Top 100 Songs: 1990-1999
The sound of the ’90s was a struggle between highly contrasting elements. Celine Dion gave us big vanilla cream pie power ballads, while Coolio saw huge success with his distinctly urban “Gansta’s Paradise.” On the one hand, Kurt Cobain (who dealt with success and fame at age 28 by committing suicide) turned grunge into the default sound for legions of rockers. Yet Britney Spears’s sexually overt — but just barely post-pubescent — synthetic Tween pop sold zillions of CDs worldwide.
