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Original poster

To wonder why the 90s music was so childish?

93 replies

magicalkitty · 02/08/2023 21:02

I just pondering.

I was a 90s kid, and remember the charts were full of various bands that made music that appealed to kids. S Club 7, Steps, Bewitched, even the Spice Girls to an extent, to name a few. As a child I loved this music, but it's quite surprising now, as an adult, to remember how popular these songs were, as adults would have been buying it. The bands, their music videos, their image, was usually aimed at kids too, not adults. I feel I have grown out of this music now and can't understand why adults would like it, except for nostalgia reasons.

These days the number 1s are more often than not more 'adult' songs, and music aimed at kids doesn't really chart well. What has changed?

OP posts:
Barrell · 02/08/2023 21:49

The greatest album of the 90s was OK Computer - hardly childish. Nor was Oasis, or any indie band really. So I’ll have to disagree - every era has serious stuff, and it’s share of childish pap.

Eyeapple · 02/08/2023 21:50

What age were you in the 90s? My 90s music was Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Roses, Ocean Colour Scene, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, Oasis, Blur and all the Britpop, and lots of other Alternative and Indie music. S Club 7, Britney, B Witched existed but in another realm.

sleepyscientist · 02/08/2023 21:51

Charts now include streaming or downloading so popular songs stay at the top for longer. When the spice girls released a new single pester power had all the parents buying it in a week with wannabe being at number one for 7 weeks compare that to shape of you at 14 weeks.

LorraineInSpain · 02/08/2023 21:51

N4ish · 02/08/2023 21:42

Was your post written by AI @touseef877 ?

I was thinking the same thing! There’s a certain style.

FoodFann · 02/08/2023 21:52

OP did you know the Sugarbabes were 13 when they were assembled!? 😱

ladyvivienne · 02/08/2023 21:52

90's music was awesome.

You were clearly a child - and dancing along to The Spice Girls at the back end of it.

That's not the 90's vibe I remember or recall at all! I was 16-26 during the 90's and thought the music was brilliant.

Hapshetshut · 02/08/2023 21:52

You’re talking later 90’s, early was grunge, rave and indie, with Brit pop in the mid 90’s

Kokopenny · 02/08/2023 21:54

I was a raver, early 90’s !!!!

BeautifulWar · 02/08/2023 21:55

The '70's had the best music ever. No boy bands, no groups from TV shows, just people who'd worked hard to get where they were.

Bay City Rollers? The Partridge Family?

Batshit1 · 02/08/2023 21:56

There are definitely less bands aimed at children now, would rather my dd was singing along to something like bewitched than the stuff she does end up listening to. ( still trying to convince my 5yo ds that the alphabet doesn’t go ABCDEFU after the explicit version was accidentally played in the car one day 🤦‍♀️)

RunAwayTurnAwayRunAwayTurnAway · 02/08/2023 21:56

I was a child of 90s music and there was such a variety - I'm remembering Fat Les (listened to them this evening whilst cooking), The Prodigy, Dario G, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Backstreet Boys, Britney, Christina and Justin, The Verve, Oasis. To name a tiny selection.

Each genre was pretty prolific, which is probably why you can remember lots of kids' pop. Which was pretty decent!

I don't know much about present day new music but I am hazarding a guess that there was more variety then, than now.

museumum · 02/08/2023 21:58

Kids bought singles, that’s why these bands were the singles chart. I was a student and early 20s and never bought singles, only albums.

MomentOnTheLips · 02/08/2023 21:58

It was also the golden era for gangsta rap, nu metal, and there was lots of indie. But, yes, pop bands were pretty sickly sweet.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/08/2023 22:01

tillytoodles1 · 02/08/2023 21:47

The '70's had the best music ever. No boy bands, no groups from TV shows, just people who'd worked hard to get where they were.

The Osmonds?
The Jackson 5? (Started in the 60s)
The Partridge Family?
The Monkees? (OK, from the 60s but shown every Saturday morning)

FuckNuggets · 02/08/2023 22:02

Oh, come on! Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Blur, Oasis, Nerfherder, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Green Day, 4 Non-Blondes, Hole, U2, Alice in Chains, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Blink 182, The Smashing Pumpkins, Therapy...

Not to mention the Hip Hop was bloody brilliant in the 90s! Snoop, Dr Dre, Eminem, Warren G, Nate Dogg, TuPac, Wu-Tang-Clan, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, Naughty By Nature, House of Pain, T.L.C. Fugees...

And then there was some bloody good pop too! Kylie found her groove in the 90s, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Destiny's Child, Savage Garden, Erasure, Annie Lennox, Simple Minds...

Yusay · 02/08/2023 22:03

The 90s was Nirvana and Britpop. They were much too cool to go on TOTP. There were also a lotta boybands like Take That Backstreet Boys etc.

Steps and S Club 7 were on Saturday morning tv and that’s about it.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 02/08/2023 22:07

Early 90’s was still dominated by heavy metal, then grunge came on the scene, gangster rap was burning it’s own charts (Ice Cube, Notorious B.IG, Tupac), pop was overshadowed by the lilleth fair-esqe girl power like Sheryl Crow, and Natalie Merchant

Maybe you just lived in a narrow music world in the ‘90s 🤣

MattDillonsEyebrows · 02/08/2023 22:09

To be fair, you’re not wrong OP. Mr Blobby and the Teletubbies both made number ones in the 90’s. It was also the last decade of the proper Christmas songs which might be thought of as a bit twee these days.

The 90’s were my coming of age years (14-24) and I definitely remember one of the vibes was ‘cute’ with hair in lots of clips and nude make up, the backlash to this was ‘alternative’ which basically meant dressing in black, wearing DM’s but many teens and young adults combined the two in a sort of Bjork/ Gwen Stefani way.

XenoBitch · 02/08/2023 22:09

Am listening to Absolute 90s right now, and none of it applies to your OP.

QuaversAndRedbull · 02/08/2023 22:10

When I think of 90s music it's not those artists that jump to the front of my mind. I liked having a dance to steps and sclub with primary school aged sister, I was 10 in 1990 and my sister was born in 89.

I liked greenday, Radiohead, alanis, garbage, portishead, blur, nirvana, red hot chilli peppers, REM, offspring, Bjork, tori amos.

OfficerChurlish · 02/08/2023 22:14

I think you can find very popular music of that type in many time periods if you look for it. Lots of Elvis and Chuck Berry appealed to contemporary children/tweens. ABBA, Wham!, A-HA, Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Debbie Gibson, the Monkees, even the Beatles. And look what came after the '90s - Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, BTS ...

penguinsaurus · 02/08/2023 22:14

N4ish · 02/08/2023 21:42

Was your post written by AI @touseef877 ?

Very likely.

gogomoto · 02/08/2023 22:23

I was a young adult in the 90's and can't name you a single bewitched, s club 7 etc song, I was into grunge, rock, Brit pop

fullbloom87 · 02/08/2023 22:24

That's because you were a kid so focusing on that sort of music. What about blur and Bon jovi etc it wasn't all kids music

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