Songs Of The 90s — Top Hundred

I closed the lime-green binder. Outside, the world was gray and wet. But in my lap, the 1990s were still arguing, still dancing, still discovering that “What Is Love” was funny and “Torn” was heartbreaking and that a hundred songs could never hold a decade.

He laughed—a real, rusty laugh. “We tried in 2009. Got to song #92. Craig suggested ‘Hey Ya!’ and we all just… stopped. It wasn’t the same. The binder got put away.” top hundred songs of the 90s

I opened the binder. The first page was handwritten in Sharpie, the ink bleeding through the paper: I closed the lime-green binder

The binder was the color of a faded Jawbreaker sticker—electric lime green, now softened by twenty-five years of basement humidity and garage-sale purgatory. My uncle Rick slid it across his coffee table, the duct-taped spine groaning. He laughed—a real, rusty laugh

– “The accidental anthem of Gen X. Slacker chic. Irony as armor. Rick cried to this alone in his car after his first breakup. He will deny this.” (Rick had written in smaller letters beneath: “I deny this.”)

But they could try.