By 1995, I was loosing my once firm grip on music. No longer was I immersing myself in the new sounds of a new generation of musicians and artists. Slowly, I began to witness my patience for listening to new music to be shortening. Suddenly, I was finding the newer music to be annoying rather than uplifting. And that was making me a cranky older man at the tender age of 32.
So, I began to follow the lead of my students as I was now a full time teacher. I gave their music a critical listening. Truth be told, I was able to better understand the influences in the popular music of the mid- to late-Nineties almost as well as the music of the Eighties. I began to notice a small pattern. In the Seventies, most of the big rockers of the decade looked back to the Fifties, or the music of their youth, for the inspiration for their sounds. Then, in the Eighties, my musicians looked back to the Sixties for that same inspiration.
By the time the Nineties rolled around, my age group were exerting our musical muscle by reaching into the sounds of the Seventies for much of their inspiration. Let’s take Nirvana who took the sounds of the punk and post punk eras and filtered them through a little Black Sabbath and Beatles, and viola, grunge. Or, how about Dr. Dre diving head first into George Clinton’s P-Funk empire for many of the samples he used on The Chronic or Snoop’s Doggystyle. Shoot, even Billy Corgan’s Smashing Pumpkins’ sound began its roots in the arena rock sounds of Boston and Cheap Trick, sprinkled in a little Sabbath, and out comes Siamese Dreams or the sprawling masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Finally, there’s the whole pop punk movement led by Green Day, who obviously loved Seventies punk, as well as the power pop from the same era.
When I began to take a more academic approach to the music of the day, I began to enjoy it more. Oh, nothing to ever reach me again like Born to Run or London Calling did since everything was fresh then. Then, one day you wake up in your thirties and realize that your albums and records are no longer your best friends. But, now, they are more important than friends. They are now the soundtrack to my life, the sounds that made my life fuller with the ability to conjure memories no matter what my age was. Therefore, I hope and pray that I got my dad’s genes that will prevent me from getting mom’s Alzheimer’s disease. It’s such a terrible disease to witness up close and personal, knowing that mom’s life was no longer being enriched by the music she so loved.
So, it was in 1995, the year in which the OJ Simpson trial began, in which I learned how to enjoy music from a more academic level as opposed to an emotional response. And that slight change brought the joy back that had seemed to be leaving me at the time. Plus, these last five years represent the final years that housed the music that I consider to be in my “wheelhouse.” When the new millennium came around, I was no longer enjoying en masse. Instead, my focus has narrowed drastically as music today no longer holds the same magic as the music of the 20th century. Sure, a My Morning Jacket pops up here or a Halsey there, but the artistry seems to be waning.
With that poetic waxing and self-indulgency over, let’s get to the countdown!
50. Queen – Made in Heaven
49. Goo Goo Dolls – A Boy Named Goo
48. Various Artists – Waiting to Exhale [The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
47. Sonic Youth – Washing Machine
46. Mad Season – Above
45. Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
44. Flaming Lips – Clouds Taste Metallic
43. Elliott Smith – Elliott Smith
42. The Cardigans – Life
41. Jars of Clay – Jars of Clay
40. Faith Evans – Faith
39. Neil Young – Mirror Ball
38. The Presidents of the United States of America – The Presidents of the United States of America
37. Everclear – Sparkle and Fade
36. Genius/GZA – Liquid Swords
35. dc talk – Jesus Freak
34. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
33. Elastica – Elastica
32. Tracy Chapman – New Beginning
31. Björk – Post
30. Annie Lennox – Medulla
29. Son Volt – Trace
28. Matthew Sweet – 100% Fun
27. White Zombie – Astro-Creep: 2000
26. Radiohead – The Bends
25. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – E 1999 Eternal
24. 2pac – Me Against the World
23. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
22. Natalie Merchant – Tigerlily
21. Joan Osborne – Relish
20. Blur – The Great Escape
19. AC/DC – Ballbreaker
18. Jewel – Pieces of You
17. Rancid – …And Out Come the Wolves
16. The Verve – A Northern Soul
15. Garbage – Garbage
14. The Jayhawks – Tomorrow the Green Grass
13. Mariah Carey – Daydream
12. Supergrass – I Should Coco
11. Phish – A Live One
10. Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
9. D’Angelo – Brown Sugar
8. Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad
7. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory
6. Pulp – Different Class
5. Paul Weller – Stanley Road
4. Prince – The Gold Experience
3. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom
2. Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
1. Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill
If My Records Could Talk 