What songs define the 90s

90s is when I grow up, and growing up in Hong Kong means that I get to listen to all sorts of weird stuff.
I wasn’t a fan of Chinese music except for what my cousin listen to, because she was my biggest influence until I grow up (out?).

The Chinese band I mentioned before, Beyond played a really big part of me growing up.
The lead singer died when I was eight – I kind of knew what ‘death’ meant at that point.
My mother’s oldest brother died of cancer when I was six. I remember sitting in church and swaying my feet on the benches and thinking I have pretty shoes on, and why did I get to stay up past my bedtime.

But that’s besides the point.
I found someone on YouTube who’s put a bunch of songs together into one video.
My favourite song is at 1:02:46.
The official record company has put a playlist up, but most of the songs are actually from after he passed away, so I am not going to bother putting it on here.

For English music, nothing can beats the Hammer.
MC Hammer and his “can’t touch this“.
Disney music started to pop out of nowhere, and they also started to enter the charts.
Songs like A Whole New World, Beauty and The Beast and Colour of the Wind.
And also Can You Feel The Love Tonight.
Prince of Egypt, which was not a Disney movie but a Dreamwork movie – won the best Original Song (written by Stephen Schwartz – who did Pocahontas and went on and did Wicked the musical) with “When You Believe” (sang by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston).

And whilst we are on Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston…
My All. I have always loved that song. I don’t know why. It’s a really whiny sounding song, but I love the song.

Whitney Houston’s “I’ll always Love You” is a classic.

Random fact: Lots of people in Japan knows this song, but they don’t speak much English. They thought the song was called “Anya” for years because of the Chorus: “ANNNYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, will always love you”.

Everybody knows the words to Fresh Prince of Bel Air too.
And watch it religiously on TV.
(RIP uncle Phil)

R’n’B vocal groups were also massive.
Groups like BoyzIIMen, All-4-One, who had hits likes “End Of The Road”, “I’ll Make Love To You” and “I Swear” are also a big hit.
I Swear was played so much during the 90s when I was growing up, you couldn’t possibly not know the song – it was EVERYWHERE.
And I mean EVERYWHERE.
All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo.
(I have a story behind this, and I will again, put it under “story for another time” when I have time).

And then, the boybands.
OH THE BOYBANDS.
I never liked any of the English Boybands, and my focus has always been somewhere else.
Step By Step by New Kids on the Block.
Quit Playing Games by the Backstreet Boys.
Everybody Backstreet’s Back by the Backstreet Boys.
I Want It That way by the Backstreet Boys.
98 Degrees and their smooth sound that sits between R’n’B vocal and boybands – I Do Cherish You, a song that back then, was my first choice of my first dance in my wedding (That obviously has changed).
(*NSYNC came later, but they were like the rival of the Backstreet Boys and even though they are really good friends, I still don’t like them as much as I do with the Backstreet Boys).
Another boyband (kind of) that was massive in Asia was Michael Learns To Rock (I think they are Danish? If not, they might be Swedish – somewhere from the Scandinavian countries), and That’s Why You Go Away is another song that was over played.

And who will forget Hanson and their “Mmmbop”?
Savage Garden’s “I want you”, contrasting with “Truly, Madly, Deeply”.

But nothing was over played (and overrated for that matter) as much as “My Heart Will Go On”.
English version, Mandarin Version, Cantonese Version, Japanese Version.
Before “My Heart Will Go On” though, there was “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”.
Celine Dion was massive, but so was Shania Twain.
From this Moment.
Man I feel like a Woman.
And Gloria Estafani’s Music of my heart (sung with *NSYNC).
Toni Brixton, who once was sane, has an amazing song “How Could An Angel Break My Heart”.
The younger generation was popping up at the end of the 90s too, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore.
But Baby One More Time and Genie In A Bottle were the two songs that were everywhere.

And with movie soundtrack, there is also “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith. The movie was shit (so was Titanic, thinking about it), but the song was great (and I am still not a fan of Ben Affleck).
Another bad movie but good soundtrack, “I Believe I Can Fly” by R Kelly.
Another one: Kiss Me by Six Pence None Richer.

And don’t forget “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt.

Of course, there are songs that I heard cover versions of, and thought was from before the 90s.
Like More Than Words.

90s was the time where I fully engaged myself into Johnny’s Entertainment.
Kinki Kids debuted in 1997, with Garasu no Shounen, a song that I still listen to religiously, knows all the words to (obviously) and knows the dance routine for the chorus.
Two years later they released a song called Flower (and they recently sayid that it’s one the worst songs to sing live, because of the range the song covers… a bit like Dancing Queen by Abba).
Of course, I mentioned Kimi wo omou toki before, and that too, was from the nineties.

I can’t really post the original music videos when it comes to Johnny’s Music because of the very strict copyright law in Japan (I have been lucky with Weekender, Real Face and also Koi wo Shiranai Kimi e – but with Garasu no Shounen and Flower, not so much), but I have a copy of it if anybody wants it.
It’s from the 90s and the quality is bad, and the resolution isn’t that great either.

I also want to mention Ricky Martin “Living La Vida Loca” and Enrique Iglesias’ Bailamos.
Ricky Martin and his hypnotic hip (Hip-notic?) and Enrique Iglesias’ sultry voice.
Cannot get enough of the latter one. Who cares if I don’t understand Spanish?

What song has the highest playcount on your music player

Well it depends on which one.
Music doesn’t stop in my life.
Music plays on my phone whilst I wander in and out and at my desk in the office.
Music plays the moment I step foot into my home (both in the second city and home-home), unless I have people with me.
Then music don’t tend to play as much unless I am with Curly, which means some sort of background music gets played.

For my music app on my phone, the most played tune is Tokio, Kimi wo omou toki  – which roughly translate to “When Thinking of you”.
It dated back to 2000.
Prior to iPods and iPhones and mp3 players, it was on my MD player.
Yes – I went through one of those nightmares that you have to rip CDs onto an MD (I had the amazing Sony CMT-MD1).
It’s just one of those songs that I am always in the mood to listen to, and because it was one of the first Japanese songs that I wanted to actually learn the words to (and understood most of it), I had it on repeat for practically forever since I got my first iPhone so it has gotten the highest playcount on my music app on my phone. It was also one of the very few songs that I have never deleted off my playlist.

This is my preferred version because I have always loved Akanishi Jin’s voice and he did a beautiful cover version of this song (back in 2004), but this is the original vocal (Ignore what’s on the screen and just listen to the song)
You can make the judgement yourself.

And as for my iTunes on my computer, it’s Bubblewrap by Mcfly.
It’s one of the songs that got me through the dark times when I broke up with CLEB, it was the song that I fell in love with the moment I heard it.
The intro is very simple and the moment you launch into the first line “I wish I could bubble wrap my heart, in case I fall and break apart”, that’s how I feel a lot of the time, because I wear my heart on my sleeves. I really appreciate the lyrics, the melody as much as how the song just flows. It makes me feel safe when I listen to the song.
Recently I have it on repeat as well, because I was going to go to the Mcfly Anthology tour Night 2, which is the Wonderland and Motion in the Ocean album night.
Listening to it live – all the feels.
So emosh.
I just love the song.

Bubblewrap