Spontaneous nostalgia post-cum-Song of the Day

My friend and I agree, the nineties were a golden age of pop music that we didn't fully appreciate until that decade closed. Now the standard FM airwaves are filled with what I term "urban pop", that hip hop-oriented sound that is chock full of all the urban and tough cliches: drinking, women, clubbing, guns. It is not a new observation when I point out that mainstream rap and hip hop has never been so concerned with the politics and social concerns of life. Chuck D of Public Enemy is famously quoted as saying that rap is the black CNN. There hardly seems to be any of that anymore, but all this is tangential to my first premise.

The 90s had this drive towards authenticity and vulnerability that was lost in the slick production of the 80s. Of course, I'm talking about a thin segment, but that segment drove mainstream radio at a time when we were all paying attention. I'm talking about the Gin Blossoms, Alanis Morrisette, the breakout of Lisa Loeb and Tori Amos, Eagle Eye Cherry. I still know all the words to "Save Tonight".

Undoubtedly, there are elements of nostalgia that leads me to overemphasize the authentic aspects of nineties pop. I mean, boy bands and pop starlets also had their heyday towards the latter half of the decade. It was our nostalgia that led my sister and I to host three 90s themed shows for our college radio program. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the majority of our childhood and adolescence took place in the nineties. Every hugely important event had its musical accompaniment.

Let's enjoy some balmy nostalgia with some Gin Blossoms. That video is a good collection of nineties, hair, clothes, makeup and ATTITUDE. On that note, damn, I want to watch Empire Records, king among soundtrack movies.