HYPERemember the good ol’ days when Britney Spears was that sweet starlet and posters of boybands were all plastered over our walls? All that we all love to hate and hate to love; we bring you our own list of the 90’s rewind.
By Eunice Lew and Loh Qiu-Lyng
1990: Ice, Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
(picture from vanillaice.com)
The turn of the decade saw the rise of the first white rapper, Vanilla Ice, whose claim to fame was the chart-topping hip-hop single “Ice, Ice Baby“. Recently, it came in 5th in Blender Magazine’s list of “50 Worst Songs Ever“. But no matter how lame we declare the song to be, resistance becomes futile whenever its sexy chorus comes on.
1991: (Everything I Do) I Do It For You – Bryan Adams
(picture from bryanadams.com)
The amazing thing’s that despite cheesy lyrics like “There’s nowhere unless you’re there” and “There’s no love like your love”, this ballad managed to spend 7 weeks atop the Billboard. Now, no wedding would be complete without it, although we probably die a little inside from embarrassment whenever bride and groom slow dance to this tune.
1992: Baby Got Back – Sir Mix-a-Lot
(picture from magnetmagazine.com)
One thing’s certain, Sir Mix-A-Lot is an honest man: He really likes big butts. After all, this is the premise of “Baby Got Back“, a song about the female anatomy. Even the original music video would make your mom cry because Sir Mix-A-Lot is strutting his stuff on top of a huge, well, I’m sure you can guess.
1993: I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers
(picture from store.acousticsounds.com)
Arguably one of the corniest songs of the 90’s about a man proclaiming his undying love for a woman by (rather foolishly) walking a total of 1000 miles only to fall down at her door. Although the song is bouncy and catchy, the lyrics are laughable and awkward. Why did we even… Let’s not talk about it.
(picture from all-4-one.com)
Originally a country song by John Michael Montgomery, the cover by All-4-One became even more popular than the original and paved the way for other equally suave boybands. In breathy, perfectly harmonised vocals and cheesy hand-on-heart gestures, they swear by the moon and stars to always be there.
1995: Lemon Tree – Fool’s Garden
(picture from foolsgarden.de)
Remember tuning into any radio station in the year 1995 and hearing Fool’s Garden singing about a certain yellow lemon tree? You must admit, a list of guilty pleasures just wouldn’t be the same without this song, whose insanely catchy chorus is the reason we can’t stop swaying and humming whenever it comes on.
1996: Wannabe – Spice Girls
(picture from dailymail.co.uk)
With their outrageous costumes and even more outrageous nicknames, the Spice Girls sang “Wannabe“, which was a pure pop guilty pleasure with its catchy piano riff and harebrained lyrics. (“I wanna really, really, really, wanna zig-a-zig-ah” anyone?) The song became their signature song.
1997: Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
(picture from last.fm)
For a song that ranked 12th on Rolling Stone‘s “20 Most Annoying Songs“ list, “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba is surprisingly motivational, with never-say-die lyrics like “I get knocked down/ but I get up again/ you’re never gonna get me down”, and a thumping beat set against jaunty electric guitar riffs.
1998: Truly, Madly, Deeply – Savage Garden
(picture from new.music.yahoo.com)
This is perhaps the love song to end all love songs, with its teenybopper appeal and tacky lyrics (“Lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me”). The public was completely taken by this song even though its cringe-worthy lyrics would make any cynic roll his or her eyes at its sheer absurdity.
1999: …Baby One More Time – Britney Spears
(picture from Britney Spears’ Facebook fan page)
The song was the start of a global pop phenomenon, and has since seen Britney rise to sex goddess stature and subsequently fallen from grace with her public meltdowns. Even with her recent successful comeback, this is still the one song that almost everyone will know the exact lyrics and moves to.