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Fri 31 July 2026 8:33, UK
The 1990s were an odd decade for the music industry in terms of what became popular.
If anything, it can be regarded as the decade when the tides truly turned away from the dominance of rock music in the mainstream. Pop became the dominant force, with rap, hip-hop, and R&B beginning to show signs of how they would eventually dethrone every other genre and become the major cultural touchstone in the subsequent decades.
Classic rock had had its time in the spotlight, but its popularity was beginning to wane during the age of tracksuits and baggy shirts. The 1980s had already seen some mutations in rock, but when hair metal proved itself as the best that the genre had to offer in a commercial sense, it was evident that its days were numbered in terms of how long it could keep the charts in a chokehold.
When the 1990s came around, even more changes began to occur, and rock music started to branch out into various strands that seemed to distance themselves from the classic sound that had been established a few decades prior. The emergence of grunge, indie, and alternative rock provided a modernised take on the genre that chose not to stick to tradition, and essentially breathed new life into an ailing rock scene that was much needed.
However, that’s not to say that the classic rock sound had completely keeled over and called it a day, and there were plenty of acts who were either paying tribute to tradition or keeping it alive, having been major proponents of it in prior decades. There were still signs of life in classic rock in the ‘90s, and those who chose not to give up on the cause were occasionally rewarded with chart success around the world, proving that they could still compete with the emergent pop stars of the generation.
As Dave Edmunds rather comically put it, “Rock ‘n’ roll will never die. There’ll always be some arrogant little brat who wants to make music with a guitar.”
Credit: Dave EdmundsSo, what was the best-selling classic rock song of the 1990s?
With that in mind, which new brats were ruling the roost? Well, it’s not surprising that a band like Aerosmith would stick to their roots and choose not to divert from the style that had brought them so much success in the past. They were one of only a handful of active rock groups in the 1980s who remained committed to keeping classic rock alive.
Frontman Steven Tyler said, “Rock ‘n’ roll is sexuality personified.” And lead guitarist Joe Perry further elucidated that when he said, “When I plug in my guitar and play it really loud, loud enough to deafen most people, that’s my shot of adrenaline, and there’s nothing like it.” As a group, the Boston band figured that sort of thing was always going to have a solid appeal somewhere, somehow.
Despite having had a crossover hit with the Run-DMC version of ‘Walk This Way’, their steadfast insistence that rock should be done a certain way paid off for them in 1998 when they produced the genre’s biggest hit of the decade.
‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’ was the biggest classic rock track of the ‘90s. And it was huge! Selling over nine million copies worldwide and providing the American group with their first-ever number one hit single in their home country. It may have lacked the same sense of bravado as previous singles like ‘Love in an Elevator’ or ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’, but the power ballad style proved to be a hit with audiences and ushered the band back into the spotlight, having had minimal success in the earlier part of the decade.
However, its origins are somewhat unusual, and the fact that it wasn’t strictly written by the group was unusual for them to have had a hit with it. In some ways, it was fittingly rather ’90s pop-like in this regard. Despite guitarist Joe Perry having contributed to the composition, the track was written by acclaimed songwriter Diane Warren for the soundtrack to the 1998 film Armageddon.
Aerosmith had contributed three other songs to the film’s soundtrack, which starred frontman Steven Tyler’s daughter, Liv, alongside Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck (who has never missed an opportunity yet to tear into the film), but this particular song was eventually handed to them, despite the original plans being for someone else to sing it.
Warren had originally written the song with an artist such as Celine Dion in mind, wanting the soaring vocal lines to be done in a more pure fashion rather than with Tyler’s gruff tone, but apparently, the minute the band began to play along to Warren’s demo, it became one of their own songs. Had they passed up the opportunity, it’s unlikely that any other classic rock song would have managed to hit those heights throughout the decade, and with them taking the track on as their own, they managed to forge not only one of their most enduring hits but also one of the most iconic songs of the decade.
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