To wonder why the 90s music was so childish?

[magicalkitty]

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?

I was born in the late 80s so consider myself a “90s kid”

Obviously, as a child those were the artists that I associated with best, because they were geared towards my demographic.

However, I still absolutely love 90s music, mainly NOT the cheesy pop mentioned though - although I do still listen for nostalgic reasons.

Now I’d describe my music tastes as indie/rock and there are a lot of amazing 90s songs/bands out there that appeal to me now, in my 30s, which were not on my radar when they were “current”

I miss the 90’s 😢 Everything seemed better then.

I was a teen in the 80s, so I've lived through and remember music from the 70s onward. There's a lot of stuff from the 80s I love, especially indie stuff but I think the 90s was the final hurrah - for now at least - of incredibly good music. Blur, Pulp, Suede, Nirvana, REM, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Breeders and on and on and on. Every decade has its light poppy music but Steps et al won't be what the 90s are remembered for. No offence to Steps et al because they gave good pop but they weren't the be-all and end-all of the 90s by a very, very long shot.

Have you written this in Chat GPT?! 😂

I might be the only person who liked all of the music mentioned on this thread! You can love Blur and Bewitched at the same time. Not only am I childish I’m fickle too.

You are definitely remembering it wrong. The Spice Girls were on my radar and I could hum a few lines of something about an S Club party but the rest of that stuff just doesn't come into my head when I think of the 90s.

I was a Britpop girl mainly. I loved sleeper, elastica, blur, pulp, etc but would listen to a range of stuff from NWA to Kylie.

Is this the sad future, AI chat writing both threads and replies. The new influencers.

There was a lot more music than what you listed in the 90s.

yes almost but some changes

The shift you've observed from music aimed at kids being popular in the charts to more "adult" songs dominating the charts is influenced by various factors related to changes in the music industry, cultural shifts, and evolving tastes. Here are some key factors that could contribute to this change:

1. Changing Music Industry Dynamics: The music industry has undergone significant changes over the past couple of decades. The rise of digital platforms, streaming services, and social media has shifted the way music is consumed and promoted. With targeted marketing and personalized playlists, the industry has become more responsive to individual preferences, allowing for a wider range of musical genres and styles to gain popularity.

Tedious, isn't it?

At least we can still tell.

I’m early 20s so didn’t live through this era. I have come across songs that were popular in the 90s though, and feel there was plenty of adult-oriented music! Popular songs from genres such as rnb, house/garage, rock etc. Even Britney Spears was heavily sexualised, wouldn’t say that she was “childish”

The 90's was so diverse in terms of music genres. The dance scene erupted, britpop was spectacular, mainstream girl bands rose to fame, 80's stars continued to enjoy high chart positions. You could (potentially) argue that it was the best decade in music!!

There was an influence from Japanese ironic schoolgirl type imagery, manga etc. That influenced a lot of candy pop type branding, I guess the twatty men who wanted to make mega groups toned it down and ripped it off.

Some of the childish stuff wasn't childish, just innocent, maybe derived from acid house and ecstasy that used smiley faces and childish imagery.

Further factor that the 80s were kind of grim and grimey, late 90s once Tories were out were more upbeat and sunshiney. So you got the big breakfast type aesthetic with full on colours and crazy fried egg cut outs and what not.

Depends what you listen to. In the 90s I was busy listening to Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Brandy, Bone thugs and Harmony, KC and Jojo, Dinah Caroll, Gabrielle, etc. Couldn't name a single song from the ones you listed.

Thanks chatgpt

the charts were full of various bands that made music that appealed to kids

Enigma, Tori Amos, REM, Beautiful South, Iron Maiden, Pavarotti, Enya, Paul Simon, Wu Tang Clan, Meatloaf, Cher, Enya, The Levellers, George Michael, David Bowie, Annie Lenox, Bryan Adams, Cornershop, Fatboy Slim, Queen, Shakesperes Sister, Ace of Bass, The Prodigy, UB40, The Verve, Lighthouse Family, The Shamen, Phil Colins, Madonna, Seal, Metallica, Dire Straits, Mike Oldfield. Things I remember getting endless airplay in the 90s may have appealed to some kids, but they weren't the target market for most of those bands/artists. (And some of it, in retrospect, was a bit odd - the Gregorian chant revival was definitely not aimed at children.)

I’ve always been a raver and into dance music so for me the 90’s was some of the best house tunes ever made.

I was too busy dancing in fields or in super clubs in Ibiza to know what was on the chats in the 90’s

The shift you've noticed from music geared at children to more "adult" songs topping the charts is affected by a variety of variables including changes in the music industry, cultural upheavals, and growing tastes. Here are several significant reasons that could influence this shift:

Changing Music Industry Dynamics: The music industry has changed dramatically over the last few decades. The proliferation of digital platforms, streaming services, and social media has altered how music is consumed and promoted. The music industry has become more receptive to individual preferences thanks to focused marketing and tailored playlists, allowing a greater diversity of musical genres and styles to achieve appeal
.

You where a child so these are the songs you liked. I was in my 20s I didnt listen to that type of music. It's like saying the 80s where children's music because I like agadoo and similar because I was a child then. Of course that is not true.

Music with a deliberate appeal to children and teenagers was nothing new by the 1990s!

In the 1970s, the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds appealed directly to kids with hits like ABC and One Bad Apple.

This model proved to be successful and has been replicated since by NKOTB, TT, S Club 7 and so on. There was lots of money in it.

But other styles of music NOT directly aimed at children and teenagers existed alongside as well.

Nothing new under the sun as they say.

I think music in the 90s was quite polarised - you listened to what "group" you fitted in with's music a lot more than people do now in a streaming-oriented word. You either had to buy the music yourself, or manage to tape a track off the radio, or it was your friends who'd bought albums that you could manage to borrow and copy that limited your access to music... so you had all these little mini music-tribe echo chambers going around and woe betide you dared cross the genres! I'll out myself a bit here by saying that a certain BBC presenter (6 music, Glasto darling, One Show) now beloved on MN took the piss out of me no end at school when I lent a friend a copy of a tape and it dared have "indie" stuff on the B side of it (I'd copied it from a friend of a friend) and I wasn't one of the indie kids so why did I have access to this kind of music.

So if you were just listening to what was on TOTP (as there wasn't the massive access to music there is now) then yes, there were either the weeks where you had the joys of the Spice Girls and Mr Blobby... or those really cringe weeks where they'd got something more obscure that had had a freak chart breakout hit and the audience didn't know what the fuck to do with it.

I don't know if it's better or worse these days - streaming means you can hear one track and go look it up, access it and discover other stuff by the artist, but likewise, I meet a lot of people who claim to be like Metallica fans after Stranger Things - but will ONLY listen to the tracks that made it onto the TV show and have no idea of the range of back catalogue and will never listen to one of the album "filler" tracks that we all had to either carefully fast forward or sit through. We can access more niche and diverse music these days, and we don't need one of our friends to have got hold of the new album (or to be rich) to be able to do so.

In the 80s, there was a lot of pop aimed at kids too. While I was bopping around to the frog song and Agadoo there were people older than me listening to The Smiths and Kate Bush…

So true about the music tribes and being ‘allowed’ to be into whatever music!

I remember getting enough pocket money to buy a 7"single and some sweets every other week in the mid 80s.

Dd bought a kylie greatest hits album (I blame ghosts on BBC) at a car boot sale yesterday. Its not really the same thing.