1993 Survey Mix

This is the fourth in the 1990s survey mix series, which will come out monthly in chronological order through this year. You can find the previous mixes here.

We’re in the thick of it now! This year, along with the next two, are unquestionably the most formative time for me as a young music fan and virtually all of my taste as an adult can be traced to something you can hear in this set. There’s a lot going on here, but there’s basically two dominant narratives here that will carry over into 1994 and 1995 – the explosion of alt-rock and indie rock on one hand, and a renaissance in hip-hop on the other. Younger listeners should keep in mind that a crucial difference between then and now is that alt-rock is very much the mainstream at this point, and Pearl Jam and Nirvana were popular on a level on par with – or greatly exceeding – that of major contemporary stars like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Drake. They were very much the center of pop culture, though the vibrant rap and R&B scenes were also pretty crucial. I think it’s fair to say that this period of time from about 92-95 is as consistently cool as the mainstream has ever been, or at least as cool as it’s been in my lifetime.

Thanks to Paul Cox, Rob Sheffield, Sean T. Collins, Steve Kandell, Dan Kois, and Chris Conroy for their valuable assistance in putting this together.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

The Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock” / Pearl Jam “Animal” / Nirvana “Scentless Apprentice” / PJ Harvey “Man Size” / Liz Phair “Help Me Mary” / James “Laid” / The Cranberries “Linger” / Sarah McLachlan “Possession” / Janet Jackson “That’s the Way Love Goes” / Salt N Pepa “Shoop” / 2Pac “I Get Around” / Biggie Smalls “Party & Bullshit” / Cypress Hill “Insane in the Brain” / Wu-Tang Clan “7th Chamber Part II” / The Breeders “Cannonball” / Frank Black “Ten Percenter” / Stone Temple Pilots “Plush” / Red Hot Chili Peppers “Soul to Squeeze” / Porno for Pyros “Pets” / Belly “Feed the Tree” / Radiohead “Creep” / R.E.M. “Everybody Hurts” / Mazzy Star “Fade Into You” / New Order “Regret” / Annie Lennox “Little Bird” / Björk “Big Time Sensuality” / A Tribe Called Quest “Award Tour” / Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg “Fuck With Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’)” / Tears for Fears “Break It Down Again” / U2 “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Shudder to Think “X French T-Shirt” / The Flaming Lips “Pilot Can at the Queer of God” / Stereolab “Crest” / Onyx “Slam” / Outkast “Player’s Ball” / Black Moon “Who Got the Props?” / DJ Shadow & Asia Born “Send Them” / Snoop Dogg “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” / KRS-One “Sound of Da Police” / Mary J. Blige featuring The Notorious B.I.G. “What’s the 411? (Remix)” / Mariah Carey “Dreamlover” / Aerosmith “Cryin’” / Counting Crows “Mr. Jones” / Gin Blossoms “Hey Jealousy” / Blur “For Tomorrow” / Pulp “Lipgloss” / Alice In Chains “Rooster” / Tool “Sober” / Aphex Twin “On” / Moby “Move” / Whitney Houston “I’m Every Woman” / Tag Team “Whoomp! There It Is” / Naughty by Nature “Hip Hop Hooray” / The Pharcyde “Passin’ Me By” / Archers of Loaf “Web In Front” / Guided by Voices “Shocker in Gloomtown” / M.O.T.O. “It Tastes Just Like A Milkshake” / Sebadoh “Soul and Fire” / Letters to Cleo “Rim Shack”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Fugazi “Facet Squared” / Bikini Kill “Rebel Girl” / Huggy Bear “Her Jazz” / Bratmobile “Love Thing” / Yo La Tengo “From A Motel 6” / Pavement “Shoot the Singer” / Straitjacket Fits “Brittle” / Royal Trux “Back to School” / Velocity Girl “Here Comes” / Unrest “Make Out Club” / The Lemonheads “Into Your Arms” / Cracker “Low” / Faith Hill “Wild One” / Alan Jackson “Chattahoochee” / Garth Brooks “Ain’t Going Down (’Til the Sun Comes Up)” / Melissa Etheridge “Come To My Window” / Babyface “When Can I See You” / Toni Braxton “Another Sad Love Song” / Ace of Base “All That She Wants” / Robin S. “Show Me Love” / Haddaway “What Is Love?” / De La Soul “Breakadawn” / Me’Shell Ndegeocello “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)” / 95 South “Whoot, There It Is” / Duice “Dazzy Duks” / Silk “Freak Me” / H-Town “Knockin’ Da Boots” / D.R.S. “Gangsta Lean” / Positive K “I Got A Man” / Arrested Development “Mr. Wendal” / Michael Jackson “Will You Be There”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Depeche Mode “I Feel You” / Type O Negative “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” / The Afghan Whigs “Gentlemen” / Lenny Kravitz “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” / One Dove “White Love (Guitar Paradise Edit)” / Sunscreem “Love U More” / RuPaul “Supermodel (You Better Work)” / Geto Boys “Six Feet Deep” / Billy Joel “The River of Dreams” / Phish “The Wedge” / Spin Doctors “Two Princes” / Collective Soul “Shine” / Dwight Yoakum “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere” / Matthew Sweet “Time Capsule” / George Strait “Easy Come, Easy Go” / Rosanne Cash “The Wheel” / Jodeci “Lately” / Meat Loaf “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” / Rod Stewart “Have I Told You Lately” / Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” / The Verve “Slide Away” / Suede “Animal Nitrate” / Rage Against the Machine “Bombtrack” / Candlebox “Far Behind” / Shai “Baby I’m Yours” / Tony! Toni! Toné! “If I Had No Loot” / Lords of the Underground “Chief Rocka” / UB40 “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love with You”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

The Roots “The Session (Longest Posse Cut In History)” / Guru “Trust Me” / KMD “What A Nigga Know?” / Tricky “Aftermath (Version 1)” / Cupid Car Club “Grace Juice Plus” / Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Afro” / FU-Schnickens “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock?)” / Digable Planets “Where I’m From” / St. Etienne “You’re In A Bad Way” / The Loud Family “Inverness” / 10,000 Maniacs “Stockton Gala Days” / Helium “Lucy” / The Juliana Hatfield Three “My Sister” / Grant Lee Buffalo “Fuzzy” / Randy Travis “Look Heart, No Hands” / Doug Supernaw “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” / Frenté! “Bizarre Love Triangle” / Lorrie Morgan “What Part of No?” / Buffalo Tom “Sodajerk” / Dig “Believe” / Melvins “Honey Bucket” / Superchunk “Precision Auto” / Sunny Day Real Estate “8” / Sepultura “Refuse/Resist” / Luscious Jackson “Daughters of the Kaos” / Boss “Recipe of a Hoe” / US3 “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” / Sting “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” / Duran Duran “Ordinary World”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” / Mary Lou Lord “Some Jingle Jangle Morning” / Urge Overkill “Sister Havana” / Primus “My Name Is Mud” / Green Jelly “Three Little Pigs” / Slowdive “Alison” / Cowboy Junkies “Anniversary Song” / Morphine “Buena” / Everclear “Your Genius Hands” / Heatmiser “Candyland” / Fastbacks “Gone to the Moon” / Chug “Flowers” / Pet Shop Boys “Go West” / Leftfield “Open Up” / Underworld “Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You” / Pete Rock “Lots of Lovin’” / Jade “Don’t Walk Away” / Kirsty MacColl “Angel” / INXS “Beautiful Girl” / Dinosaur Jr “Start Choppin’” / American Music Club “All Your Jeans Were Too Tight” / Joe Diffie “John Deere Green” / Denis Leary “Asshole” / Mercury Rev “Bronx Cheer” / Boss Hog “Ruby” / Don Caballero “For Respect” / Manic Street Preachers “La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)” / The Ocean Blue “Sublime” / Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet “For Other Eyes” / Donald Fagan “Snowbound” / Prince “Pink Cashmere”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Zhane “Hey Mr. DJ” / Usher “Call Me A Mack” / Portrait “Here We Go Again” / Original Flavor “Can I Get Open” / Shaggy “Oh Carolina” / Madonna “Rain” / Take That “Pray” / Xscape “Just Kickin’ It” / The Auteurs “American Guitars” / Swervedriver “Duel” / The Boo Radleys “Lazarus” / Polvo “Tilebreaker” / Medicine “Never Click” / P.M. Dawn “Looking Through Patient Eyes” / Redman “Time 4 Sum Aksion” / Smooth “You Been Played” / Smooth Touch “House of Love” / Autechre “Bike” / Atari Teenage Riot “Kids Are United” / Curve “Superblaster” / The Catherine Wheel “Crank” / The Verlaines “Heavy 33” / Elastica “Stutter” / Teenage Fanclub “Hang On” / The Posies “Dream All Day” / The The “Love Is Stronger Than Death” / Tracy Lawrence “Alibis” / Coverdale Page “Pride and Joy” / Ethyl Meatplow “Devil’s Johnson” / The Alkaholiks “Only When I’m Drunk” / Butthole Surfers “Who Was In My Room Last Night?”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

The Proclaimers “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” / 4 Non Blondes “What’s Up” / Inner Circle “Bad Boys” / Snow “Informer” / Boy Krazy “That’s What Love Can Do” / Mr. Blobby “Mr. Blobby” / Cannibal Corpse “Hammer Smashed Face” / Reba McEntire “The Heart Won’t Lie” / John Michael Montgomery “I Love the Way You Love Me” / Brian McKnight “One Last Cry” / David Bowie “Jump They Say” / The Fall “Why Are People Grudgeful?” / Fishbone “Swim” / Big Head Todd and the Monsters “Bittersweet” / Sugar “Tilted” / Paul Westerberg “World Class Fad” / Noise Addict “I Wish I Was Him” / Sheryl Crow “Run, Baby, Run” / Jeremy Jordan “The Right Kind of Love” / µ-Ziq “Iesope” / Illegal feat. Eric Sermon “We Getz Buzy” / Compulsion “Basketcase” / House of Pain & Helmet “Just Another Victim” / Freestyle Fellowship “Inner City Boundaries” / S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. “It’s Gonna Be A Lovely Day” / MC Lyte “Ruffneck” / Ned’s Atomic Dustbin “Not Sleeping Around” / The Connells “’74-’75” / Smog “37 Push Ups” / Palace Brothers “Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Plaything” / Israel Kamakawiwo’ole “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World”