Best Songs of the 90s — Top 100

Nirvana

The shot heard round the world — the song that ended one era of rock and began another. Still the most culturally explosive record of the decade.

Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men

Sixteen weeks at No. 1 — a record that stood for 23 years. The most commercially dominant ballad of the decade.

Whitney Houston

The Bodyguard soundtrack spawned the decade's definitive power ballad — Houston's vocal run at the end remains the benchmark for pop excess done perfectly.

Tupac Shakur

Dr. Dre's G-funk synths and Tupac's commanding presence turned this West Coast anthem into one of the most joyful records of the decade.

The Notorious B.I.G.

Biggie's origin story over a Mtume sample — a masterclass in transforming hardship into triumphant narrative.

TLC

The decade's most poignant commentary on AIDS and urban violence delivered in an irresistible pop-R&B package.

Oasis

The campfire song that defined Britpop for the world — still the most-played acoustic guitar song in the UK twenty-five years later.

No Doubt

Gwen Stefani's breakup anthem crossed ska, pop, and new wave into something universally heartbreaking.

Alanis Morissette

The most righteous breakup song in rock history — Morissette's rage-fuelled debut announced a new kind of female voice in rock.

Backstreet Boys

Teen pop at its absolute peak — a melody so perfect that even its logical incoherence became iconic.

Lauryn Hill

The decade's most complete female MC proving she could sing circles around most vocalists too.

Spice Girls

Girl power as pop manifesto — the debut single that conquered 37 countries and introduced a generation to the phrase "zig-a-zig-ah."

R. Kelly

Gospel-infused R&B that became the decade's defining motivational anthem, used in every graduation ceremony for a decade.

Destiny's Child

The song that introduced Beyoncé to the world — sharp, funny, and melodically irresistible.

Eminem

The most arresting debut single of the decade — Eminem arriving as the most transgressive voice in mainstream hip-hop.

Dr. Dre

G-funk at its most effortless — a groove so smooth it became the sound of an entire coast.

Jay-Z

Annie's "It's a Hard Knock Life" flipped into hip-hop gold — the song that made Jay-Z a superstar.

Usher

The debut that established Usher as R&B's next great voice — smooth, assured, and irresistible.

Aaliyah

Timbaland's baby-crying percussion sample over Aaliyah's impossibly cool delivery — one of the decade's most innovative singles.

Missy Elliott

Missy and Timbaland arriving in tandem — hip-hop as avant-garde art.

Pearl Jam

Grunge's most emotionally devastating ballad — Eddie Vedder at his most nakedly vulnerable.

Soundgarden

The most surreal and beautiful video of the decade, matched by Cornell's extraordinary vocal.

Green Day

Pop-punk's gateway drug — Billie Joe Armstrong's anxiety translated into three minutes of pure cathartic release.

Radiohead

The outsider anthem that Radiohead later disowned, but which connected with millions who recognised its self-loathing.

The Cranberries

Dolores O'Riordan's "zombie" vocal delivered a political protest with stunning emotional force.

R.E.M.

Mandolin and Michael Stipe's intense, intimate delivery made this the unlikely alt-rock crossover of 1991.

Weezer

Power pop as slacker comedy — the beginning of Weezer's reign as indie rock's geek royalty.

Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan's orchestral ambition at its most grandiosely beautiful — the Mellon Collie highlight.

Verve

Richard Ashcroft strolling through London over Andrew Oldham's strings — one of the great 1990s anthems.

Blur

Britpop meets dance — Damon Albarn's sardonic holiday-camp observation over a pulsing synth.

Pulp

The most articulate class-war pop song ever written — Jarvis Cocker's finest lyric.

Elastica

Post-punk pop sharpened to a razor's edge — Justine Frischmann's cool commanding the room.

Hole

Courtney Love's biggest pop moment — savage, glittery, and catchy as a disease.

PJ Harvey

Raw, bluesy, and gloriously confrontational — Harvey arriving as one of rock's most original voices.

Bjork

The debut single that announced pop music's most genuinely eccentric superstar.

Massive Attack

Trip-hop's defining moment — orchestral strings beneath the darkest, most beautiful sample in British music.

Portishead

Beth Gibbons's ghost-voice over a sampled Isaac Hayes groove — hauntingly, hypnotically beautiful.

Tricky

The darkest corner of Bristol trip-hop — Public Enemy reinterpreted as a barely-whispered nightmare.

Prodigy

The moment electronic music took over the British mainstream — Keith Flint's character creating one of the decade's great visual/sonic moments.

Daft Punk

The first Daft Punk single that mattered — robotic funk from Paris that defined a new type of cool.

Ace of Base

Swedish reggae-pop euphoria — one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Whitney Houston

Babyface and Houston creating the smoothest, most soulful R&B ballad of the mid-90s.

Janet Jackson

Janet's most sensuous groove — Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis producing at their silkiest.

Boyz II Men

The decade's most devastating breakup harmony — 13 weeks at No. 1 was the record it broke.

Boys II Men

Fourteen weeks at No. 1 — a record at the time, and still one of the great R&B serenades.

Mary J. Blige

Hip-hop soul's founding document — Blige setting the template for an entire genre.

En Vogue

The decade opens with one of R&B's most impressive vocal showcases.

Salt-N-Pepa

Confident, funny, and gloriously infectious — female rap at its most celebratory.

TLC

A sharp, empowered declaration that became the decade's most quotable pop lyric.

SWV

Sisters with Voices sampling Michael Jackson into one of 1993's most irresistible grooves.

Montell Jordan

The defining chill party anthem of the mid-1990s — effortless and endlessly replayable.

Coolio

The Stevie Wonder sample, the gospel choir, Coolio's gravelly reflection on street life — the decade's most impactful rap single.

2Pac

Tupac's posthumous Bruce Hornsby-sampling meditation on race in America — his most enduring statement.

Fugees

Lauryn Hill's vocal over a sample of Roberta Flack — the most elegant hip-hop ballad of the decade.

Warren G & Nate Dogg

G-funk storytelling at its most cinematic — Michael McDonald's sample transformed into something else entirely.

Snoop Dogg

Snoop's debut album contained this impossibly laid-back West Coast anthem.

DMX

X's barking aggression introducing the hardest rap voice of the late 1990s.

Jay-Z

Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt opener — the blueprint for confident, luxury hip-hop.

Wu-Tang Clan

The Wu-Tang world view condensed into three minutes — cash rules everything around me.

Nas

Nas's Illmatic opener — a two-minute NYC street panorama that changed what rap could describe.

Juvenile

Mannie Fresh's production and Juvenile's New Orleans drawl defining the Cash Money era.

Master P

No Limit Records at peak power — the sound of Southern rap arriving as a commercial force.

OutKast

Andre 3000 and Big Boi presenting their alien Southern mythology for the first time.

Madonna

The year 1990 begins with Madonna at her peak, appropriating ballroom culture into pop perfection.

Mariah Carey

The Tom Tom Club sample and Mariah's whistle register — the decade's most dazzling vocal flex.

Celine Dion

The Titanic theme that became the decade's most played — and most parodied — ballad.

Sarah McLachlan

Soft rock as genuine emotional devastation — the ASPCA commercial standard.

Toni Braxton

David Foster's orchestration and Braxton's bottomless contralto in perfect union.

Brandy & Monica

The greatest pop duet rivalry of the decade — two enormous voices and one perfect hook.

Lenny Kravitz

Jimi Hendrix meets Sly Stone in a guitar riff that announces itself and delivers on every promise.

Tracy Chapman

Blues rock in the middle of a decade that had largely forgotten the form — Chapman commanding.

Sheryl Crow

The most casually perfect song of 1994 — Crow finding extraordinary detail in the mundane.

Alanis Morissette

Technically not ironic by any definition — and one of the decade's most inescapable songs anyway.

Fiona Apple

A piano-driven confession of extraordinary self-awareness from a 19-year-old debut artist.

Sinead O'Connor

Prince wrote it, but the tear-streaked video and O'Connor's devastating delivery made it hers.

Liz Phair

Lo-fi indie rock with a sharp sexual confidence that felt genuinely transgressive in 1994.

Beck

Slacker rap-rock at its most gleefully absurdist — Beck arriving as the decade's most playful iconoclast.

They Might Be Giants

Quirky, irresistible indie pop — a song narrated by a night light.

Cake

Deadpan post-punk pop with a guitar solo played like an afterthought and a trumpet that improves everything.

Garbage

Shirley Manson and Butch Vig creating the definitive 1990s alternative rock crossover.

Live

The spiritual rock anthem of the mid-90s — raw, earnest, and overwhelmingly sincere.

Matchbox 20

Rob Thomas's debut showing a songwriter with real gifts for emotional specificity.

Third Eye Blind

The happiest-sounding song about crystal meth addiction ever recorded.

Sugar Ray

The ultimate lazy summer afternoon song — light, warm, and wholly disposable in the best possible way.

Fastball

One of pop rock's most underrated moments — a dark story told in an irresistibly sunny melody.

Semisonic

The most metaphorically layered song about last call ever written.

Savage Garden

Australian power pop delivering the decade's most earnestly romantic ballad.

Hanson

The most purely infectious melody of 1997 — three brothers who knew more about pop than their age suggested.

*NSYNC

The boy band decade's closing statement — a perfectly constructed pop breakup song.

Britney Spears

Max Martin's production and a teenage Britney's instinctive pop authority — one of the decade's final defining singles.

Destiny's Child

The song that made Beyoncé the centrepiece — a paranoid R&B masterpiece.

Whitney Houston

Chaka Khan's original was great; Houston's version is a statement of absolute vocal power.

En Vogue

Four voices working in perfect lockstep — the decade's finest harmonies in a two-minute pop song.

Arrested Development

Conscious hip-hop at the crossroads of the city and the South — Speech's most affecting lyric.

PM Dawn

The most beautiful Spandau Ballet sample and a peaceful hip-hop vision that deserves more credit.

Soul II Soul

The UK dance scene arriving with confidence at the start of the decade — Caron Wheeler's vocal floating perfectly.

Primal Scream

The Madchester and rave era colliding with rock — the Weatherall remix that changed British music.

Happy Mondays

Shaun Ryder's Mancunian drawl over John Kongos's bass — the baggy era at its most gloriously shambolic.

Stone Roses

The decade begins with the Stone Roses' debut — a slow build to something genuinely transcendent.

Jeff Buckley

Cohen's original is a classic; Buckley's version is one of the greatest vocal performances ever captured.

What is the best song of the 1990s?

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (1991) is the most culturally defining song of the 1990s, though "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men was the decade's biggest commercial hit.

What was the biggest hit of the 90s?

"One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men spent 16 weeks at No. 1, making it the biggest chart hit of the decade in the US.

What music genre defined the 90s?

The 1990s were defined by multiple genres simultaneously: grunge and alternative rock in the early years, hip-hop's golden age throughout, Britpop in the mid-decade UK, and teen pop closing the decade.

What are the best 90s R&B songs?

The decade's essential R&B includes "I Will Always Love You" (Whitney Houston), "Waterfalls" (TLC), "I'll Make Love to You" (Boyz II Men), "Real Love" (Mary J. Blige), and "Are You That Somebody?" (Aaliyah).