Bjork, Underworld, The Aphex Twin, Orbital, Massive Attack et al.

I used to get quite riled that the 90's got tagged as Britpop and nowt else considering I spent the decade dancing my ass off at weird clubs. I blame Chris Evens and Noel Gallagher, Britpop was a fragment of the story and a lot of that was the landfill indie of the time.

Having just got a new car with DAB, I've found the time to listen to Absolute Radio 90s (and Ab Rad 80s). It's hardly the best radio station in the world and the presenters are too local radio for my liking, but the amount of quality music that gets played is constantly surprising.

Well worth a couple of hours of your time...

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/pulp

...that I'm a staunch defender of British music of that period. All the bands and artists mentioned above did great work - just great.

This morning, I listened to the new reissue of Suede's "Dog Man Star", and was reminded how that band, in particular, produced something truly special with their first two albums (not to mention their absurdly high-quality run of B-sides). Anyone who's not seen it would be well-advised to go on YouTube and search for "Suede Love and Poison" to see just how astonishingly good this band was. Bernard Butler is the equal or better of pretty much any guitarist I can think of. He was closely rivaled by Graham Coxon - both of them doing things with the instrument which would never occur to the overwhelming majority of guitarists.

So when "Dog Man Star" finished, I listened to "Parklife". Again: wow. Leaving aside the title track, and the fact that it's three tracks too long, here again is an amazing record.

And as ganglesprocket says, let's not forget all the interesting house and electronica and trip-hop that was happening at the time, too: Portishead, Sabres of Paradise, Death In Vegas, Lamb. There was tons going on.

Britpop as imagined by most people didn't really exist in more than a couple of Blur songs and some dreadful copyists. As I've said before, writing it off for Menswe@r is like writing off punk because of "Ça Plane Pour Moi".

The 90s did just fine.

I think all these good decade, bad decade debates (while enjoyable because kicking about thoughts and enthusiasms etc. about pop music is what we're all here for) are a bit fatuous because, although you maybe get the odd lean period, it never lasts long and every era of pop music has thrown up great records.
Does the '90s get such a hard time? I seem to remember Backwards' brilliant Britpop thing triggering a bit of a love-in. Part of the problem is maybe the over-exposure of a few records: does anyone really want to hear that Toploader single again? Or "Can You Bloody Dig It"? And though "Wake Up Boo" was fun for a few weeks, it's rather outstayed its welcome (and it's not as if it was Giant Steps). Although it's nice to think it's still earning the great Martin Carr a few bob.
I mostly listen to homemade compilations, bits & bobs from all over the shop. In the line-up for the one I was playing to death yesterday were "Twisterella" by Ride and "Special" by Garbage. Both 90s also-rans I suppose; but both brilliant records that still sound fresh as a daisy.

I think all these good decade, bad decade debates (while enjoyable because kicking about thoughts and enthusiasms etc. about pop music is what we're all here for) are a bit fatuous because, although you maybe get the odd lean period, it never lasts long and every era of pop music has thrown up great records.
Does the '90s get such a hard time? I seem to remember Backwards' brilliant Britpop thing triggering a bit of a love-in. Part of the problem is maybe the over-exposure of a few records: does anyone really want to hear that Toploader single again? Or "Can You Bloody Dig It"? And though "Wake Up Boo" was fun for a few weeks, it's rather outstayed its welcome (and it's not as if it was Giant Steps). Although it's nice to think it's still earning the great Martin Carr a few bob.
I mostly listen to homemade compilations, bits & bobs from all over the shop. In the line-up for the one I was playing to death yesterday were "Twisterella" by Ride and "Special" by Garbage. Both 90s also-rans I suppose; but both brilliant records that still sound fresh as a daisy.

no-one's even mentioned Spiritualized - Pure Phase and Ladies and Gentlemen.. would be musical peaks in any decade.

As I was probably a few years too old, and generally I think of the 90's as a pretty lean time musically. However a quick look at my handy cut out and keep record collection guide, shows that there were some mighty fine albums released. Here's some of my favourites...

Blue Aeroplanes "Swagger"
Julian Cope "Peggy Suicide"
The La's "The La's"
Fatima Mansions "Viva Dead Ponies"
Monochrome Set "Dante's Casino"
Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend"
Teenage Fanclub "Bandwagonesque"
Buffalo Tom "Let Me Come Over"
Denim "Back In Denim"
Beck "Mellow Gold"
PJ Harvey "Dry"
Frank Black "Teenager of the Year"
David Byrne "Uh Oh"
Union Carbide Productions "Swing"
Sugar "Copper Blue"
Charlatans "Between 10th & 11th"
Lemonheads "It's A Shame About Ray"
Velvet Crush "Teenage Symphonies To God"
Morrissey "Your Arsenal"
Bjork "Debut"
Morphine "Cure For Pain"
Pavement "Slanted & Enchanted"
Flaming Lips "Clouds Taste Metallic"
Eugenius "Mary Queen of Scots"
Audioweb "Audioweb"
Fountains Of Wayne "Fountains Of Wayne"
Muttonbirds "Envy of Angels"
The Soundtrack of Our Lives "Welcome To The Infant Freebase"
Wilco "Being There"
Super Furry Animals "Fuzzy Logic"
Patti Smith "Gone Again"
Brian Jonestown Massacre "Give It Back"
Air "Moon Safari"
Redd Kross "Show World"
Michael Head & The Strands "The Magical World of..."
White Stripes "White Stripes"
Madness "Wonderful"
Shack "HMS Fable"
Eels "Electroshock Blues"
Queens of the Stoneage "QOTSA"
Guided By Voices "Mag Earwhig!"

ready to start getting nostalgic and raking over what seems like only yesterday to me, and I do think your favourite era tends to coincide with your formative years. but I don't recall the 90s getting much of a drubbing?

I think the Britpop tag, as others have said, is incredibly reductive and was a bit of a joke at the time.
I think what really happened is that what would have been in the previous decade 'Indie', became mainstream in the wake of what happened with the Madchester (another incredibly reductive tag) scene. Pulp had been around for years, but then record companies found ways to market bands but still retain some indie cred, Radio 1 started playlisting them, and The Word (Terry Christian version not the other one!), Later and TFI Friday put them on the TV to great effect. The bands also perhaps realised that you could make 'popular' music, and make quite bold musical statements that could appeal to a large audience but still be quite experimental and off-beat musically. In the previous decade this was confined to late night John Peel show/Indie toilet gig circuit, there would have been characters like Jarvis and Brett around but they'd never have got near daytime Radio 1 or TV.

Was never entirely moved by Suede, Oasis and co. My soundtrack was Spirtualized, Aphex Twin, Autechre, LFO, Spring Heel Jack (ace drum & bass combo), Seefeel, Stereolab, High Llamas, Mogwai, Boo Radleys, Gorkys, Super Furry Animals, My Bloody Valentine, Meat Beat Manifesto, Orbital, The Orb (and what became known as Ambient Dub), Pale Saints, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Black Dog, Underworld, Slowdive, Tortoise, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Low...there was all sorts of interesting stuff going on.

McAlmont & Butler, Edwyn Collins, Supergrass, Pulp, Lightning Seeds, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, The Verve, Black Grape, Portishead...even Shed Seven weren't the plodders they're often made out to have been.

I seem to remember buying singles every week in 95/96.

It's also interesting how some bands seem to get lucky with when they start out: Coldplay would never have achieved global stardom in '95.

was the last decade when the old channels and the old supply and demand model were in place, prescribing how consumers accessed and bought music. Brit-pop (in all its guises) gave us the last generation of "new music" consumers whose relationship with the music of their era would follow the same narrative as previous generations had undertaken with their own "new music": i.e. "new music" was still of the times for the times.

What has happened to music since the 90s has been a revolution, not an evolution. That revolution has nothing to do with WHAT we've been listening to but HOW we've listening to music. Technology and the web broke up all the old channels and the old supply and demand model. "New music" has become any music you've never heard before. Music has become so accessible the rules of what constitutes new and old has become blurred. Music as a cultural and generation-based activity is fractured and fragmented.

Because of this Brit-pop and music of 90s lost out on what previous generations have enjoyed. They've been able to vacuum-seal their music and its cultural heritage in a bubble of memories and perceptions to be written and re-written about impermeably. 90s music lost out on its chance of this heritage status because the watershed of its moment coincided with a seismic shift in what came next: ALL music became permeable and accessible to ALL consumers. The 90s generation lost out on informing the next generation of the merits of their music; anyone could find out for themselves without a guru.

Music is now in a permanent state of flux, unable to really imprint itself with any sense of a cultural/generational movement. Music as a "phenomenon" is limited to shows like X-Factor and some blog campaign to get a record to No.1 at Christmas.

Greater choice and freedom in how we access and consume music has diluted the concept of music as a cultural and generational barometer. 90s music and Brit-pop in particular was the biggest casualty of that dilution.

Or, perhaps, it was just crap music all along. But I don't really believe that.

The thing that worries me here is that to me these bands are all current, and it reminded me 11 years have gone by since the Millennium.

were also home to the pre Britpop acts that I adored such as Wonder Stuff, Thousand Yard Stare, Ned's, PWEI, 5:30, etc.

I have been listening back to a lot of the chart stuff from the 'indie' bands lumped together as Britpop recently and having not listened to it for years it was great to hear it again and brought back some wonderful memories.

It's wrong to categorize music in genres in my opinion but it's ludicrous to lump different genres under the banner of a single decade! Even one band can make music that you love and hate in equal measures.

The mid 90's was a fine time for music. No mention yet of Longpigs yet. Or Sleeper. Who were a bit toss but did record a couple of fine singles. And had Louise for the blokes to fancy.

Have a look at the 1995 Glastonbury lineup. Fantastic.

...because the 90s were 'my' era, but there was a lot of great music coming out, some of it was Britpop and some of it came from other genres. I listen to Absolute 90s sometimes as a nostalgia trip and while not all of it's great, I don't see any harm in it as a soundtrack to pottering around in the kitchen. Don't we all think that 'our' era was some sort of golden age?

What I do find interesting is the way that articles and stations like that give you a very packaged idea of what the decade was about. I was an indie kid, but knew loads of people who were more into the club scene, which seems to get far less coverage in all the features that you read about the 90s. While for me dance music got very formulaic and dull somewhere around '92, it should be acknowledged that for many people around at the time, the decade was more about tracks from Livin' Joy and Alison Limerick than Oasis and Blur.

Compared to the early eighties (only The Cramps, The Violent Femmes, and Billy Bragg really stood out for me), the mid-nineties were a thrilling time for music.

I particularly remember a double bill of Supergrass/Bluetones before their debuts LPs, a raucous Elastica, a mesmerising Skunk Anansie (with 'Clint Power' T-shirt) and a magnificent Pulp. Even 'landfill', such as Echobelly, were great.

I'd seen Pulp a few years before in a quarter-full Leadmill in Sheffield and while Jarvis was engaging the music wasn't.

I think 'Britpop' was a time when bands such as Pulp suddenly hit a purple patch while there was a greater tolerance for less mainstream and original acts, who could make great pop songs.

Just to add that they will be touring in August\Sept. Have already announced 31st August at Brixton with at least another date pencilled in. Dates around the UK to follow

I was in college from 92-98. I was djing a little and thought it was a mighty fine time for music. The reductionism is fun now but I bought a lot of contemporary music then that seems to have stood up well.

However, at Glasto last week I thought there was a little too much reliance on the 1990s: Radiohead, Pulp, Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream making big noises.

I was 18 in 1992. I guess some teen being interested in Pulp now is comparable to the 18 year old me being into 1978 - which I was.

(PS Other great 90s stuff: Together Alone, Take That and the HJH Anthologies)

*Waves a lonely banner for 90's soft Scottish pop rock*. "Roll To Me" was huge by the way ;o)