If you grew up in the \u201990s, you need this collection. Although, if you grew up in the \u201990s, you pretty much know all these songs by heart anyway, but it still makes for a fun soundtrack for a game night or road trip or whatever people in our mid-30s with kids do for fun now. <\/p>\n
The Now <\/i>collections target either specific genres or time periods, so they\u2019re fairly immune from the nitpicking that invariably follows any compilation. This \u201990s pop collection is exactly what it says; there is no rock, no alternative, no hardcore rap, no electronica, no pop-country and, surprisingly, no diva balladry (probably for licensing reasons). This is simply what you would hear on your Top 40 radio station at any given snapshot during the decade.<\/p>\n
Much of the collection is focused on pop-rap and R&B, with nods to the brief New Jack Swing era, boy bands, one-hit wonders, and the teenage-girl-popstar phenomenon from the tail end of the decade. These are the songs you heard on the radio, on TV shows and commercials and movies, the ones that everyone claims to hate and call cheesy yet were #1 hits for weeks on end. It may be a time capsule, but it\u2019s an entertaining one, 18 songs that will take you back to a different time in your life.<\/p>\n
I mean, how do you review a compilation that features \u201cGettin\u2019 Jiggy Wit\u2019 It,\u201d \u201c\u2026Baby One More Time,\u201d \u201cGenie In A Bottle,\u201d and the Backstreet Boys\u2019 \u201cI Want It That Way,\u201d not to mention \u201cLivin\u2019 La Vida Loca,\u201d \u201cMmmbop,\u201d \u201cStep By Step,\u201d and \u201cAll I Wanna Do?\u201d These songs will survive the nuclear holocaust. They also represent the front end and back end of this disc. About the only thing missing is Smashmouth\u2019s \u201cAll Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the middle are the R&B\/rap\/pop acts that defined the decade just as much as grunge and what was then called techno: TLC, Brandy and Monica (\u201cThe Boy Is Mine,\u201d of course), En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa, Boyz II Men (\u201cMotownphilly,\u201d a good choice), Bell Biv Devoe (\u201cPoison\u201d), Bobby Brown, Montell Jordan (\u201cThis Is How We Do It\u201d) and, um, Wreckx-N-Effect (\u201cRump Shaker\u201d). Again, hard to argue with these choices, although Brown\u2019s \u201cHumpin\u2019 Around\u201d is probably the weakest link here, even if it\u2019s still a fun party tune. Plus, it\u2019s followed by the original Jock Jam, \u201cGonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),\u201d so it\u2019s hard to stay mad. <\/p>\n
About the only thing missing that maybe should be here is Shania Twain, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, who were all over pop radio in the late \u201990s, though given the fun party vibe of the disc the latter two may not have been the best fit. No matter. In capturing the sound and spirit of a particular era, this disc does it job admirably, and anyone who liked pop radio in the \u201990s will get a lot out of this disc, ironically or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44798","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44798"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}