ICYMI: Why is 90s Pop so Bizarre?

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2019

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we're revisiting an episode inspired by a pair of classic VH1 shows: “Behind the Music” and “Where Are They Now?” Our subjects are two songs representing the lunatic fringe of 90s culture, “Cotton Eyed Joe” and “How Bizarre.” In the course of our musicological investigation, we uncover dark truths about these seemingly anodyne hits that will make you question everything you know about pop music. And in the end, we reach a definitive answer to a perennially vexing question: “WTF was 90s music so weird?” Songs Discussed Rednex: Cotton Eye Joe Pop in an Oak The Way I Mate Cotton Eyed Joe: Fiddlin John Carson Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys Karen Dalton Chieftains Nina Simone OMC: How Bizarre Right On Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice produced with Fox Creative.
0:07.0	As state legislatures consider more than 500 anti-transpills, the latest episode of Into the Mix asks,
0:13.0	how best to support and protect transgender youth.
0:16.0	Like Olioski, a young man who, despite growing up in a loving and supportive home,
0:20.0	felt the need for friendship with other trans and queer kids.
0:23.0	At just seven years old, he took initiative and built a lasting community.
0:27.0	That story on Into the Mix, subscribe now.
0:58.0	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm a musicologist, Nate Sloan, and I'm Slang writer Charlie Harding.
1:04.0	Charlie, we're continuing our summer throwback season here.
1:09.0	Loving it.
1:10.0	And in this episode, I want to revisit a time that for us 80s babies was an incredibly formative decade.
1:21.0	I want to go back to the 90s.
1:23.0	Yes. Great.
1:25.0	Wonderful. So many summer jams.
1:27.0	There's so much to talk about in 90s music, but one question keeps nagging me when I think about this musical decade.
1:34.0	Yeah. I guess there's no other way to phrase it.
1:37.0	Why is 90s music so weird?
1:41.0	Oh, wow. I don't know.
1:46.0	I guess we could say that it's a musical representation of Fukuyama's end of history.
1:54.0	And so I don't know, a postmodern malaise.
2:00.0	I don't even know. I love it. I love you. I know. We'll get there.
2:03.0	That was a rhetorical question, though. I appreciate your enthusiasm.
	...

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