Popular Rock Music Of The 90s - The Songs That Defined A Decade

Rizzo Music is back with a new article from the "Popular Music of the 90s" series. Last week I made a list of some of the best pop music of the decade and today I am going to share with you my list for the most popular rock music of the 90s. Out of all the lists and playlists I have created in the past, this was by far the hardest to come up with. There are so many great artists and songs that originated in the 90s and deciding on just 5 songs for every year was tough. I tried to get representation out of all the key rock artists and hopefully I didn't forget anyone.

After much debate I was able to compile this list of 90s rock music. There are so many songs that I really enjoy that could not be included due restrictions on space but there are 50 great singles here for your enjoyment.

How it works:
For each genre of music I will rank the top 5 singles from each year in the 90s. I will provide a link for each song (either imeem or youtube, depending on availability) for your listening pleasure.

Disclaimer: These rankings are based on my personal preferences, not on actual popularity. I think of these lists as recommendations. Hopefully these songs will bring back some good memories, and if you have never heard them before, maybe create some new ones.

Interested in 90s Pop and Rap as well? Be sure to check out these lists as well.
90s Pop Music
90s Rock Music

Starting with the year 1999:
1. "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit
2. "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind
3. "Scar Tissue" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. "The Chemicals Between Us" by Bush
5. "Heavy" by Collective Soul

1998:
1. "Inside Out" by Eve 6
2. "The Way" by Fastball
3. "Sex and Candy" by Marcy Playground
4. "Shimmer" by Fuel
5. "Closing Time" by Semisonic

1997:
1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve
2. "Push" by Matchbox Twenty
3. "Everlong" by Foo Fighters
4. "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe
5. "Everything to Everyone" by Everclear

1996:
1. "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins
2. "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers
3. "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla
4. "What I Got" by Sublime
5. "In the Meantime" by Spacehog

1995:
1. "Lightning Crashes" by Live
2. "Wonderwall" by Oasis
3. "Glycerine" by Bush
4. "Name" by Goo Goo Dolls
5. "Good" by Better Than Ezra

1994:
1. "When I Come Around" by Green Day
2. "Shine" by Collective Soul
3. "I Alone" by Live
4. "Self Esteem" by The Offspring
5. "About a Girl" by Nirvana

1993:
1. "Rooster" by Alice in Chains
2. "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows
3. "Hey Jealousy" by Gin Blossoms
4. "No Rain" by Blind Melon
5. "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine

1992:
1. "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam
2. "In Bloom" by Nirvana
3. "Drive" by R.E.M.
4. "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica
5. "Creep" by Radiohead

1991:
1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
2. "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains
3. "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
4. "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.
5. "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones

1990:
1. "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog
2. "Kool Thing" by Sonic Youth
3. "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails
4. "Stop!" by Jane's Addicton
5. "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC

Well there you have it. The top 5 songs from each year of the 90s. Thanks for listening and enjoy.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share your opinion by making a comment below.


Song #95: "Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms

Rizzo Music continues with the countdown of the Top 100 Songs of the 1990s, with "Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms. A radio friendly hit with mass appeal, "Found Out About You" was Gin Blossoms fourth single off of New Miserable Experience. Although this was the only single to hit #1 on the Modern Rock Charts, they released 5 singles off of their sophomore album - all of which cracked the Top 40 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. "Found Out About You", which was released in 1994, may not be their most popular or famous song to date but was one of those songs that defined their sound as a band.

Gin Blossoms is a jangle pop alternative rock band that formed in the late 80s, but didn't hit it big until 1993 when they released, "Hey Jealousy". They not only had five successful singles off of New Miserable Experience, but they also went on to release 3 more singles that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, two of which broke into the top 10. The band split up in 1997 but started to regroup after 2002. They released their latest album, Major Lodge Victory in 2006 and have been touring ever since. Nearly ten years after Congratulations I'm Sorry, "Major Lodge Victory" put the band from Tempe, Arizona, made it back onto the Billboard 200 Chart, topping out at 159.

The music video for "Found Out About You" is pretty much just classic '90s. They make good use of their strobe light as they show shots of the band playing the song as well as what appears to be a hotel. The strobe light is a perfect fit for this foot-tapping '90s rock classic but at the same time it probably won't invoke you to go watch it again. Great song, pretty good video. Check it out!

Interested in other songs from the countdown? Check out the other Top Songs of the 1990s here


Top 100 Songs of the 90s

After watching VH1's Greatest Songs of the 90s, I was inspired to start up a series of posts with my picks for the Top 100 Songs of the 1990s. I am going to skip out on the rap songs since I am not that big of an expert on that field of music. I am tempted to include some pop from the 90s but we will see if any of it actually makes the list. I am going to set out a few ground rules for the list and link back to this post for every entry.

Rules (subject to change):
1) An artist can only have up to a maximum of three songs on the list.
2) No rap, Hip-Hop, or R&B will be included on this list.
3) Only singles will be considered for this list.
4) I will accept suggestions but this list is in no way comprised of results from a poll or any form of voting process. It is strictly the opinion of Rizzo Music.
5) And obviously the song must have been released between Jan 1st 1990 and Dec 31st 1999.

Each song will get it's own post with a little history of the song (chart positions, band trivia, song trivia ect.) and the music video. I will constantly update this post with links to each post so that this article may be used to find any song on the list. With each article I will link back to this article so to provide easy access to each song. I hope to write about 1 article pertaining to this list a week so that should set a preliminary completion date for the list on August 20, 2009. It would be nice to finish the list before then but that seems like a realistic date for the amount of work required for this sort of project. Comments? Suggestions? I would love to hear them. Thanks!

Links (More Coming Soon)
Songs 100-91
Song #100: "Take A Picture" by Filter
Song #99: "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn
Song #98: "How Bizarre" by OMC
Song #97: "Meet Virginia" by Train
Song #96: "Down" by 311
Song #95: "Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms
Song #94: "Greedy Fly" by Bush
Song #93: "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Song #92: "Don't Go Away" by Oasis
Song #91: "Touch, Peel and Stand" by Days Of The New
Songs 90-81
Song #90: "Hanginaround" by Counting Crows
Song #89: "Man on the Moon" by R.E.M.
Songs 80-71
Songs 70-61
Songs 60-51
Songs 50-41
Songs 40-31
Songs 30-21
Songs 20-11
Songs 10-1

Be sure to sign up for email updates or subscribe with your favorite feed reader to stay up to date with all of the latest additions to the list. If you are having any trouble with this, feel free to email me at "web at rizzomusic dot com".


SNL In The 90s: A Look At The Music

A great recap to a great decade. Saturday Night Live is a show that I really have enjoyed over the last decade or so. From Chris Farley to Chris Rock, this show was stacked with comedic geniuses. This television special had plenty of commentary from almost all the great cast members of the 1990s but it was lacking a little in the video clips. With such a long span to cover, it was hard to fit everything into a two hour special but I think that they did a good job. You really can't go wrong with Chris Farrley's Matt Foley skit or Will Farrell's Cowbell performance.

It was really fun to see all the old cast members come back to talk about the golden age of SNL that was the early 90s. The cool thing about it was that there were only a few missing from the commentary. The only one that I noticed that was missing was Adam Sandler. I, being such a avid 90s music fan, loved that fact that they included a bunch of past performances from so many good bands. The musical acts have always been an intricate part of Saturday Night Live, and it was nice to see them be included in the special.

I had to compile this list by memory because I didn't get a chance to tape it but I am pretty sure this is fairly accurate and almost complete. If you see any mistakes or additions that should be made, please feel free to leave a comment.

Musical Performances Featured on "SNL In The 90s":
Barenaked Ladies - "It's All Been Done"
Gin Blossoms - "Follow You Down"
Christina Aguliera - "What a Girl Wants"
Blues Traveler - "Hook"
Green Day - "When I Come Around"
R.E.M. - "Shiny Happy People"
Pearl Jam - "Not For You"
Dave Matthews Band - "So Much To Say"
Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"
Beck - "Sexx Laws"
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Sheryl Crow - "If It Makes You Happy"
Garbage - "When I Grow Up"
Oasis - "Don't Go Away"

I was really happy to see the lesser known bands like Blues Traveler get some air time as well as the more popular acts like DMB, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Nirvana. My favorite part of the whole show was the decision to have Oasis' "Don't Go Away" be the last act shown. This is one of my favorite songs from Oasis and from the 90s in general. A fitting end to a great decade of music and comedy. Thanks for listening and hope you check out some of these classic songs.


Top 10 Songs You Should Know Playlist: Rizzo Music's Top Ten Songs Of 2006 (Week 11)

It's another Monday and with a newly revamped site, it's time to update the format of our playlists. From now on I will try to make Imeem playlists so that everyone can have easy access to listening to these great songs. Of course, not every song is on Imeem so I have decided to make honorable mentions for those left of the list due to unavailability. Once again, you can add me as a friend on Imeem here if you haven't already. My profile is still a work in progress but it should be done fairly soon. This week's playlist features some of my favorite songs released in 2006. Of course I can't fit all of them on to a 10 song playlist but this selection is more to draw your attention to 10 great albums more than the individual songs released in 2006.

Top 10 Songs You Should Know - Week 11 - Jan. 29-Feb. 4 2007
http://media.imeem.com/pl/ZMnZ3ioYdU/aus=false/

Honorable mentions include:
"The Guy that Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind" - Griffin House
"With A Bullet" - Sam Roberts
"Running Away" - Lifehouse
"The End of the World" - Gin Blossoms

Thanks again for listening and tune in next week for another great playlist.

Looking for more playlists? We've got plenty.


Top 10 Songs You Should Know Playlist: A 90's Music Playlist (Week #10)

It's is another Monday in January and its time for another group of songs formed together in an ordered list. This week we have a theme to the playlist which is 90's Music. All of these songs were released prior to the year 2000 and after 1989 to the best of my knowledge. I figured that if I began to theme these playlists, perhaps more would listen to them collectively and not just pick and choose. These are not necessarily my top ten songs from the 1990s but are from some great 90s bands and I have chosen one song from each year. They are ordered in a way that the first song starts out at 1990 and the last is 1999. These songs were more popular then most of the songs I put up here but I tried to pick a song that defined the year for me. 1998 was definitely the hardest year from me to pick as there were some many good songs released that year. Hope you enjoyed another rendition of "Top 10 Songs You Should Know" and thanks for listening.

Top 10 Songs You Should Know - Week 10 - Jan. 22-28 2006
1. Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
2. Hunger Strike - Temple of the Dog
3. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
4. Laid - James
5. Glycerine - Bush
6. Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla
7. Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik
8. How's it Going to Be - Third Eye Blind
9. Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
10. Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Looking for more playlists? We've got plenty.


Cutting The Ribbon: Top 10 Songs You Should Know Playlist: Week 1

Now that I have that I have the mission statement out of the way, I figured I would start up the first reoccurring article. This is the first edition to the "Top 10 Songs You Should Know" from some fairly familiar artists but not so familiar songs. Hopefully pretty soon I'll be able to figure out how to link to Itunes or something so you can at least hear a sample of each of these songs because they are pretty good. I hope to release a playlist every Monday but we will see what happens. Most of the stuff that I post will be pretty random and will not have any sort of regularity so just check back often or subscribe to the blog at the top of the page.

Just for a little background, these artists featured on this playlist are all extraordinary and I regularly listen to at least 5 of their songs on a regular basis with the exception of Griffin House, which I recently saw in concert so I can vouch for his talent. Anyways, all of them might not be your style but hopefully at least one will.

Top 10 Songs You Should Know - Week 1 - Nov. 13-19 2006
1. Rosealia - Better Than Ezra
2. The End Of The World - Gin Blossoms
3. The Guy that Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind - Griffin House
4. Wait - Mat Kearney
5. Every Little Thing - Dishwalla
6. A Bad Dream - Keane
7. Look After You - The Fray
8. I Believe In You - Big City Rock
9. Overcome - Live
10. Penny Is Poison - The Verve Pipe

Looking for more playlists? We've got plenty.