If you were born or grew up during the early/mid 1990s, you know how great it was. You'd come home from school, feed your Neopet, grab a bottle of Surge (which is now extinct from grocery stores) and turn on MTV to jam out to all your favorite songs. Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Spice Girls and NSYNC, just to name a few, dominated our childhood. These days, 98 percent of the music played on mainstream radio sucks. These 2000 babies don't know a thing about good music or how cool it was to grow up in the '90s.
Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we, and reflect on all the awesome songs that shaped our childhood.
1. "He Loves U Not" by Dream
If this song didn't make you want to throw on a crop top and grab your karaoke machine, you're lying. Who else pretended to sing this to the girl who kept flirting with your crush?
2. "Hey Juliet" by LMNT
We all secretly wished a group of cute guys would sing this to us whenever our mom dragged us to the laundry mat.
3. "Candy" by Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore before she was Mandy Moore.
4. "I Want It That Way" by Backstreet Boys
Let's be real here, we all wanted to marry Nick Carter. And if this song didn't make your little adolescent heart hurt, you obviously missed something. Who else remembers when Burger King used to put Backstreet Boy CDs in their kids meals? No? Just me?
5. "Bye Bye Bye" by NSYNC
Even though Justin Timberlake's hair looked like an uncooked pack of Ramen noodles, we still loved him.
6. "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence
This song turned us all into gothic and emo kids at some point. Not to mention that was the best music video ever?
7. "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
Even though the music video was the most terrifying thing in existence (seriously, what were those things?), this song was still a banger.
8. "In the End" by Linkin Park
If this song didn't stir up the teenage angst brewing inside you, were you really living? This song was so deep.
9. "Summer Girls" by Lyte Funkie Ones (LFO)
Even though we were too young to realize how the lyrics to this song made absolutely no sense, we still loved it and wondered what Abercrombie and Fitch was. (We'd eventually find out in 2006/2007 when we all started wearing it.)
10. "Come Clean" by Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff was the queen of the Disney Channel and basically ruled our childhood. Between "Lizzie McGuire," "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and her flawless album, we almost didn't make it out alive. All hail Hilary.
11. "Leave (Get Out)" by JoJo
We all knew every word to this song and we weren't ashamed of it, and there's also a 95 percent chance we all wanted to raid JoJo's closet.
12. "Genie in a Bottle" by Christina Aguilera
How did we not realize how sexually explicit this song was? And how did our parents allow us to listen to it?
13. "Oops!... I Did it Again" by Britney Spears
This music video slayed all of our lives. And I also may or may not have sung this at my elementary school's talent show.
14. "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani
Did anybody else learn their first curse word from this song?
15. "Spice Up Your Life" by Spice Girls
Not only did we have this gem to jam out to, but we also had the movie "Spice World" to watch and Spice Girl dolls to play with. I personally had a Sporty Spice doll and she was amazing.
While all of us have reached adulthood, let's never forget the awesome era that raised us and the music that accompanied it. Truth be told, I still listen to these songs today and have all of them on my iTunes. Even though we '90s babies are no longer babies, these songs will never fail to bring us back to the good 'ol days.