The 90s saw the rise of some of the most influential bands of our time, including Nirvana, Radiohead, NSYNC, Brittany Spears, and the Spice Girls, and a variety of other styles, such as R&B, hip-hop, electronic music, country, dance fads, and genre-melting pop.
The Backstreet Boys are a great example of how record labels copied and pasted the New Kids on the Block with a less threatening group, selling a lot of albums but churning out filler. Their top hits all sound alike, with percussion playing under the vocals.
Ace of Base's first album was the best-selling album of 1994 and is still one of the most successful debuts of all time. Their biggest hit, I Saw the Sign, features shallow, repetitive words that stick in your brain after one play.
Aqua is a Nordic band that exploded onto American soil with their one-hit wonder Barbie Girl, which was a commentary on the representation of women in the media. Mattel sued the band for the use of Barbie, but the case didn't make it to court. The song was inescapable, and one Dallas-based radio DJ locked herself in the studio and played it on repeat for an hour.