I confess: I only recognize about 30% of the songs Bob Havilla analyzes in 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s. But after reading Havilla’s book, I’m going to listen many of the songs he recommends.
60 Songs That Explain the ’90s is a companion to the #1 music podcast on Spotify. This book takes readers through the greatest hits that define a weirdly undefinable decade and explores that decade’s nooks and crannies.
The 1990s were a chaotic and gritty and utterly magical time for musi. Havilla gives readers a guided tour of the confounding mix of genres and lifestyles and superstars: from grunge to hip-hop, from sumptuous R&B to rambunctious ska-punk, from Axl to Kurt to Missy to Santana to Tupac to Britney.
Since I just saw a Max Martin musical, & Juliet (you can read my review here), I thought I’d see what Bob Havilla had to say about Martin and his songs: “A Max Martin joint is never a Max Martin solo joint–often there’s a half-dozen other writers and producers in the mix, and the sheer number of people involved gives you some idea of how difficult it is to generate such simple pleasures. The resulting block-buster songs are less songs than equations, albeit luxurious equations that entail one pop star or another purring sexy-adjacent nonsense direct into your ears.” (p. 13-14)
In 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s you’ll find familiar songs and songs you never heard of (but should have according to Havilla). How many of these songs do you recognize? See any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — ix
Chaos agents — 1
- Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On”
- Hole, “Doll Parts”
- Madonna, “Vogue
- Spice Girls, “Wannabe”
- Backstreet Boys, “I Want It That Way”
- Eminem, “My Name Is”
- Beck, “Loser”
- Master P. “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!”
- Prodigy, “Firestarter”
- The Chicks, “Goodbye Earl”
- Erykah Badu, “Tyrone”
Sellouts (or not) (or maybe) — 29
- Metallica, “Enter Sandman”
- Pantera, “Walk”
- Temple of the Dog, “Hunger Strike”
- Coolio, “Gangsta’s Paradise”
- Ice Cube, “It Was a Good Day”
- Reel Big Fish, “Sell Out”
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “The Impression That I Get”
- No Doubt, “Just a Girl”
- Fugazi, “Merchandise”
- Green Day, “Longview”
Women vs. “women in rock” — 53
- The Sundays, “I Kicked a Boy”
- The Cranberries, “Zombie”
- Garbage, “Only Happy When It Rains”
- PJ Harvey, “Man-Size”
- Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know”
- Tori Amos, “Cornflakes Girl”
- The Breeders, “Cannonball”
- TLC, “No Scrubs”
- Sinead O’Conner, Nothing Compares 2 U”
- Fiona Apple, “Criminal”
- Sheryl Crow, “If It Makes You Happy”
Vivid geography, or, everybody hates a tourist — 79
- Wu-Tang Clan, “C.R.E.A.M.”
- Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones, Pt. II”
- Nas, “N.Y. State of Mind”
- Pulp, “Common People”
- Bjork, “Hyperballad”
- Missy Elliott, “The Rain (Spa Dupa Fly)”
- Outkast, “Elevators (Me & You)”
- Juvenile, “Back That Azz Up”
- Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing”
- Soundgarden, “Black Hole Sun”
- Luniz, “I Got 5 on It”
Villains + adversaries — 103
- Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”
- Oasis, “Wonderwall”
- Blur, “Song 2”
- A Tribe Called Quest, “Check the Rhine”
- Pavement, “Range Life”
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Cherub Rock”
- Limp Bizkit, “Nookie”
- Offspring, “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”
- DMX, “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem”
- Brandy + Monica, “The Boy is Mine”
Flukes + comebacks + spectacular weirdos — 131
- Los Del Rio, “Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix)”
- Billy Ray Cyrus, “Achy Breaky Heart”
- The New Radicals, “You Get What you Give”
- The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, “Soot Suit Riot”
- Cher, “Believe”
- Chumbawanba, “Tubthumping”
- Tag Team, “Whoomp! (There It Is)”
- Mark Morrison, “Return of the Mack”
- Santana + Rob Thomas, “Smooth”
- Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby”
- Natalie Imbruglia, “Torn”
Teenage hijinx — 153
- Rage Against the Machine, “Killing in the Name”
- Body Count, “Cop Killer”
- Guns N’ Roses, “November Rain”
- Red Hot Chili, Peppers, “Under the Bridge”
- Alice In Chains, “Would?”
- They Might Be Giants, “Particle Man”
- Cake, “The Distance”
- Weezer, “Undone (The Sweater Song)”
- Beastie Boys, “Sabotage”
- Radiohead, “Creep”
- Pearl Jam, “Yellow Ledbetter”
Sex + romance + immaturity — 179
- Salt-N-Pepa, “Shoop”
- Nine Inch Nails, “Closer”
- Tool, “Stinkfist”
- Prince, “Gett Off”
- Boyz II Men, “End of the Road”
- Liz Phair, “Fuck and Run”
- Sunny Day Real Estate, “In Circles”
- Bonnie Rait, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
- Dave Matthews Band, “Crash Into Me”
- Blink-182, “What’s My Age Again?”
Myths vs. mortals — 207
- Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
- The Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy”
- Selena, “Que Creias?”
- Dr. Dre, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thing”
- Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”
- Britney Spears, “…Baby One More Time”
- Aaliyah, “One in a Million”
- Get Boys, “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”
- Lauryn Hill, “Ex-Factor”
- Shania Twain, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”
Big feelings. — 237
- Tom Petty, “It’s Good to Be King”
- Janet Jackson, “Together Again”
- Black Box, “Everybody Everybody”
- Mariah Carey “All I Want for Christmas is You”
- The Verve, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”
- Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”
- Counting Crows, “A Long December”
- Mary J. Blige, “Real Love”
- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, “The Crossroads”
- Lisa Loeb, “Stay (I Missed You)”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 265
I got this for Christmas for my son. Hope he likes it.
Patti, 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90s is a fun read! It really brought back a lot of memories of that decade!
Despite my oft-repeated contention that I stopped listening to new music at some point in the 1990s, I know most of the songs here and like a good many of them. Favorites include: Doll Parts, Enter Sandman, Zombie, Cannonball, Tubthumping, Pretty Fly for A White Guy, Sabotage, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Closer, Bittersweet Symphony, Hey Jealousy, even (to my eternal shame) Ice Ice Baby and Wannabe. I’ll be adding this book to my tbr.
/By the way, George, the Billy Ray Cyrus song is Achy Breaky Heart not Achy Freaky Heart—although that would undoubtedly make a great song title!
Deb, WORDPRESS is at again, changing song titles! Thanks for the heads up! I’ll make the correction. Back in the 1990s, I listened to the radio in my car while I drove Patrick to his violin lessons and Katie to her flute lessons. If the song wasn’t on the local radio stations, I never heard it.
Ah yes, “Macarena,” the anthem of Al Gore’s failed 2000 campaign, the harbinger of today’s hapless Democratic Party. As I think I’ve mentioned masochistically on this forum, I saw Vanilla Ice in concert in company with our then 13-year-old daughter. I recognize about one-third of these songs.
Fred, I took my kids and their friends to see Celine Dion, Matchbox 20, Christina Aguilara, ‘NSYNC, 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, and other 1990s groups. But, no Vanilla Ice.
Don’t know if any of these songs (most of which I don’t recognize) help explain the 90’s, but there is a 60’s song that completely encapsulates my feekings about the present decade: 1968’s THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE ME WAY, HA-HAAA by Napoleon XIV.
Jerry, I remember THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY, HA-HAAA By Napoleon XIV. But I would go with The Animals’ WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE.
I actually know more of these song than ones from a decade earlier. They played in my house and car as the kids grew up. It was the late seventies and early eighties that are lost to me. For some reason, we convinced ourselves that we needed to learn classical music. I think that was a mistake now.
Patti, since we’re on the border of the US and Canada, I listened to a lot of Canadian radio stations and heard a lot of music that wasn’t being played in the States. The radio was always on in the car when the kids and I were traveling around in the 1990s.
Well, I was listening to everything I could in the ’80s and ’90s, was a radio DJ for a big chunk of that time…on college station WGMU and cable radio (!) WCXS…and played various sorts of classical music to punk rock, the latter particularly enriched by my ex Donna’s collection. Nothing precludes anything else…
The vast majority are familiar (some better than others, of course) and a few might be more familiar than their titles if I spun through them. Max Martin’s equations is a large part of what is wrong with nearly all his work, by me, even as I enjoyed Varese (or for that matter Bach) along with “math rock” et al.
I’ll try the podcast…thanks for the pointer.
Newly-repaired links: https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2012/05/saturday-music-club-some-sounds-of-dc.html
Todd, for all the criticism Max Martin gets for his song-writing “equation,” you have to admit he’s scored a lot of Number One songs and made an impact on pop music.
I’ll readily admit both…but both are pernicious influences.
Favorites? Not really. I know a handful. Some of the worst, most hideous records ever made – surely “Believe” is what they play in Hell.
The only ones I would listen to are “Smooth,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “Goodbye Earl,” “Man! I Feel Like a WOman,” “I Will Always Love You” (though I prefer other versions, like DOlly Parton’s original or Linda Ronstadt’s), “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” So zero crossover with Deb’s list. But I might like some of the others if I’d ever heard them, which, for the most part, I haven’t.
Jerry, I’m with you, though I’d just go with my GET OFF MY LAWN sign.
Jeff, I like your song list! There are a lot of songs that Harvilla refers to that I never heard of, for example: Sunny Day Real Estate, “In Circles.”
I might recognize two of them! The ’90s were a stinking cesspool for music as far as I’m concerned!
Bob, the music of the 1990s doesn’t get a lot of love.