This Week in the Mercury
Friday, June 26, 2009
Let's Talk About... What Was the Best (Rock) Soundtrack of the '90s?
Posted by Ezra Ace Caraeff on Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Touching on a topic that us dorky End Hits'ers constantly argue about during lunch: what was the greatest rock soundtrack of the '90s? Keep in mind, we're looking for '90s rock music here—no period soundtracks (Pulp Fiction, Swingers), hiphop (sorry, Menace II Society), or the The Bodyguard soundtrack, which you still own on cassette.
But before you yell out "Judgment Night! Judgment Night! For the love of God, Judgment Night!" keep in mind all the other worthy soundtracks out there: Trainspotting, Good Will Hunting, Singles, The Crow, Great Expectations, Romeo + Juliet, Batman Forever, The Craft, Clueless, Magnolia, Reality Bites (yay, Lisa Loeb), and, of course, Angus.
The long-forgotten film that you never saw—which stared a fat kid and that one girl—boats a surprisingly solid soundtrack. Angus has it all: one of the best Green Day songs ("J.A.R."), pop-punk from Pansy Division, Tilt, Dance Hall Crashers, a pair of songs from Ash, and one of the finest b-side Weezer tracks, "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly." The lone offender being a Westerberg—or Pirner—copying rock song courtesy of the hair farmers in the Goo Goo Dolls. And, to be honest, even that song is pretty decent.
Your pick?
LISTEN:
Weezer - "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly"
4
Suburbia, obviously. The Sonic Youth origirnals, the best Superchunk song of all time, and the Elastica + Malkmus X cement that status on their own.
Not my absolute favorite, but the KIDS soundtrack deserves mentioning here, too.
And I am totally serious when I say that the Judgement Night soundtrack is actually pretty good.
Not my absolute favorite, but the KIDS soundtrack deserves mentioning here, too.
And I am totally serious when I say that the Judgement Night soundtrack is actually pretty good.
5
i'd go with the crow probably, but also the x-files movie soundtrack. seriously. i bought both of those soundtracks for the cure songs on them, but found other good stuff too. soundtracks as a rule are usually pretty shitty, but those were better than most.
6
wow, i totally forgot about the angus soundtrack. i was slightly obsessed because i played the tuba in high school and i was so excited to find a cd that had a tuba solo on it. i memorized it and used to rock out with my tuba to that cd.
7
Goo Goo Dolls kick ass! Not so much nowadays 'coz they're all about the ballads... But when they rocked they rocked!
9
The 90s did rock but what would you say if you dipped into the 80s a little. the sound tracks for Young Guns, Good Morning Vietnam and Pretty Woman all kicked it up well. Especially Pretty Woman with Show Me Your Soul by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers only available on this and their What Hits album. A Top Song!!!
10
"The Last Action Hero". To think you had to sit through the movie to get to the soundtrack, blah...
14
I love the ANGUS soundtrack, but how can you discount THE CROW? Between "Burn" by The Cure and "Dead Souls" from Nine Inch Nails, the soundtrack starts off strong and follows all the way through with great stuff from The Violent Femmes, Pantera, and Henry Rollins.
The most underrated song on the soundtrack is "Slip Slide Melting" by For Love Not Lisa.
The most underrated song on the soundtrack is "Slip Slide Melting" by For Love Not Lisa.
15
"The 90s did rock but what would you say if you dipped into the 80s a little. the sound tracks for Young Guns"
=========================================
Don't have to dip into the 80's for Young Guns II, which I think had a better soundtrack than YG1. YG2 was 1990, Bon Jovi all over that....very nice. Veit Nam falls squarly in the Period Piece they were excluding. Nothing but oldies on that ST....very good ST mind you, but not applicable, aside from the fact they are looking for 90's.
=========================================
Don't have to dip into the 80's for Young Guns II, which I think had a better soundtrack than YG1. YG2 was 1990, Bon Jovi all over that....very nice. Veit Nam falls squarly in the Period Piece they were excluding. Nothing but oldies on that ST....very good ST mind you, but not applicable, aside from the fact they are looking for 90's.
16
To me, The Matrix still stands tall as the best soundtrack of the 90's, rock or otherwise.
Lost Highway is a solid entry for the more industrial side of rock, and Hackers is the clear winner in the electronica realm.
Lost Highway is a solid entry for the more industrial side of rock, and Hackers is the clear winner in the electronica realm.
17
No question, hands down, end it all now... Rushmore w/ Velvet Goldmine a modestly distanced, yet respectable second.
18
Rushmore and Velvet Goldmine both have amazing soundtracks, but I think they are also outside what this post is asking - What is the best 90's music soundtrack.
95% of Rushmore was recorded before the 90's and about half of Velvet Goldmine. Even the original songs written for Goldmine were done in the style of Glam Rock. Not exactly the 90's sound.
If we are just talking best soundtrack of the 90's, let me add Pulp Fiction, Boogie Nights, Goodfellas, The Big Lebowski, and Grosse Pointe Blank to the list.
95% of Rushmore was recorded before the 90's and about half of Velvet Goldmine. Even the original songs written for Goldmine were done in the style of Glam Rock. Not exactly the 90's sound.
If we are just talking best soundtrack of the 90's, let me add Pulp Fiction, Boogie Nights, Goodfellas, The Big Lebowski, and Grosse Pointe Blank to the list.
20
Angus is one of my all time favorite movies, and, you gave your love to me softly is hands down my favorite weezer song. Hell yeah. (full discloser: I used to be a fat kid)
21
It's a toss-up between Empire Records and Young Guns II. I would have said Empire Records hands down until it was pointed out that YG2 came out in 1990. I was 10, and it was the first album I memorized all the words to. (I don't know if I'd admit that otherwise, but since I have the anonymity of the Internet, there you have it.)
22
I do have to say Judgement Night. It had the best bands of the era creating a sound that had only been hinted at by bands like Run DMC and Aerosmith. Unfortunately, Korn and Limp Bizkut (I don't care how it is spelled) ruined an emerging genre of true rap and rock. Thank you for the picture of the Angus soundtrack and for focusing on a time that many are now saying produced some of the worst music of the 20th century.
27
while the movie was not that good the soundtrack for an American Werewolf in paris is still one of my favorites, also I agree with Romeo and Juliet and Trainspotting
28
This has been one of my favorite albums for years now. Thanks for acknowledging the Angus soundtrack!
30
The 2nd & 3rd Best soundtrack songs of the 90's (after J.A.R.) were both from RHCP - Soul to Squeeze from "Coneheads" and "Love Roller Coaster" from Beavis & Butthead Do America.
Overall, "The Crow" & "Judgement Night" were my faves.
Overall, "The Crow" & "Judgement Night" were my faves.
32
Velvet Goldmine is a period movie though. My vote is for Singles. It sums up most of the 90s in less than 2 hours.
33
I'd like to add a few soundtracks from a few crappy movies: Spawn, Mortal Kombat, Hideaway, The Crow: City of Angels, etc. Crappy movies with some good stuff on their soundtracks.
These are just some examples on top of the ones already mentioned, like The Crow, The Matrix, Pump up the Volume, Judgement Night, Empire Records, the X-Files, etc.
Also, Terminator 2 & Wayne's World weren't mentioned yet.
These are just some examples on top of the ones already mentioned, like The Crow, The Matrix, Pump up the Volume, Judgement Night, Empire Records, the X-Files, etc.
Also, Terminator 2 & Wayne's World weren't mentioned yet.
34
As horrible as the movie was, I gotta show some love for the Batman and Robin soundtrack. It had REM, Goo Goo Dolls, and two of my favorite songs from the Smashing Pumpkins, one of which showcased the loud acid alternative made famous on their previous 3 albums, and the other gave an amazing preview of the industrial album yet to come.
Someone else mentioned Beavis & Butthead Do America, which was also pretty amazing. RHCP, No Doubt, Ozzy, Rancid, Butthole Surfers, White Zombie... really hard to go wrong with this.
Someone else mentioned Beavis & Butthead Do America, which was also pretty amazing. RHCP, No Doubt, Ozzy, Rancid, Butthole Surfers, White Zombie... really hard to go wrong with this.
35
well trainspotting had some "period" music too: lust for life, nightclubbing, perfect day, brian eno these are all pre-90's
but the crow is awesome
but the crow is awesome
36
I actually like The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack better than the orignal. Escape from LA had a pretty awesome soundtrack
37
Another good one is the Spawn soundtrack. A lot of rock bands like Korn, Incubus, Tom Morello from RATM and Marilyn Manson collaberating with techno artist such as the Dust Brothers, Sneaker Pimps, Atari Teenage Riot, and the Prodigy
40
The 90s was so freaking cool in regards to interesting music, so here is just a few I liked:
The Crow - Rollins, NIN, Rage, The Cure. They all gave the movie a different edge to it.
The Crow: City of Angels - The movie sucked hard, but the soundtrack had tons of great bands like Filter, Hole, Seven Mary Three and even a rare appearance by Tricky.
Nowhere - Few people watched the film, but it had the likes of Radiohead, Lush, 311 along with some cool remixes of Massive Attack and Marilyn Manson.
Strangeland - Just a flat out awesome collection of metal songs, getting the likes of Kid Rock, System of a Down, .....dayinthelife, and Sevendust right before they struck it big on the mainstream.
Judgement Night - Judgement Night!!!!!
Spawn - The same producer for Judgement Night put this soundtrack together, bringing some cool combos like Stabbing Westward/Wink, Slayer/Atari Teenage Riot and the best song on the CD, Filter/The Crystal Method.
Trainspotting - So much good music, they released two albums for it.
The Jackal - Movie stunk, but that didn't stop the producers from bringing together some of the coolest Electronic acts in the biz like Agent Provocateur, Goldie, Massive Attack, and LTJ Bukem.
Hackers - Another electronic laden album that picked up great stuff from Underworld and The Prodigy.
The Crow - Rollins, NIN, Rage, The Cure. They all gave the movie a different edge to it.
The Crow: City of Angels - The movie sucked hard, but the soundtrack had tons of great bands like Filter, Hole, Seven Mary Three and even a rare appearance by Tricky.
Nowhere - Few people watched the film, but it had the likes of Radiohead, Lush, 311 along with some cool remixes of Massive Attack and Marilyn Manson.
Strangeland - Just a flat out awesome collection of metal songs, getting the likes of Kid Rock, System of a Down, .....dayinthelife, and Sevendust right before they struck it big on the mainstream.
Judgement Night - Judgement Night!!!!!
Spawn - The same producer for Judgement Night put this soundtrack together, bringing some cool combos like Stabbing Westward/Wink, Slayer/Atari Teenage Riot and the best song on the CD, Filter/The Crystal Method.
Trainspotting - So much good music, they released two albums for it.
The Jackal - Movie stunk, but that didn't stop the producers from bringing together some of the coolest Electronic acts in the biz like Agent Provocateur, Goldie, Massive Attack, and LTJ Bukem.
Hackers - Another electronic laden album that picked up great stuff from Underworld and The Prodigy.
42
S.F.W. is an awesome addition to this list!!!! Nice one dead clumsy.
Natural Born Killers should be here too yo!!!! This is Colin Jones yo.
Natural Born Killers should be here too yo!!!! This is Colin Jones yo.
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