Four overplayed bands from the 1990s that did not deserve the attention

The 1990s had a number of great albums and the full bloom of grunge. For the most part, however, the decade seemed to be a transition from 1980s pop to 2000s slickness. There were some great moments (Britpop!) as well as a lot of forgettable songs.

Record companies wanted to take back control after grunge threatened their bottom line. Execs decided to try to create grunge-like bands and the music mostly came across as disingenuous. Worse, a lot of pop drivel was delivered to break the grunge spell.

Three of the bands that follow fit some part of the definition above. Another just appeared to be accidentally popular for a short time but then faded. All of them got more attention than they deserved.

These four overplayed bands from the 1990s get far too much love

Ace of Base

Many music fans needed Ace of Base in the early 1990s. Grunge was beginning to take over rock and some fans wanted something a bit more light-hearted. Ace of Base was fluffy and let the medicine go down easy. Plus, they were Swedish so maybe a new ABBA!

Only, they weren't. They were overproduced awfulness and had a handful of hits that were catchy at first and then aggressively annoying. The annoyingness has stuck around longer than the hits were beloved.

Creed

Lots has been written about Creed's absence of musical credibility because the band deserves that. Vocalist Scott Stapp appears bent on "singing like a man" in a baritone, shadowy tone that seems more like a grunt than someone actually attempting to sing. The music is full but apparently, to try to cover up that fact the band has issues understanding a concept foreign to them: Melody.

How bad was the group and how overhyped in the 1990s? By 2003, their own fans had realized what frauds Creed was. After a horrible show in Chicago, fans sued the band because the concert was literally not worth the price of admission.

The group's last studio album, Full Circle, was released in 2009 and reached number two on the US charts. Somehow, even though the record sold north of 110,000 units in its first week, the album never reached 500,000. Creed's true fans bought the album, but everyone else refused to be duped.

311

This band from Omaha seemingly tried to be a lot of things. They were alternative, funk-metal, and rap-rock (something slightly less than nu-metal), among other subgenres. The biggest problem is that they sounded like a lot of other bands who weren't quite good enough with melodies and tried to fill in with bass.

This is because the band's sound lacked originality. The lyrics got lost in the confusion of styles, and this led to an inconsistency in the quality of most of their tunes. There was no way 311 was going to remain an important part of the music scene because even though they tried different styles, they were a master of none and had no original ideas.

Bush

I hate to write this about Bush because their first album, Sixteen Stone, is pretty good. The follow-up, Razorblade Suitcase, is not quite as snappy, but there are a couple of nice tunes. After that, the group seemed to run out of ideas and got worse and worse. For much of the time Bush has been doing business, the band's singer, Gavin Rossdale, has probably been known as being married to Gwen Stefani or divorced from same.

Still, songs like "Everything Zen" and "Machinehead" are winners. The group just did not build up any consistency. By their third record, they were flaming out. They were forgotten about by their fifth. That's part of the issue: Who might guess that Bush has had nine studio albums? They aren't bad, they are just forgettable.

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