Playlist: The Top 200 Songs Of The 1990s
From Britney To Bjork, Madonna To Radiohead, ODB to EMF, We’ve Scoured The Decade And Found The Best Of The Best
Tristan Young @talltristan
People have recently observed that we are as far away from the 90s as the 90s were from the 60s and isn’t that just a little devastating to consider? Why does it still seem like just yesterday we lived through its neon excesses and gaudy frivolities? The fall of communism, the Gulf War, Crystal Pepsi, screechy modem sounds, and our unending love affair with Keanu Reeves all feel so vivid still, not something part of ancient history. The decade’s indelible impact is felt in nearly every way imaginable not the least of which is its remarkable contribution to music. In just one short decade we saw the rise and fall of grunge, the ascendancy of gangsta rap, Brit rock briefly took over the world only for it to be utterly destroyed by Radiohead, electronica underwent a myriad of mutations, Spice Girls essentially created a new genre overnight, and honestly just a lot of other weird stuff happened. It was awesome. With that, we have attempted to survey the taxonomy of 90s music as best we can and curate our selection of the top 200 songs of the decade. The list is ranked starting at 200 and working its way down to our number one song of the decade. You can find the list on Apple Music and Spotify, or right here. Please note that embedded playlists cap out at 100 songs so what you see below is only the first half. Hit the links to take you directly to your streaming platform of choice for the whole list. What tracks were we foolish to include? What ones were we crazy to miss? What would your number one pick have been? Let us know in the comments.