We first got alternative rock on our radio dial in the Vancouver / Portland area, where I grew up, back in May 1991. Our AM radio dial. After years of a fixed selection of oldies, classic rock, adult-contemporary, country and mainstream pop music comprising our primary radio options, we were finally blessed with 970 AM The Beat. A station that sometimes came in, sometimes didn't. It was AM, so there was an inherent level of static and background fuzz that, I guess at the time, made it feel like you were listening to something different, something slightly underground. The Beat played a style of music that was undergoing an evolution, as mid-late 80's modern rock morphed to the much more marketable (and profitable) "Alternative Rock." Want to make something edgy? Slap "Alternative" on it. That was the deal in the 90s. A deal that eventually went sour as 'alternative' came to represent the norm with the music sounding like a diluted, regurgitated version of Alternative Rock's glory-days persona for years to come. But I get ahead of myself.
On March 6, 1995, my life changed when 94.7 on the Portland FM dial became "94-7 NRK". That's 'NewRocK', not 'NeRK'. Nearly four years after 970 AM The Beat debuted, I could finally hear with clarity, the sonic stew of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, et. all. A universe of music, previously accessible only via MTV or during one of my many early 90s road trips to Seattle where I'd steal a few days of exposure to the Emerald City's alt-rock taste maker, 107.7 FM The End, was now in my lap and providing me with more exposure to new acts than I ever had before. Dreams really did come true.
I recently located several notebooks containing my ritualistic weekly top 30 or 40 lists, scrawled out almost exclusively in blue ink, for the better part of 1995-2001. While there are gaps in the chronicling of my musical tastes over time, I was quite diligent during the latter half of the decade; a time when my musical tastes were guided more by Seattle bands and the many flavors of Alternative Rock (now coming at me faster than samples in a Baskin-Robbins) than any pop or rock acts that ruled the mainstream. There was also a notable and significant lack of hip-hop in my diet, again, outside of what I could catch on MTV. Portland wouldn't get a hip-hop / rap station (AM or FM) until KXJM Jammin' 95.5 appeared in 1999 and my life was changed. Again. But I get ahead of myself. Also again.
Today, I'm focusing on the year where I fully shifted from champion of the "Seattle Sound" (I hated the term 'grunge' back then...still not my favorite) to connoisseur of myriad new acts that sounded similar, in that they sounded nothing like each other or anything I had heard before. Yes, Nirvana's influence and sound informed much of alternative rock for the remainder of the 90s, but there were a lot of acts that didn't settle for straight up pillaging, preferring instead to use their time in the spotlight to showcase their own identity and voice.
It was 1995, a year we were introduced to a nice Canadian lady who transitioned from You Can't Do That On Television to you can do that in a movie theater. A year where Portland band, Everclear, made a nationwide dent in the alternative rock picture with Sparkle and Fade, an album that could more or less double as their Greatest Hits (since their first release, World of Noise, isn't on Spotify). We met a spunky So Cal gal who, it became quickly evident to see, was infinitely more than just a girl. The guy that produced Nirvana's Nevermind had his own band, while the guy that played drums for Nirvana also decided to give the next phase of his career a shot. There were lots of great singles by lots of loud bands. I was front row at the rock and roll buffet and going back for seconds, thirds, and fourths, for acts I'd never heard of. Many of whom wouldn't be heard from again.
One of my recently unearthed notebooks produced what you see here - my top 100 of 1995. Yes, I did year-end lists too - I even had formulas to determine year-end placement. Some people are stats-nerds for sports, I've always been a stats nerd for music. In finding this list, I rediscovered songs I had completely deleted from my personal RAM. I loved the tracks on here from Dandelion, Ruth Ruth, Jawbreaker, and Seaweed back then, but had completely ceased to remember they ever existed. I've listened to them (and the songs on my playlist below) several times this weekend. The discovery of my notebooks was worth it, if only for those four songs being back in my life again. I'm sure similar discoveries await me for the rest of my 90s lists that I've yet to examine.
The handwritten images below represent my 1995 self's tastes at a particular intersection of space and time. The Spotify playlist is what 2018 me (with hindsight) still considers the essential songs of 1995 from my top 100. I'm sure there were lots of other genres with their respective hits in '95, but I resided in Alterna-ville almost exclusively at that point and most of the mainstream hits just didn't resonate that strongly with me. Seal, Shaggy, Boyz II Men, Blues Traveller...I'm talking to y'all.
My Best of 1995 playlist. The year alternative broke for me. Again. In no particular order.
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