Pitchfork may have done a good job of including dance music in their top 200 tracks of the 1990s, but a certain someone was conspicuously absent. Have you ever heard of a recording artist named Garth Brooks? How about Shania Twain? Must I even mention Britney Spears?
I really loved their picks, but they struck me as the return of rockism. I feel that the “r” word, like Voldemort, has been whispered in certain circles in the past year or so about Pitchfork. This list confirmed that suspicion for me. Is it wrong to like popular music again? Should we just pretend that we could always live in an indie bubble and never be concerned with the likes of, say, Sugar Ray?
What I’d love to see Pitchfork come back and do next week is reveal their staff lists, or give us a best of the rest. As I wrote last night, the ’90s in retrospect were a wonderfully eclectic decade. Garth Brooks, gangsta rap, Guns N’ Roses, and grunge? Yes, please! I know it’s difficult to be perfectly inclusive, but you might think it’d be acceptable to at least genuflect to some of the best-selling artists of that decade.
As someone who went to a junior high and high school dances in the ’90s, it’s hard to imagine anyone omitting this gem.