Flashback: 90s Nostalgia

The 90s are very nostalgic for me, as they are for many people. For me, it was the decade that I moved to Canada from Greece, learned English, started going to school, started to get into music and started to understand things (or think that I was anyways). Some memories from this decade have faded, as they do, but there are always certain songs that come on that bring me back to the 90s and the aforementioned memories in addition to others.

Of course the following songs/artists/albums did not reach every corner of the globe and may not be nostalgic to some, but hopefully the following lists will help add to your playlist if you are having a 90s party…or if you just want to be brought back to the 1990s  and to fanny packs, flannel checkered shirts, tearaway pants (or trousers for those in the UK), Screech and the rest of the Saved by the Bell cast, Macaulay Culkin, McDonald’s pizza (yeah whatever happened to that?!), WWF wrestling, the Macarena, nanos and tamagotchis, pogs, Dr. Martens, slap bracelets and other pop culture of this era.

These albums are ones that I remember EVERYBODY having! Do you agree?:
Green Day- Dookie
Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill
No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom
Nirvana- Nevermind

In addition, these are ones that I also recall being heavily played on my DISCMAN (remember those?!):
Offspring – Smash
Silverchair – Frogstomp
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream

And then there are the following songs that just SCREAM the 90s…many of them (but not all) were one hit wonders…these are the ones that make me go “OH YEAH! I REMEMBER THAT SONG! I TOTALLY FORGOT IT EVEN EXISTED”…Click on some links, I bet you will have that same reaction to some!:
Blur – “Girls and Boys”
Enigma – “Return to Innocence” (I was obsessed with this one…in fact, I remember doing interpretive dance to it in the house….how embarrassing!)
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get” (wow this one brings me way back!)
Ace of Base – “The Sign” , “All That She Wants”, and tons of others
No Mercy – “Where Do You Go”
Baz Luhrmann – “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)”
Fool’s Garden – “Lemon Tree”
Blackstreet – “No Diggity”
C+C Music Factory – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
Chumbawamba – “Tubthumping” (wow ! believe it or not, I spelled both the artist and song title correctly, without googling!)
Shaggy – “Oh Carolina”
Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun” (I remember despising this music video)
Eagle Eye Cherry – “Save Tonight”
Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”
L.F.O – “Summer Girls”
Blind Melon – “No Rain”
Bone Thugs N Harmony – “Crossroads”
3T – “Anything”

Then you had your typical boybands and girlbands: Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, The Moffatts (which were my favourite, along with Hanson- hey at least they played their own instruments and wrote their own songs), Spice Girls, Take That, East 17, Five…

Then you’ve got a variety of others that had multiple songs on the airwaves like Oasis, Ma$e, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, R.E.M, T.L.C, L.F.O, (any other initials I am missing?), The Cranberries, Brandy (Moesha!), Radiohead, The Fugees, Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Britney Spears, Weezer, Eminem, Fatboy Slim, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Barenaked Ladies, Natalie Imbruglia, Savage Garden, Weird Al, Sublime, Sugar Ray  etc…the list really does go on…

It is quite scary how the time flies! Some great music and artists to come out of this decade, and great to see that some are still going…..at the same time, not so great to see others haven’t quit yet…

These lists are by no means complete. It’s impossible to sum up a whole decade of music. Even as I write this now, I can think of songs, albums, and artists that are definitive of 90s music that I have not included. This is just to get your nostalgia flowing…

Are there any songs, albums or artists that SCREAM 1990s for you and that you would add to your playlist(s)?