1990 Survey Mix

Welcome to the ’90s, dude.

This is the first in the 1990s survey mix series, which will come out monthly in chronological order through this year. It’s important for the ‘90s to be presented in order, because the story of music in that decade is basically a trilogy in which each act ends in tragedy – the suicide of Kurt Cobain, the murders of Tupac and Biggie, and the toxic masculinity run rampant at Woodstock ’99.

In this framework, 1990 is like a prologue in which we watch the 1980s shift into the 1990s with a great deal of innocence and optimism. 1990 is a peculiar year with a distinct aesthetic that is almost entirely abandoned by 1992. It’s as though at some point in 1989, everyone was sent a memo “hey, this is what the ‘90s is gonna sound like” and then by spring of 1991, another memo went out telling people to scrap all that and go in another direction. Anyway, enjoy immersing yourself in the first draft of the ‘90s. It’s pretty fun for the most part, and it starts off with Mariah Carey showing up out of nowhere and changing the course of pop music forever.

Thanks to Paul Cox, Rob Sheffield, Sean T. Collins, and Chris Conroy for their valuable assistance in putting this set together!

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Mariah Carey “Vision of Love” / Wilson Phillips “Hold On” / Madonna “Vogue” / Deee-Lite “Groove Is In the Heart” / George Michael “Freedom ’90” / The Black Crowes “Hard to Handle” / Tevin Campbell “Round and Round” / Janet Jackson “Escapade” / INXS “Disappear” / Depeche Mode “Enjoy the Silence” / Sinead O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” / My Bloody Valentine “Soon” / Nine Inch Nails “Sin” / Enigma “Sadeness Pt 1” / Bell Biv DeVoe “Poison” / C&C Music Factory “Gonna Make You Sweat” / Happy Mondays “Step On” / Primal Scream “Come Together” / Maxi Priest “Close to You” / Ralph Tresvant “Sensitivity” / Queensryche “Silent Lucidity”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

LL Cool J “Mama Said Knock You Out” / Public Enemy “911 Is A Joke” / MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This” / Morrissey “Piccadilly Palare” / Garth Brooks “Friends In Low Places” / Concrete Blonde “Joey” / The La’s “There She Goes” / The B-52’s “Roam” / Aerosmith “Janie’s Got A Gun” / Alannah Myles “Black Velvet” / Heart “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You” / Suzanne Vega & DNA “Tom’s Diner” / Lisa Stansfield “All Around the World” / Snap! “The Power” / Adamski “Killer” / Soho “Hippychick” / 808 State “Pacific 202” / The Cure “Never Enough” / The Soup Dragons “I’m Free” / The Stone Roses “One Love” / Ride “Vapour Trail” / Cocteau Twins “Iceblink Luck” / Roxette “It Must Have Been Love” / Go West “The King of Wishful Thinking” / Celine Dion “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Jane’s Addiction “Been Caught Stealing” / Pixies “Dig for Fire” / Sonic Youth “Kool Thing” / Fugazi “Repeater” / A Tribe Called Quest “Bonita Applebum” / Keith Sweat “Make You Sweat” / Salt-N-Pepa “Let’s Talk About Sex” / Roxanne Shante “Brothers Ain’t Shit” / Vanilla Ice “Ice Ice Baby” / Consolidated “Product” / The KLF “What Time Is Love?” / Black Box “I Don’t Know Anybody Else” / Neneh Cherry “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” / Stevie B “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)” / Julee Cruise “Falling” / Yo La Tengo “Oklahoma, USA” / Clint Black “Loving Blind” / Emmylou Harris “Tougher Than the Rest” / King Missile “Jesus Was Way Cool” / Buffalo Tom “Skeleton Key” / Mudhoney “Hate the Police” / World Party “Way Down Now” / Winger “Can’t Get Enuff” / Nelson “Love and Affection” / Phish “Bouncing Around the Room” / Prefab Sprout “Wild Horses” / Everything But the Girl “Driving”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Paul Simon “The Obvious Child” / Alice In Chains “Man in the Box” / Nirvana “Sliver” / The Breeders “Iris” / Lush “Sweetness and Light” / Mazzy Star “Holah” / The Sundays “Here’s Where the Story Ends” / Blake Babies “I’ll Take Anything” / Cinderella “Shelter Me” / Billy Idol “Cradle of Love” / Los Lobos “I Walk Alone” / Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians “Black and Blue” / Heavenly “Escort Crash on Marston Street” / Aztec Camera “Good Morning Britain” / Teenage Fanclub “Everything Flows” / The Simpsons “Do the Bartman” / Tony! Toni! Toné! “Feels Good” / Brand Nubian “Feels So Good” / Ice Cube “Who’s the Mack?” / Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. “Psyko Funk” / Dr. Alban “No Coke” / Cud “Magic (Farsley Mix)” / Betty Boo “Where Are You Baby?” / Nikki “Notice Me” / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “The Ship Song”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

N.W.A. “100 Miles and Runnin’” / Above the Law “Murder Rap” / Pantera “Cowboys from Hell” / KMFDM “Godlike” / Iggy Pop “Candy” / Poison “Unskinny Bop” / Mother Love Bone “Stardog Champion” / Warrant “Cherry Pie” / Indigo Girls “Welcome Me” / Bongwater “Talent Is A Vampire” / Guy “Wanna Get With U” / Too Short “Short But Funky” / Johnny Gill “Rub You the Right Way” / Beats International “Dub Be Good To Me” / The Orb “Little Fluffy Clouds” / Adrian Belew “Young Lions” / The Chills “Heavenly Pop Hit” / The Charlatans “The Only One I Know” /Bailter Space “Fish Eye” / Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine “Sheriff Fatman” / New Kids on the Block “Step by Step” / The Pooh Sticks “Radio Ready” / Mecca Normal “Water Cuts My Hands” / Inspiral Carpets “This Is How It Feels” / Prince “Thieves in the Temple”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

MC 900 Ft. Jesus “UFO’s Are Real” / Big Daddy Kane “It’s Hard Being the Kane” / Monie Love “Monie in the Middle” / EPMD “Gold Digger” / Digital Underground “The Humpty Dance” / Eric B. and Rakim “Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em” / Youssou N’Dour “Toxiques” / Whitney Houston “I’m Your Baby Tonight” / Meat Beat Manifesto “Genocide” / Nitzer Ebb “Fun to be Had” / Boogie Down Productions “Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love)” / DC Talk “Nu Thang” / Brian Eno & John Cale “One Word” / Dead Can Dance “The Song of the Sibyl” / His Name Is Alive “How Ghosts Affect Relationships” / Lloyd Cole “Downtown” / They Might Be Giants “Birdhouse In Your Soul” / The Bats “Smoking Her Wings” / The Replacements “Merry Go Round” / Dwight Yoakum “You’re the One” / Straitjacket Fits “Down In Splendour” / The Lemonheads “Stove” / The Flaming Lips “Take Meta Mars” / Pavement “Perfect Depth” / Sun City Girls “Space Prophet Dogon”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

AC/DC “Thunderstruck” / Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Fuckin’ Up” / Jon Bon Jovi “Blaze of Glory” / Reba McEntire “Fancy” / Uncle Tupelo “No Depression” / Rosanne Cash “What We Really Want” / Cowboy Junkies “Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” / Bob Dylan “Born In Time” / Hothouse Flowers “Give It Up” / Midnight Oil “Blue Sky Mine” / Rod Stewart “Downtown Train” / Cher “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” / Elton John “Club at the End of the Street” / Kylie Minogue “Better the Devil You Know” / Rob N’ Raz featuring Leila K “Got to Get” / 2 In A Room “Wiggle It” / Technotronic “Get Up” / Intelligent Hoodlum “Black & Proud” / X-Clan “Raise the Flag” / YZ “Tower with the Power” / Pop Will Eat Itself “Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina” / The Lightning Seeds “Pure” / The Clean “Draw(in)g to a (W)hole” / McCarthy “And Tomorrow the Stock Exchange Will be the Human Race” / Manic Street Preachers “New Art Riot” / Social Distortion “Ball and Chain”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Big Audio Dynamite II “Change of Atmosphere” / Jesus Jones “Real Real Real” / Pet Shop Boys “The End of the World” / En Vogue “Hold On” / Kid N Play “Funhouse” / Calloway “I Wanna Be Rich” / Yngwie Malmsteen “Making Love” / Anthrax “Got the Time” / The Jesus Lizard “Killer McHann” / Helmet “Repetition” / The Fatima Mansions “Look What I Stole for Us, Darling” / Prong “Lost and Found” / Flotsam and Jetsam “Deviation” / Bob Mould “It’s Too Late” / The Boo Radleys “Eleanor Everything” / Superchunk “Sick to Move” / Big Dipper “Love Barge” / L7 “Shove” / Afghan Whigs “Retarded” / Bad Religion “21st Century (Digital Boy)” / The Posies “Suddenly Mary” / Traveling Wilburys “She’s My Baby” / Mary Chapin Carpenter “Down at the Twist and Shout” / The Beautiful South “A Little Time” / The Cannanes “Vivienne” / Björk “Gling Gló” / James Ingram “I Don’t Have the Heart” / Michael Bolton “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” / Bette Midler “From A Distance”