Ninties Gems We Will Never See Again

I was born in 1977. Grew up in the eighties. Musical tastes grew in the nineties. This is why I tend to be slightly bias when it comes to musical debates. There is not one single decade, except maybe the sixties, where the independent spirit was urged into the mainstream to create an amazing melting pot of styles and influences. Many bands owe their careers to this welcoming of the indie scene in the nineties. But those are not the stories I want to focus on today. Oh no, instead we shall look at two bands who, despite their quickness to sell-out, I still support and consider myself a fan of, even if on a casual level. These two bands happen to be Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth.

Sugar Ray hit it huge in the summer of 1997 with the single 'Fly', video featured here. Compare that with other tracks off the same album, Floored - 'Tap, Twist, Snap', 'RPM', and 'American Pig', for example. Sugar Ray had the hard hitting edge of their punk influences, but just enough pop influence to make it an easy enough pill for John and Jane Q. Public to swallow. Have you ever heard the saying "Every man has his price"? Well apparently Sugar Ray's price was whatever the royalties of 'Fly' were since all Sugar Ray has put out since 1997 has been happy, bubblegum pop. Even Britney Spears has more of an edge than Sugar Ray does now. Rumor has it that even Mark McGrath, frontman of Sugar Ray, himself does not like the music he makes, but I have yet to find any actual posting yet.

Smash Mouth has almost the exact same story. After hitting it big in 1997 with their single 'Walkin' on the Sun', Smash Mouth proceeded to change themselves from an amazingly hot ska punk band to the group singing 'I'm a Believer' in the Shrek movies. As with the Sugar Ray comparison earlier, the difference in direction just to make money is undeniable. Let us take 'Padrino', 'Disconnect the Dots', and 'Flo' off the Smash Mouth album Fush Yu Mang. Smash mouth decided the money was strictly in the pop side of their music and threw the ska and punk side right into the trash, and their personality with it. Lucky for us, though, Smash Mouth did not drop their humorous side.

I am not saying that making money for your art is wrong. I am also not saying artists do not grow. Art blossoms and matures with the artist and that I strongly believe. But bands like AFI, Green Day, and Blink 182 managed to grow without completely changing their style overnight. Both of these albums, Floored from Sugar Ray and Fush Yu Mang from Smash Mouth, belong in any music aficionado's music collection, and I hope this little article got each of you to think about where your favorite band came from.