7 of our favorite guilty pleasure songs from the ’90s

The ‘90s were an amazing time for music, marked by a flourishing of diverse genres, the pushing of creative boundaries, and musicians who fostered significant cultural impact.

Whether we want to admit it or not however, the ‘90s are now thirty years behind us. Most of us who grew up with ‘90s music have offspring (no, not the band) and kids will go out of their way to label their parents’ music uncool or “cringe,” no matter how trailblazing, rebellious or cool it was at the time.

While the very elements which made ‘90s music so groundbreaking, resonant and unique at the time can also make it seem dated to those who didn’t experience at the time – frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn (how’s that for outdated?) I’m gonna continue rocking my ‘90s songs just like my parents rocked ABBA, Elvis, Paul Anka, the Bee Gees and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. Life has come full circle.

The following are a list of my favorite guilty pleasure songs from the ‘90s that I’ll play at full volume, belt out the words to in front of my children and their friends no matter how uncool or cringey I look. No cap.

Spice Girls, “Wannabe”

Once upon a time, during the zenith of the Spice Girls’ popularity (around 1996) nearly every living human being, from teenage girl to middle-aged man to grandma Mildred could recite the opening of “Wannabe,” from:

Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want

To: “I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah.”

Chances are they could name every Spice Girl too, from Baby to Ginger to Scary to Sporty to Posh. (I just did that off the top of my head, honest.)

And that they could sing every word of the chorus too:

If you wanna be my lover
You gotta get with my friends
Make it last forever
Friendship never ends

This was true whether the person liked the Spice Girls, loved them or even hated them – that’s how pervasive they were.

“Wannabe,” has an upbeat vibe, rampant catchiness in every single line and is impossible not to get stuck in your head. It’s a song full of energy, fun, exhibits the distinctive personalities of the Spice Girls, and stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between friendships and romantic relationships. It’s a decades-before-its-time anthem of female empowerment that didn’t feel contrived or artificial at the time.

If you’ve never heard the song before and you queue it up on your audio streaming app, it might not seem like anything remarkable upon first listen – but back in the 90s, it was a chart-topping, zeitgeist-capturing phenomenon of a song that was exactly what people wanted and needed to hear at the time.

Whoomp! (There it is)

“Whoomp, there it is, I thought you knew/Whoomp, there it is!”

Let me apologize real quick if you grew up during the 90s with this song – I’m not sure even the thirty-one-years of elapsed time has been enough to dislodge this earworm from the deepest recesses of your auditory cortex.

If you were born after the year 2000, you’re safe. You probably just associate 1993’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” with that Geico commercial and the funny old dudes rapping about ice cream.

All jokes aside, “Whoomp! (There It Is)” was a hip hop anthem of the 90s that was just plain fun for all occasions: you could vibe to it in your car, at a party or to get pumped up at a sporting event.

The one detriment to “Whoomp! (There It Is)”? I still haven’t gotten that hook out of my head after thirty years and now you won’t either.

“Louder! Whoomp, there it is!”

Len, “Steal My Sunshine”

Canadian band Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” was a song that seemed to come out of nowhere but once it hit the US – I first heard it on MTV’s Total Request Live – it left a taste as indelible (and singular) as a butter tart (the staple of Canadian confectionary cuisine alluded to in the song’s intro).

The track features an infectiously bubbly melody hinging upon a sample from the bridge of 1976 disco hit “More, More, More, and suavely mixes elements of hip-hop and alternative rock and features. Lead singer Marc Costanzo’s rasps such bizarre yet eccentric lines as:

Now the fuzzy stare from not being there on a confusing morning week
Impaired my tribal lunar speak

And of course you can’t become if you only say what you would have done

So I missed a million miles of fun

Marc’s gravelly voice is counteracted sublimely by his sister Sharon’s, melodious by comparison, as she describes a purchase from a convenience store. Buying a fountain drink might seem mundane by most standard, but Sharon sing-speaks with description that’s equally as quirky as her brother’s:

I was frying on the bench slide in the park across the street
L-A-T-E-R that week
My sticky paws were into making straws out of big fat slurpy treats
An incredible eight-foot heap

Did I mention that you could substitute the words “eccentric” and “quirky” with “f—– up on drugs” to describe Len’s lyrics? Because you totally can.

The two then combine for the chorus, the juxtaposition of their voices made even more glaring. And effective:

I know it’s up for me
(If you steal my sunshine)
Making sure I’m not in too deep
(If you steal my sunshine)
Keeping versed and on my feet
(If you steal my sunshine)

Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” is nonsensical, a bit outlandish and kinda goofy but ultimately catchy, endearing and fun, making it one of those perfect guilty pleasure 90s songs you can queue up on your music streaming app from time to time.

Also, this Wikipedia description of Len shooting the music video for “Steal My Sunshine” is just too hilariously ‘90s to not include:

“The group used a $100,000 budget to make the video. They flew to Daytona Beach, Florida with two dozen friends while the area was crowded with people on their spring vacations. They spent much of the budget on alcohol, buying so much that they broke their hotel’s elevator trying to lift it. They shot the video in the afternoon so that they could recover from hangovers in the morning and drink in the evening. The scenes were shot without a script or storyboard. In the video, Len and its friends are shown relaxing together and riding on scooters, go-karts, and jet skis.”

Sounds like we’re the ones who missed a million miles of fun there, Len.

Aqua, “Barbie Girl”

Before the Barbie movie made a billion dollars at the box office with an award-winning soundtrack and Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling with bleached-blonde hair there was… this song: Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” a bubble-gum, hyper pop, Euro dance track whose chorus any Xennial and older Millenial can recite whether they like it or not.

Yes, the 1997 track from the Danish-Norwegian pop band quickly became annoying when it was released because it was played constantly, but it also was insanely catchy, kitschy and relished in its semi-sardonic, innuendo-laden, Madonna-esque “Material Girl” lyrics:

I’m a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world
Life in plastic, it’s fantastic
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation
Come on, Barbie, let’s go party

Sung by vocalist Lene Nystrom in a distinctive, high-pitched “Barbie” voice the entire time. And of course, who could forget Aqua’s “Ken,” Rene Dif, lending his campy baritone for he and Lene’s infamous duet:

Come on, Barbie, let’s go party (ah ah ah yeah)
Come on, Barbie, let’s go party (ooh oh, ooh oh)
Come on, Barbie, let’s go party (ah ah ah yeah)
Come on, Barbie, let’s go party (ooh oh, ooh oh)

Whether you look back fondly on the song or not, “Barbie Girl” sold more than eight million copies worldwide, reached number one on the charts in more than ten countries and currently has 1.2 billion views on YouTube (ironically enough, a contemporary, hip hop version of the song was released with Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice for the Barbie movie soundtrack). It was a staple song of the 90s.
Interestingly enough, “Barbie Girl” also became a bastion of artistic expression freedom. After its success the makers of the Barbie toys, Mattel, tried to sue Aqua because they believed the song portrayed Barbie in a negative, inappropriate light. The court ruled in favor of Aqua, stating that the song was a parody and Mattel had no legitimate grounds for copyright infringement, ironically only adding to the song’s success.

Ace of Base, “The Sign”

The following sentence is going to sound so nostalgic and effusively ‘90s that it’ll be downright enigmatic to anyone that’s not around my age, but here goes anyways:

The first thing I think of when I hear “The Sign,” is Stephanie Tanner and her patchwork, afterschool band attempting to – and failing miserably – to sing it a talent show. Have mercy!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, back to the song. 1993’s “The Sign,” Swedish Europop group Ace of Base’s most popular song (alongside “All That She Wants”) is an inspiriting track about liberating oneself from a toxic relationship. It has an upbeat melody, an intro that reels you in from the start and a mesmerizing hook sung beautifully by lead vocalist Linn Berggren and her sister Jenny. (Their brother Jonas, AKA “Joker” was also the guitarist/keyboards in the band and wrote the song.) “The Sign” is a straight bop and toes the line of being a guilty pleasure 90s song and just a song I throw on from time to time to brighten my mood.

The Proclaimers, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”

After appearing in the 1993 rom-com Benny and Joon, The Proclaimer’s “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” was everywhere.

As a ten-year-old, I hated it. What was so special about a couple of identical twins wearing Coke-bottle glasses, strumming a guitar, yodeling and bragging about stalking someone?

As a middle-aged man though, I get it. “I’m Gonna Be” is a wholesome, feel-good, catchy song and one that I’m not ashamed to admit is one of my favorite guilty pleasure 90s songs.

Wreckx-N-Effect, ”Rumpshaker”

I know what you’re thinking. “But MusicHyped, ‘Rumpshaker’ is a classic and a certified banger.”

And that’s true, in 5th grade this song was everything. All me and my friends wanted to do was “zoom-a zoom zoom” in a “pum pum” even if we had no clue what it meant. What we did know was that the song was about booty popping and that the beat, which “was sweeter than candy,” got the people going.

What makes “Rumpshaker” both a legitimate and a guilty pleasure is that while it slaps, it’s also a song that’s extravagantly ‘90s. To me, that’s a very good thing. To pretty much anyone that isn’t in my age group however, the 90s hip hop idiosyncrasies are probably glaring.

Like the fact that “Rumpshaker” begins with an iconic saxophone melody sampled from 1972 song “Darkest Light” by Lafayette Afro Rock Band (the music video’s beach where the pink bikini-clad woman plays the sax intro is still one of the fictitious places I want to visit most in my dreams)

Or that after the main beat and chorus hits, Wreckx-N-Effect is professional enough to start doing a mic check.

Check baby, check baby, one, two, three, four
Check baby, check baby, one, two, three
Check baby, check baby, one, two
Check baby, check baby, one

Combined with its repetitiveness and a run-time of over 5 minutes, modern day hip hop listeners who didn’t grow up on it might find the song boring. (They’d be wrong of course, but they’re entitled to their wrong opinion). That being said, the ‘90s were a time when all the members in the group were given adequate time to spit their verse, and though “Rumpshaker” is a surprising show of lyrical prowess by all the group’s members, it’s Verse 2, featuring Teddy Riley that’s probably the most memorable. Particularly this part:

I like the way you comb your hair (Uh)
I like the stylish clothes you wear (Uh)
It’s just the little things you do (Uh)
That makes me wanna get with you (Uh)

Fun fact: As if “Rumpshaker” wasn’t cool enough, apparently a young Pharrell Williams (then known as Skateboard P), who you probably know from The Neptunes, the song “Happy” from Despicable Me 2, “Drop It Like It’s Hot” with Snoop Dogg, “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk and hundreds of other well-known, wrote Teddy’s verse.

It’s for those reasons and the fact that I can still throw the song on today on my Spotify playlist and start nodding my head along with it that “Rumpshaker” is both of one of my guilty pleasure and overall favorite 90s songs.

What did you think of this list our favorite guilty pleasure songs from the ‘90s? What were your favorite guilty pleasure songs from the ‘90s? Let us know in the comments.