Rolling Stone are known for their listicles. They’ve famously ranked the greatest guitarists of all time, the greatest albums of all time, and the greatest songs of all time. They’ve recently begun reaching into more niche areas.
Back in April, the iconic magazine continued its ebb from relevance by publishing a list of the 40 greatest punk albums, which as we noted upset quite a few people. For one thing, The Clash’s London Calling was not on the list.
They’ve now unveiled their list of the 50 best songs of the 1990s and we’re not really sure what to think. The list was put together by contributing editor Rob Sheffield, who of course ranked Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ as number one.
Sitting in second place is Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’, followed by The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’, Bikini Kill’s ‘Rebel Girl’, and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s ‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang’. You can take a peek at the top 10 down below.
The list is, quite frankly, a bit of a head-scratcher. It’s not that these aren’t some of the best songs of the ’90s, because they all certainly are, but there’s a number of confounding omissions and the ordering is, well, bizarre.
Also, in many cases it’s arguable whether an entry is even that artist’s best song, but of course that’s up for debate.
Alas, that’s the inherent problem in forming a countdown list, as opposed to just a curated selection of songs that could all be contenders for the ‘best’ songs of the ’90s, which might actually inspire more dialogue instead of flame wars.
Rolling Stone’s Top 10 Songs Of The ’90s
01. Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
02. Blackstreet – ‘No Diggity’
03. The Notorious B.I.G. – ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’
04. Bikini Kill – ‘Rebel Girl’
05. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – ‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang’
06. Pavement – ‘Gold Soundz’
07. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott –
’The Rain
(Supa Dupa Fly)’
08. Pulp – ‘Common People’
09. Liz Phair – ‘Fuck and Run’
10. TLC – ‘No Scrubs’
