Some of you may remember that I’m not exactly the biggest fan of 90’s music, but maybe–just maybe–it’s because I never had cable growing up and therefore never had a MTV in my life where they actually played music videos from time to time. In high school I always felt out of the loop of the cultural discussion because I had no idea what people were talking about when they were talking about the newest videos. Everything I’ve seen from this time period happened years later, either from the Directors Series DVDs, YouTube, or VH1 Best Of specials.
Today I stumbled across the fact that Pitchfork has gone 90’s crazy and my curiosity got the better of me. As I love Best Of lists, I was instantly sucked into their Top 50 Videos of the decade list, and discovered a few gems I’d never seen before that I thought I’d share with you fine folks.
Let’s start things off with a Yo La Tengo song, "Sugarcube". I’ve never been a Yo La Tengo fan (I’m not even sure I could recognize a single song of theirs) but fan or not, you’ve got to love this hilarious video, where music executives tell them their indie/alternative style sucks and they need to go to rock school (predating the School Of Rock, staring Jack Black). Got to love the David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and John Ennis cameos. I want to go to rock school, dammit. If you’ve never seen this before, enjoy:
No, I’ve never seen Smashing Pumpkins’ "1979" before. Sue me. No cable, remember? There is still a certain nostalgia to this song for me though, a mixed bag of joy and sadness, just like real nostalgia, really. Solid video though:
Foo Fighter’s "Big Me" was never my favorite song, but this ode to the then new Mentos commercials is pretty clever. It kind of pre-dates the internet meme thing you see everywhere today.
Pavement’s "Cut Your Hair" is another pretty hilarious video, where each band member goes up to get his hair cut at a barber shop and they do some random gag. Fun and goofy, yet casual, just like the song.
Next up is Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s "Baby, I Got Your Money" featuring Kelis. Here ODB and Kelis are intercut with footage from Dolemite, to give everything a fun blacksploitation feel. This video is very pimp. Rest in peace, Big Baby Jesus.
Finally, I found Beck’s trippy video for Sexx Laws, with a cameo by none other than Jack Black! Let the weirdness ensue!
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