The ’90s were a bountiful time for new music: the explosion of genres like grunge, Britpop and gangsta rap, plus the emergence of underground scenes like shoegaze and neo-soul. But the decade also produced some of the most egregious and tasteless pop songs of all time, many of which continue to haunt us to this very day. We asked eight music writers to pick one song from the ’90s that they wish they never had to hear again.
Let us know what we’re missing in the comment section below. If life is a highway, then having to listen to Tom Cochrane’s pervasive 1991 hit is the 15-kilometre stretch of the Ontario 401 between Ajax and Oshawa during rush hour on a Monday in February: dull, suffocating and seemingly endless. Cochrane first wrote a demo for “Life Is a Highway” when he was still a member of the Canadian hard rock outfit Red Rider, but the idea was nixed.
Unfortunately, he revived it a few years later following a “shocking and traumatic” visit to impoverished and war-torn countries in Africa. The experience, , inspired him to write a “happy” song: “It became a pep talk to myself ..
. saying you can’t really control all of this stuff, you just do the best you can.” The result is a shlock rock anthem of toxic positivity built around one of the goofiest chord progressions known to man, and a harmonica part that drones in and out of the mix like a bloodthirsty mosquito.
And yet, the song was mushy and inoffensive enough to become a hit, topping the Can.