I tend not to get too nostalgic for the trends of the 90’s and consider myself a pretty forward-thinking dude, in most ways. This year, I’ve been making it a point to focus on listening to music being made right now, because I think it can be pretty educational- you learn more about the world as it is today by engaging in the cultural conversation of the moment (there are other reasons to listen to older music than nostalgia, but a direct, two-way interaction with the world as it is right now is not one of them), and 2008 is a pretty uniquely fascinating time to be hanging around the planet Earth. I want to hear what everybody has to say about it.

But man, I’m not gonna front- I do kinda miss the 90’s alt-rock power ballad. This is what you got when you took an ex-punk rocker who possessed a heap of scorn for the traditional late 70’s/early-mid 80’s power ballads, but who also secretly got chills every time he heard “Beth” by Kiss, and had him pour everything he had into a four minute, late-album track. And the results are still awesome.

Look, here’s proof!

These are maybe not the ten best 90’s alt-rock power ballads ever, but they’re ten perfect examples of the form. The 90’s were a time when even tacky concepts like the power ballad could be redeemed if you were just cool enough and had enough poise. It was magical, children….

But there we go, delving into cheap nostalgia, which is not the point of this exercise. Hell no. The point is- I dunno, to remind the whippersnappers of the glory of 90’s rock or something. Or, um, to contextualize the disparate movements in the guitar-based popular music culture of the 1990’s by examining a form employed by a number of artists who produced work during that time period (I’ve been helping my wife work on her dissertation this week, can you tell?). Because whether it’s Guns ‘n Roses or Jets to Brazil, the power ballad (which contemporary indie rock tends to eschew) was a unifying theme that tied the 90’s together. Examine:

“Don’t Cry”, Guns ‘n Roses
“Don’t Cry” effectively ties the 80’s power ballad, which was corny and intended mostly to convince very drunk young women with teased hair that a guy in leather and spandex was secretly deep, to the 90’s alt-rock that would follow. It It follows a more 80’s-style “quiet-quiet-quiet-LOUD” formula than the “quiet-loud-quiet-loud-quiet-LOUD” that would be popular among dudes who grew up listening mostly to the Pixies, but by the end of the decade it was back in vogue.

“Taillights Fade”, Buffalo Tom
Yeah, this is the stuff. I don’t know if Buffalo Tom ever wrote two great songs, but this one’s enough, really. The lyrics are concrete and Springsteeny, paeans to a girl and the urge to just get away from everybody and start fresh, which perfectly complements the powerhouse buildup of the chorus, which replaces the lyrical specificity with vague rhyming nonsense that the singer sells just cuz his voice is a little bit hoarse.

“Dollar Bill”, Screaming Trees
Mark Lanegan is an indie rock star these days with his own Mark Lanegan Band, his series of albums with Belle and Sebastien’s Isobel Campbell, and the Gutter Twins, with fellow 90’s-rock exile Greg Dulli. He’s also something of a mainstream rock star as the scary dude who emerges from a cloud of smoke for a couple songs during Queens of the Stone Age shows. But before all of that, he was just a really tall guy in flannel from Seattle. “Dollar Bill” was the apex of his early songwriting career, a spirit-of-the-moment sort of song that captures everything awesome about the grunge version of the power ballad.

“Mayonnaise”, Smashing Pumpkins
If you are between the ages of 23 and 36, you have spent at least two weeks listening to this song following a break-up. You have written letters to people who have broken your heart that managed to force in the phrase “try to understand / that when I can / I will”. It is time to admit to this secret shame and embrace it. You are not alone. (bonus- in lieu of an actual music video, this YouTube link was put together by a sad dude with lots of pictures of his ex-girlfriend)

“Big Empty”, Stone Temple Pilots
This was on The Crow soundtrack, and all of a sudden a bunch of people who hated the Stone Temple Pilots because they thought they were Pearl Jam rip-offs had to be all, wow, those guys are all right. This led them to buy the album that came out a few months later, which also had this song, and which sounded like a crappy Pearl Jam record with one good song on it. “Big Empty” rules, though. It’s kinda bluesy and rocks hard on the choruses, gently on the verse, in exactly the way the formula prescribes. Again, the lyrics are incomprehensible mush that becomes totally convincing because of the weird 90’s alt-rock mix of swagger and self-consciousness that makes you think that you’re either missing the point, or that the singer is so fucked-up on something that he can’t make it, and either way it’s hard to argue with.

“Lover, You Should Have Come Over”, Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley seems to kind of transcends 90’s rock in some ways, but if you listen to this song in the context of all the others here, you’ll have a hard time making that argument. The ballady part is longer and quieter than most of the grunge-era songs, but the drums give it all away every time the song crescendos. When it finally comes around to the end, it does that “Don’t Cry” thing where everything blows up, from the heavy guitar riffs to Buckley’s soaring voice, and it’s probably the best song on this list. (another bonus- bad student film project in lieu of official music video!)

“Smog Moon”, Matthew Sweet
I have no idea what this song is about at all. A… smog moon, I guess? I think it’s a metaphor for something. It’s not the point. At this point, we’re kind of post-grunge, which you can tell by the piano buried in the mix. Everything here is textbook 90’s power ballad, with enough interesting flourishes to keep you from feeling like you’re listening to “Taillights Fade” again, and it proves that this phenomenon extended past the grunge era. (note- this is apparently the only song ever not to be on YouTube. A dansolomon.com exclusive! Also, a free batch of homemade cookies to anyone who makes a YouTube video for this song. Bonus points if it includes pictures of an ex-girlfriend.)

“Motorcycle Drive-By”, Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind don’t get a whole lot of respect, which is mostly well-deserved, but this is both a rare 90’s alt-rock power ballad that makes lyrical sense and a damn fine song that nearly elevates a mediocre artist to something special. Nearly, but not entirely- like most of its peers, this song draws a lot of inspiration from 80’s rock, with a general Jane’s Addictioniness running through the whole thing and a total Cyndi Lauper-style vocal tic that the singer does a couple times during the power part, all of which serves to make it feel just a little bit redundant.

“Guitar and Video Games”, Sunny Day Real Estate
Emo was the 90’s power ballad’s last hurrah, but it got embarrassed of it early into the new millennium. While there are bands that kept at it throughout the 00’s, there wasn’t really any innovation in the form from this point on. Emo bands from the middle of the current decade were pretty much just biting Sunny Day Real Estate, who manage to tie 90’s post-grunge into contemporary indie rock in much the same way Guns ‘n Roses successfully bridged shitty 80’s rock and grunge. And like GNR, Sunny Day Real Estate flew too close to the sun and went out with a silly, pompous last album that rendered them pretty much irrelevant for the years that would follow. But none of that matters right now, because “Guitar and Video Games” is perfect in every way possible.

“I Typed For Miles”, Jets to Brazil
Jawbreaker, which spawned Jets to Brazil, practiced the 90’s power ballad form earlier in the decade, but it’s interesting how Blake Schwarzenbach brought a new spin to the style here. The formula is largely unchanged, but there’s a consistent intensity throughout the song that the secretly-Kiss-loving dudes who defined the power ballad a couple years earlier shied away from. “I Typed For Miles” is the last great 90’s alt-rock power ballad, but it’s a good one to go out on.