20 favorite musical artists of the 1990s
I've been on a 1600-mile roadtrip, and all I got you was a list
Good decade for white people with stringed instruments, which was not entirely unprecedented (they had a pretty strong 1720s, but more about that next week.)
Pet Shop Boys
Sonic Youth
David Murray
Sleater-Kinney
Nirvana
Pavement
Public Enemy
Iris DeMent
A Tribe Called Quest
The Beautiful South
James Carter
Bailter Space
Lucinda Williams
David S. Ware Quartet
Wu-Tang Clan
Moby
Able Tasmans
De La Soul
Ken Vandermark
Aphex Twin
Two full A’s or higher (or ballpark-adjusted equivalent in singles) was the minimum required for consideration, though in most cases this alone wasn’t enough (sorry, Liz; maybe I’ll finally play Whip-Smart the next time I revise this list.) Lucinda ended up being the only artist to make it on the basis of two records flat, and all she had to do was make an all-time top ten album. Lots of these, especially near the top, need no further explanation than what you can easily find at highly searchable websites. The rest:
The abridged case for #1: Very the greatest album ever between 4 pm and midnight (the rest of the time it’s some Armstrong or Monk); Behaviour, actually you can’t put the whole 20th century into an album but full A for trying; other stuff, worthwhile. Also they were around (and good) for the whole decade, which does matter a bit.
I go along with the rap game consensus that The Low End Theory, Enter the Wu-Tang, and De La Soul Is Dead are Golden Age-defining classics, and only really get resistance about the De La. Dead is one of the great bummers between There’s a Riot and Billy Woods’s Hiding Places, acknowledging that they can’t make 3 Feet Highs forever (while hinting that they could’ve got away with at least one more) while establishing the mixture of integrity and stubbornness that continues to keep their back catalog off a streaming service near you. The Wu get partial credit for solo projects.
Welcome to the Beautiful South gets gerrymandered into the ’90s by U.S. release date. Treating Britain as a real country, Heaton’s horde might have had the era’s strongest collection of hit singles—up against a playlist I made of Timbaland’s early hits, they triumphed quite easily.
Bailter Space (Vortura, Capsul) and the Able Tasmans (Hey Spinner!, Store in a Cool Place) were the outstanding New Zealanders of the era, surpassing some more successful exports primarily through quantity. Bailter Space in particular put out no less than six albums of heavy noisegaze over the decade, and anyone who counters that it’s an easy kind of music to produce in bulk should tell that to Kevin Shields’s face. The Able Tasmans, kind of a more democratic Chills, are one of the easiest ever bands to like—the sort who called an early album A Cuppa Tea and a Lie Down, only the tea is a well-fermented pu-ehr and they’ll throw in a massage if you want one.
The David S. Ware Quartet gets credit for the 2005-released Live in the World triple by date of recording, though after “The Way We Were” the on-YouTube (and otherwise nigh-unfindable) Flight of I is the most accessible place to start. After the Vandermark 5’s Target or Flag, my next favorite Kenny V is his Barrage Double Trio’s Utility Hitter.
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works is boring as Visual Basic code, but his Classics compilation and Polygon Window’s Surfing on Sine Waves make his body of work the decade’s most innovative, which counts for barely enough.
I know it’s hard to remember now, but friends, Moby was very, very good,.
Music from outside the Anglosphere got screwed, partly by the end of history, but mostly thanks to my personal ignorance. I need to work through the entire Rachid Taha catalog one of these years (I’ve confirmed he was at least near-great as of Olé, Olé.)
Finally, some unfaves, only one of which is unfair:
Marilyn Manson
Michael Bolton
Suge Knight