Hi, blog! I thought you were dead.
The reason I'm getting in touch is that I've had some thoughts coalescing around the topic of music from the 1990s, which were my high school years.
The capstone that made me think about writing this was a Mary Chapin Carpenter (MCC) concert that I went to last night at Massey Hall. It was actually a joint concert between Brandy Clark (who I know more as a songwriter than a singer) and Ms. Carpenter. They shared about equal solo stage time with one set following the other and some songs together at the end. Very good concert, and amazingly (at the request of the artists) hardly anyone had their phones out. I can't remember the last time that was the case.
But that's not my point.
Although I was aware of her and consider MCC an artist of the 1990s, I didn't start listening to her until later in her career, after she'd left the more country-pop sound behind and moved on to singer-songerwriter folk. It was probably around the time of the "Ashes and Roses" album, although I moved into her back catalogue after that. I'd known people that listened to her in the past but her original sound didn't (and still doesn't) appeal to me much. I have not listened much to her earlier albums and prefer those songs interpreted through the lens of the her current style, which she's done on a couple of albums.
Case in point: my favourite songs of her are aligned to "Mrs. Hemingway", "Sometimes Just the Sky", or "Chasing What's Already Gone" rather than songs like the earlier "Down at the Twist and Shout" that a lot of the concert crowd went nuts for.
And, Brandy Clark? I briefly listened to country-pop artists like Collin Raye, Deana Carter, Kenny Chesney, and a few others back in the 90s, before getting myself back on the straight and narrow. So, I'm not a big country-pop listener but I still have a few select "likes" from the genre whose new music I always listen to and often buy, such as Kacey Musgraves (for /with (?) whom Brandy Clark has written numerous songs). But I liked Brandy Clark's set.
So, anyway... it got me thinking about all of the 1990s artists that became accessible to me in the same way that MCC did.
To start, from an unreliable memory, I'd say that my reliable go-tos active in the 1990s that I still listen to were:
- Morrissey
- The inimitable Morrissey. Unbelievably, even though I grew up in the UK, I was not a fan of The Smiths before I was a fan of Morrissey. When I went into their back catalogue after discovering Morrissey, I only recognized exactly one song ("Sheila Takes a Bow", which must have had significant radio play around the age I started paying attention). I became a fan of Morrissey around 1992-1993 based on radio play; the time of the "Your Arsenal" album. Had not heard of him before then.
- Tori Amos
- Tori Amos was a detour as well, but contained within the 1990s. Her most prominent albums were in early-mid 1990. I first became a fan around the time of Choirgirl Hotel, released in 1998, and came to like all of the back and forward catalogue, but not at the time the earlier albums were released.
- Sting
- Sting was obviously a pre-90s act, but I caught onto him in the 90s and still listen regularly today.
- Pet Shop Boys
- Also a pre-90s act, but they have continued strong output ever since they debuted. One of their best albums was released in the 1990s ("Very"), though for me some of their best albums were also released in the 2010s.
- Pearl Jam
- One of the few grunge acts I liked from the beginning, but I only ever go back regularly to their first album. Grunge was not as big as we think it was during the 90s - look at the 1990s charts for proof. But if you were in high school it was big.
- Lifehouse
- They came into the mainstream in 1999 and they are one of my favourite bands today (along with Jason Wade's solo output). In my mind, they are a crypto-Christian rock band - listen to "Everything", "Storm", and "Flight" (three songs that span 1999 to 2015) and try to deny that there are spiritual elements to those songs. Their music and image is just so wholesome.
- Oasis
- OK, I still don't like them much, but I listen to them occasionally now and I never listened to them in the 1990s at their peak. I just shut my ears when "Wonderwall" was constantly on the radio and played by peers. I didn't and still don't like that song and it closed me off to whatever else they were doing.
- Smashing Pumpkins
- I recognize many of their songs from the first few notes just from being exposed to the metaphorical second-hand smoke of them in high school. I was not interested. And by the end of my university days in the early 2000s I had Machina - the first album of theirs that I bought (because it was cheap and I wanted to try it!) on repeat for what felt like an entire semester. I've since gone to their back and forward catalogue and can appreciate most of it (thought my affinity is still for post-2000, except for a few hits).
- Porcupine Tree
- This band came out of nowhere for me. Formed in 1987, I had never heard of them until their "Fear of a Blank Planet" album, released in 2007, and I didn't discover it until 2011. Most people have still not heard of them, even though they sold out big concert halls (and did so again in Toronto in a recent a one-off reunion tour). Incredibly, they'd mostly broken up by the time I discovered them, and then I moved onto frontman Steven Wilson's excellent solo career who may be a little more recognized but not much.
- Radiohead
- Another one that I was not interested in when they were big but caught up to some time later and like most of their catalogue now. Can't remember where.
- Sophie Hutchings (Australian - contemporary pianist) sample
- ELIO (Canadian - (catchy) pop) sample
- Röyksopp (Norwegian - electronic) - almost classifies as 90s, but the first commercial album was released in 2001 sample
- Ólafur Arnalds (Iceland - modern instrumental) sample
- Nils Frahm (Germany - modern instrumental) sample
- PinkPantheress (British... TikTok music?) sample
- Riverside (Polish - prog rock, for lack of a better term) sample
- Katatonia (Swedish - melodic metal) sample
- Opeth (Swedish - reformed death jazz/metal?) sample
- Jason Wade (Lighthouse) sample
- David Douglas (Dutch (I think) - electronic) sample
- Boards of Canada (Scottish (!) downtempo electronic) sample