Best album of the '90s - Champion crowned on page 21

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

Bag Lady sums up every aspect of my life nicely. At least I have a song to relate to.

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

All you must hold on to is you, is you, is you.

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

What about Frogstomp?

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

I'm waiting for the '70s ... those and the '80s are closer to the wheelhouse here ...

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

These are fun tournaments, and I again salute Mr. C for his efforts.

HOWEVER, the problem with a 1990s tournament is that's when radio/pop culture/society really began to splinter, so it's going to be tough to get a consensus.

Example: Most of my shop consists of dudes in their 30s and 40s (spare me the sausage jokes ... we've used them all). When the news of MCA's death hit Friday, a few of us couldn't stop talking about all the great Beastie Boys songs, many of them post "License to Ill."

The rest of the newsroom? They only knew "Fight for Your Right" -- and they're all "rock" fans. Absolutely no knowledge of other Beastie Boys songs.

My point is, whether it was because many of us were opinionated, college-age and/or 20-something a-holes or just because marketing people decided to divide everybody into smaller slices, the 1990s is when the "crossover" era of music ended (except for a few pop-ish country albums).

If Michael Jackson's "Thriller" had come out in 1994 rather than 1982, most rock fans wouldn't have heard it, because by then you either listened to a rap/hip-hop radio station, a classic rock station or an "alternative" station (suck it, Q101! Eddie Vedder still hates you). This trend has only intensified with internet/satellite radio and iPods.

So if you think the 1980s best album tourney devolved into a rap-vs.-rock contest, you ain't seen nothing yet. B-b-b-baby you ain't seen n-n-n-nuthin yet ... ;D

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

But, on the other hand, it should make the vote more diverse, and thus, more interesting.

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

It might ... I know we have a wide array of musical tastes here at SportsJournalists.com (including quite a few alt-country fans, not that the 1990s bracket will reflect that ... )

Personally, I listened to a TON of music in the 1990s. Hell, I lived most of the decade without a TV in my various apartments, so that's what I did when I was at home.

But I still have really no clue in matchups like these:

I just never listened to those albums, at all, and I suspect many other "rock" fans are in the same boat. Unlike the 1980s tournament, where at least I knew a song or two off every album in the tourney.

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

August and Everything After (Counting Crows)
Sublime (Sublime)
BadMotorFinger (Soundgarden)
Tuesday Night Music Club (Sheryl Crow)
Exile in Guyville (Liz Phair)
Cracked Rear View (Hootie and the Blowfish)
Temple of the Dog (Temple of the Dog)
Shake Your Money Maker (Black Crowes)

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

The genre splits could make this fascinating.

And ISC, these have been fun ... as a lurker. Not edumacated enough on these to offer any sort of informed take. I'm probably a bit younger than my music tastes indicate (insert joke of my "taste" in music here ... )

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

August and Everything After (Counting Crows)

Throwing Copper (Live)
Sublime (Sublime) 40 oz. To Freedom (Sublime)
Baduizm (Erykah Badu)
Supa Dupa Fly (Missy Elliot)
BadMotorFinger (Soundgarden)
Parklife (Blur)
Tuesday Night Music Club (Sheryl Crow)
Girlfriend (Matthew Sweet)
Me Against the World (2pac)
Exile in Guyville (Liz Phair)
Cracked Rear View (Hootie and the Blowfish)
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (MC Hammer)
The Fat of the Land (Prodigy)
Temple of the Dog (Temple of the Dog)
Shake Your Money Maker (Black Crowes)

Write-in -- Trace, Son Volt (With the caveat that it can't draw Pearl Jam in the first round. That ain't fair. Different brackets altogether.)

Thanks for doing this, Creosote.

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

Where the hell is Rancid's ....And Out Come The Wolves????

 

Re: Best album of the '90s - The process starts

I could see a play-in winner taking out The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.