The 90's Most Iconic Music Moments

A countdown of nine iconic 90's music moments; that is iconic artists, songs, videos, interviews and performances.

Note: I use the word 'iconic' loosely and subjectively. So, no, there will be no Nirvana.

#9 Sinead O'Connor

'Nothing Compares to You'. With a music video every bit as intense and iconic as the track itself, this is one nineties song that will stand the test of time (as a killer breakup song if nothing else).

#8 Hit Me Baby One More Time

The birth of a monster, and of one of the most hyped-up and torn-down celebrities of my lifetime at least - Britney Spears. The success story (if you could dream to call it that) starts here, when she was first presented to the world as an innocent schoolgirl. What a difference a decade can make. (still brilliant though)

#7 The Cranberries

Though a far cry from most of the hardcore pop I listen too, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the Cranberries. They are in fact the only band I would describe as pop/rock that I would rank amongst my favourites. Icons of the 90's for their hits - 'Zombie', 'Salvation', 'Dreams' and so on. I could have easily done a top 9 list just comprised of Cranberries songs.

#6 Early-Mid 90's Club Songs

Ace of Base, I'm looking squarely at you. So many wonderful beats - 'Be My Lover,' '100% Pure Love,' 'I've Been Thinking About You' and 'I've Got the Power', to name but a few. Dance music had never been better. Sometimes I wonder how I can be so nostalgic for something I never really experienced. It absolutely kills me that I'll never walk into a club and hear 'Rhythm is a Dancer' playing. And if you don't know that song you have no right to be reading a 90's music blog.

#5 Cher introduces herself to Generation X

'Believe' was the first song of Cher's to land in the ARIA Top 10 since 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)' charted at #4 in 1990! So in many ways this was my introduction to Cher, and what an introduction! 'Believe' was a pop masterpiece and the biggest selling hit of her four decade career. Amazing. Thankyou Cher. Thankyou 90's.

#4 90's TV Themes



It might sound silly, but some of the most memorable tunes from the 90's are the tv theme songs we sung (or hummed) along to every week. Buffy, Charmed, Melrose Place, Friends, Ally McBeal, The X-Files and especially 90210.

#3 Courtney Love Crashes a Madonna Interview



God bless Courtney Love. I won't spoil too much, just that crashing an interview with the control-freak Queen of pop is must see youtube, and an iconic 90's music moment.

#2 Kylie Minogue does Barbarella



For most, Kylie's most iconic music video would that for 'Spinning Around'. The gold hotpants seal the deal. However, for me, it was her music video for 'Put Yourself In My Place' that is her most iconic 90's effort. A pink spacesuit? Genius. Floating around naked in a spaceship? Double genius. It may not sound like the most compatible video for a song called "Put Yourself In My Place", but it works.

#1 Spice Girls perform at the BRITS 1997



Yes. The Spice Girls 1997 BRITS performance. The most iconic moment of 90's British pop culture. Geri's Union Jack outfit gave birth to 'Cool Britannia' right there on the stage. On top of that, they are my childhood. So double iconic points for them.

Note: Songs that are hugely iconic but were too abhorrent for my list include 'Jackie', 'Two Times 'and 'No Way, No Way'. Songs that are hugely iconic but I realized were in fact not released in the 90's include 'Push It' and 'Murder on the Dancefloor'.

Kylie Minogue: Impossible Princess, Possibly Brilliant

Crowned the “Princess of Pop”, Kylie Minogue is a character who doesn’t remain in the same vein of music for more than an album or two. Like Madonna, she is renowned for ceaselessly reinventing herself and exploring a new corner of the broad genre of “pop music”. The nineties saw her rise to stardom, her epic fall and her glittering comeback. Surprisingly it was her epic fall, the landmark album Impossible Princess, that I regard as her strongest nineties album.

Impossible Princess was the sixth studio album from the diva, but marked the first album she had full creative control over - contributing to all of the lyrics. While many critics commended its maturity and personal subject matter it was ultimately a commercial disappointment. It didn’t connect with the general public or with a large section of her fan base, who turned on Minogue for doing something they couldn’t instantly recognize as pop. Kylie was accused of ‘going indie’ and ‘losing her way’; and many thought this album, this reinvention, had sunk her career. There was a clear divide between those who loved the album and those who loathed it. I err on the side of loving it, and passionately.

The album is like nothing she had ever done, and unsurprisingly like nothing she has dared to do since. Impossible Princess had a number of standout tracks: from the frenetic I Don’t Need Anyone, the quirky Did It Again, to the deeply personal Dreams. Drunk proves an absolute gem of song and is another personal favorite. It could rival her old hits as a dance track but still maintains the slightly darker tone that distinguishes this album from her others. However the greatest highlight comes from Breathe, an intoxicatingly tranquil four and a half minutes which stands out not just amongst this album but amongst Kylie’s entire back catalogue. It’s important to recognize that all of these favorites are pop songs; only coming in the wake of straight-up pop anthems like Shocked, Better the Devil You Know and I Should Be So Lucky did they seem to many like something other than pop. Kylie herself had to struggle with this misconception about her album, saying: "I have to keep telling people that this isn't an indie-guitar album; I'm not about to pick up a guitar and rock." (1) Yet though it was one of Kylie’s most creative, consistent and personal ventures, it will frustratingly be remembered as the low-point of her career. Ironically, the largest criticism of her last album, X, was that it was impersonal and too eclectic – the tracks weren’t deep or cohesive.

With every next album, the Impossible Princess seems to be in a bit of a bind, unable to remain static, she constantly has to take a risk in updating her image and differentiating herself from her last look and the look of every other pop star. Marshall notes that: "Any style eventually loses its power to represent difference, as the marketplace continuously appropriates the idiosyncrasies of codes of style for commodity innovation. Thus, the popular music performer is also continuously appropriating new representations of individuality through style." (2) This fluidity is the predicament of many pop stars - the push and pull to be 'different' but essentially the same. It inevitably leads to a number of incarnations for any pop act – from “Schoolgirl Britney” to “Ringleader Britney”, or “Cowgirl Madonna” to “Geisha Madonna”. Every pop icon is in the position of striving for 'difference', but without ever becoming too different from what made them popular to begin with. This phenomenon was satirized in Kylie's music video for Did it Again (below). The video see’s the four incarnations of Kylie - “sex Kylie”, “cute Kylie”, “disco Kylie” and “indie Kylie” - battle it out for supremacy. And while we don’t see a clear winner, real life shows that it was “indie Kylie” who lost out.

For a while Minogue may have been dead, but she was never buried; and a committed return to pop with a pair of gold hot pants saw her rise from the ashes. For an artist often reputed as a shallow, style-over-substance pop act, it was a shame that her most different and brilliant nineties album was given such little praise.

Kylie Minogue: Breathe



Kylie: Did It Again

For more Kylie visit http://www.kylie.com/home

References

(2) Marshall, P.D. 1997. 'The Meanings of the Popular Music Celebrity: The Construction of Distinctive Authenticity'. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. University of Minneapolis. pg 162.