Then & Now: Popular Music 15 Years Later

March 10, 2009 SoItGoes 8 comments

So in my morning net surfing and message board participation’s I came across this list of the top 15 albums from a random week in 1994

Take a quick peak at it and you’ll see what was hot back then. You have Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Salt N Pepper, New Kids on the Block, Bryan Adams, and a host of other items that just make me cringe.

That being said what really caught my attention was the amount of albums I like and their position:

1. Alice in Chains- Jar of Flies

3. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Greatest Hits

6. Pearl Jam-Vs

12. Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream

14. Counting Crows- August and Everything After

So right there you have one album that I’m sure would be in my top 10 of the decade and two more that I consider to be great (Siamese dream, vs, jar of flies respectively). Plus there are a lot of other very listenable albums on that list that maybe they are not my favs but the Gin Blossoms, Cranberries, and Philadelphia soundtrack all have their merits. Pretty damn good week in music if you ask me.

Now take a look at what is hot today

Pretty damn scary. Sure there is a Bruce Springsteen album in the top 25 (towards the back end), but i have no interest in owning it. The Coldplay album is on there but I don’t have a single coldplay album on my ipod so that does nothing for me. The Lamb of God album is at number two which is kind of cool for metal, but I have no interest in buying it. I have a couple older albums and I feel that they are a band that I don’t need that much of.

I don’t think i own a single album on that list. I’m scraping trying to find albums i even halfway respect. Taylor Swift, Nickleback, The Jonas Brothers, Beyonce, and Jamie Fox all in the top ten. I shudder to think of listening to most of those and what it would do to me.

I am not trying to sound like the old guy when i was 16 who all he could talk about was how good Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and the Who were and these new bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and Alice in chains are all redundant and watered down. I understand there are reasons for this. Obviously I know there is good music being made today. There are reasons for the lack of what i consider to be quality music on the charts. One of course is the bands I think are making the good music just seem to do so on a smaller level and don’t get as much publicity. Of course many of these bands have their music stolen on file sharing networks and blogs so the sales do not go into the system, and this is just one week out of the year there will be other weeks that will have better representation of the current music scene.

All that said i still got a kick out of the difference between that one week from 1994 and this week today. Makes me feel old and a little reminiscent of those days!