More than words

How could one decade so neatly encapsulate junior high, high school, and college? By virtue of being born in 1978, the 90's were able to cover that span for me. Continuing the discussion from my 90's pre-retrospective, I offer this playlist from iTunes that are not necessarily the best, but rather the iconic songs that defined the decade.

Listening to this mix takes me all the way from my awkward phase in 6th grade to, umm, my awkward phase in college, with pauses in between at beach dances, YMCA swim meets, high school plays, dirty frat parties, long drives, and a lot of hours under the tutelage of MTV. These are my misty watercolored memories of the way we were. Can't touch this.

Name	Artist	Year
U Can't Touch This	MC Hammer	1990
Ice Ice Baby	Vanilla Ice	1990
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)	C+C Music Factory	1990
The Humpty Dance	Digital Underground	1990
More Than Words	Extreme	1990
Freedom 90	George Michael	1990
Mama Said Knock You Out	LL Cool J	1990
Let's Talk About Sex	Salt-N-Pepa	1990
Signs	Tesla	1990
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)	They Might Be Giants	1990
I Wanna Sex You Up	Color Me Badd	1991
Unbelievable	EMF	1991
Don't Cry	Guns N' Roses	1991
Now That We Found Love	Heavy D & the Boyz	1991
Good Vibrations	Marky Mark	1991
To Be With You	Mr. Big	1991
O.P.P.	Naughty By Nature	1991
Smells Like Teen Spirit	Nirvana	1991
Losing My Religion	R.E.M.	1991
Tom's Diner	Suzanne Vega	1991
Right Now	Van Halen	1991
Summertime	Will Smith	1991
What's Up?	4 Non Blondes	1992
Mr. Wendal	Arrested Development	1992
No Rain	Blind Melon	1992
Nuthin' but a "G" Thang	Dr. Dre	1992
Hey Jealousy	Gin Blossoms	1992
Jump Around	House of Pain	1992
Jump	Kris Kross	1992
I Got a Man	Positive K	1992
Everybody Hurts	R.E.M.	1992
Connected	Stereo MC's	1992
Life Is a Highway	Tom Cochrane	1992
Rump Shaker	Wreckx-N-Effect	1992
End of the Road	Boyz II Men	1993
Cannonball	The Breeders	1993
Insane in the Brain	Cypress Hill	1993
Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)	Digable Planets	1993
Getto Jam	Domino	1993
Ordinary World	Duran Duran	1993
What Is Love?	Haddaway	1993
Laid	James	1993
Into Your Arms	The Lemonheads	1993
Slam	Onyx	1993
Show Me Love	Robin S.	1993
Today	The Smashing Pumpkins	1993
Gin and Juice	Snoop Dogg	1993
Informer	Snow	1993
Whoomp! (There It Is)	Tag Team	1993
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)	Us3	1993
Sure Shot	Beastie Boys	1994
Fantastic Voyage	Coolio	1994
A Girl Like You	Edwyn Collins	1994
Longview	Green Day	1994
Lucas With the Lid Off	Lucas	1994
Come Out and Play	The Offspring	1994
I'll Stand by You	The Pretenders	1994
Regulate	Warren G	1994
Down	311	1995
You Oughta Know	Alanis Morissette	1995
Breakfast At Tiffany's	Deep Blue Something	1995
You Were Meant for Me	Jewel	1995
One of Us	Joan Osborne	1995
Stay (I Missed You)	Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories	1995
Doin' It	LL Cool J	1995
One Sweet Day	Boyz II Men & Mariah Carey	1995
Fantasy	Mariah Carey	1995
This Is How We Do It	Montell Jordan	1995
Spiderwebs	No Doubt	1995
Wonderwall	Oasis	1995
Lump	The Presidents of the United States of America	1995
Cotton Eye Joe	Rednex	1995
1979	Smashing Pumpkins	1995
California Love	Tupac & Dr. Dre	1995
Song 2	Blur	1996
No Diggity	Blackstreet	1996
Lovefool	The Cardigans	1996
Crash Into Me	Dave Matthews Band	1996
Da' Dip	Freak Nasty	1996
Killing Me Softly With His Song	The Fugees	1996
Stayin' Alive	N-Trance	1996
Wannabe	Spice Girls	1996
Hell	Squirrel Nut Zippers	1996
Santeria	Sublime	1996
Sucked Out	Superdrag	1996
One Headlight	The Wallflowers	1996
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?	Paula Cole	1996
Tubthumping	Chumbawamba	1997
Everlong	Foo Fighters	1997
MMMBop	Hanson	1997
Flagpole Sitta	Harvey Danger	1997
Faith	Limp Bizkit	1997
Feel So Good	Mase	1997
The Impression That I Get	Mighty Mighty Bosstones	1997
How Bizarre	OMC	1997
Mo Money Mo Problems	Puff Daddy	1997
Bittersweet Symphony	The Verve	1997
Gettin' Jiggy Wit It	Will Smith	1997
Gone till November	Wyclef Jean	1997
Intergalactic	Beastie Boys	1998
Take Me There	Blackstreet, Mya, Mase, Blinky	1998
Fire It Up	Busta Rhymes	1998
Crush	Dave Matthews Band	1998
Save Tonight	Eagle-Eye Cherry	1998
Hooch	Everything	1998
The Way	Fastball	1998
Praise You	Fatboy Slim	1998
Ray of Light	Madonna	1998
Angel of Mine	Monica	1998
You Get What You Give	The New Radicals	1998
Ghetto Supastar	Pras	1998
Can't Get Enough of You Baby	Smash Mouth	1998
...Baby One More Time	Britney Spears	1999
Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)	Citizen King	1999
Babylon	David Gray	1999
Blue (Da Ba Dee)	Eiffel 65	1999
No Scrubs	TLC	1999
Steal My Sunshine	LEN	1999
Nookie	Limp Bizkit	1999
My Own Worst Enemy	Lit	1999
I Try	Macy Gray	1999
Bodyrock	Moby	1999
Scar Tissue	Red Hot Chili Peppers	1999
Livin' la Vida Loca	Ricky Martin	1999