Music Monday: 90s Weirdness

My work doesn’t always allow me the time and focus to write out longer posts. So, on days where I can’t write something longer, I want to do ones where I share a few videos. Sometimes it’ll be music. Other times it’ll funny things. Sometimes it’ll be political stuff. Today I aim to focus on music. Let’s hop in the wayback machine and remember some 90s weirdness.

The video for “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden might be one of the strangest mainstream music videos ever. Unless you were really into grunge music, this was probably your first introduction to the band. From the opening minute, something about this world we’re entering seems super off. People’s faces are distorted and twisted. I’ve written about this video before so I won’t belabor too much. But it’s weird.

“Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-Lite has been a dance classic for almost 3 decades. In many ways, it is the perfect early 90s song. The beat is typical of electronic music at the time. The instrumentation is also typical — technology had not quite advanced to get realistic-sounding drums. This kind of music had one purpose and Deee-lite let us know from the first line, “we're going to dance.” OK, then. Some other lyrics:

The depth of hula groove moves us to the nth hoop
We're gonna groove to Horton Hears a Who-who

I’m pretty sure the song is about banging. Moving on.

This was my first exposure to KWEEN Missy Elliot. I remember watching this video and thinking “what the hell am I seeing” as it played. In hindsight, it doesn’t seem that exotic. That’s because the visionary director behind the video, Hype Williams, used this style over and over again (fisheye lens, frenetic movements, etc.) for two decades. He did videos for pretty much anyone who was anyone in the 90s and early 00s. Biggie. Will Smith. Busta. DMX. Jay-Z. TLC. Wu-Tang. No Doubt. In fact, if you turned on BET at this time there was an 87% chance of seeing a video made by (or heavily influenced) by him.

OK, so this one isn’t as weird as it is… confusing. Y’all don’t remember what a big deal it was that Michael and Janet cut a song together and were going to be in a video. This was a few years after the initial round of molestation charges (which he addresses in the song) and so it was kind of brave for Janet to risk her reputation for her brother. Michael looks strange as ever, a plastic surgery experiment gone wrong. And the CGI used was cutting edge in 1995. Look at that spaceship! They’re dancing on the walls! A TV that gets bigger! Really though, the song slaps and the dance routine during the solo is awesome. RIP MJ.

Somebody save Veruca Salt from that bed that’s eating them! There was a period in the mid-90s (mostly due to the TV show GUTS) where those elastic jumpy ropes were a HUGE deal. They can make you fly like you’re on the moon! Who wouldn’t want to experience that? I love Veruca Salt. They were one of the first mainstream bands led by two women who definitely played up the whole “are we lesbians?” thing. By today’s standards, they’d call it queer-baiting (I think). But in the 90s, horny teenage boys just wanted to see them make out. I was always partial to Nina.

NIGHTMARE FUEL. This is another perfect example of an early 90s song that experimented with hip-hop and dance music. These Italianos really know how to make something truly unique and terrifying. Eifel 65 is their name and this was pretty much their only hit in the US. Another video that was somewhat “cutting edge” at the time but now looks insane. Seems like a good place to end.