Cool music 1992-1995?
February 24, 2012 6:54 AM Subscribe
During the years 1992 to 1995, what *popular* music did smart East Coast college students listen to?
I'm updating something that I'm writing, and I'd like to know examples of "cool" popular music from 1992-1995.
I'm looking for equivalent music to what east coast college students listened to from 1967-1971, e.g. The Beatles, the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc.
This is separate from the possibility that a smart college student might also listen to classical-type music and folk music or "world" music etc. I want to get into the pop music sensibility of college students from this time.
I'm updating something that I'm writing, and I'd like to know examples of "cool" popular music from 1992-1995.
I'm looking for equivalent music to what east coast college students listened to from 1967-1971, e.g. The Beatles, the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc.
This is separate from the possibility that a smart college student might also listen to classical-type music and folk music or "world" music etc. I want to get into the pop music sensibility of college students from this time.
You'll probably find good answers in the billboard top 100 lists for those years:
1992
1993
1994
1995
posted by Grither at 6:59 AM on February 24, 2012
1992
1993
1994
1995
posted by Grither at 6:59 AM on February 24, 2012
Rusted Root. Ani DiFranco.
posted by gnutron at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by gnutron at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [5 favorites]
(I fit this demographic)
Beyond the obvious grunge/modern rock choices like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, REM, Soundgarden, etc., hip hop was finally crossing over into the mainstream in a big way. I listened to a lot of De La Soul back then. Also a decent smattering of electro-pop (Stereolab) and electronica (The Orb, Orbital). I wasn't into it so much at the time but a lot of my friends were very into shoegazer bands.
posted by mkultra at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Beyond the obvious grunge/modern rock choices like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, REM, Soundgarden, etc., hip hop was finally crossing over into the mainstream in a big way. I listened to a lot of De La Soul back then. Also a decent smattering of electro-pop (Stereolab) and electronica (The Orb, Orbital). I wasn't into it so much at the time but a lot of my friends were very into shoegazer bands.
posted by mkultra at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
REM. P-Funk.
posted by entropone at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by entropone at 7:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, that was when Phish was starting to get popular.
posted by gnutron at 7:02 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by gnutron at 7:02 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
On the artsier end: Pavement, Digable Planets, Luna, the Breeders
posted by neroli at 7:05 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by neroli at 7:05 AM on February 24, 2012
Soul Asylum, Smashing Pumpkins, Screaming Trees (and nthing Dave Matthews, Rusted Root, Ani, REM, Beastie Boys, Phish, Digable Planets...).
posted by anya32 at 7:05 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by anya32 at 7:05 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Probably a good place to start would be tracking down a playlist for a college radio station that was run like a mainstream commercial one. Brown's WBRU (with the tagline "the cutting edge of rock" during that time frame) would probably fit the bill.
posted by stagewhisper at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by stagewhisper at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Billboard Magazine's Number one modern rock hits of 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995
posted by dgeiser13 at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by dgeiser13 at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
College Music Journal back issues are online. You can browse the charts published in the issues from that period.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2012
Best answer: I was a college DJ in (upstate) New York in precisely those years. This is stuff I remember playing a lot of.
The Pixies
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Black 47
Whatever obscure ska band I could get my hands on
Maceo Parker (especially the album "Live from Planet Groove")
Superchunk
Beck
Ween
The Pretenders
P-Funk
REM
Phish
Late Beatles (esp Let it Be)
Dag
Luscious Jackson
L7
The Cramps
posted by Buffaload at 7:09 AM on February 24, 2012 [13 favorites]
The Pixies
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Black 47
Whatever obscure ska band I could get my hands on
Maceo Parker (especially the album "Live from Planet Groove")
Superchunk
Beck
Ween
The Pretenders
P-Funk
REM
Phish
Late Beatles (esp Let it Be)
Dag
Luscious Jackson
L7
The Cramps
posted by Buffaload at 7:09 AM on February 24, 2012 [13 favorites]
REM.
The thing about REM was that their "Out of Time" album had come out around this time, but REM "fans" who would have been in college around this time were more interested in their earlier albums from when they listened to REM in high school.
Metallica had crossed over a few years earlier into regular radio play on the alternative stations, which also seemed to play Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam nonstop.
There was also still a strong divide between "Billboard" hits and "Campus Radio." I distinctly remember a fair amount of campus radio charts back at that time, but all I can find right now is this chart from 1995 in Canada. You can see the Bjork appearing in the early years of her solo career after the Sugarcubes broke up, as well as appearances by Ani Defranco, Fugazi, and NOFX.
posted by deanc at 7:11 AM on February 24, 2012
The thing about REM was that their "Out of Time" album had come out around this time, but REM "fans" who would have been in college around this time were more interested in their earlier albums from when they listened to REM in high school.
Metallica had crossed over a few years earlier into regular radio play on the alternative stations, which also seemed to play Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam nonstop.
There was also still a strong divide between "Billboard" hits and "Campus Radio." I distinctly remember a fair amount of campus radio charts back at that time, but all I can find right now is this chart from 1995 in Canada. You can see the Bjork appearing in the early years of her solo career after the Sugarcubes broke up, as well as appearances by Ani Defranco, Fugazi, and NOFX.
posted by deanc at 7:11 AM on February 24, 2012
The Pixies
posted by Rock Steady at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Seconding the CMJ suggestion, particularly if you want to know what the in-the-know kids were listening to back then. I seem to recall that -- in addition to their nationwide charts -- they'd sometimes publish selected charts as submitted by the individual college stations, which might allow you to add a little more specific local flavor to it.
posted by orthicon halo at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by orthicon halo at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2012
Check out the episode guides for 120 Minutes, and Lollapalooza lineups for those years. Obviously, some college kids are going to be more on the Cranberries side of things, and some are going to trend more Offspringy or Rage Against the Machine.
posted by drlith at 7:14 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by drlith at 7:14 AM on February 24, 2012
There was also still a strong divide between "Billboard" hits and "Campus Radio."
Strongly endorsing this. College students were really not listening to much pop/top 100 music at that time, which was strongly headed in an 'adult contemporary' vein. College radio and college charts are the place to look.
posted by Miko at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
Strongly endorsing this. College students were really not listening to much pop/top 100 music at that time, which was strongly headed in an 'adult contemporary' vein. College radio and college charts are the place to look.
posted by Miko at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
Don't forget about hip-hop! The early 90s saw an explosion in popularity and all these artists released multi-platinum albums in that timeframe:
Wu Tang Clan
Tupac
LL Cool J
Snoop
Dr. Dre
Biggie Smalls
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
posted by griphus at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Wu Tang Clan
Tupac
LL Cool J
Snoop
Dr. Dre
Biggie Smalls
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
posted by griphus at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Looking at what was being played on MTV's 120 Minutes during those years might help.
Here is an archive.
posted by eunoia at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012
Here is an archive.
posted by eunoia at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012
I was a smart college kid in the mid 90s:
My personal playlist in no particular order:
Smashing Pumpkins
Tool
Tori Amos
NIN
Marilyn Manson
Radiohead
U2
Moby
Prodigy
Chemical Brothers
Fat Boy Slim
posted by empath at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [5 favorites]
My personal playlist in no particular order:
Smashing Pumpkins
Tool
Tori Amos
NIN
Marilyn Manson
Radiohead
U2
Moby
Prodigy
Chemical Brothers
Fat Boy Slim
posted by empath at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2012 [5 favorites]
REM
New Order
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains
NIN
Smashing Pumpkins
(was Mojo Nixon still going in that era?)
among many others
Hip Hop was also becoming more popular among a wider audience.
are you looking for the indie college scene stuff, or pop, hipper type pop....?
posted by caddis at 7:16 AM on February 24, 2012
New Order
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains
NIN
Smashing Pumpkins
(was Mojo Nixon still going in that era?)
among many others
Hip Hop was also becoming more popular among a wider audience.
are you looking for the indie college scene stuff, or pop, hipper type pop....?
posted by caddis at 7:16 AM on February 24, 2012
The singer-songwriter thing was big back then too. I remember Jewel being popular among that crowd before she went mainstream and techno-pop.
Radiohead is probably the epitome of "smart rock" but that might be a couple of years after your time frame.
There was definitely a strong trend toward older music, particularly progressive-rock bands like Rush and Yes. A lot of Led Zeppelin too.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 7:18 AM on February 24, 2012
Radiohead is probably the epitome of "smart rock" but that might be a couple of years after your time frame.
There was definitely a strong trend toward older music, particularly progressive-rock bands like Rush and Yes. A lot of Led Zeppelin too.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 7:18 AM on February 24, 2012
Radiohead is probably the epitome of "smart rock" but that might be a couple of years after your time frame.
The Bends was their break out album and that came out in 1995, Pablo Honey came out in 1993, and Creep was a big radio hit.
posted by empath at 7:23 AM on February 24, 2012
The Bends was their break out album and that came out in 1995, Pablo Honey came out in 1993, and Creep was a big radio hit.
posted by empath at 7:23 AM on February 24, 2012
Radiohead is probably the epitome of "smart rock" but that might be a couple of years after your time frame.
"Creep"-era Radiohead was pretty popular on campus in the early 90s.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:23 AM on February 24, 2012
"Creep"-era Radiohead was pretty popular on campus in the early 90s.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:23 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't know how smart I necessarily was, but I went to an East Coast college from 1991-1995.
Lots of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, REM, U2, Nine Inch Nails. Throwing Muses, Breeders, Pixies, I got really really really into Morphine after seeing the movie "Spanking the Monkey". Black 47. Sonic Youth. Ned's Atomic Dustbin.
When I get home from work I'll look through all the mix tapes I have from that era.
Whenever the dance club on campus had an Early 80's night, IT WAS PACKED.
(was Mojo Nixon still going in that era?)
He played an outdoor concert on campus one year. I got a shoe knocked off my foot and destroyed in the mosh pit.
posted by Lucinda at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2012
Lots of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, REM, U2, Nine Inch Nails. Throwing Muses, Breeders, Pixies, I got really really really into Morphine after seeing the movie "Spanking the Monkey". Black 47. Sonic Youth. Ned's Atomic Dustbin.
When I get home from work I'll look through all the mix tapes I have from that era.
Whenever the dance club on campus had an Early 80's night, IT WAS PACKED.
(was Mojo Nixon still going in that era?)
He played an outdoor concert on campus one year. I got a shoe knocked off my foot and destroyed in the mosh pit.
posted by Lucinda at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2012
Weezer and The Presidents of the United States of America came in at the tail end of your timeframe.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Rock Steady at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2012
The singer-songwriter thing was big back then too
Great point, and I was really into that "alternative singer-songwriter" stuff along with my social circle, and the scene for this music was particularly huge in the Boston area and New England.
Dar Williams
Peter Mulvey
Aimee Mann
Jill Sobule
Martin Sexton in his early career
Kristin Hersh's record Hips and Makers
I think you're right to cut this question off at 1995 because, from my perspective, 1996 represented a sea change in alternative/college music (or whatever you wanted to call it). Once Alanis Morrisette and Fiona Apple and the Spin Doctors came around, this music genre became something different.
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Great point, and I was really into that "alternative singer-songwriter" stuff along with my social circle, and the scene for this music was particularly huge in the Boston area and New England.
Dar Williams
Peter Mulvey
Aimee Mann
Jill Sobule
Martin Sexton in his early career
Kristin Hersh's record Hips and Makers
I think you're right to cut this question off at 1995 because, from my perspective, 1996 represented a sea change in alternative/college music (or whatever you wanted to call it). Once Alanis Morrisette and Fiona Apple and the Spin Doctors came around, this music genre became something different.
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Talking Heads were still huge - we were playing "Stop Making Sense" and "Naked" well into the early 90s.
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
East Coast Smart College Kids of the Mid Nineties Reprazent!
A few others that we were listening to, in addition to the above:
Boo Radleys
Stereolab
Afghan Whigs
Morphine
New Order (i.e., Republic came out in 1993 or so).
But there was a lot of Britpop floating around (Blur, Oasis, Cornershop, Sleeper, Elastica, Echobelly, I think early Verve)
And of course, the old stuff, Joy Division, Clash, etc.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
A few others that we were listening to, in addition to the above:
Boo Radleys
Stereolab
Afghan Whigs
Morphine
New Order (i.e., Republic came out in 1993 or so).
But there was a lot of Britpop floating around (Blur, Oasis, Cornershop, Sleeper, Elastica, Echobelly, I think early Verve)
And of course, the old stuff, Joy Division, Clash, etc.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
Good times back then. Violent Femmes, 10,000 Maniacs, Phish, the Smiths, REM. But also some silly stuff like I Gotta Man, Jump Around, oh What a Night.
posted by slmorri at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by slmorri at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2012
Oh, and things like Juliana Hatfield 3, Frente, Throwing Muses/Belly, Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices.
I know I'm an old man, but it was great to be in college then. Stereolab, Boo Radleys, Yo La Tengo and Guided by Voices all performed in my school's dining center (at different times, obvs.) to crowds of 75 people, tops.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:34 AM on February 24, 2012
I know I'm an old man, but it was great to be in college then. Stereolab, Boo Radleys, Yo La Tengo and Guided by Voices all performed in my school's dining center (at different times, obvs.) to crowds of 75 people, tops.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:34 AM on February 24, 2012
I would seek out old copies of Rolling Stone. Some totally random bands that come to mind are jane's addiction, pixies, jesus jones, chris isaack, L7, hole, red hot chili peppers, emf, faith no more, suicidal tendencies, morrissey. The ramones experienced a bizarre popular resurgence, a ramones tee was like shorthand for 'I rule'.
Full disclosure: I was only in highschool and on the west coast.
Hip hop was a huge deal. The pharcyde, wu-tang, gravediggaz.
And fugazi and bikini kill.
On the west coast we were listening to kroq if we listened to pop radio at all.
posted by pazazygeek at 7:34 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Full disclosure: I was only in highschool and on the west coast.
Hip hop was a huge deal. The pharcyde, wu-tang, gravediggaz.
And fugazi and bikini kill.
On the west coast we were listening to kroq if we listened to pop radio at all.
posted by pazazygeek at 7:34 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Depending on the gender of this student: Tori Amos, Paula Cole and Sarah MacLachlan may also have made an occasional appearance. Tori's Under The Pink was out in 1994, but her earlier Little Earthquakes was also still big - that was out in 92. Paula's Harbinger was out in '94 as well -- it was the one before the album with"Where Have All The Cowboys Gone", so Harbinger may still have some "exclusive" cred. A good track on Harbinger is "I Am So Ordinary." And Sarah's big break was Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, from 1993 (and was also the one before the album that had all the Sarah songs you're now sick of).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2012
Oh, and Bjork's first solo album was out in '93. The Sugarcubes were big in the '88-'92 college radio circut, so she may have gotten some residual attention from that alone.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
The Shamen! Smart E's! They Might Be Giants! Jesus Jones! EMF! Siouxie and the Banshees! The Creatures! Madonna's Erotica album and Sex book came out late '92!
(man, this is bringing back AWESOME memories)
posted by Lucinda at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
(man, this is bringing back AWESOME memories)
posted by Lucinda at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Oh, and I should probably say that if they were within 3-5 hours of DC, they would have gone to the HFStival every single summer.
posted by empath at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by empath at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
(Oh, and Grateful Dead shows were still a big thing in the 90s, too -- seriously).
posted by empath at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by empath at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012
Oh! Barenaked Ladies! Gordon was out in '92, and Maybe You Should Drive in '94.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Radiohead is probably the epitome of "smart rock" but that might be a couple of years after your time frame.
"Creep"-era Radiohead was pretty popular on campus in the early 90s.
Yeah, until Radiohead came out with the Bends (though the major turning point was OK Computer) they were just that "Creep Band," and were just another one-hit wonder. No one I knew took them seriously before they released their second album.
posted by Windigo at 7:44 AM on February 24, 2012
"Creep"-era Radiohead was pretty popular on campus in the early 90s.
Yeah, until Radiohead came out with the Bends (though the major turning point was OK Computer) they were just that "Creep Band," and were just another one-hit wonder. No one I knew took them seriously before they released their second album.
posted by Windigo at 7:44 AM on February 24, 2012
On tap in Athens, GA at that time were:
REM
Drivin' n Cryin'
Vic Chestnutt
Widespread Panic
...among the others listed here. This might be a bit too regional, though.
posted by jquinby at 7:45 AM on February 24, 2012
REM
Drivin' n Cryin'
Vic Chestnutt
Widespread Panic
...among the others listed here. This might be a bit too regional, though.
posted by jquinby at 7:45 AM on February 24, 2012
No one I knew took them seriously before they released their second album.
I did :) I listened to Pablo Honey over and over and over again, back to back with u2's Zooropa (I think they both came out at the same time.)
posted by empath at 7:47 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
I did :) I listened to Pablo Honey over and over and over again, back to back with u2's Zooropa (I think they both came out at the same time.)
posted by empath at 7:47 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Paula's Harbinger was out in '94 as well -- it was the one before the album with"Where Have All The Cowboys Gone", so Harbinger may still have some "exclusive" cred. A good track on Harbinger is "I Am So Ordinary." And Sarah's big break was Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, from 1993 (and was also the one before the album that had all the Sarah songs you're now sick of).
"The One Before the Popular One" would be a great album title.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
"The One Before the Popular One" would be a great album title.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'd add Soul Coughing although they're right at the end of your date range. Popular in the NYC area for sure but perhaps not all over the East Coast.
posted by tommasz at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
Wow, empath, those were some serious lineups at the HFStival. OP, check those out--definitely many/most of the names you're looking for.
No one I knew took [Radiohead] seriously before they released their second album.
Truth.
Pulp! Concrete Blonde!
Plus, some alt-country was coming in around then, too--Old 97s, Robbie Fulks, Jason and the Scorchers, Rev. Horton Heat, etc. (Not that all of those were new, or were exactly in that timeframe, but they were becoming prominent.)
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012
No one I knew took [Radiohead] seriously before they released their second album.
Truth.
Pulp! Concrete Blonde!
Plus, some alt-country was coming in around then, too--Old 97s, Robbie Fulks, Jason and the Scorchers, Rev. Horton Heat, etc. (Not that all of those were new, or were exactly in that timeframe, but they were becoming prominent.)
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012
Achtung Baby came out in November '91 and that was a TOTAL game changer for me.
posted by Lucinda at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Lucinda at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
I know y'all are going to try and tell me you did not listen to Squirrel Nut Zippers, but stop frontin'.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:51 AM on February 24, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 7:51 AM on February 24, 2012 [6 favorites]
People are giving many great answers to "what would music-centric people who read CMJ and/or went to rock shows and/or would have listened to WHFS in DC or WFNX in Boston" listening to, which may or may not be what the OP is asking. Only that subgroup would be listening to the Pixies, Pavement, Jesus and Mary Chain, Guided by Voices, etc. As for really popular music, yes, REM, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and U2 -- but in 1992 many more people at Harvard were still playing "The Joshua Tree" again and again than "Achtung Baby." REM was big enough that the record store stayed open until midnight when "Automatic For the People," came out, and everybody came home with their cassettes and CDs and we had al listening party.
I can also attest that the Spin Doctors were unironically and hugely beloved at Harvard in 1993.
Oh, and duh, Red Hot Chili Peppers. That CD was probably second only to The Joshua Tree and Bob Marley Legend in Harvard dorm room penetration.
(In college 1989-93).
posted by escabeche at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
I can also attest that the Spin Doctors were unironically and hugely beloved at Harvard in 1993.
Oh, and duh, Red Hot Chili Peppers. That CD was probably second only to The Joshua Tree and Bob Marley Legend in Harvard dorm room penetration.
(In college 1989-93).
posted by escabeche at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
College rock at the University of Michigan in that era, at least, also included Cranberries, Lisa Loeb, Counting Crows, Primus, Shonen Knife, Pizzicato Five, Green Day, Spin Doctors. Pink Floyd's Pulse came out in that era, and Foo Fighters' first album was out in 1995.
Anyone on the East Coast at that time want to vouch for cross-regional popularity?
posted by Andrhia at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Anyone on the East Coast at that time want to vouch for cross-regional popularity?
posted by Andrhia at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, I think the sex of your smart college student matters here.
posted by escabeche at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by escabeche at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2012
Best answer: The thing about "popular" music at that time was that Nirvana had just radically altered the musical landscape, so that what was popular from 92-95, especially amongst my friends and I at school (93-97) was basically "alternative" music, hence all the recommendations for checking out 120 minutes playlists. Most of the bands people have listed above were popular amongst my cohort at the University of Virginia (for more info, read "Love is a Mixtape" by Rob Sheffield, who was a grad student at UVa during my time there - the book is about his eventual wife and their bond over music).
Anyway, my playlist:
Nirvana
Morhpine
Smasing Pumpkins
Weezer
Stereolab
Rusted Root
Pearl Jam
REM
Fugazi (regional influence)
Primus
Helmet
NIN
The "Kids" Soundtrack
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Luscious Jackson
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains
Mazzy Star
Liz Phair
The Rolling Stones also started re-releasing some of their remastered albums in packaging that was exactly like the original LP formats (only smaller), so some of us really started getting into them around this time
Pavement
Beck
PJ Harvey
Soul Coughing
Stone Roses
Some one-hit alterna-wonder stuff like Hum and Tripping Daisy
I had some really cool friends who were into Shoegaze at that time, so My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride
Also, it might have just been a thing with my being in architectural school, but we played a shitload of acid jazz back then, which had broken into the popular mainstream a bit thanks to the Get Shorty soundtrack and the Beastie Boys, although that might have been just after your timeframe.
posted by LionIndex at 8:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Anyway, my playlist:
Nirvana
Morhpine
Smasing Pumpkins
Weezer
Stereolab
Rusted Root
Pearl Jam
REM
Fugazi (regional influence)
Primus
Helmet
NIN
The "Kids" Soundtrack
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Luscious Jackson
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains
Mazzy Star
Liz Phair
The Rolling Stones also started re-releasing some of their remastered albums in packaging that was exactly like the original LP formats (only smaller), so some of us really started getting into them around this time
Pavement
Beck
PJ Harvey
Soul Coughing
Stone Roses
Some one-hit alterna-wonder stuff like Hum and Tripping Daisy
I had some really cool friends who were into Shoegaze at that time, so My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride
Also, it might have just been a thing with my being in architectural school, but we played a shitload of acid jazz back then, which had broken into the popular mainstream a bit thanks to the Get Shorty soundtrack and the Beastie Boys, although that might have been just after your timeframe.
posted by LionIndex at 8:28 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Oh, and the really mega-popular stuff: Hootie, Alannis, Counting Crows
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 AM on February 24, 2012
Hey, they asked about smart East Coast college kids. Natalie Merchant, Britpop.
posted by rhizome at 8:34 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by rhizome at 8:34 AM on February 24, 2012
I was in undergrad from 92-96 in Boston as well, and escabeche's experiences match my memory almost exactly.
posted by deanc at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by deanc at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2012
And, ugh, Stone Temple Pilots.
Re: Spin Doctors: my first-year roommate had Pocket Full of Kryptonite, which was actually, IMO, a pretty good album. By the time I got to college, their day in the sun had passed, but I'm sure that was different in 92.
Also, being at UVA, I was around for the breakout of the Dave Matthews Band. They were already huge on grounds when I started, and I had no idea who they were.
posted by LionIndex at 8:40 AM on February 24, 2012
Re: Spin Doctors: my first-year roommate had Pocket Full of Kryptonite, which was actually, IMO, a pretty good album. By the time I got to college, their day in the sun had passed, but I'm sure that was different in 92.
Also, being at UVA, I was around for the breakout of the Dave Matthews Band. They were already huge on grounds when I started, and I had no idea who they were.
posted by LionIndex at 8:40 AM on February 24, 2012
Anyone on the East Coast at that time want to vouch for cross-regional popularity?
Yep, all of those. And that Cranberries record was a monster.
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Yes, and good point this, in 1994-5 the swing revival was getting underway with acts like Royal Crown Revue and the Brian Setzer Orchestra and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Swingers came out in 1996 and by the time the famous Gap ad came out, people in the scene were like "oh God now it's all ruined" so that sort of marked the end of an era.
Admittedly, though, this was a niche scene.
posted by Miko at 8:42 AM on February 24, 2012
Yep, all of those. And that Cranberries record was a monster.
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Yes, and good point this, in 1994-5 the swing revival was getting underway with acts like Royal Crown Revue and the Brian Setzer Orchestra and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Swingers came out in 1996 and by the time the famous Gap ad came out, people in the scene were like "oh God now it's all ruined" so that sort of marked the end of an era.
Admittedly, though, this was a niche scene.
posted by Miko at 8:42 AM on February 24, 2012
"What's in your heeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, in your heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad? This song, this song, this song, song, song"
- Friend of mine, circa 1994
posted by Lucinda at 8:45 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
- Friend of mine, circa 1994
posted by Lucinda at 8:45 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians: Respect ('93), Perspex Island ('91).
posted by scruss at 8:47 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by scruss at 8:47 AM on February 24, 2012
As for stuff that was not necessarily cutting edge but was de rigeur: at my small New England liberal arts school we developed a list of 5 records that everybody had. These were the records you heard playing from a boom box out a window on the first nice days in spring:
Bob Marley, Exodus
Jimmy Buffet, Songs You Know by Heart
Steve Miller, Greatest Hits
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Allman Brothers, Decade
This all fit a certain feel-good, Ultimate-Frisbee-playing vibe even though it wasn't new music. Also, I shit you not, a lot of what people actually owned and played had to do with record clubs. Yes, if you were cool you subscribed to CMJ but if you were less cool you got repeatedly suckered into that preliminary "12 CDs for $5!" deal from BMG, which meant that a lot of our CD collections leaned heavily toward current blockbuster releases and classic rock "greatest hits" compilations.
posted by Miko at 8:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Bob Marley, Exodus
Jimmy Buffet, Songs You Know by Heart
Steve Miller, Greatest Hits
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Allman Brothers, Decade
This all fit a certain feel-good, Ultimate-Frisbee-playing vibe even though it wasn't new music. Also, I shit you not, a lot of what people actually owned and played had to do with record clubs. Yes, if you were cool you subscribed to CMJ but if you were less cool you got repeatedly suckered into that preliminary "12 CDs for $5!" deal from BMG, which meant that a lot of our CD collections leaned heavily toward current blockbuster releases and classic rock "greatest hits" compilations.
posted by Miko at 8:48 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thank you, this is all great. I couldn't favorite everything.
This is a female I'm talking about. I don't have to do research -- it's really all in these answers.
posted by DMelanogaster at 8:49 AM on February 24, 2012
This is a female I'm talking about. I don't have to do research -- it's really all in these answers.
posted by DMelanogaster at 8:49 AM on February 24, 2012
Another thing that got a lot of radio play back in '93 or so was George Harrison's Live in Japan album. Keep in mind that at that time, college students had sort of a cultural divide between people who stuck with classic rock, those who became fans of alt-rock, and then the "college radio" listeners.
posted by deanc at 8:54 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by deanc at 8:54 AM on February 24, 2012
As for stuff that was not necessarily cutting edge but was de rigeur: at my small New England liberal arts school we developed a list of 5 records that everybody had. These were the records you heard playing from a boom box out a window on the first nice days in spring:
Bob Marley, Exodus
I would substitute Legend in there for that one. And, also thanks to the music clubs, a lot of people had the Eagles' greatest hits (1 & 2).
posted by LionIndex at 8:58 AM on February 24, 2012
Bob Marley, Exodus
I would substitute Legend in there for that one. And, also thanks to the music clubs, a lot of people had the Eagles' greatest hits (1 & 2).
posted by LionIndex at 8:58 AM on February 24, 2012
Response by poster: I wonder if I could slip in a subsidiary question-lette: at this same time, let's say 1995, what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
Of course she'd have used her word processor to write her papers, but is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
(I was 45 in 1995 and I was on ECHO, which was and still is the little-known east coast version of the Well. I got to ECHO via telnet/puTTy (beginning in 1990). But I don't think that was usual, was it?)
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2012
Of course she'd have used her word processor to write her papers, but is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
(I was 45 in 1995 and I was on ECHO, which was and still is the little-known east coast version of the Well. I got to ECHO via telnet/puTTy (beginning in 1990). But I don't think that was usual, was it?)
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2012
I graduated from highschool in '93 and went directly to a brainy women's college. My tapes & CDs list included:
Liz Phair
Dinosaur jr
Indigo Girls
Jill Sobule
Portishead & other trip hop
ska - Me, Mom & Morgentaler from Montreal, for example
phish was certainly coming onto the scene
posted by Heart_on_Sleeve at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2012
Liz Phair
Dinosaur jr
Indigo Girls
Jill Sobule
Portishead & other trip hop
ska - Me, Mom & Morgentaler from Montreal, for example
phish was certainly coming onto the scene
posted by Heart_on_Sleeve at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2012
Also, there was plenty of "shuffle culture" despite the absence of Shuffles. It was a mixtape-type crowd and people dug for stuff. Having obscure stuff on your gift mixtape was a point of pride that signalled your musical sophstication, so people drew from music from the 60s onward and compiled that with other more recent stuff on mix tapes or CDs.
One of my friends maintained that Desmond Decker's Israelites was a mix requirement and to this day I never seem to meet anyone who doesn't know that song.
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
posted by Miko at 9:13 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
One of my friends maintained that Desmond Decker's Israelites was a mix requirement and to this day I never seem to meet anyone who doesn't know that song.
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
posted by Miko at 9:13 AM on February 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
I wonder if I could slip in a subsidiary question-lette: at this same time, let's say 1995, what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
She would almost definitely be using dialup if she was online at all. Netscape would be the choice around then or AOL's built-in browser, since the odds would be high that she'd be using AOL for dialup. A couple metro areas were able to get internet access via cable modem by the late 90s, but this was uncommon.
is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
If she were particularly interested in the web, she'd have a Geocities or angelfire page. Possibly a "homepage" from her college account, if she were particularly tech-savvy (eg, undergrad CS student).
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
QFT. The comments here have been such a great journey back into my past!
posted by deanc at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
She would almost definitely be using dialup if she was online at all. Netscape would be the choice around then or AOL's built-in browser, since the odds would be high that she'd be using AOL for dialup. A couple metro areas were able to get internet access via cable modem by the late 90s, but this was uncommon.
is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
If she were particularly interested in the web, she'd have a Geocities or angelfire page. Possibly a "homepage" from her college account, if she were particularly tech-savvy (eg, undergrad CS student).
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
QFT. The comments here have been such a great journey back into my past!
posted by deanc at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Of course she'd have used her word processor to write her papers, but is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
No. I started college in 1995 at a very connected college (campus-wide Apple Talk, baby! Marathon all night long!), but it was far from everyone who was actively using the Internet. I'd say maybe 90% of students had their own computer, but only between 40%-60% of students used them online. If it is necessary for your story that she be online, you could make it plausible, but it wouldn't be assumed.
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
Oh, hells yes. Dick Dale's Misirlou as well.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
No. I started college in 1995 at a very connected college (campus-wide Apple Talk, baby! Marathon all night long!), but it was far from everyone who was actively using the Internet. I'd say maybe 90% of students had their own computer, but only between 40%-60% of students used them online. If it is necessary for your story that she be online, you could make it plausible, but it wouldn't be assumed.
Also, the influence of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) should not be understated. "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Lime in the Coconut" were ubiquitous for a while.
Oh, hells yes. Dick Dale's Misirlou as well.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Of course she'd have used her word processor to write her papers, but is it a given that she'd be on the Web?
So I graduated from college in 1993. During my sophomore year (91) I had learned about this amazing way you could communicate with your friends at other schools without paying long-distance phone charges, and you just had to go to some creepy basement in your school's AV services department and register for a Unix password and learn some commands on a green-screen terminal. Awesome! I started emailing and soon discovered FTP and BBSes and MUDs and the other cool stuff that was on the internet. It felt rather like a secret society, though. I remember in 1992 reading an article in USA Today about the Internet hitting 2 million users. I was like wow, there are a lot of us out there.
The graphical web was sort of new though (1992?) and very, very limited. I remember being of the opinion that it was going to ruin the Internet (I'm still not sure I was wrong).
what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
She might honestly not own her own computer yet. In college very few people did. We did write our papers on the computer, but we went to the computer lab to do it. Labs were pretty big and had long hours and attendants - lots of people did work-study as lab attendants. So when you got out of school, if you didn't get your own PC which was fairly expensive, you went to the library or - no, really - an internet cafe. Or you used the computers at your job illicitly. I did my first resume on a library computer and just ran around with all my stuff on a couple disks in a plastic holder in my backpack.
I tried to get online every chance I got. Until 1996 I didn't have my own computer, but I used my roommate's and the one at my job. My first email address was Lycosmail and I experimented with Juno and Yahoo and Hotmail. I did browse on Netscape. There wasn't all that much to do online yet that used the graphical web, though. There was eBay and song lyrics sites, and people set up their own really silly, limited and clunky personal websites.
posted by Miko at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
So I graduated from college in 1993. During my sophomore year (91) I had learned about this amazing way you could communicate with your friends at other schools without paying long-distance phone charges, and you just had to go to some creepy basement in your school's AV services department and register for a Unix password and learn some commands on a green-screen terminal. Awesome! I started emailing and soon discovered FTP and BBSes and MUDs and the other cool stuff that was on the internet. It felt rather like a secret society, though. I remember in 1992 reading an article in USA Today about the Internet hitting 2 million users. I was like wow, there are a lot of us out there.
The graphical web was sort of new though (1992?) and very, very limited. I remember being of the opinion that it was going to ruin the Internet (I'm still not sure I was wrong).
what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
She might honestly not own her own computer yet. In college very few people did. We did write our papers on the computer, but we went to the computer lab to do it. Labs were pretty big and had long hours and attendants - lots of people did work-study as lab attendants. So when you got out of school, if you didn't get your own PC which was fairly expensive, you went to the library or - no, really - an internet cafe. Or you used the computers at your job illicitly. I did my first resume on a library computer and just ran around with all my stuff on a couple disks in a plastic holder in my backpack.
I tried to get online every chance I got. Until 1996 I didn't have my own computer, but I used my roommate's and the one at my job. My first email address was Lycosmail and I experimented with Juno and Yahoo and Hotmail. I did browse on Netscape. There wasn't all that much to do online yet that used the graphical web, though. There was eBay and song lyrics sites, and people set up their own really silly, limited and clunky personal websites.
posted by Miko at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
I wonder if I could slip in a subsidiary question-lette: at this same time, let's say 1995, what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
hi, this was me. (I graduated from college in '95)
For me, the internet wasn't quite yet a dedicated thing for me - I was all about BBSes (and had been since the late 80's, but I was an early adopter). I used a modem, but eventually got dialup through a small local ISP.
Agree with AOL being big, and also adding in Prodigy and GEnie.
The summer of 1994 I got a 20 MB (yes, MB) hard drive for my computer and thought it was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER.
posted by Lucinda at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2012
hi, this was me. (I graduated from college in '95)
For me, the internet wasn't quite yet a dedicated thing for me - I was all about BBSes (and had been since the late 80's, but I was an early adopter). I used a modem, but eventually got dialup through a small local ISP.
Agree with AOL being big, and also adding in Prodigy and GEnie.
The summer of 1994 I got a 20 MB (yes, MB) hard drive for my computer and thought it was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER.
posted by Lucinda at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2012
I graduated college in 1995, and worked in the university computer lab before that. These are the things we did with a computer for entertainment:
* Played games (Doom, Civ)
* Chatted with each other on IRC
* Did some web browsing with, yes, Netscape (Geocities went up in 1994)
* Email -- everyone had a university-issued email account
I'd say that was the first college cohort where being online was expected and fairly widespread. The more savvy kids would've done MUDding, BBSes and usenet as well.
posted by Andrhia at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2012
* Played games (Doom, Civ)
* Chatted with each other on IRC
* Did some web browsing with, yes, Netscape (Geocities went up in 1994)
* Email -- everyone had a university-issued email account
I'd say that was the first college cohort where being online was expected and fairly widespread. The more savvy kids would've done MUDding, BBSes and usenet as well.
posted by Andrhia at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2012
she'd have a Geocities or angelfire page
OH GOD THE MEMORIES I HAVE BURIED Yes! I had an Angelfire page.
posted by Miko at 9:21 AM on February 24, 2012
OH GOD THE MEMORIES I HAVE BURIED Yes! I had an Angelfire page.
posted by Miko at 9:21 AM on February 24, 2012
I should also add that one of the things college students had to grapple with was the fact that in college in the mid-90s, they had great, high bandwidth Internet access, possibly right from their dorm rooms, and then promptly after graduation got stuck using dialup because cable modems and DSL broadband were still uncommon. The only high bandwidth access to the internet you had was likely at work.
posted by deanc at 9:22 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by deanc at 9:22 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Oh, yeah, deanc has a fair point -- and in 1995, many businesses didn't even have high bandwidth internet. I remember at my first agency job, there was outside internet, but it was a shared dialup connection.
posted by Andrhia at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Andrhia at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2012
I wonder if I could slip in a subsidiary question-lette: at this same time, let's say 1995, what would somebody who just graduated from college be doing on her computer? Would she be online, using Netscape (or Mosaic??)
She might have bought a new computer from Best Buy - a Packard Bell, maybe, and played around with AOL before ditching them for NetCom, since all she was using AOL for was internet access anyway. Then she might have downloaded (and paid for!) a copy of Trumpet WinSock.
Shoot, if she was totally legit, she might have registered and paid for her copy of Netscape Navigator (which I did), resulting in a thank-you letter written on company letterhead. Years later, she would regret losing that letter and the little 3.5" disk they sent along with it.
posted by jquinby at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2012
She might have bought a new computer from Best Buy - a Packard Bell, maybe, and played around with AOL before ditching them for NetCom, since all she was using AOL for was internet access anyway. Then she might have downloaded (and paid for!) a copy of Trumpet WinSock.
Shoot, if she was totally legit, she might have registered and paid for her copy of Netscape Navigator (which I did), resulting in a thank-you letter written on company letterhead. Years later, she would regret losing that letter and the little 3.5" disk they sent along with it.
posted by jquinby at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2012
I did browse on Netscape. There wasn't all that much to do online yet that used the graphical web, though. There was eBay and song lyrics sites, and people set up their own really silly, limited and clunky personal websites.
Seconding this. I graduated college in 1992, and in 1993 and 1994 I was working for a guy who was trying to do a startup gift-delivery business in New York. Somewhere in there he came to me all excited about "this Internet thing" and said he wanted to sign the company up for an account -- and when we got it, websurfing became one of my actual job duties for a while (I was supposed to "explore it and see if there's a way we can apply it to our business"). After about two months I went back to my boss to report that, at that time, web sites weren't going to help us much - the graphics were too primitive and there was no easy way to actually charge people. Then I said that however, I personaly had found a lot of other uses for the Internet for my own self, so could I take over our account as a personal account? (I still have that account today -- with the same acronym from the now-defunct business as my email.)
Web pages largely sucked -- especially corporate ones. (Our business's parent company set up its own site a year later, on the "we need to do it because it's the latest thing" principle - but it was a single page that gave the company name, then offered tips on doing effective web searches. Nothing about the business in question.) Most of my early-to-mid-90's online action was on BBS's and UUSENET.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:29 AM on February 24, 2012
Seconding this. I graduated college in 1992, and in 1993 and 1994 I was working for a guy who was trying to do a startup gift-delivery business in New York. Somewhere in there he came to me all excited about "this Internet thing" and said he wanted to sign the company up for an account -- and when we got it, websurfing became one of my actual job duties for a while (I was supposed to "explore it and see if there's a way we can apply it to our business"). After about two months I went back to my boss to report that, at that time, web sites weren't going to help us much - the graphics were too primitive and there was no easy way to actually charge people. Then I said that however, I personaly had found a lot of other uses for the Internet for my own self, so could I take over our account as a personal account? (I still have that account today -- with the same acronym from the now-defunct business as my email.)
Web pages largely sucked -- especially corporate ones. (Our business's parent company set up its own site a year later, on the "we need to do it because it's the latest thing" principle - but it was a single page that gave the company name, then offered tips on doing effective web searches. Nothing about the business in question.) Most of my early-to-mid-90's online action was on BBS's and UUSENET.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:29 AM on February 24, 2012
throughout college and afterwards, I was all about dial-up BBSes. I had a Prodigy account and had a pen-pal who lived in California. I eventually got a dial-up internet account from a tiny local ISP.
I love talking about stuff like this, so if you want excruciating detail about computers and music and whatnot from Vassar 91-95, memail me!
posted by Lucinda at 9:33 AM on February 24, 2012
I love talking about stuff like this, so if you want excruciating detail about computers and music and whatnot from Vassar 91-95, memail me!
posted by Lucinda at 9:33 AM on February 24, 2012
Remember the Netscape Fishcam? And Riddler.com's Lycos scavenger hunts? Yahoo was a pretty awesome index of interesting things on the internet back then, too.
posted by Andrhia at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Andrhia at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
Geocities started in 1994, angelfire started 1996. Suck.com started in 1995.
The web barely existed before 1995 or 1996 or so. The first issue of Wired came out in 1993 and it didn't mention the web at all. It was talking about Gopher, still.
Think about this -- Napster was the first 'killer app' on the internet and that was in 1999. Google started in 1998.
Amazing, isn't it?
So no, prior to 1995, hardly anyone would have been on the internet.
AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve would have been far more likely for most people, especially AOL.
posted by empath at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
The web barely existed before 1995 or 1996 or so. The first issue of Wired came out in 1993 and it didn't mention the web at all. It was talking about Gopher, still.
Think about this -- Napster was the first 'killer app' on the internet and that was in 1999. Google started in 1998.
Amazing, isn't it?
So no, prior to 1995, hardly anyone would have been on the internet.
AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve would have been far more likely for most people, especially AOL.
posted by empath at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
You may want to use the Wayback Machine to get a peek at what some front pages on the web looked like - I think it only goes back to 1996, so whatever you see, assume either more primitive or nonexistent. Try major companies that have had a consistent domain name that long.
I recently did a presentation on the history of museum websites and showed people in the audience what their museum's first websites looked like using the Wayback Machine. Laughter ensued.
It was really hard to convince institutions/employers that it would be a good idea to have a website or even broadband. There was a lot of skepticism/suspicion that it was anything other than a toy. Empress Callipygos is quite right that the obstacle of selling stuff and collecting money was pretty huge, and not much was secure.
Also, because so few people knew anything about it, charges for website development were extremely expensive ($10-20K for a very limited-function page not unusual).
posted by Miko at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
I recently did a presentation on the history of museum websites and showed people in the audience what their museum's first websites looked like using the Wayback Machine. Laughter ensued.
It was really hard to convince institutions/employers that it would be a good idea to have a website or even broadband. There was a lot of skepticism/suspicion that it was anything other than a toy. Empress Callipygos is quite right that the obstacle of selling stuff and collecting money was pretty huge, and not much was secure.
Also, because so few people knew anything about it, charges for website development were extremely expensive ($10-20K for a very limited-function page not unusual).
posted by Miko at 9:37 AM on February 24, 2012
(And the computer lab of the junior college I went to in the mid 90s, didn't even have an IP network, let alone the internet -- they were using IPX.)
posted by empath at 9:38 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by empath at 9:38 AM on February 24, 2012
Seconding Lucinda - My demographics also match your characters, my memories of the Internet 1991-95 are treasured and I'm happy to talk plenty more about what I did with it and what it was like if you want to MeMail.
posted by Miko at 9:40 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Miko at 9:40 AM on February 24, 2012
In my little liberal arts college, there wasn't a campus network until I was a junior, but people had AOL, and you could dial in, I think, to the VAX system for email.
I vividly remember going to the computer lab and playing with Mosaic and ardently believing that the internet would never amount to much of anything.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2012
I vividly remember going to the computer lab and playing with Mosaic and ardently believing that the internet would never amount to much of anything.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't think I knew anyone with a laptop for the longest time after college. That was like something you saw on TV spy shows, or something stockbrokers had.
Oh, I see she "just graduated," sorry. In that case, her e-mail probably was a work email address.
Or quite possibly she just continued the use of her college address, which I did and most of my friends did for many years after college (until we started using web services). Colleges often granted the use of the address in perpetuity and you could dial into your college email any time. In fact, I didn't even know my old college adress was still live until a few months ago I got a message that they were migrating them all to GMail.
posted by Miko at 9:45 AM on February 24, 2012
Oh, I see she "just graduated," sorry. In that case, her e-mail probably was a work email address.
Or quite possibly she just continued the use of her college address, which I did and most of my friends did for many years after college (until we started using web services). Colleges often granted the use of the address in perpetuity and you could dial into your college email any time. In fact, I didn't even know my old college adress was still live until a few months ago I got a message that they were migrating them all to GMail.
posted by Miko at 9:45 AM on February 24, 2012
Cypress Hill struck a weird chord in social circles I traveled. THC-friendly for the hackysack crowd, broken and tweaked enough for the industrial kids, intense enough for the underground metal crowd. They were later overshadowed by Dre and Snoop and never did anything as good as that first album again, so their prominence in 91-92 is sometimes forgotten.
posted by el_lupino at 9:47 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by el_lupino at 9:47 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Bands have been covered. Except: as far as singer-songwritery stuff, 10000 Maniacs and Sinead O'Connor both got a lot of play, more than most other bands/performers in the genre.
As for internet: maybe about 30% of kids would do e-mail (typically to meet up with friends in other colleges), much less that that would have gone on Usenet, and then people would have just started doing web pages in late '94 to 1995. Also yeah no laptops. People certainly did sneaker-net around computer games, but that still wasn't mainstream. Big games on a liberal-arts campus: Civilization, Tetris.
posted by furiousthought at 10:31 AM on February 24, 2012
As for internet: maybe about 30% of kids would do e-mail (typically to meet up with friends in other colleges), much less that that would have gone on Usenet, and then people would have just started doing web pages in late '94 to 1995. Also yeah no laptops. People certainly did sneaker-net around computer games, but that still wasn't mainstream. Big games on a liberal-arts campus: Civilization, Tetris.
posted by furiousthought at 10:31 AM on February 24, 2012
Big games on a liberal-arts campus: Civilization, Tetris.
SimAnt
posted by Miko at 10:35 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
SimAnt
posted by Miko at 10:35 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also yeah no laptops.
My ex had a Powerbook 520 (her dad even had the 520c!) in that time period, so don't count laptops out.
Big games on a liberal-arts campus: Civilization, Tetris.
SimAnt
And SimCity, and SimTower. But nothing got me going like Marathon (including the so-called "Pirated Copeland Beta" leak, which I remember playing as a sophomore).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:44 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
My ex had a Powerbook 520 (her dad even had the 520c!) in that time period, so don't count laptops out.
Big games on a liberal-arts campus: Civilization, Tetris.
SimAnt
And SimCity, and SimTower. But nothing got me going like Marathon (including the so-called "Pirated Copeland Beta" leak, which I remember playing as a sophomore).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:44 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Hey, Lucinda, Vassar Sistah! (me, class of '71)
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything, make her lonely post-college self feel better because it's all going to get better now because of this Netscape/Mosaic/whatever thing (that's a joke, obviously).
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:57 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything, make her lonely post-college self feel better because it's all going to get better now because of this Netscape/Mosaic/whatever thing (that's a joke, obviously).
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:57 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything, make her lonely post-college self feel better because it's all going to get better now because of this Netscape/Mosaic/whatever thing (that's a joke, obviously).
I think it would be hard to be in college in the 90s and not have at least heard of the Web and email and chat, but it would certainly be feasible that she had not personally used it.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:02 AM on February 24, 2012
I think it would be hard to be in college in the 90s and not have at least heard of the Web and email and chat, but it would certainly be feasible that she had not personally used it.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:02 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything, make her lonely post-college self feel better because it's all going to get better now because of this Netscape/Mosaic/whatever thing (that's a joke, obviously).
This is exactly when I was getting introduced to the Internet and exactly what happened.
UUSENET and BBSs did most of it -- I ended up with an email pen pal in Ottawa for a while; he was an engineering student who maintained the alt.simpsons FAQ for a long time and was also a Scrabble Champion; I think we started chatting after I emalied him something in response to something he'd posted once, and we were fast friends for a good couple years before losing touch. And 90% of my 1994 socializing was connected with the members of a local BBS.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:03 AM on February 24, 2012
This is exactly when I was getting introduced to the Internet and exactly what happened.
UUSENET and BBSs did most of it -- I ended up with an email pen pal in Ottawa for a while; he was an engineering student who maintained the alt.simpsons FAQ for a long time and was also a Scrabble Champion; I think we started chatting after I emalied him something in response to something he'd posted once, and we were fast friends for a good couple years before losing touch. And 90% of my 1994 socializing was connected with the members of a local BBS.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:03 AM on February 24, 2012
Everybody forgot Flaming Lips.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 11:26 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by Threeway Handshake at 11:26 AM on February 24, 2012
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything
I think it's important to be really clear about the distinction between "the Internet" and "the Web." BBSes at that stage, Usenet etc were part of the Internet and did feel that way - a great antidote to loneliness, an entree into a new community that might change everything. "The Web" - as in graphics, sounds and hypertext viewable in a browser, was an overlay onto that. I can say that I was only interested in the web at all because of previously being introduced to the Internet. It wasn't really very clear that having images and sound was adding a lot to the Internet experience - and things didn't look very good.
I'm not sure what my reaction would have been if I had been shown the web with no background on what the Internet could do (that is, being in awe of what it meant to be able to do real-time transgeographic information sharing, file transfer and conversation). I suspect I would have been underwhelmed, and many people were. As I said, at the time the majority opinion of the web outside computery circles was that it was mainly a toy. I'm not sure if I started there, that it would have lit any fires.
Those people that were excited about it were, I think, excited about the possibilities of hyperlinking and did have a vision about where the whole thing could go. But since that vision was largely built on the stuff you could do on the Internet before there was the WWW, it would be hard to appreciate what the web represented, at that stage, without some background on the Internet.
posted by Miko at 11:46 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
I think it's important to be really clear about the distinction between "the Internet" and "the Web." BBSes at that stage, Usenet etc were part of the Internet and did feel that way - a great antidote to loneliness, an entree into a new community that might change everything. "The Web" - as in graphics, sounds and hypertext viewable in a browser, was an overlay onto that. I can say that I was only interested in the web at all because of previously being introduced to the Internet. It wasn't really very clear that having images and sound was adding a lot to the Internet experience - and things didn't look very good.
I'm not sure what my reaction would have been if I had been shown the web with no background on what the Internet could do (that is, being in awe of what it meant to be able to do real-time transgeographic information sharing, file transfer and conversation). I suspect I would have been underwhelmed, and many people were. As I said, at the time the majority opinion of the web outside computery circles was that it was mainly a toy. I'm not sure if I started there, that it would have lit any fires.
Those people that were excited about it were, I think, excited about the possibilities of hyperlinking and did have a vision about where the whole thing could go. But since that vision was largely built on the stuff you could do on the Internet before there was the WWW, it would be hard to appreciate what the web represented, at that stage, without some background on the Internet.
posted by Miko at 11:46 AM on February 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
I started uni in 1995, though in Australia. All students had 30 hours of dial-up access from home each month, if they had a computer with a modem of course, and a student webpage. I used Netscape Navigator and bbs, mainly. 30 hours was a lot when there was nothing to download. My webpage was mainly pictures of my dog.
posted by goo at 11:50 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by goo at 11:50 AM on February 24, 2012
LionIndex's list above is very accurate for mid-nineties UVA students. I'd add just a couple:
Blind Melon
Portishead
Pulp Fiction soundtrack
Pulp
Uncle Tupelo
posted by Mendl at 12:12 PM on February 24, 2012
Blind Melon
Portishead
Pulp Fiction soundtrack
Pulp
Uncle Tupelo
posted by Mendl at 12:12 PM on February 24, 2012
Rock Steady: "I think it would be hard to be in college in the 90s and not have at least heard of the Web and email and chat, but it would certainly be feasible that she had not personally used it."
Hmm, I graduated in '94. I was in the Liberal Arts program, and few of my non-engineer friends even knew what email was. The "web" as we know it didn't exist. I had to go into the deepest bowels of one of the campus buildings to have some sweaty comp-sci grad student grill me because I dared to want an email address.
posted by mkultra at 12:15 PM on February 24, 2012
Hmm, I graduated in '94. I was in the Liberal Arts program, and few of my non-engineer friends even knew what email was. The "web" as we know it didn't exist. I had to go into the deepest bowels of one of the campus buildings to have some sweaty comp-sci grad student grill me because I dared to want an email address.
posted by mkultra at 12:15 PM on February 24, 2012
I graduated in 1992 and Usenet was my home away from home in the years you're talking about. I spent hours reading and responding every day. I even went to meetups arranged on alt.society.generation-x. (We called them "tingles" for some reason I don't recall.) I didn't use "The Web" regularly until '97 or so.
posted by Daily Alice at 12:16 PM on February 24, 2012
posted by Daily Alice at 12:16 PM on February 24, 2012
Here's what I listened to while at Indiana University during that time:
Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, REM, They Might Be Giants, The Cranberries, Sonic Youth, Liz Phair, Morrissey, The Smiths, The Cure, Gin Blossoms, Pearl Jam, Beck, Weezer, Material Issue, Urge Overkill...to name a few.
Also: In 1992, Color Me Badd was HUGE with the girls on my dorm floor.
As far as what she'd be doing on the computer...ISCABBS was super popular at this point.
posted by SisterHavana at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, REM, They Might Be Giants, The Cranberries, Sonic Youth, Liz Phair, Morrissey, The Smiths, The Cure, Gin Blossoms, Pearl Jam, Beck, Weezer, Material Issue, Urge Overkill...to name a few.
Also: In 1992, Color Me Badd was HUGE with the girls on my dorm floor.
As far as what she'd be doing on the computer...ISCABBS was super popular at this point.
posted by SisterHavana at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Lenny Kravitz, first two albums (pre-sellout).
posted by troywestfield at 7:30 PM on February 24, 2012
posted by troywestfield at 7:30 PM on February 24, 2012
I think it would be hard to be in college in the 90s and not have at least heard of the Web and email and chat, but it would certainly be feasible that she had not personally used it.
No, i disagree with this. But things started changing really fast in the late nineties.
/was in college on east coast from 1991-1995.
posted by desuetude at 8:57 PM on February 24, 2012
No, i disagree with this. But things started changing really fast in the late nineties.
/was in college on east coast from 1991-1995.
posted by desuetude at 8:57 PM on February 24, 2012
I can't believe I forgot these musicians/groups: Juliana Hatfield, The Lemonheads, Bettie Serveert, Belly, Hole, L7, Sugar, and Arrested Development. And RuPaul! "Supermodel" was everywhere for a time.
Another thing she might be doing on a computer in the 90s...writing for/putting together her own zine.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:39 PM on February 24, 2012
Another thing she might be doing on a computer in the 90s...writing for/putting together her own zine.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:39 PM on February 24, 2012
My college friends started Tripod in 1995
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:51 PM on February 24, 2012
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:51 PM on February 24, 2012
I don't want her to be on the web in 1994. I want her, upon graduation, to be shown the web as a new kind of thing that will change everything, make her lonely post-college self feel better because it's all going to get better now because of this Netscape/Mosaic/whatever thing (that's a joke, obviously).
I have an out for you, I think, though I'm not sure what your graduation date is.
I went to college from 1990 - 1995. At university (and well beforehand) I was fluently using computers for games and word processing, and was "online" in that I has used old-school BBSs but mostly sent email, which was awkward and ugly. Windows 95 really changed the world for me, because it launched in August '95 with MSN. The installation CDs for MSN and AOL and I think Prodigy were ubiquitous; you got like 3 in the mail every day.
So there I am in my college town studio apartment, working two part time jobs and drinking a lot of beer with my neighbour Dave, and buying my first post-college Windows 95 PC. Dave, who is like some kind of 20 year old electronics boy genius and designed circuit boards for the Comanche helicopter or some shit, hooks my new PC up with a spare modem. I click the little MSN icon, create a login and... discover the stuff that has continued to make the internet totally compelling for me ever since. There are message boards. There is live chat. There are people, in real time. There are communication areas grouped by interest, and that creates communities. It is all easily, instantly accessible and I become instantly, irrevocably addicted -- to being online, to the people I quickly become friends with, and to the information that's suddenly a click away with that early IE icon humbly named Internet.
Around the same time, GeoCities became popular because people could create their own websites with their own content with no technical knowledge, and this was kind of amazing. You could also edit the templates if you wanted to poke around in the HTML, and I did; decades before today's degrees were available, I accidentally became a web designer because I learned HTML editing basic GeoCities pages.
I also fell in love, which it had never occurred to me you could do online. The object of my affection worked for MSN UK as the online business manager, and I eventually got a job working for a forum-based technical support portal on the MSN network so we could work alongside each other, in the internet sense.
That incredibly exciting Brave New World period lasted for about 18 fairly glorious months. In late 1996, Microsoft revamped MSN to MSN 2.0 and it was a disaster. The installation took something like 20 hours and was bigger than an average hard drive at the time. Once you successfully installed it, communities and communication was irrevocably broken, and everyone I knew moved on, including me - to London, to spend the next 7 years with my unlikely online boyfriend.
Remarkably, when I just looked up MSN on Wikipedia to check my dates for you, I found a link to an archive of the protest site MSNot in the article. That was my site; I lead a campaign to point out the issues with the new platform and to highlight the bizarre staff censorship that was going on around the launch. Employees were smuggling me documents and confidential emails, none of which seem to have made it into the archive but it was wild and exciting and possibly one of the first such examples - it was covered in the NYT and Wired back in its day.
The Wayback machine has very little of the site archived, in fact, but dear God it does have a fabulous 1996 scrolling ticker and at least some of the homepage graphics, which are probably the oldest surviving graphics created by my fair young hand. (My MSN friend Vee had to explain anti-aliasing to me, which she did in an ICQ chat window. Those graphics and pretty much my entire subsequent career are the product of her tutoring.)
Anyway, this has all been delightful for me to remember though largely irrelevant to your character. My point is really that to a large degree, I was her. I left college, I was lonely, and then it all got radically better for me because of this MSN/Internet Explorer/Netscape/GeoCities/whatever thing that really did change my life.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:17 AM on February 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
I have an out for you, I think, though I'm not sure what your graduation date is.
I went to college from 1990 - 1995. At university (and well beforehand) I was fluently using computers for games and word processing, and was "online" in that I has used old-school BBSs but mostly sent email, which was awkward and ugly. Windows 95 really changed the world for me, because it launched in August '95 with MSN. The installation CDs for MSN and AOL and I think Prodigy were ubiquitous; you got like 3 in the mail every day.
So there I am in my college town studio apartment, working two part time jobs and drinking a lot of beer with my neighbour Dave, and buying my first post-college Windows 95 PC. Dave, who is like some kind of 20 year old electronics boy genius and designed circuit boards for the Comanche helicopter or some shit, hooks my new PC up with a spare modem. I click the little MSN icon, create a login and... discover the stuff that has continued to make the internet totally compelling for me ever since. There are message boards. There is live chat. There are people, in real time. There are communication areas grouped by interest, and that creates communities. It is all easily, instantly accessible and I become instantly, irrevocably addicted -- to being online, to the people I quickly become friends with, and to the information that's suddenly a click away with that early IE icon humbly named Internet.
Around the same time, GeoCities became popular because people could create their own websites with their own content with no technical knowledge, and this was kind of amazing. You could also edit the templates if you wanted to poke around in the HTML, and I did; decades before today's degrees were available, I accidentally became a web designer because I learned HTML editing basic GeoCities pages.
I also fell in love, which it had never occurred to me you could do online. The object of my affection worked for MSN UK as the online business manager, and I eventually got a job working for a forum-based technical support portal on the MSN network so we could work alongside each other, in the internet sense.
That incredibly exciting Brave New World period lasted for about 18 fairly glorious months. In late 1996, Microsoft revamped MSN to MSN 2.0 and it was a disaster. The installation took something like 20 hours and was bigger than an average hard drive at the time. Once you successfully installed it, communities and communication was irrevocably broken, and everyone I knew moved on, including me - to London, to spend the next 7 years with my unlikely online boyfriend.
Remarkably, when I just looked up MSN on Wikipedia to check my dates for you, I found a link to an archive of the protest site MSNot in the article. That was my site; I lead a campaign to point out the issues with the new platform and to highlight the bizarre staff censorship that was going on around the launch. Employees were smuggling me documents and confidential emails, none of which seem to have made it into the archive but it was wild and exciting and possibly one of the first such examples - it was covered in the NYT and Wired back in its day.
The Wayback machine has very little of the site archived, in fact, but dear God it does have a fabulous 1996 scrolling ticker and at least some of the homepage graphics, which are probably the oldest surviving graphics created by my fair young hand. (My MSN friend Vee had to explain anti-aliasing to me, which she did in an ICQ chat window. Those graphics and pretty much my entire subsequent career are the product of her tutoring.)
Anyway, this has all been delightful for me to remember though largely irrelevant to your character. My point is really that to a large degree, I was her. I left college, I was lonely, and then it all got radically better for me because of this MSN/Internet Explorer/Netscape/GeoCities/whatever thing that really did change my life.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:17 AM on February 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
I know it's been mentioned, but hip hop still feels like a huge blind spot in this thread. Even if you were white and didn't like "rap music" before college, you'd almost certainly be exposed to it as a smart college student at this time, with such an incredible proliferation of talent.
Digable Planets
De La Soul
A Tribe Called Quest
Nas
Tupac and Biggie
Outkast
Wu-Tang
Common
Cypress Hill
Arrested Development
Beastie Boys
The Pharcyde
Gang Starr
posted by sudama at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2012
Digable Planets
De La Soul
A Tribe Called Quest
Nas
Tupac and Biggie
Outkast
Wu-Tang
Common
Cypress Hill
Arrested Development
Beastie Boys
The Pharcyde
Gang Starr
posted by sudama at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2012
I dunno, I kind of disagree -- I think this period is precisely notable for being the last one in which it was reasonably common for white college students who were pretty into music to have no relationship with hip-hop at all. I owned none of the records above when I was in college, and of these the ones I heard were Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. And even those not very often. And, now that I think of it, plenty of people had "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" in their CD collections in the same "classic rock" spirit in which they had "Joshua Tree."
posted by escabeche at 9:36 PM on February 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by escabeche at 9:36 PM on February 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
You might consider listening to some of these.
In my memory of being a white college student, extremely hip friends were into hip-hop, but not the mainstream. Beastie Boys, though, had been popular in my set since my senior year of high school in 1987.
posted by Miko at 7:27 AM on February 27, 2012
In my memory of being a white college student, extremely hip friends were into hip-hop, but not the mainstream. Beastie Boys, though, had been popular in my set since my senior year of high school in 1987.
posted by Miko at 7:27 AM on February 27, 2012
What about 10,00 Maniacs? I went to a show at Boston College in early 1991 where Natalie Merchant ranted about the first Gulf War and someone shouted "Just sing!" It Did Not End Well.
Also, during my years (1990-1994) a lot of people still listened to whatever they had liked in high school. So once they had a few beers, the "smart" music disappeared and guilty pleasures came out.
Um… "Jump Around" by House of Pain and "Groove is in the Heart" by Dee-Light got played once everyone was drunk enough. Lots of Nirvana and plenty of U2. They Might Be Giants was big, I think. My roommate Carson loved Jimmy Buffet.
To be honest, that stupid "Little Red Cup" would have been an INSTANT SMASH at both Tufts and Boston College in the first half of the 1990s.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:55 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, during my years (1990-1994) a lot of people still listened to whatever they had liked in high school. So once they had a few beers, the "smart" music disappeared and guilty pleasures came out.
Um… "Jump Around" by House of Pain and "Groove is in the Heart" by Dee-Light got played once everyone was drunk enough. Lots of Nirvana and plenty of U2. They Might Be Giants was big, I think. My roommate Carson loved Jimmy Buffet.
To be honest, that stupid "Little Red Cup" would have been an INSTANT SMASH at both Tufts and Boston College in the first half of the 1990s.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:55 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
"Groove is in the Heart" by Dee-Light got played once everyone was drunk enough.
This reminded me of a couple other songs in a similar vein that were really popular and ubiquitous - at least I played them a lot and so did folks around me.
Des-Ree, You Gotta Be, 1994
Dionne Faris - I Know, 1995
Soho, Hippychick, 1990
posted by Miko at 9:16 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
This reminded me of a couple other songs in a similar vein that were really popular and ubiquitous - at least I played them a lot and so did folks around me.
Des-Ree, You Gotta Be, 1994
Dionne Faris - I Know, 1995
Soho, Hippychick, 1990
posted by Miko at 9:16 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Depending on how heavy your writing relies on inside-baseball knowledge of U.S. indie/college rock of the time, you might want to read "Our Band Could Be Your Life".
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:55 AM on February 28, 2012
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:55 AM on February 28, 2012
« Older How to distinguish relationship doubts from a... | How can I get my iMac to wake up remotely? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by downing street memo at 6:58 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]