"I know what I tend to picture when someone says "70s music" (Fleetwood Mac, obviously) or "80s music" (Duran Duran, obviously) but what is '90s music'? How do you synthesize (sorry, still thinking about 80s music) a decade where Mary J. Blige, the Gin Blossoms, the Spice Girls, Alice in Chains, Tupac and (sigh) Billy Ray Cyrus were all coming for our ears at once? I'm not sure anyone can, even Rob Harvilla, but he tries. And even if it's an impossible task, this will take 90s kids down any number of memory lanes, set up some killer playlists, exhume the ghosts of Woodstock '99, and - just maybe - explain why the hell we all let that swing revival in 1998 happen."
Publisher Twelve
Publication Date 2023-11-07
Section New Hardcover - Nonfiction / Music / All Staff Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Michael F.
Format Hardcover
ISBN 9781538759462
"ONE OF PITCHFORK'S BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF 2023
A companion to the #1 music podcast on Spotify, this book takes readers through the greatest hits that define a weirdly undefinable decade.
The 1990s were a chaotic and gritty and utterly magical time for music, a confounding barrage of genres and lifestyles and superstars, from grunge to hip-hop, from sumptuous R&B to rambunctious ska-punk, from Axl to Kurt to Missy to Santana to Tupac to Britney. In 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE '90s, Ringer music critic Rob Harvilla reimagines all the earwormy, iconic hits Gen Xers pine for with vivid historical storytelling, sharp critical analysis, rampant loopiness, and wryly personal ruminations on the most bizarre, joyous, and inescapable songs from a decade we both regret entirely and miss desperately."
