Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1999

Third Eye Blind clones!

voting for Lit, but yeah this is pretty gross

What a horrible year. Lit.

as is the case with many latter-day RHCP songs, "Scar Tissue" would be much better received if Anthony Kiedis could actually sing

Blink, over Lit and Sugar Ray

Small list, but one I love ("All the Small Things") and one I like a lot ("Every Morning"). Big year for me music-wise. I got my first full-time teaching job the winter before, and stopped doing Radio On that summer, so this was really the year where I drifted away from new music.

as is the case with many latter-day RHCP songs, "Scar Tissue" would be much better received if Anthony Kiedis could actually sing

― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Tuesday, May 29, 2012 9:37 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there's a lot of nice guitar on this song but kiedis emoting makes me want to jump off a bridge

This is actually my favorite Sugar Ray song, but I had to vote Lit since that songs still gets people singing along when it comes on the radio (which is still pretty often).

god i cant believe that bush song was a #1

clem, i never realized you were the Radio On guy!

Between Woodstock 99 and Creed's "Higher" video (not to mention the underperformance of Midnite Vultures), I'd say this is the year alternative died

yep. I tend to think of radio generally between 1999-2001 as sounding exactly like this chart..

I liked "Scar Tissue" enough to buy the cassingle (one of my last) but, boy, did I burn out on that one.

these have been pure shit since the 97 poll

scar tissue actually just doesn't have a vocal melody at all, and the music and/or lyrics aren't exciting enough to carry it

this is the era when RHCP were writing lyrics that were even more off-putting than usual

how, out of curiosity, is fatboy slim's "praise you" modern rock in any form?

aside from the three i could have voted for, i like the rhcp and limp tracks fine, though they blend into medleys with similar singles in my head. everlast at least gets some tracy chapman points, and I have a strong memory of hearing "higher" for the first time and thinking "yes, this is evil but will be a huge fucking hit." The only songs here I think are truly worthless garbage are Bush and the Foos.

waht

Rick Rubin had produced their two previous albums. However, the Chili Peppers decided to look for other producers for Californication.[21] David Bowie had shown great interest in working with the band and asked to produce the album; however, the Chili Peppers chose to remain with Rubin for Californication.[21]

this was around the time i was actually listening to alt-rock radio as a kid and i remember 'otherside' getting way more play than 'scar tissue'. maybe that's in the 2000 list though?

this is the era when RHCP were writing lyrics that were even more off-putting than usual

― Snowqueen's Icedragon (crüt), Tuesday, May 29, 2012 9:49 AM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark

i should push you up against the wall like a young kentucky girl in a push-up bra for saying that, you sarcastic mr. know-it-all!

this was around the time i was actually listening to alt-rock radio as a kid and i remember 'otherside' getting way more play than 'scar tissue'. maybe that's in the 2000 list though?

yes, where it was almost as huge

how, out of curiosity, is fatboy slim's "praise you" modern rock in any form?

popularized by spike jonze video, all "big in uk" aside from spice girls/boy-girl-bandery had to come in through the alt door in the 90s

I spent April 1999 on a road trip around California, which was a good time, and the Lit song reminds me of that holiday.

The two years after that I spent having my life unpleasantly rearranged by factors beyond my control, lunkheaded Bizkit/Blink tracks and their imitators clogged up the radio, and a couple of their fans wormed their way into my circle of friends and started dominating everything and pitting everyone against each other.

I don't think my opinion would be any different if I could filter out the extra-musical dimension to my vote, but there it is.

how, out of curiosity, is fatboy slim's "praise you" modern rock in any form?

Black people only allowed in via sample.

Around The World is decent uptempo RHCP but the midtempo reign of Scar Tissue/Otherside/Californication just made all those songs run together into total shit imo

that weird glossolalia in the last chorus of 'around the world' cracks me up every time

I don't even remember how "Otherside" goes

I remember snickers from friends and some rockcrits about Sugar Ray scoring an even bigger hit than their last and I thought, well, lol they defined and shaped this era -- why would they have bombed?

they just wanted to fly, man

well the thing about Sugar Ray is that "Fly" was completely unlike all their other songs up to that point, which is why the initial follow-up bombed and they were pre-emptively put in the 'one hit wonder' box. it's not surprising in retrospect that they were shrewd/depserate enough to turn that one-off into a formula but it wasn't a given at the time.

I still can't tell wtf Kiedis is singing in the chorus of "Scar Tissue"

"With bubba shed, it's the lonely view"???

Yes--Radio On's why I continue t live in the lap of luxury today.

I was late to the whole file-sharing explosion, but does that start to happen around this time too? That's the point at which...it's hard to explain, but as hard as it always was to keep up, that's the point when it became impossible for someone like me. The whole process just seemed to spiral off in a million directions. If you were young and on top of things, I'm sure you found ways to keep up. If you were older and taking a step back anyway, that made everything twice as confusing.

our newsroom didn't get Napster until Feb or March of 2000; that's when I jumped on board.

apparently it's "with the birds I'll share this lonely view" -- i always imagined it was something about bloodshed and being lonely without you

"lift up the shade, it's a lonely view" was my brain's vainglorious attempt to make something logical out of what i was hearing

RIP Bubba Shed

Bubba Shed would be a good Bowie-like alias for Kiedis's Californication-era silver bowl cut look

I thought "from what we shared it's a lonely view"

According to metrolyrics it's "sorry about One Hot Minute, here's Under The Soul To Squeeze Again"

Not voting. This list is horrid.

Bloody hell no

the only one of these songs that genuinely bums me out is "Learn To Fly," which is such a huge dropoff from the Colour And The Shape singles. the worst of the rest, especially "What It's Like," are just annoying.

I heard "All the" too much, went for "Every morn"

there are worse Creed songs but that doesn't make "Higher" something I ever want to hear

I can recall the chorus of "Higher" (with that tasty guitar lick) but when I try to think of the verse I just shift to "My Sacrifice"

These are all so bad! But the Blink song is prob the least bad.

I am so resentful that this is the music I got stuck with at age 11/12

Re: this list, yuck. No.

I am so resentful that this is the music I got stuck with at age 11/12

you could have just listened to Moby's Play on repeat like half the world did

out of the frying pan and into the starbucks

it would be pretty fuckin wimpy if Chester Bennington singing "In The End" in front of a green screen was the gen y Altamont

and yet, pretty fuckin appropriate

I forgot about Woodstock '99. This year was pretty raped-at-a-party-focused now that we look back.

"this year"

Toad the Wed Sprocket's "Hold Her Down" has a lot to answer for.

The best thing Mark McGrath ever did was hosting that vh1 "100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock and Roll" series. He's normally a chill/fun dude but I loved how solemn he was in describing the time David Bowie dabbled in fascism. That kind of show gives "rockism" and the pop music canon a good name.

"dabbled"

Listening to "Black Balloon" for the first time since it was a hit - - it's sounding pretty good! I will say that when it hits the chorus though, it sounds like the generic Vertical Horizon sound that we were talking about a minute ago. Dunno if those bands or their labels were really swinging for an "Iris" but I wonder. It compares interestingly with the whole "positive vibes" genre from a decade earlier, although I like that stuff a lot more.

BTW - - who decides what ends up on "Modern Rock"? Or is it just based on what stations report they're playing? I ask because of things like "Smooth," a team-up between a classic rock guitarist and the vocalist from a band with 2-3 HUGE Modern Rock chart hits on their last album (including one #1) and it apparently it didn't make it, according to Wiki? I mean, it was a GIGANTIC song in '99, but I can't remember now whether I heard it on the modern rock station or not.

I heard Black Balloon for the first time ever at a Shell station the other day. It was on the in-store play and I was like "what is this soft rock heroin ballad?"

also speaking of rob thomas i suspect matchbox 20 are the real architects of Vertical Horizon-ism, nevermind

It speaks to what the definition of "modern rock" had deteriorated to by 1999 that something totally middle-of-the-road AOR like Creed would be considered for contention.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

xp

or I guess just what the parameters of it had changed to encompass, b/c there is plenty of 'middle-of-the-road AOR' I would gladly take (by FAR) over anything listed listed here.

It speaks to what the definition of "modern rock" had deteriorated to by 1999 that something totally middle-of-the-road AOR like Creed would be considered for contention.

plenty of MOR in 1989-1991 charts though

lol

why did any of these songs get a vote?

Bush, "The Chemicals Between Us" 0

^^^ presumably only due to absence of Cranberries

I voted for the chili peppers because I vaguely remember being very, very wasted and singing along even though I don't know the words. I believe during the chorus I sang, "When birds go shit it's a lonely poo," or something along those lines. Ah, the 90s.

BTW - - who decides what ends up on "Modern Rock"? Or is it just based on what stations report they're playing? I ask because of things like "Smooth," a team-up between a classic rock guitarist and the vocalist from a band with 2-3 HUGE Modern Rock chart hits on their last album (including one #1) and it apparently it didn't make it, according to Wiki? I mean, it was a GIGANTIC song in '99, but I can't remember now whether I heard it on the modern rock station or not.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 7:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah, it's based on what is played by stations that self-identify as being in the alternative/modern rock format. a LOT of stuff in the late '90s/early '00s from the softer end of alt rock radio would cross over to pop radio and then gradually became a total adult contemporary thing and rock radio would abandon them...Matchbox 20, Lifehouse, All-American Rejects. "Hanging By A Moment" and "Push" were #1 modern rock songs but those stations rarely if ever play those songs now. same goes for Alanis songs besides "You Oughta Know."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIOFdIPL7DU

Right now that's way funnier than it should be to me. omg.

it's a wolfpupy video

oh wait it says that at the beginning

*favorited*

\(^o^)/

okay lol

I assume you guys played the jingle catsesque "Crawling In My Skin"

wolfpupy made one of those for "last resort"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDWVDX98p5I

http://bit.ly/L0WVGb

phew, so glad i am not the only one who likes the everlast song (unless those 5 ppl were joking which seems possible)

We went to a small local county fair last year and the musical entertainment was Everlast. Just in case, you know, anyone was wondering what he's up to these days.

You could say his career is... permanent.

On-going, if you will.

it is my most fervent hope that he is ending his sets these days with a thoughtful acoustic guitar version of "Jump Around"

i'm sure he distances that from his, like, art, man

iirc he always did "Jump Around" the usual way in his concerts even when "What It's Like" was his big hit

I want to add Tonic to the list of bands orphaned by shifts in radio format. "If You Could Only See" still does fine (it got to #11 on the Hot 100) but their other Mainstream Rock hits ("Open Up Your Eyes," #2, "You Wanted More," #3) are completely MIA. Also regrettable that "Mean To Me" didn't chart at all and sank like a stone - but by 2000 maybe there wasn't a station programmed to give that a decent push? It's not a lost classic or anything but it's pretty good, nice riff.

xp Wouldn't it make more sense marketing-wise for Everlast to bill himself as House Of Pain and just get some DJ's and play 3 or 4 Everlast songs throughout his set? this makes way more sense to me than the opposite

IMO way more party people would be interested in seeing House Of Pain than Everlast

iirc he's been performing with house of pain in recent years?

if you're wondering why this thread's quieted down it's because we're all trying to track down those Wild On! torrents