I think I'm much more pop radio tolerant than most of you are -- what can I say, NPR still bores me stupid half the time -- but here are the songs from the Top 100 from 1996 that wouldn't make me change the station, anyhow. (Also? All DC radio sucks now, but the rock station, DC 101, is mostly borderline tolerable, as is the adult contemporary station 104.1.):

6. Give Me One Reason, Tracy Chapman
7. Tha Crossroads, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
12. Missing, Everything But The Girl
13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette
15. Follow You Down / Til I Hear It From You, Gin Blossoms
17. How Do U Want It / California Love, 2Pac
18. It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion (The ONE Celine song I can stand, seriously. It's just sexy somehow.)
24. Name, Goo Goo Dolls
25. Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel
28. Counting Blue Cars, Dishwalla
29. You Learn / You Oughta Know, Alanis Morissette
30. One Of Us, Joan Osborne
31. Wonder, Natalie Merchant
39. Breakfast At Tiffany's, Deep Blue Something
42. No Diggity, BLACKstreet (Featuring Dr. Dre)
44. 1979, The Smashing Pumpkins
56. Wonderwall, Oasis
66. Theme From Mission: Impossible, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
67. Closer To Free, Bodeans
68. Just A Girl, No Doubt (In 1996, I hated this song, but I have since mellowed.)
78. Jealousy, Natalie Merchant
79. I Want To Come Over, Melissa Etheridge
99. Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and The Blowfish (Entirely for the lines stolen from Bob Dylan)
100. Don't Cry, Seal

A lot of this is the kind of mellow Lilith Fair-y stuff I don't buy, but nonetheless find soothing.

LJ is the same age as my brother.

Wanna hear something sad? I would totally listen to every song on the 1990 countdown that I know, with the possible exceptions of the Michael Bolton and maybe the Phil Collins.

I am such a pop loser.

stands in pop enthusiast (don't put yourself down, LJ) party corner with LJ. IOW, where the fun is.

13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette

Ahhhhhhh! t runs from room

Right behind Jon.

Thanks, msbelle.

Stupid music, especially stupid music that makies me remember middle school in a vague, pleasant, nostalgia-drenched way, is too much fun to be snobbish about. (I do have a much higher threshold for "would buy" than for "would listen to" -- I think Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins are the only bands on that list I've ever paid money for an album by.)

13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette

Ahhhhhhh!

See, I loathed Alanis when I was 17. Now I kind of respect her for doing her own thing, even if I wouldn't call the thing that is her own actually *good,* and that makes me tolerant of her music.

I'd listen to about half of those, but even if not, I can't judge. I listed "I Touch Myself", you know? I have no cred. Except that it's not "My Ding-a-Ling" And I'm totally living in the wrong era, anyway. Still like "Ironic", too.

God, 'ruined, quiet dignity' is a stunning description of Bubs.

This just needed to be said twice.

Misha, that dress is gorgeous!

I was going to do the high school songs thing, but I realized I would listen to about half of them in the same way I would watch a car wreck, so it didn't seem a true test.