Thoughts on the 90s

The 90s were an important decade musically for me. I turned 16 in 1990, and that's a pretty big year for teens to start making their own choices. I know that was when I decided that I would start watching heavier films, and listening to more than the music that my older brother was listening to.



Up until about 1989-1990 I mostly listened to 80s punk bands, Minor Threat, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys. I also liked a little bit of metal, in the form of Metallica, and Megadeth. I had friends that were very into industrial dance, like Ministry, Meat Beat Manifesto, and Skinny Puppy. There was also a good friend of mine that liked The Cure, and Depeche Mode.



My brother, around the time of my early teens years, was in a phase of his life where he was no longer listening to anything modern or mainstream. He had grown up with the typical schlock rock of his generation, he's 8 years older than I am. So we had a lot of Aerosmith, AC-DC, and Kiss albums around the house. He also enjoyed Styx, and Def Leppard, as well as Loverboy. But at the point when I had reached 13 or 14 years old, all he listened to was blues. Nothing modern, all old blues. Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf.



My folks were mostly not music listeners by the time I had reached my teens. But before that my father was very big into country, and his favs were Willie Nelson, and Kenny Rogers. My mother liked Neal Diamond, who I still have a soft spot in my heart for, and Lee Greenwood. My mother however, as a child, listened to a great deal of Motown. We had a very extensive collection of Motown 45s, along with a few Beatles, and Elvis. I loved them all, I would listen to them all in order, and then start over at the beginning again.

We had a big console stereo to listen to them on. The coolest thing about that console was the turntable had a multi-record servo like arm that would allow you to stack 4 or 5 lps or 45s on top of each other at the top of the spindle. It would then play the first record till it ended, then the next record would drop and it would play.

So in a way I was exposed to a very wide range of popular music, from Bluegrass to Blues, Rock 'n' Roll to Soul. I also joined the school band when I entered Junior High School, that would be Middle School to the rest of you, and that opened my eyes to many forms of modern and classical music compositions.

I felt by the time all of this was filtered through my brain and ears, that I had a pretty good grasp of where music had been and where it was going.

So by the time I reached 16 I was starting to branch out and away from the music that I had known. I sought out new, to me at least, sounds. Mostly these new sounds I was being turned on to were college/indie rock. As well as all the bands that influenced them. These were new and amazing bands to me, they didn't sound like anything I had heard before. Yet, they sounded like everything I knew at the same time. These bands had taken the sounds I grew up with, and turned them into something new and amazing. I quickly learned that most of these lo-fi bands started in the 80s as a post punk movement.

I started this journey in earnest with R.E.M., of all bands. I heard the Green album and then listened to the whole back catalog starting with the Chronic Town ep. I found the sound to be rich and filled with amazing vocal harmony, and strangely to me at the time very bass driven. Most of what I had listened to up to that point was very guitar based rock/punk. R.E.M. had an album called "Dead Letter Office" it was b-sides and covers. There were a few covers of a band named "The Velvet Underground". These were clearly the best songs on the album. I knew then that I had to hear The Velvet underground. I bought the album, I loved it. It was raw, and primal, it sounded so influential. I could hardly believe it was from 1967. I had to have more, I bought Lou Reed's whole back catalog.

I also took a very strong liking to the folk-rock sound from the 60s by way of the Byrds and early Dylan. Then as the decade moved on grunge broke, that was all very strange to me. I embraced it full on, but for some reason it seemed very strange. The way that the record labels were searching for the "next Nirvana" was very alarming to me. It lead to the homogenizing of the whole genre. To the this day I still maintain that the only true "grunge" bands were Mudhoney and Dinsaur Jr. and Dinosaur Jr. wasn't even from Seattle. But the big sound from Seattle drove me to find older bands from the region. I learned of the frat rock scene in Tacoma, and the effect that they all had on the greater whole of popular music.

Then came the new garage rock revival, and it was based in Detroit! I fell for it. It was so great, so raw and rockin'. I missed the 80s garage rock revival. I've caught up with it since though.

The journey musically through the decade that was the 90s was very fun for me. I learned so much about music. I discovered bands that will always get me to go to see them live whenever they come to town. That I will be sure to get their new albums the day they are released.

As a tribute to the decade that taught me so much, I have decided to make a series of lists. I love making lists. I'm going to list my top 10 albums of the 90s by year. Then I'm going to make a list of my top 10 albums of the whole decade. I'm planning on it being a weekly series that will start this Saturday. I hope everyone sticks around for the whole list, and please feel free to comment on my choices. You my think I forgot the greatest album ever, if I did tell me what a fool I am.