{"id":704076,"date":"2026-06-14T19:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704076\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T19:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:26:10","slug":"4-indie-songs-from-the-90s-that-scream-coming-of-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704076\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Indie Songs From the 90s That Scream \u201cComing of Age\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s just something special about indie music that\u2019s extra nostalgic, particularly when you\u2019re a teenager and have nothing to be nostalgic about yet. Here are a few indie songs from the 90s that feel like a coming-of-age film.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopular\u201d by Nada Surf<\/p>\n

I think the title of this one pretty much speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

Nada Surf\u2019s frontman, Matthew Caws, was taking inspiration from a 1964 book called Penny\u2019s Guide To Teen-Age Charm And Popularity when he wrote this song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was playing around with a 4-track and I had this little hook and I thought I would write a chorus from the standpoint of somebody who really believed everything in this book and someone who approached life like that in a very competitive way,\u201d Caws explained in an interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDreams\u201d by The Cranberries<\/p>\n

This song by The Cranberries<\/a> is both uplifting and melancholy, which I think is what makes it perfect for anything involving the teenage experience. If you\u2019re not convinced that this song is a coming-of-age anthem, just look at the lyrics in the first verse:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my life is changing everyday \/ In every possible way \/ And oh, my dreams \/ It\u2019s never quite as it seems \/ Never quite as it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s Where The Story Ends\u201d by The Sundays<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about this song by The Sundays that\u2019s just untouchably nostalgic. Not to mention, the lyrics literally sound like a teenager is speaking them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople I know, places I go, make me feel tongue-tied \/ And I can see how, people look down \/ They\u2019re on the inside \/ \u2026\u00a0Here\u2019s where the story ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Freshmen\u201d by Verve Pipe<\/p>\n

The backstory of this song isn\u2019t nearly as devastating as its lyrics make it out to be. As lead singer Brian Vander Ark explained, he wrote this one, in part, inspired by a girl he was seeing who got pregnant when he was younger. In the song, he adds a dramatic twist in which she commits suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018When I was young I knew everything\u2026\u2019 We all think we know everything at a young age,\u201d Vander Ark explained of the song\u2019s opening line, as reported by SongFacts<\/a>. \u201cI thought I did. I realize I didn\u2019t know sh*t until I was 36.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the most part, \u201cThe Freshmen\u201d just sounds like it\u2019s about teens falling in love and making mistakes if you\u2019re not really listening.<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gie Knaeps\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s just something special about indie music that\u2019s extra nostalgic, particularly when you\u2019re a teenager and have nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[50829,88,304214,216,2156],"class_list":["post-704076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1990s","tag-entertainment","tag-indie-music","tag-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}