Recently, someone asked me whether I thought the '90s had been a better decade than the '80s. My first instinct was to reply, "Better for who?", since I was taught long ago to answer a tough question with a smart-ass question. But it got me thinking, and I realized that in a lot of ways the '90s were a better time than the '80s. We got economic prosperity instead of trickle-down theories (an economic model that Bill Maher once pointed out conjures images of the rich pissing on the poor), a political scandal involving blow jobs in the White House instead of Iran-contra arms deals. And for technological advancements it's hard to beat e-mail and the Internet. As for music, well, the '90s seemed like a time of unprecedented variety and even freedom as the introduction of SoundScan, perhaps one of the decade's most important behind-the-scenes developments, made it easier to gauge album sales, setting the stage for everything from Garth Brooks's first breakthrough to the explosion that was Nirvana to the sudden dominance of a hip-hop upstart like Master P. For a time it really seemed that anything might be possible. The dada-punk Boredoms with a major-label US deal? Why not? Maybe they'll even get some airplay. Then again . . .Of course, freedom and prosperity can take their toll. And I'd be lying if I said I'm not occasionally nostalgic for the bad old '80s, when an indie band were an indie band, a pop star was a pop star, and never the twain did meet, certainly not on the Academy Awards show. I mean, in the '80s you didn't have to worry about someone like Elliott Smith rubbing shoulders with a star like Celine Dion and then getting popular enough to sell out the big club in town so you'd end up having to watch him from the back of the room. On the other hand, the first couple of Lollapaloozas really were pretty damn cool, and there's something to be said for knocking down the walls that separate the underground from the mainstream, even if it does mean sharing some of the music you're passionate about with the masses.
With that in mind, we set out to bid a fond farewell to the '90s with a list of the decade's 90 best songs. There's no way to be objective here: favorite songs are as personal as a favorite color. And there's no way to quantify or be rational about such things, especially when you're dealing with a decade that saw everything from punk to metal to rap to techno to country hit the charts and the airwaves. I mean, can you apply the same criteria to a hip-hop song and a country tune? An ambient techno composition and a grunge anthem?
Probably not, but you can give it a shot. And so, nominations were collected from more than a dozen critics associated with the Phoenix, song titles were batted around, arguments ensued, feelings were hurt, and eventually 90 songs emerged in the form of an alphabetized list that represents some version of the '90s as we heard it. There are obvious picks like "Smells like Teen Spirit," but perhaps there'll be a few pleasant surprises, too. It's almost inevitable that some of your favorite songs didn't make it onto a list that could have easily run two, three, four, or five times as long. If nothing else, though, we're hoping that "90 Songs for the '90s" causes as many arguments among you and your friends as it did among the critics who contributed.
-- Matt Ashare, Music Editor