Hello,
To answer your first question: I'm listening to music from 1995 because I watched an episode of the amazing "Cold Case" this past Tuesday night. The cold case they were investigating happened in 1995. For those that don't know, "Cold Case" feature lot of music in their episodes. A few of the songs that were featured I had completely forgotten about. As I listened to a lot of that music on Spotify, I quickly realized how much of it was forgettable. Thanks to the awesome people over at Spotify, I've been listening to one of their playlists of songs from 1995. It features 95 of the Top 100 songs according to Billboard for that year.
I'm taking Spotify's word for these songs being from 1995, I didn't do any research to confirm that. The Tootsee song mentions 1994, but for the most part I think these songs were from 1995.
But after listening to that year's music for about 10 hours, all I can say is 1995 sucked for music. There were a few great songs, many of which I'll be featuring later in this blog. But for the most part there was a lot of crappy music in 1995. I will mention a few examples of the crap music, but won't feature any of those songs on this blog. I don't support sucky music.
One reason for the 1995's bad music year is that rap music continued to move into the mainstream. To be acceptable to the mainstream a lot of the rap music was neutered. Some more hard core rap songs did get through. But for the most part that hard core rap was terrible. The glorious days of 80's rap was left far behind. A lot of the rap music from 1995 featured samples. But what most people call it by it's real name: stealing.
Also there was a lot of imitation going on in 1995, many bad ideas seems to be repeatedly recycled. The thinking seemed to be: If you don't have a good musical idea, just steal one and call it a sample. I don't remember many of these musicians and even less of their songs. Music was both disposable and utterly forgivable in 1995. Listening to my iTunes on random was a marked improvement.
Probably the most egregiously bad rap song is "Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz. You might have read where I've talked about lowest common denominator music. "Tootsee Roll" is an ultimate example of that kind of music. The lyrics are stupid, the beat is repetitive and even the name of the band shows the juvenile nature of the creative people behind this band.
Another of 1995's crappy rap music was Notorious BIG's "Big Poppa". Also Shaggy and Rayvon's out and out kifed Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime". I wouldn't even call that a sample. They basically took the original melody and rapped over it a bit and called that a song. Also Method Man and Mary J. Blige's "I'll Be There For You" was not very good. Other lowlights include Luniz's "I Got 5 On It", and the absolutely dreadful "Give It 2 You" by Da Brat (Was the name the Da No Talent already taken?) That song is horrible in every way possible.
I could go on and on with more examples of all the terrible rap music that year, just a couple more examples. 702 and Subway had "This Lil' Game We Play". I'm glad the sandwich making thing worked out for Subway, because his song didn't. Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s name is not only incredibly obnoxious to type, but "Player's Anthem" is as bad as it sounds like it would be. Finally Jodeci's "Freakin You" was another terrible song from that year. At least Skee Lo has a sense of humor on "I Wish", in spite of it being sexist. But like most rap songs from that year one quickly gets tired of them. 2 Pac's "Dear Mama" is at least listenable.
Also the R&B boy band movement was in full effect. This was highlighted by Boys 2 Men. They had a lot of hits, but their music was very disposable. Also Boys 2 Men had a lot of bad imitators. You'd be forgiven if you thought the Jon B song "Someone To Love" was sung by Boys 2 Men. As it was playing that's who I thought was singing the song. There was also the truth in advertising named band Immature and their very bland song "Constantly". There's no surprise Immature faded quickly. It seems the idea was for a Justin Bieber like career. Immature is so dull and talentless, comparatively Bieber is Elvis Presley. I'm not a Bieber hater either. Also Blackstreet's "Before I Let You Go" was another low point for R&B boy bands.
One of the worst bands of that year was the horrific Hootie and the Blowfish. Sample lyric: "I'm such a baby even dolphins make me cry." And Hootie I really don't wanna be with you. I hated that band in 1995 and never really understood why they took off so dramatically. And as with most music from that year, their music hasn't aged well. I don't blame Darius Rucker for leaving them and starting on a solo country music career. I actually like some of his solo music.
And how did Brandy ever become a star? That year she was responsible for some really bad songs. For instance "Baby" and "Brokenhearted". Slightly better but still forgettable were "Best Friend" and "I Wanna Be Down".
And again imitation was a big theme of 1995. Even when there was a good song like All-4-One's "I Can Love You Like That"....:
hh
.... there was a song like like Bryan Adam's extremely sappy "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman"?
Another great song from 1995 was Take That's "Back For Good":
Even classic 80's artists had some of the worst music of their career. As I mentioned with Bryan Adams above. But also Janet Jackson had "You Want This", which on a second listen was better. But why did that song sample the Supremes "Love Child". That sample feels so out of place in "You Want This." But it's nowhere in the same league as "Nasty", "Escapade" or "Control". In '95 Michael Jackson had "Scream", again far off from his "Thriller" peak. Even the consistently good Madonna had a low point with "Secret". The last two songs are decent songs.. A band named 4 P.M. covered a classic 80's song. They did an okay cover of A Taste Of Honey's "Sukiyaki", but again at best only a pale imitation:
Although hair metal, sadly, mostly died out in the early 90's, Firehouse was trying to keep it alive. Instead of keeping it alive, their song from that year might have been the final nail in the hair metal coffin. That song was the incredibly lame "I Live My Life For You". It was a much watered down of their excellent "Love Of A Lifetime". Well at least they imitated themselves.
Above are a few of the relatively few musical highlights from 1995. Some of the other highlights of that year include U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me": (I absolutely love this song.)
Better Than Ezra's "Good":
Thank goodness for Melissa Etheridge for bringing some grit, life experience and taste to 1995. You can tell that Etheridge had lived the lyrics she sang. That gives her music a lot of passion and believability. Thank you Melissa for being one of the lone highlights of 1995. This is her amazing "I'm The Only One":
"Like The Way I Do": (The above song is more well known, but this song kicks some butt too.)
Sophie B. Hawkins "As I Lay Me Down To Sleep":
Jack and the gorgeous Kate in "Roll To Me":
TLC's "Waterfalls":
Seal's "Kiss From A Rose":
1995 was the year for the decent "Colors of the Wind", but I prefer this Vanessa Williams song "The Sweetest Days":
Other good songs of 1995 include "The Real McCoy's "Run Away", The Pretenders "I'll Stand By You" and Natalie Merchant's "Carnival". Her voice is so pretty on that song.
I'm so glad this blog is written, because I'm so tired of listening to the derivative, pale imitation music of that year. I don't know if I will write any more blogs like this. I heard too many songs that I hope to never hear again. I'm going to listen to music from 1990 to see if that was a better year for music. I'm hoping so.
To see Billboard's Top 100 songs of 1995, go here: http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/1995.php. Just quickly looking over the songs from 1994, it was a much better year for music. It was so much diverse with many great songs coming from many genres: http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/1994.php
themusicaddict
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