‘97-‘98: A Very Bad Time For Music

I attended my sister Kailyn’s graduation a few weeks ago, outside in the bowl at Franklin High School in Portland. She was the last in a long line of Quakers. Fourteen years straight, a Green attended the school in Southeast Portland. Nostalgia ran high.

I remember my graduation in 1998 like it was last week. I especially remember the music.
Music often defines high school life…the songs we might hum in class or pop in the CD player at our first jobs.

And the ‘98 graduating class had a particularly awful run. The grunge-era was long over, and the new boy-band pop movement was just beginning.

So journey back with me, won’t you, through worst of that year.

Will Smith kept making songs.

Treacly major movie soundtrack power-ballads were huge.

Alanis Morissette continues to believe lyrics entail writing long lists about broad topics.

Kid Rock joins Fred Durst on the frat rock scene.

Girl Power rages on, primarily by producing videos for pubescent boys. What did those fishbowls do to warrant such wanton violence?

Matchbox 20 rises to prominence with a song advocating domestic violence. It was a confusing time.

A thousand pop-rock bands unleash themselves on the world and promptly disappear again.

Smashmouth sucked.

The Spice Girls spawned imitators. (Okay, I’ll admit it…I kind of like this song.)

Creed, for pete’s sake.

And finally, these two obnoxious songs, which I still hear disturbingly often on the radio.

Watch out, adults, those kids are disenfranchised! They’re gonna kick your asses!

But it wasn’t all bad. There was some great stuff, too. In fact, four of the most influential albums ever made were released that year. Let’s journey into the light, shall we?