The 90s got weird. Subculture rose to the top, and alternative music took over radio airwaves. A lot of genre blending and experimentation led to some strange songs that we’re still a little lost on, but we love them anyway. It was a time and place kind of thing. No matter how many times we listen, we still can’t explain these alternative songs from the 90s.
“song 2” – blur
What’s mostly unexplainable about this song is its lack of meaning. It’s mostly a parody of grunge and nothing more. It doesn’t exactly sound like anything else we know from Blur, yet it somehow became their most well-known song. The song is only slightly over two minutes long, with a ridiculously simple song structure and practically meaningless lyrics. None of this mattered as it was a head-banging hit in 1997. The 90s certainly altered what it took to make a hit song.
“she don’t use jelly” by the flaming lips
Honestly, I’m still a little lost on this 1993 alternative hit. The first verse is about knowing a girl who is somehow associated with ghosts, who uses Vaseline on toast. “She don’t use butter, and she don’t use cheese / She don’t use jelly, or any of these / She uses Vaseline.” Ultimately, I believe this to be metaphorical for eccentric people, or at least I hope so. It’s quite a strange metaphor if so. More characters are revealed, such as a man who blows his nose with magazines, and a girl who dyes her hair “real” orange with Tangerines.
“peaches” by the presidents of the united states of america
This 1995 hit had everyone singing about peaches for the rest of the decade. All you need to know is he wants to move to the country to eat peaches. He longs to move to the country to eat a lot of peaches. It’s simply an anthem about love and nature, not much to it. Again, the 90s changed how we thought a hit song should be.
“wynona’s big brown beaver” by primus
We simply can’t make this list without Primus. They are the epitome of unexplainable. Many speculated about sexual innuendos with this jam track from 1995. Also, the song coincided with Winona Ryder’s soaring popularity in the mid-90s. It wasn’t about her, though; it’s truly about a large beaver. No joke.
In a 1997 interview with BAM magazine, Les Claypool said, “I met Winona Ryder. She had heard from a friend of ours that I’d possibly written a song about her. She’s actually really cool. She wasn’t pissed really; I think she was just more confused. She wanted to know why we might write a song about her, and I told her, ‘It has nothing to do with you.’”
Photo by Steve Eichner/WireImage
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