Every decade has its fair share of songs that everyone hated, but as I’m slowly starting to learn as Y2K becomes an increasingly distant memory, there are some 1990s songs that everyone hated…except for me, apparently? As a musician and writer, I know that music is entirely subjective. But I can’t help but feel a little protective of these songs, even all these years later.
Okay, okay…maybe not “protective” (that’s a hard word to use for the last song on this list). Perhaps I’m just protective of my own music taste. In either case, it’s time to either commiserate or deepen the divide. Keep reading to see if we would have swapped CDs for the weekend in 1999.
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“My Oh My” by Aqua
The first track on this list of 1990s songs that everyone apparently hated, except for my sister and me, comes with a massive caveat. To hate “My Oh My” by Aqua would inherently suggest that you got past their bubblegum hit, “Barbie Girl”, and continued down the rest of their 1997 debut album, Aquarium. Considering Rolling Stone readers dubbed the latter track the worst song of the 1990s, I would assume the vast majority of the public wasn’t doing that.
Nevertheless, “My Oh My” is a bop. What other dance song do you know that has the sound of hooves and a harpsichord in it? Come on.
“Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65
Speaking of divisive European dance music, Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” is another hot take as far as “good” 1990s songs go. For whatever it’s worth, the song hit No. 1 all over the world. So, at some point, we collectively decided the song was incredibly catchy. I’d argue its ubiquity is what turned it into one of those 1990s songs everyone hates in hindsight.
But I know I still like that song all these years later because as soon as I started hearing David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “Blue”-adjacent 2023 hit, “I’m Good (Blue)” on the radio, I would get sad when I realized it wasn’t the 1999 version.
“All Star” by Smash Mouth
Blame it on the fact that I was in the target demographic for the original Shrek film. But Smash Mouth’s “All Star” is still a fun song to sing along to, even [redacted] decades after its 1999 release. No amount of cringey 1990s song round-ups or viral memes using the line “someBODY” can convince me that this isn’t an all-around fun, nostalgic jam.
I think the sheer 1990s of it all makes it trendy to write off Smash Mouth’s biggest hit as a cringey relic. Talk to me when you can get through one full play of the song without singing along to a chorus.
“Cherry Pie” by Warrant
When I said that it was difficult to say I was “protective” over some 1990s songs that everyone seemingly hated, it was because of Warrant’s 1990 track “Cherry Pie”. Is it a beautiful feat of lyrical prowess? No. Is it understated? Absolutely not. Is it goofy? Certainly. But is it one of my favorite examples of gaudy, hypersexual, ridiculous glam rock from the late 1980s and early 90s? Yes, definitely.
Even Warrant vocalist Jani Lane later said he could have “shot himself in the head” for writing the song, but he later clarified that he was just having a bad day. In further defense of Lane, “Cherry Pie” isn’t the most cerebral song with which to be associated. I get it. But a good rock song’s a good rock song.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic