Green Day fans, is this a good Hits compilation?
Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band

After sampling, I think I'm going to go ahead and purchase the Green Day Greatest Hits MP3 album above. I believe I've heard some of those songs but didn't know what or who it was.

2019...discovers Green Day.

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This is just how out of touch I am...

Several years ago I downloaded a 15 min. video (dated 2005) with the filename "Pilot Training - Bagotville 2003.mpeg". It's a recorded Canadian F/A-18 back seat joy ride. Mid-flight is edited for time but the jet is motionless at beginning and end of video. Great video, one of my favorites.

It begins with the screen "Pilot OJT - Bagotville 2003 - Life as it is" and starts playing Creed's "My Sacrifice". I recognized the sound as being Creed (I have the first two albums) but had never heard of the song before. Same with two others at the end of the video, U2's "Beautiful Day" and Green Day's "Time of Your Life". And that's how I know of these songs and why they're in my listings above. I have other U2 but that's all I knew of Green Day.

I made the mistake (IMO) of purchasing Creed's "Weathered" CD for that song, thinking I'll likely enjoy it since I really enjoy the first two albums. Eh, no. I only like that one song on the album. Lesson learned.

Tonight I watched a one hour show called "The Nineties | S1 E7 - Isn't it Ironic?" about 90's music!

Yup, pretty much how I remember it (mostly) until about 1993/94, then I must have tuned out completely because they totally lost me. No corn and limp biscuits for me, I have no idea what all that stuff was about in the later 90's. So maybe there's more "new" stuff out there just waiting for me to discover. Or not.

They did explain one thing, that while Coolio's "Gangstas Paradise" has a dark message, it also has a catchy chorus and hooks, making it accessible to everyone. I took that to mean that even a white guy like myself who detests 99.99% of Rap/Hip Hop music and culture and who can relate to *nothing* in the song might still enjoy listening to it (even if it was Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" spoof that I heard first ). Genius song because it works, I *do* enjoy listening to it.

I knew when the show started with Poison's "Unskinny Bop" video (1990) where they were going with it, but I don't completely agree that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" finished off Glam Rock/Metal. I dunno, I recall that many of us who listened to 80's 'Cock Rock' (with Poison being the extreme, thinking more like Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Cinderella) had already moved on to Guns N' Roses (1987), Living Colour (1988), The Black Crowes (1990), also Van Hagar's "OU812" (1988), "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" (1991) and in my case, Rush's "Presto" (1989), "Roll the Bones" (1991), and of course Metallica's 'Black Album' (1991). All before or at the same time as Nirvana's breakout hit.

They also showed Warrant's "Cherry Pie" video (1990). But then watch and listen to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on YouTube off the same album (April 1991), the song released one month before "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Nirvana introduced something else altogether that was fresh at the time, but major changes in the Rock landscape were already happening. Just my opinion, but I did purchase "Nevermind" and "In Utero" on release. I need to go back and check the deep cuts, but I'm moving "Rape Me" into the Top 200 if just to spite Walmart as was mentioned on that excellent program I just watched (they had to label it "Waif Me" on the album back cover).

For me personally and for better or worse, there are 5 quintessential things I will forever associate with the 90's!


Grunge music
Bill Clinton
X-Files
Jurassic Park
America Online

Grunge music... On that program last night (CNN/Tom Hanks) they showed short interview clips of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. The bands didn't seem to care much for the labels "Grunge" and "Seattle Sound". Go figure.

Bill Clinton... Wife's LSU graduation ceremony in 1989, the commemorative speech given by the governor of Arkansas who sounded like a real hick. I remember thinking, "They couldn't do any better than this?"

X-Files... Never seen it, but I could recognize the theme song from a Family Guy episode.

Jurassic Park... Even better just a few years back in IMAX 3D.

America Online... Already a long-time Compuserver (still am), AOL was for those not as serious about personal computing, probably using a Packard Bell with an SX (vs. DX) processor. So many CD coasters, worse than junk mail.

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For me, other than the music, the 90's were about settling down (as much as I'm capable of), the Olympics (bringing *great* employment opportunities for CAD work), and then leaving Atlanta for Jacksonville (I get antsy when I live in one place for too long). Also, my new '89 CRX Si with Sony CD head unit (a big deal then) which fortunately didn't have those dumbass automatic motorized seatbelts. Oh yeah, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and F-117A, along with all the cool DOS utilities (Quarterdeck and XTree).

My online experience actually started with Prodigy and then Compuserve but then I switched to AOL under one of those "first month free" deals of theirs. In retrospect that was a big mistake!

I remember trying a couple services out (short trials I guess) but I don't remember the names. Netscape maybe? Or was that the browser I was using? Maybe Net Zero? I don't remember except that they all sucked compared with CS, so I sucked up the cost of CS which at the beginning was charging me by the minute, IIRC. But the CS plans kept getting better to compete. I pay $10.00/mth to keep my long-time email (which I never check) and to go dial-up when my satellite ISP is down (which hasn't happened in a while, just gets spotty when the weather is horrible).

Netscape was the browser that Microsoft successfully killed off by offering IE for free with the OS.

NetZero was initially a "free" ISP (webpages were full of ads) but it went extinct after a couple of years.

You're right. It might have been Mindspring...

http://www.internetserviceproviders.org/blog/2011/10-early-isps-and-what-has-become-of-them/

I'm taking my time on one more update...

After 3rd listen through my Top 200, "Sand and Water", "Angel", the Shania and a couple of Sheryl's moving down to runner-ups, gotta make room a couple of Green Day's (listening to Hits now) and the rest, just too depressing for a single compilation. "Starseed" was an iTunes user error, also going to runner-ups.

And then I just noticed that "Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2U" wasn't in the 80's like I thought, it just squeezes into the 90's (Jan. 8, 1990) and this one trumps some of those other sad chicky songs (Jewel).

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EDIT: I'm ...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...e-ten-worst-bands-of-the-nineties-13654/

I did not remember Metallica's 'Black Album' coming out in 1991 (Aug.), I would have sworn it came out in the late-80's. I remember "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" getting lots of airplay on 96Rock (Atlanta). 1991 was a pretty good year for Rock.

SimHQ, we need a headbanging smilie.

Lists updated, Top 200 made a bit grungier and more metallic, as it should be (and a very enjoyable work in progress this has been). Additions include Pearl Jam's "Given to Fly" (very good track on full YouTube listen).

Funny coincidence because Mindspring was my very first ISP when I finally made the jump to broadband (DSL) in 2000.

I do miss having Comcast broadband when I lived in Jax. I don't remember when I first got cable internet, but I'm pretty sure I was still on dial-up when I moved from Atlanta to Jacksonville in late-'96.

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I'm very pleased with my current Top 200 now, my weakest song being 3 Doors Down's "Kryptonite" I think. I had to keep Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" if just because it's about a member of the Smashing Pumpkins. If I'm not digging the melancholy mood at the moment it comes around, I just skip past it. But it belongs.

I've been working on this project since around the middle of December, sticking first with what I already own and almost all of it burned from CDs, now being supplemented by a handful of Amazon MP3s. I'll probably always have the 'mix tape' mentality. Streaming would give me unlimited selection but I never do well with having too many options at once. Like having too many games installed, I can't stay focused on just one or two.

I'm sticking to the 90's time frame but I may one day do a Top Y2K+ which for me won't come close to 200 songs. The 90's really were a great decade of music, and I'm sure fans of other musical genres that I don't listen to like Country and Rap would agree. In fact, I'd put the best musical decades as 70's > 90's > 80's (I'm not old enough to properly rank the 60's and the 80's are still strong with good girlfriend memories).

A short but interesting perspective (apparently Grunge died in '94, about the time I musically zoned out)...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6sz8I04Xlw


And in case you missed my previous edit...
Readers’ Poll: The Ten Worst Bands of the Nineties

I'm still laughing over the Creed comments!

Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 was a huge factor behind the demise of grunge.

Makes sense. I'm checking some dates, but I did apparently pay attention at least until the mid-to-late-90's (Matchbox Twenty "Yourself or Someone Like You", "Live", "Collective Soul", Creed "Human Clay", etc.) What I've noticed in my CD collection is that I usually bought the first and maybe second album of each band, but no more (some have no more, others have many more). So first album or two and then maybe supplemented by a Greatest Hits later. But then, by the late-90's I was in my late-20's/early-30's so I'm sure age was also a factor on not running out so quickly to the record stores to buy new music.

Debut albums are often great because they can be kind of a greatest hits of that person's or band's creativity until that point (can be collective man-years in the making). But then a year or two later is just not enough time to come up with as much good material, maybe a good hit or two but with a lot of fluff.

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EDIT: Also "Californication" was released in 1999. I remember "Scar Tissue" and "Otherside" getting lots of radio air play, not sure about the title track which includes a reference to Kurt Cobain...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlUKcNNmywk

What a solid album, one of my favorites.

^ Follow-up to above video edit, I had to do one more off "Californication", the 'Peppers make awesome videos!...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_YodiJO6k

As I wrap up my listings (had to purchase two Eminem songs for my Runner-ups: "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady", mainly for comic relief ), I just wanted to note that there's a lot of music I left off because it doesn't seem 90's to me although it was released in the 90's.

A good example is Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell"...



...which included my only Pink Floyd concert in '94 (Bobby Dodd Stadium, Atlanta).

Yet I included Metallica because, regardless of how you feel about it, "Load"/"Reload" brought a change that's considered to be the 90's Metallica. Some even feel that the "Black Album" began that change to a softer more radio-friendly Metallica. I own and love it all ("Kill 'Em All" - "Reload" + "Garage Inc." and "S&M") and which "CD" I grab just depends my mood (or the mood I wish to put myself in).

"The Division Bell" just isn't very 90's sounding to me, more like the continuation of "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" (1987). And that's not a bad thing at all, just not so 90's. Just wanted to clear up why a lot of songs/albums are missing as I'm trying to stick with 90's sound.

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Wife and I just watched the 2000's music episode of the program I was talking about earlier ("2000's: I Want My MP3"). Starts with the Napster controversy and ends with Rock being dead and buried. Some interesting quotes (which may not be perfectly quoted)...

"In the early 2000's, the electric guitar was starting to be replaced by song sequencing software."

"Pop stars are becoming Rock stars. DJ's are becoming Rock stars. The only people who aren't becoming Rock stars are Rock stars."

Of all the Rock bands mentioned on the 2000's program, I'd only heard of two bands, Coldplay and Nickleback. And I know them by name only, I didn't recognize any of their music (and assuming they were showing their biggest hits). Bands like The Strokes and so many others mentioned, I'd never even heard of until this morning's program. IMO they're correct, Rock truly is dead and buried, at least in the mainstream. There's always the underground, but I've tested those waters before and came away disappointed by comparison.

Pffft. Who cares, though. I already have enough music to last the rest of my lifetime.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nkHrv_4Mg


EDIT: Upon further reflection, two reasons I rated 90's music higher than the 80's was: a) I had enough disposable income in the 90's to purchase the music I was interested in and b) Listening to 90's music didn't mean I stopped listening to 80's and 70's (and some 60's), it just meant I had a new and current option, giving me more music to enjoy.

I still use Mindspring here at work lol, nostalgia ISP for the DC/VA/MD region is an Erol's email address.

Some other 90's singers, groups & tunes to consider

Matthew Sweet - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Sweet

1991's Girlfriend is a great album

Girlfriend


1995 - from the album 100% Fun

Sick of Myself


Screaming Trees - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Trees

from 1992's Sweet Oblivion album

Dollar Bill


I Nearly Lost You



Arc Angels - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_Angels

from 1992's self titled album Arc Angels

Living In a Dream