It feels tempting to stereotype the 1990s as a decade of angst, part of being from the whole Gen X attitude, and part of being from the decade being maybe/kinda/sorta generally stable? Like, there were many movies released at the end of the decade that were about people in seemingly decent/stable jobs rebelling or lashing out at something in their lives out of boredom or general malaise (see Fight Club, American Beauty, Office Space, and maybe even the first act of The Matrix), so perhaps the angst-related stereotype isn’t entirely unfair.

You could hear it in some of the music, too, particularly on the rock side of things, because the rock that was popular in the 1990s was generally of the grunge or alternative variety, plus a bit of Britpop thrown in, for good measure. And that genre is going to be focused on below, with this being a ranking of some of the very best rock songs of the 1990s, with a limit of one song per artist – as is usually best to do – to keep things a little more varied.

10

“Say It Ain’t So” (1994)

Weezer

“Say It Ain’t So” was released as a single in 1995, but it first appeared on Weezer’s self-titled debut album in 1994. “Which self-titled album?” is a valid question, now that there have been several, but it’s also The Blue Album, which isn’t as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue, but not much is. And that’s a very different sort of album. What are we talking about again?

Oh, Weezer. Good ol’ Weezer. Weezer was a good old band back in the mid-1990s, and then they became an inconsistent band in the 2000s, and then a weirdly good band again about 20 years later (The White Album kind of came out of nowhere with how strong it was), and then they were back to their inconsistent thing before too long. Like, The Teal Album. Anyway, “Say It Ain’t So” is a highlight from a great alternative rock album, and could well be Weezer’s very best song, so that’s why it’s here. About “Say It Ain’t So,” this has been said. So it be. So it is.

9

“Common People” (1995)

Pulp

You can call Pulp Britpop if you want to, just as you can dance and leave your friends behind (agghh, wrong decade, sorry), but since it’s a sort of alternative rock (for the most part), Britpop can be included here. It is a safe space for Britpop. So, here’s “Common People,” the first of a handful of Britpop songs that are going to be here, which you might just have to learn to deal with, if you don’t love it. As was the case with Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So,” this is probably the band’s strongest track overall.

It’s almost six minutes long, but you can’t really tell while it’s playing, since it’s very catchy on a musical front, and then lyrically, it’s an example of good storytelling, what with the satire and very British wit found throughout it. It’s Wittish, and certainly works on both those fronts, musically and lyrically. Maybe some other fronts, too. It’s just a winning song any way you want to slice/define it.

8

“Katy Song” (1993)

Red House Painters

Of all the bands here, Red House Painters probably feel the least “rock” in the traditional sense, and also, “Katy Song” is easily the most downbeat track in this whole ranking. It’s probably the most obscure pick, too, but it feels right to throw at least one outlier into the mix. Otherwise, you’re just going to get nothing but the usual suspects, and there were already enough Usual Suspects in the 1990s, thanks to that movie from 1995.

“Katy Song” is quintessential slowcore, which is a sub-genre of indie rock, and then indie rock itself is kind of a sub-genre of rock. This song is slow, and very despairing, but also incredibly beautiful and moving. It’s sad in a visceral – and hopefully cathartic – sort of way, and does technically have rock instrumentation, so it counts. “Katy Song” is a fantastic epic ballad of sorts, but not a ballad in a conventional way. It’s just worth listening to, and certainly worthy of devoting about eight minutes of your time to (what do you have to lose? Besides eight minutes and 22 seconds, of course).

7

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)

Nirvana

From the most obscure song here to the one that might well be overexposed, in the eyes (or ears?) of some, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the boring pick for the crown of Nirvana’s best song, but it is an anthem and a staple of the ‘90s for good reason. If you want to get technical, it’s grunge, rather than straightforward rock, but grunge was what rock more or less evolved into, by the early 1990s, with grunge and some alt-rock differentiating themselves from the “classic” rock popular in the 1970s, and into the 1980s, to some extent.

Even if it’s potentially not the best “rock” song of the decade, it is likely the most well-known and also the most decade-defining.

It’s also hard to know what else to say about “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It’s been viewed more than 2 billion times on YouTube alone, and it was already beyond iconic before it ever got officially uploaded to YouTube in 2009. Even if it’s potentially not the best “rock” song of the decade, it is likely the most well-known and also the most decade-defining, so that counts for quite a lot here, in the interest of being at least somewhat objective about all this.

6

“Strangers When We Meet” (1993/1995)

David Bowie

This song’s a bit of an odd one to try and classify, year-wise, but either way, it did come out in the 1990s. It’s an underrated David Bowie song called “Strangers When We Meet,” with a version initially appearing on an album called The Buddha of Suburbia, which is sometimes considered a soundtrack, and sometimes a studio album. Then, it was recorded again and made into the closing track on Bowie’s Outside, which is sometimes called 1.Outside.

And Outside might well be the most experimental and inconsistent of David Bowie’s studio albums, with it having some great material and then a few super questionable and unusual tracks. It’s an endurance test of an album, at times, but does stay interesting throughout, and then quite a lot can be forgiven when the whole thing concludes with a track as cathartic and moving as “Strangers When We Meet,” which is probably the best David Bowie song that doesn’t often get considered a candidate for the title of “best David Bowie song,” if that makes any sense.

5

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” (1997)

The Verve

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” marks another win for Britpop representation here, and it’s also not far off “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in terms of being decade-defining and hard not to mention, at least in passing, when you’re talking about the ‘90s. It’s got that whole orchestral sound going for it that feels weirdly timeless, and a very effective (and, for a time, controversial) sample from The Rolling Stones, too.

There’s also a broadness to “Bitter Sweet Symphony” that might make it feel somewhat tempting to resist, or downplay its greatness, but to go big and broad in this way and have it all still work is not easy, just as making a true crowd-pleaser in the world of cinema ain’t easy. This is the kind of song that splits people into two camps: those who like it, and those who don’t admit they like it, when they do. Both camps, of course, are basically the same. It’s more bitter than sweet that they remain so divided.

4

“Closer” (1994)

Nine Inch Nails

There might be a certain catharsis and broad appeal to “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” but you don’t really get anything nice with “Closer,” even if it is pretty popular for a song that’s largely so dark. It was a hit by the standards of Nine Inch Nails, and saw the band being oddly close to mainstream success, with “Closer” nearly cracking the top 40 in America, and coming bizarrely close to hitting #1 in Australia, getting to #3, at its peak. Hmm? Hmm. Hmm!

Oh, #25 in the UK, too. It did well, and then it’s also endured, because if you know one Nine Inch Nails song, and one only, it’s probably this one. As for what “Closer” is about lyrically, that’s hard to get into without the commentary straying out of PG-rated territory. Speaking of not PG-rated territory, “Closer” has a pretty alarming – and, for better or worse, hard-to-forget – music video, too.

3

“Stay Together” (1994)

Suede

If there’s a song here that’s the second-most obscure, after “Katy Song,” it’s probably Suede’s “Stay Together.” This is also the last Britpop song worth mentioning, and if you’ve got a problem with Blur not being here, tough. Comment about it. It’s good for views/engagement. Also, “Song 2” wasn’t short-listed, if you want something more to be angry about. “Girls & Boys” and (especially) “Tender” are better, anyway.

As for “Stay Together,” this is grandiose and bombastic stuff, being as much a throwback to glam rock as it is a Britpop song, or, actually, it’s probably more glam rock than anything else. But it’s also unhinged and extra-theatrical glam rock, with glam rock already being more theatrical than ordinary rock, usually. It is a long and sweeping song that goes right up to the line of being too much, but keeps dancing on that line for about seven minutes, rather than outright crossing it. It’s glorious. Some of the band members apparently didn’t like it that much, but with all due respect, they’re off the mark.

2

“Let Down” (1997)

Radiohead

To mention Radiohead on a ranking like this isn’t inherently a hot take, but to pick “Let Down” over some other songs from OK Computer, or maybe that one song about being a creep, a weirdo, and not belonging somewhere… that might be a hot take. And it is hard to pick a song from OK Computer as the “best,” when all 12 tracks on that album feel essential to the album as a whole, but “Let Down” might well work the best in isolation.

It is a big song, and maybe the author likes big and kind of in-your-face sad songs. “Let Down” is the sort of thing 21st-century Radiohead might be a little embarrassed by, because they don’t really do ballads the way they used to, in the 1990s (see also “Fake Plastic Trees,” which is quite broadly moving by Radiohead standards). Still, when they did do this kind of song, they did it so well, and it’s hard to imagine anyone actually being let down and stuff by this one.

1

“1979” (1995)

The Smashing Pumpkins

One of the best songs of the 1990s being called “1979” would be a bit like one of the best songs of the 2020s being called “2009,” but time marches on, always, and it doesn’t care about your feelings. But “1979” does feel more open and caring, in terms of – once more – being a cathartic sort of rock song, and definitely one of the mellower side of things (it is undoubtedly “rock” enough, though).

There are some other great songs by The Smashing Pumpkins, of course, and there are a good many of them that can be found on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, since that’s a particularly grand double album of almost 30 tracks, all up. “1979” is a highlight, though, and maybe even the centerpiece of the whole gargantuan album. It’s very nostalgic, bittersweet, and effortlessly emotional, with all that adding up to a song that’s ultimately hard to resist.