Hella Nineties Music got in touch with Absolute Radio 90s host and DJ Chris Martin to pick his thoughts on nineties music, finding out what he recommends as some of the best (and worst) of the decade, and why it was a great time for the industry.

Nineties music has always held deep meaning for Martin who believes that the great thing about that era’s music was “the sheer proliferation of successful guitar bands.” Martin explains that though the decade began with grunge, as gunge tired the response of Britpop resulted in escalated national pride. “For a couple of years we were amazing!” he comments. “The summers seemed longer, 'Be Here Now' hadn't had time to form in Noel Gallagher's addled egotistic mind, and it seemed everyone was open to everything, be it The Prodigy or Cornershop. Barriers were down, whereas now music feels more exclusive and the music that becomes popular seems somewhat more sanitised.”

Martin’s had the fortune of seeing and interviewing many nineties bands during his life. His time hanging out the two Johns from They Might Be Giants was enjoyable as they are “absurdly creative” as was his time with Three Colours Red. He’s seen almost every band he’s ever wanted to from the nineties (“apart from Beck, I need to sort that out”) but the two that bands that he missed seeing that hurt the most are Nirvana and Cay. “Cay were an obsession for a year, I missed out on seeing them at the Garage and then their singer died really young,” he states. “Nature Creates Freaks is quite the album for any neurotic teenager.”

While Martin explains that there are the “anthems that will never die” such as ‘Parklife’ by Blur and Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, he says that the unexpected songs played on the station are the ones that usually get the most passionate response from the audience. “If you can play a Portishead track on daytime, or a non-single album track from Blur, you can guarantee a lot of excitement on social media,” he comments.

When it comes to forgotten songs of the nineties, Martin states that no one ever knows what he’s on about when bringing up Electrasy's 'Morning Afterglow'. While the Dorset rock band formed in 1994, it was really only around until 2002 and was maybe best known for their ‘Best Friend’s Girl’ music video that broke the Guiness record for throwing 4,400 custard pies in three minutes. ‘Morning Afterglow’ was the second single from their 1998 debut record Beautiful Insane and did reach number 19 on the UK Singles Chart, yet failed to make much of an impact on the public’s memories.

Martin states that his favourite nineties artist changes all the time, but after the fight between Blur and Oasis during his childhood he got into Manic Street Preachers. “I have more by them than any other artist now, and it's mainly because they had an aesthetic and attitude that felt like you were being different to the mainstream,” he comments. “Talking about ideas and wordplay, philosophy and the taboo, compared to the limited ideas of a lot of Britpop. It was the detail, depth and poetry that was presented with incredible melody and most often an amazing guitar solo.”

Though he never gets bored of Radiohead's ‘Paranoid Android’, it’s impossible for Martin to choose the best song of the nineties in his opinion (“occasion, surroundings, mood and moment will change the answer on a daily or hourly basis”), but he has no problem pinning worst song on Toploader’s ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ dubbing the 1999 track it “offensive from the very first nanosecond and barely distinguishable from the original that it's covering”.

Martin believes the nineties were a better time for music “only in the way that there seemed to be a consensus, all the weirdos would flock like moths to a flame for the next Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo or Manics.” There are many comparable scenes today he explains, but these bands “managed to sell an insane amount of records, mounting a credible challenge to the domination of pop dross.” While not all pop was bad he disputes, he finds that “today's variety of music and its accessibility is a better situation for fans, though you feel more bands reach fewer fans each as a result. Whether that's good or bad can be debated.”

Written By Kaitlyn Ulrich