
Poison never did anything that verged on hysteria like the great Trinere, Debbie Deb, and Exposé hits, although I can totally hear any one of these femmes taking "Nothin' But a Good Time" somewhere unfamiliar.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:38 (thirteen years ago) link
And fwiw, Timmy T's "One More Try" from '91 was an excellent ballad. (For some reason, freestyle boys -- see Noel, too -- were often better at being wimpy and sentimental than freestyle girls.
Generally true (see also: Stevie B's "In My Eyes"), but I could never stand "One More Try."
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Alfred that is one hell of a truth bomb and something that, despite my SigOth and I liking the majority of mainstream freestyle bands, her tastes run toward the slush and I prefer the stacatto arpeggiator throb.
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:53 (thirteen years ago) link
and it was aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaaall that you turned out to beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
― teledyldonix, Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:55 (thirteen years ago) link
voted Roxette, but actually "Vision of Love" might be my favourite Mariah song...it's def. archetypal, and IIRC VH1 placed it as it's #1 video of the millenium sometime around 2000...
I had no idea there was a reasonable explanation for the existence of Timmy T!
― take it up with Torquemada (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:58 (thirteen years ago) link
(continued): eg, she loves "The Postman Song" and I'm more "I Wanna Be The One"/"Spring Love"
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:01 (thirteen years ago) link
"I Wanna Be The One" is massive. If you listen to it again, you'll notice three different melody lines in the first forty seconds.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Further proof that 1990 was the worst year for music of the last 50
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:49 (thirteen years ago) link
1985, 1993, and 1998 are worse.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Don't know if anyone's going to do it but 1995's a good deal better.
― State Attorney Foxhart Cubycheck (Billy Dods), Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
I looked at 1995. #1's were staying #1 so long that year that there were only about 4 songs to pick from.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:54 (thirteen years ago) link
No memory of any of these except Mariah. Abstain.
― Grisly Addams (WmC), Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:56 (thirteen years ago) link
I love 1990 more than pretty much every other year of my childhood, but this list isn't doing it for me. It's between the Roxette and Carey ballads.
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Worse for number 1 hits, or music overall?
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:05 (thirteen years ago) link
#1's.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:15 (thirteen years ago) link
"She Ain't Worth It" is so awful. It's like those fake songs they used to use in TGIF sitcoms.
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Much better than "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You," which is like one of those fake songs straight high school couples fall in love to in TGIF sitcoms.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Roxette for me.
― I think Mick Jagger has suffered plenty. (Euler), Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
NKOTB. Can't imagine many times I'd vote for them, but this is one of those times.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Roxette needs a singles poll.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:03 (thirteen years ago) link
I love the shit out of Roxette, and this might be my favorite song of theirs. Impossible to say (would be totally down for a Roxette poll btw)
― I want to thank my psychiatrist (billy), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:08 (thirteen years ago) link
total garbage, wouldn't want to have to listen to any of this tbh
― insert your favorite discriminatory practice here (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:29 (thirteen years ago) link
this is worse than the 1985 poll damn
― ultra nate dogg (history mayne), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Pretty sure this was the year I decided to stop listening to radio and/or following the weekly top 40.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:37 (thirteen years ago) link
That was '94 for me, but it was for only a year. And then I gave up again sometime in the '00s, but this time only because I'm now old and haggard.
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:39 (thirteen years ago) link
*blech*
― proof-texting my way into state legislature (will), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:44 (thirteen years ago) link
The Mariah song is still dope. I have always hated the rest except, weirdly, for that Wilson Phillips song.
― Opinions are a lot like assholes. You've got LOTS of BOTH of them. (HI DERE), Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Roxette. Just for the unexpected chord progression in the chorus just before the end.
― ithappens, Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh man, I loved "She Ain't Worth It." This was right about the EXACT time I started paying attention to radio/pop music. Lots of memories.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:34 (thirteen years ago) link
It's like those fake songs they used to use in TGIF sitcoms.
Awesome.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Similar song from summer of '90:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBWKg1e7vR0
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:37 (thirteen years ago) link
ha! I had wiped that guy from my memory.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:42 (thirteen years ago) link
I gave Bon Jovi a knee-jerk vote before I noticed the Wilson Phillips song
― Sundar, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:43 (thirteen years ago) link
I was just sitting here thinking "what's missing from this list?" Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison," because it was absolutely inescapable that summer. But apparently it only peaked at #3 on the Hot 100. The heck?! I think that's the song that epitomizes 1990 for me.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Jam-Lewis experienced a new peak that summer, what with Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant, etc.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 21:14 (thirteen years ago) link
As for Dino -- his shrewd handlers marketed him as "freestyle," so all his singles got tons of local airplay.
His biggest hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKwbSTaGsd0
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 21:16 (thirteen years ago) link
I swear I didn't know this: Tom gets to Glenn Medeiros' other hit.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Huh, didn't realize Dino had another top 10 hit. Probably because it was just *before* "Romeo."
This is a great resource for seeing what was on the chart at any given time. It's not Billboard, it's ARC Weekly (which is airplay-only and tends toward mainstream top 40), but you still get a good feel for the time period.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 June 2010 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
(Click on any of the dates to see the top 40 for that week.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 June 2010 22:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow -- I know at least thirty-two of the songs on the July 21 list. This was the peak of my top 40 listening.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 June 2010 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Where the fuck is Poison-Bel Biv DevoeReady or Not-After 7Can;t Stop-After 7All I Do is think of you-Troop
― The Startrekman, Friday, 25 June 2010 06:07 (thirteen years ago) link
"vision of love" and "it must have been love" are both AMAZING ("vision of love" is better)
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Friday, 25 June 2010 06:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
WTF? I've never heard those Glen Medeiros and Sweet Sensation songs either - and I'm a 1990 expert...
― village idiot (dog latin), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 23:04 (thirteen years ago) link
What is freestyle?
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 1 July 2010 00:17 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Iq8JmmfxY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksHsh4r8tJA
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 1 July 2010 00:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I remember Glenn Medeiros but dont think its that song.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Thursday, 1 July 2010 00:21 (thirteen years ago) link
It's crazy how true this is for me too. Not July 21st. Apparently I hit my peak while "Escapade" was #1 a couple months prior.
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Thursday, 1 July 2010 00:29 (thirteen years ago) link
(xx-post) Wow. I don't think I've heard either of those songs since I was about six, and I certainly didn't know that kind of music had a name. I would've just lumped it in with 80s pop. Interesting. So they called it "freestyle" even though it had nothing to do with freestyle rapping?
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 1 July 2010 02:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Its longer name is Latin Freestyle, though the "latin" part got largely dropped by the time people like Information Society moved in on the sound.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 1 July 2010 02:14 (thirteen years ago) link
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
― is this the end of zombie Shakespeare? (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 1 July 2010 14:15 (thirteen years ago) link
To quote Gloria Estefan, here we are.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 April 2021 01:00 (three years ago) link