Top 20 Songs 1997 Review

In late 1996, the music industry was panicking. Grunge was dead (Kurt Cobain had been gone for two years), and the nihilistic tantrum of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails was too dark for radio. Executives didn’t know what the future sounded like.

Then, 1997 happened. And it was the strangest, most chaotic, most beautiful car crash of genres ever assembled on a single year-end chart. top 20 songs 1997

But Puff Daddy wasn’t done. At #8 was (sampling Grandmaster Flash). At #12 was "Mo Money Mo Problems" (sampling Diana Ross). Puff Daddy had figured out the cheat code of 1997: if you sample a beloved 80s song, you automatically win. In late 1996, the music industry was panicking

Then there was the outlier. At #19 was —a mopey alt-rock ballad about suicide and regret. It was the anti-Puff. No samples. No swagger. Just a singer staring at his shoes. It had no business being next to Mase and Busta Rhymes, yet there it was. Battle 3: The Teenage Mutant Girl Power At #13 was "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls . The song that introduced "zig-a-zig-ah" to the English language. It was chaos: shouting, laughing, a rap break from Mel B, and a key change that felt like a sugar explosion. Record labels had spent years trying to manufacture girl groups. The Spice Girls accidentally did it while being openly rude to their managers. Then, 1997 happened