My ten year high school reunion is approaching this year, and I was trying to remember what songs were popular around my final days at Central High in Lunenburg County, VA. Naturally, all the music of my younger days has started blending together, so I turned to Wikipedia for help.
Now I'm counting music over a rough one year period that starts right after my junior year (when I became a rising senior) and ends around the time I graduated (when I was no longer a high school senior). I think music from that last summer before college is associated with its own set of memories and transitional nostalgia.
So, for better or for worse, here's everything that hit number 1 at least once on Billboard's Modern Rock and Pop Charts between the second half of June, 1998, and the first half of June, 1999. I've linked, where possible, to YouTube videos of the songs, so there's always the risk that some might disappear over time.
Modern Rock:
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"
Eve 6 - "Inside Out"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
Hole - "Celebrity Skin"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Slide"
Lenny Kravitz - "Fly Away"
Cake - "Never There"
Everlast - "What It's Like"
Sugar Ray - "Every Morning"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Hot 100 (for all intents and purposes, this was the Pop chart until February 2005):
Brandy and Monica - "The Boy Is Mine"
Aerosmith - "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
Monica - "The First Night"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week" (yeah, this was on both charts)
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Divine - "Lately"
R. Kelly and Céline Dion - "I'm Your Angel"
Brandy - "Have You Ever?"
Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
Monica - "Angel of Mine"
Cher - "Believe"
TLC - "No Scrubs"
Ricky Martin - "Livin' la Vida Loca"
Jennifer Lopez - "If You Had My Love"
It appears that the pop charts had a lot more variety, but consider that they covered pretty much every genre at the time (hence Barenaked Ladies appearance on both the Modern Rock and Hot 100 lists above).
Now I'm counting music over a rough one year period that starts right after my junior year (when I became a rising senior) and ends around the time I graduated (when I was no longer a high school senior). I think music from that last summer before college is associated with its own set of memories and transitional nostalgia.
So, for better or for worse, here's everything that hit number 1 at least once on Billboard's Modern Rock and Pop Charts between the second half of June, 1998, and the first half of June, 1999. I've linked, where possible, to YouTube videos of the songs, so there's always the risk that some might disappear over time.
Modern Rock:
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"
Eve 6 - "Inside Out"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
Hole - "Celebrity Skin"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Slide"
Lenny Kravitz - "Fly Away"
Cake - "Never There"
Everlast - "What It's Like"
Sugar Ray - "Every Morning"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Hot 100 (for all intents and purposes, this was the Pop chart until February 2005):
Brandy and Monica - "The Boy Is Mine"
Aerosmith - "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
Monica - "The First Night"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week" (yeah, this was on both charts)
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Divine - "Lately"
R. Kelly and Céline Dion - "I'm Your Angel"
Brandy - "Have You Ever?"
Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
Monica - "Angel of Mine"
Cher - "Believe"
TLC - "No Scrubs"
Ricky Martin - "Livin' la Vida Loca"
Jennifer Lopez - "If You Had My Love"
It appears that the pop charts had a lot more variety, but consider that they covered pretty much every genre at the time (hence Barenaked Ladies appearance on both the Modern Rock and Hot 100 lists above).