Best/Worst period for 90s music?

[wildojinx]

We did one for the 80s, might as well do one for the 90s as well. Best for me is an odd one, 1995. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but it seems like most all of the genres were on that year. 1993 is also a close contender. Worst has to be 1990, it seemed some weird hangover period from the 80s, and most of the newer stuff from that year had little to no staying power (ie, Vanilla Ice, Nelson).

[Duke Cameron]

Best: 1991

[DiBiase is Good]

1994-97, particularly for British music.
I could just say “Britpop” as we had a golden period in British music with Suede, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, The Prodigy, Radiohead, The Verve, Cast, The Bluetones and The Manic Street Preachers. There was also Massive Attack, The Spice Girls and the return of George Michael.
Although my listening at this time was dominated by British music, have to give a mention to Jagged Little Pill too.

[6pathsoftommy]

Jan 7, 2023 1:05:43 GMT -5 Duke Cameron said:

Best: 1991

Totally agree. Best year for music in my lifetime.

[karl100589]

I remember 1998 being pretty bad. Britpop had finished and 99's summer pop phenom hadn't yet arrived, so you were left with techno dance, rap, and vocoder era Cher.

[4real]

As mentioned the Britpop era from 94-97 is the best. I’m too young to really remember before that anyway.

After that though 98-2000 are a step down quality wise really and I wasn’t really invested again in music until Nu Metal blew up in the U.K. around 2000-01.

[Ultimo Gallos]

best 92-also the year I graduated.

Worst-97-Also the year I gave up on radio.

[SmashTV]

I liked the late 80s dance hangover from 1990/1, but as a Brit didn’t really like either Blur or Oasis (Suede were my Britpop band). As others have said, after 1997/8, the magic had gone and there was a lot of forgettable stuff in general.

[thechase]

Best: 1994-1998

[ToyfareMark]

Best 1994, worst 1997-99.

[BJ Sturgeon]

1993 saw some incredible debut albums.

[ERON]

The '90s overall are far from my favorite era of music, but there was some pretty good stuff from around the time of Losing My Religion up until the Macarena. 1997 was definitely the worst year for me personally, as that year saw the release of The Freshmen - the song so dire that it was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as convincing me to give up on mainstream music and listen almost exclusively to obscure metal bands for the next ten or so years.

[Deleted]

Every part of the 90's had stuff I dug:

Early 90's: final years of hair metal and the OG grunge bands

Mid 90's: stuff like White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, and Pantera Kiss reunion, gangsta rap

Late 90's: nu metal, Megadeth's random comeback, juggalo music, Bad Boy Records stuff

[Milkman Norm]

The best was probably 91-95 as what had been college rock bands and the Seattle scene hit it huge. The worst was 98-99 when nu metal and Creed doing their second rate Pearl Jam impression ruled the airwaves.

[ace]

Every song in 1997 is equal part terrible and equal part my favorite song of all time

[Jaws the Shark]

Jan 7, 2023 4:40:36 GMT -5 karl100589 said:

I remember 1998 being pretty bad. Britpop had finished and 99's summer pop phenom hadn't yet arrived, so you were left with techno dance, rap, and vocoder era Cher.

Inclined to agree with this. I almost wanted to say 1997 but that kind of had the last few great albums of the Britpop era, by 1998 it had completely disappeared up its own arse, and the good stuff wasn't really enough to offset the absolute dross. And yeah, 1999 was a fantastic year for the summer hit single, although I'm probably biased because they soundtracked probably the best summer I ever had.

The best year was 1991. Loveless, Nevermind, and the sensational Bandwagonesque, what's not to love?

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

I'm a grunge kid so to me 1991 to 1994 is the years where rock music was perfected and it's been downhill ever since.

[Ben Wyatt]

93-98 was the sweet spot

[Renslayer]

For rap, the best year is probably 1996. So many all time great albums came out that year

[Stone Cold Eleanor Shellstrop]

Best: Every year.
Worst: Every year.