Best Band of the 90s?

Oasis
Smashing Pumpkins
Alice in Chains
Pearl Jam
Stone Temple Pilots

Those are my favs in order.

I saw Oasis in Chicago on Thursday. Absolutely BIBLICAL show. I’ll post some videos later if I don’t forget. Having never seen them in their heyday, I truly thought I never would. Man, it was something else. True bucket list item.
 
heelinhell said:
and I confess I have not listened to a song by NMH so I would be interested in you sharing one of your favorite NMH songs here. I am open to be convinced my daughter had a point when saying NMH is superior to Eric Clapton
Click to expand...

I’m not usually in the practice of trying to prove “superiority” with things like this, I usually just speak to my preferences. But here are a couple. It’s an acquired taste… but once acquired, it’s profound.



 
For a time, I was the Hootienator - if I was at a party or whatever at a friend's or acquaintance's house and I saw they had that CD, I just removed it from the jewel case and tossed it in the trash.
 
heelinhell said:
Seeing this long list of best bands of the 90s is impressive...

Which of these bands will be music icons 50 years from now ? I have no idea and will not know because I will no longer exist, but I wonder which of these bands will my grandkids still be listening to when they are in their 60s

I remember getting into a "spirited" debate with my daughter and son-in-law back in the 90s about this. They were criticizing Eric Clapton and Cream for being over the hill and touting Neutral Milk Truck Hotel as a superior band. I asked them which band will be remembered another 20 years from now.
Click to expand...
This is the answer to your question, my list from page 2.

Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Soundgarden
Alice In Chains
Pumpkins
Rage Against the Machine

Lots of other good bands mentioned, but if we’re strictly talking biggest/ most influential bands of the 90’s that will stand the test of time and inspire musicians for a very long time refer to the list above.
 
bassydude77 said:
This is the answer to your question, my list from page 2.

Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Soundgarden
Alice In Chains
Pumpkins
Rage Against the Machine

Lots of other good bands mentioned, but if we’re strictly talking biggest/ most influential bands of the 90’s that will stand the test of time and inspire musicians for a very long time refer to the list above.
Click to expand...
By those criteria, Radiohead will endure better than all but maybe a couple on that list. I like all those bands, but Radiohead have the legs to outlast most, if not all of them.
 
Last edited:
duluoz said:
By those criteria, Radiohead will endure better than all but maybe a couple on that list. I like all those bands, but Radiohead have the legs to outlast most, if not all of them.
Click to expand...
That's fair. I think of them more as a 2000's band, but I guess "Ok Computer" was released in 97.
 
For whatever reason, I didn’t listen much to Radiohead or Oasis. I was aware of their biggest hits.
My 15 year-old son got me listening to them because he will play them in the car.
 
bassydude77 said:
That's fair. I think of them more as a 2000's band, but I guess "Ok Computer" was released in 97.
Click to expand...
Pablo Honey (their debut album) was 1993, The Bends was 1995, and OK Computer was 1997, so they put out a lot of music in the 1990s. There are some people (I’m not one of them) who argue that their best work was from the 90s, and some of those people just like their 90s stuff and don’t care for the music they put out after that. Kid A was polarizing, and a lot of fans do their 90s work jumped ship after that. Personally, I think the music they put out in the 00s was their best work.
 
ChileG said:
For whatever reason, I didn’t listen much to Radiohead or Oasis. I was aware of their biggest hits.
My 15 year-old son got me listening to them because he will play them in the car.
Click to expand...
I’ve never been into Oasis. I had good friends who listened to a lot of Radiohead in college (The Bends, OK Computer), so I heard of of their music but I wasn’t super into it at the time. I became a really big fan after Kid A came out in 2000. I regret that I did not join my college friends in seeing them at Cat’s Cradle back in 1995 when they were touring to support The Bends. Would have been really cool to see them there.
 
bassydude77 said:
That's fair. I think of them more as a 2000's band, but I guess "Ok Computer" was released in 97.
Click to expand...
Easy to overlook them since they didn’t fit the era as neatly, and do feel more ‘00s than ‘90s. The way the Pixies feel more ‘90s than ‘80s.

Credit to both bands for paving the way and being ahead of their times. Radiohead in a much bigger sense of course.
 
Hmm this is an interesting question, with a good degree of subjectivity in the criteria (most influential, best selling, innovation, talent, etc).

Nirvana was definitely very influential and had a landmark album, and while they definitely representa an important inflection point, I've always thought Pearl Jam had a more consistent impact on the decade as a whole.

My personal favorites from the 90s (the last 3 are Latin Rock):

Green Day
Matchbox Twenty
DMB
Cranberries
Mana
Soda Stereo
Enanitos Verdes
 
duluoz said:
Easy to overlook them since they didn’t fit the era as neatly, and do feel more ‘00s than ‘90s. The way the Pixies feel more ‘90s than ‘80s.

Credit to both bands for paving the way and being ahead of their times. Radiohead in a much bigger sense of course.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, members of Radiohead were big Pixies fans and cite them as a significant influence.
 
It always amuses me when threads like this -- "best bands of the 1990s" -- devolve into lists of bands that nobody thinks are the best.

Also, the Pixies sound super 80s to me. They weren't ahead of their time. They were successful because they were perfect fits for their time.
 
superrific said:
It always amuses me when threads like this -- "best bands of the 1990s" -- devolve into lists of bands that nobody thinks are the best.

Also, the Pixies sound super 80s to me. They weren't ahead of their time. They were successful because they were perfect fits for their time.
Click to expand...
They straddled the decades. They put out an EP and two albums in the late-1980s (1987, 1988, and 1989, respectively) and then two albums in the early-1990s (1990 and 1991, respectively). Of course, their music they are best known for was from the 1980s.

ETA: Because I’m very familiar with their music and when it came out, it’s hard for me to separate the sound from the specific era, but I imagine if I were entirely unfamiliar with their music and heard it for the first time with no context, I might guess much of what they put out in the 1980s is from the early-1990s. Particularly Surfer Rosa. While Surfer Rosa came out before Doolittle, it sounds more 90s to me than Doolittle, which sounds a little more 80s to me, when comparing the two albums.
 
Last edited:
Icky Mettle said:
They straddled the decades. They put out an EP and two albums in the late-1980s (1987, 1988, and 1989, respectively) and then two albums in the early-1990s (1990 and 1991, respectively). Of course, their music they are best known for was from the 1980s.
Click to expand...
I would say that's because they hit the late 80s Zeitgeist. By the 1990s, their sound was stale. It was never actually all that capacious.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top