Here's my logic.
I think of Oasis champagne supernova and No Doubt Sunday morning, autumn leaves, running around in park = nineties must have been better for mainstream.
Looking back at the chart results I am clearly mistaken.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, i reckon the 'middle ground' was better back then. Sort of like 'mainstream alternative rock' if you will.
But the Good stuff was good, and the commercial stuff was pox. Just like now, just like always.
LOL. That's pretty much game, set, match on that argument.Easy.And I disagree with that.
A lot.
You're talking about what you chose to listen to in the nineties, not what were big sellers.
You could choose to listen to Triple M right now if you wan to hear rock. It's not like you have to seek ou anonymous bands on the Internet.
What years' top twenty selling singles are you talking about being of consistent high, or even okay, quality?
I'd truly like an example.
1996/97 charts
Oasis - Champagne Supernova
No Doubt - Don't Speak
Prodigy - Breathe
Garbage - Vow
Tonic - If You could Only See
Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes
Bee Gees - Alone
Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life
Will Smith - Men in Black
Presidents of the United States - Peaches
Nada Surf - Popular
Compare it to today's commercial crap.
I can't tell if you're joking with that list or not.
Nor I.
For the obvious (Spice Girls?) reason, and for the blatant cherry-picking.
ARIA Charts - Singles 1996
1 MACARENA - LOS DEL RIO
2 KILLING ME SOFTLY - FUGEES
3 BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME / POWER OF THE DREAM - CELINE DION
4 HOW BIZARRE - O.M.C.
5 WANNABE - SPICE GIRLS
6 ONE OF US - JOAN OSBOURNE
7 MISSING (THE REMIX EP) - EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL
8 RETURN OF THE MACK - MARK MORRISON
9 WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT - WARREN G
10 YOU'RE MAKING ME HIGH - TONI BRAXTON
11 X-FILES THEME - TRIPLE X
12 I WANT YOU - SAVAGE GARDEN
13 I LOVE YOU ALWAYS FOREVER - DONNA LEWIS
14 MACARENA - LOS DEL MAR
15 GIVE ME ONE REASON - TRACY CHAPMAN
16 BOOMBASTIC - SHAGGY
17 SEXUAL HEALING - MAX-A-MILLION
18 BE MY LOVER - LA BOUCHE
19 WONDERWALL - OASIS
20 FASTLOVE - GEORGE MICHAEL
I'd back last years top twenty sellers against that.
Skinny Love, Lego House, We Are Young, Thrift Shop.
What's worse, two Flo Rida songs, or two Macarenas?
I dunno if you meant to pick 1996 for any reason Wim, but it was known as a year that many great bands released albums (not necessarily great albums, but great bands were releasing them)
Off the top of my head, some of my favs that year:
- Tool Aenima
- RATM - Evil Empire
- Manson - Antichrist Superstar
- Pear Jam - No Code
- Beck - Odelay
- Stone temple Pilots - Tiny Music...
- Weezer - Pinkerton
- Eels - Beautiful Freak
- Sepultura - Roots
Plus albums from metallica and Pantera (which weren't their best), but a lot was happening that year. And yet, the top 20 singles looks like that!
And, being that I was 16 at the time grooving it up at Underage discos like Stylus and Jooce, those songs from the chart you listed, is exactly how I remember commercial music from the 90's.
Sh*t radio stations and nightclubs have ALWAYS played sh*t music. Now is no better or worse.
Thread is off topic.
Harem Scarem went ok, deserve a mention.
Machine Gun ■■■■■■■■ were a band so unique, their like will probably never be seen again.
It is a real shame they aren’t still kicking, & didn’t get a big enough following to still be so.
One I really miss.
I would also agree on Died Pretty from that lot. TISM had a cult fan base, but their style & localised lyrics would always mean they would not likely extend past the fans they had, and they always accepted that.
For me:
Died Pretty
Painters and Dockers (Nude School=classic)
Rat Cat
TISM
Machine Gun Ferllatio
If Hunters & Collectors change their name because an animal activist group, PETA is unhappy, what deep do-do the Painters & Dockers will be in !Is that why Frozen Doberman disappeared?
Also a good underrated aussie band. Anybody remember them? I saw them about 8 years ago, so they could still be around
Poor old Shihad got turned into a bunch of dummies.
Although they’re New Zullunders.
If Hunters & Collectors change their name because an animal activist group, PETA is unhappy, what deep do-do the Painters & Dockers will be in !
Is that why Frozen Doberman disappeared?
Also a good underrated aussie band. Anybody remember them? I saw them about 8 years ago, so they could still be around
Caligula were one of my faves through the 90's. Was a big fan of The Vines but they kind of just disappeared as quick as they appeared. Dave Graney still doesn't get enough love for me. Night of the Wolverine and The Soft 'n' Sexy Sound are still two of my all time favourite albums
I quite liked The Vines, especially the first album, but they were hardly underrated.
They got pushed up the ranks way harder than they should have, considering they couldn’t play live.
+1 for Diamond Dave & The Coral Snakes.
Caligula were one of my faves through the 90’s.
Was a big fan of The Vines but they kind of just disappeared as quick as they appeared.
Dave Graney still doesn’t get enough love for me. Night of the Wolverine and The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound are still two of my all time favourite albums
If Hunters & Collectors change their name because an animal activist group, PETA is unhappy, what deep do-do the Painters & Dockers will be in !
What have People Eating Tasty Animals got to do with Hunters?
If Hunters & Collectors change their name because an animal activist group, PETA is unhappy, what deep do-do the Painters & Dockers will be in !
Tex Perkins is underrated.
Beasts Of Bourbon, The Cruel Sea…
Top band! You could say also that YAI were horribly underrated internationally, one of our greatest rock bands imo
Even lived in You Am I’s shadow for their whole career
The Fauves - (SERIOUSLY under-rated, inexplicably written-off by many as a sort of TISM novelty act....) Ups And Downs Big Heavy Stuff Boom Crash Opera - (should've been as big as INXS, if not bigger) Weddings Parties Anything - (yeah I know they had some success, but they should've been WAAAYY bigger). The Clouds - (same as for the Weddoes) Serious Young Insects Hungry Kids of Hungary - (melodic pop-rock from the 00's didn't come any better than this...) Divinyls - (the band from the first couple of albums - Amphlett, McEntee, Ohlin, James, Grossman - was as powerful as you''ll ever see and it was - such a shame they imploded. The later incarnations were always a pale imitation). Matt Finish - (Short Note is still one of the best Aussie albums ever... pity the white powders came to the fore thereafter)Divinyls underrated??I was a big fan of WPA in their early days, but cripes the “dad” song made me want to puke. Put me off forever.
I reckon they have been, and it pains me that they are generally known for inferior fare written with (or by) external songwriters (like I Touch Myself and Pleasure & Pain).
And yep, agree with you 100% about WPA and Father’s Day. Their most successful single and album were easily their worst. It happens a lot - bands have their biggest success with their worst material. Happened with the Hoodoo Gurus too (What’s My Scene is an ordinary song, and its parent album is by far their worst).
Often the band/artist themselves will agree, and rarely do they rate their breadwinner as their creative highlight. Dave Faulkner certainly doesn’t, Steve Kilbey is almost disdainful of Under The Milky Way. Radiohead can’t disown Creep quickly enough. Ask Cheap Trick about The Flame…
Regurgitator
And following on from GRR’s jazz selections on page one, I would add James Morrison. Worldwide he is well known and recognised for the talent he is, particularly in Europe, but is criminally underrated in Australia.
The Fauves - (SERIOUSLY under-rated, inexplicably written-off by many as a sort of TISM novelty act....) Ups And Downs Big Heavy Stuff Boom Crash Opera - (should've been as big as INXS, if not bigger) Weddings Parties Anything - (yeah I know they had some success, but they should've been WAAAYY bigger). The Clouds - (same as for the Weddoes) Serious Young Insects Hungry Kids of Hungary - (melodic pop-rock from the 00's didn't come any better than this...) Divinyls - (the band from the first couple of albums - Amphlett, McEntee, Ohlin, James, Grossman - was as powerful as you''ll ever see and it was - such a shame they imploded. The later incarnations were always a pale imitation). Matt Finish - (Short Note is still one of the best Aussie albums ever... pity the white powders came to the fore thereafter)Divinyls underrated??I was a big fan of WPA in their early days, but cripes the “dad” song made me want to puke. Put me off forever.
I reckon they have been, and it pains me that they are generally known for inferior fare written with (or by) external songwriters (like I Touch Myself and Pleasure & Pain).
And yep, agree with you 100% about WPA and Father’s Day. Their most successful single and album were easily their worst. It happens a lot - bands have their biggest success with their worst material. Happened with the Hoodoo Gurus too (What’s My Scene is an ordinary song, and its parent album is by far their worst).
Often the band/artist themselves will agree, and rarely do they rate their breadwinner as their creative highlight. Dave Faulkner certainly doesn’t, Steve Kilbey is almost disdainful of Under The Milky Way. Radiohead can’t disown Creep quickly enough. Ask Cheap Trick about The Flame…
Can’t “p.u.k.e” on blitz, lol