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'.

What to Listen For in the 90's: Your Television

The idea of music in television isn’t a new one. From its inception, television used music used to create moods, fill spaces, provide rhythm and link the production to other cultural texts (1). However this music was traditionally just that – music. There was no artist, no lyrics, no autonomy for that music – it was simply a part of the program. However the 90’s changed all that. It was the first decade where ‘what to listen for’ was, in fact, your television.

“Recent years have seen an increase in pop music on television, replacing its more traditional incidental music. It is now dominant as stock music on television, filling expanding continuity and advertising spaces. The licensing of pop music for screen use is increasingly important for the music industry, spawning a new form of ‘multipurpose music’ which, as well as being music in its own right, can also be resold as stock music for television. While in the 1980s there was a rush to tie-in pop music with films, in the 1990s, it increasingly was to tie pop music with television.” (2)

The 90’s, especially late 90’s, saw the rise of this trend. Shows I grew up with such as Charmed and Roswell gave particular consideration to the songs they selected and their placement in the episode. They used popular music to achieve a measure of control over their audience’s emotional response. When the right song was chosen it enhanced the emotion of the narrative; and can years later still remind me of the scene in which it was used and the emotions therein. For example, one of the most memorable uses of music for me was Sarah McLaughlin’s ‘Full of Grace’, used in a 1998 episode of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (see below). Even after eleven years, I still think of it as the ‘Buffy-gives-up-on-everything-and-leaves-Sunnydale song’. 90’s television demonstrated one of the many functions of music—which is to manipulate mood—in a brand new, televisional context.

The legacy of this is hugely apparent in 00’s television. Every ‘hip’ show, from Skins to 90210, has to have a ‘hip’ sound; ‘hip’ enough that it will warrant a soundtrack release. Recently, there has been a boom in TV soundtracks and in websites devoted to the use of popular music in television shows (3). Of this, blogger Garrett Kamps wrote:

“Last year The O.C. popularized the trick of laying indie music over the histrionic exchanges of hollow characters so as to lend real pathos to an otherwise loathsome TV show. This year the rest of Hollywood caught up, and now we've got programs like Grey's Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, and One Tree Hill paying Tegan and Sara's rent.” (4)

While suggests that the 00’s popularized the music-in-TV movement, I would counter-suggest that all the 00’s have really done is capitalize on it and take it to the next level. For example in 2006, an episode of One Tree Hill allowed the audience to decide which song would be played at Nathan and Hayley’s wedding (5). Song selection has clearly become an integral part of the TV audience’s experience.

While this can be perceived as a good thing, it also comes with some bad. Namely what I mean is when dialogue in a scene has to compete with the background music because it’s so loud and so obvious. Songs have gone from enriching the scene to sometimes dominating it. Because of this, an episode can be robbed of its quiet moments and end up feeling like a 40 minute music video. One Tree Hill can be particularly guilty of this. Music in television is most effective when it is used sparingly and appropriately; the final minutes of Six Feet Under surely being the most brilliant and well-executed example of this (see below).

The 90’s saw a transition in the use of music in television; from instrumental, lyric-less background noise to the recognizable, purchasable and sometimes incessant music of today. For many (myself included), this revelation means that television has displaced the radio as the best medium to discover new music. Rather than listen to a particular radio station, I just watch Gossip Girl weekly. If you want to know what to listen to in the 90’s, then start by watching TV.



Music in 90's TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer


Evolution: the last 6 minutes of HBO's Six Feet Under

References

(2) Donelly, K.J. 2002. 'Tracking British television: pop music as stock soundtrack to the small screen' Popular Music 21 : 331-343 Cambridge University Press.