The Best Music of the 1990s

In the ’90s, music exploded with innovation. Hip-hop had entered its golden age, a tidal wave of alternative rock dominated radio, and new subgenres of electronic music seemed to take over the underground every year. If you spent a few hours watching MTV, you would have seen superstars breaking the boundaries of pop just as frequently as the latest up-and-coming grunge band or rising emcee. Three decades later, this music feels as exciting, important, and relevant as ever, with contemporary artists referencing genre-specific sounds more and more. In this series of lists, Pitchfork takes a deep dive into the songs, albums, genres, and artists of the 1990s, mining through thousands of songs and albums to make a curated guide of what you need to hear.