During the first half of the 1990s, pop music vastly outnumbered underground/experimental music. It was the revenge of melody, after a quarter of a century of progressive sounds. A cycle that began with the demise of the Beatles and the rise of alternative/progressive rock, and that continued with the German and Canterbury schools of the 1970s, and then punk-rock and the new wave, and peaked with the alt-rock and college-pop of the 1980s, came to an abrupt, grinding halt in the 1990s.

The more fashionable and rewarding route was, however, the one that coasted the baroque pop of latter-day Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, Big Star and XTC, the one that coupled catchy refrains and lush arrangements. The single most important school may have been San Francisco's, which had originated in the 1980s with the Sneetches. Jellyfish (2), featuring guitarist Jason Falkner, wrote perhaps the most impeccable melodies of the time. Bellybutton (1990), a milestone of naive, bubblegum melodic music inspired by Merseybeat and later Beach Boys, was both cartoonish and shimmering, while the arrangements on Spilt Milk (1993) were almost baroque.

Other devoted followers were Imperial Teen, led by former Faith No More's keyboardist Roddy Bottum, the Mommyheads, MK Ultra, Overwhelming Colorfast, Smash Mouth, Orange Peels, masters of the retro` on Square (1997), Beulah, with Handsome Western States (1997), etc.

In Seattle, the melodic tradition of the Green Pajamas and the Young Fresh Fellows was continued by Juan Atkins' project, 764-Hero, with Get Here And Stay (1999), and by Super Deluxe with Famous (1995).

Elsewhere, similar sounds were produced by Velvet Crush in Rhode Island; Material Issue in Chicago, with International Pop Overthrow (1991); Rembrandts in Los Angeles; etc.

The Eggs (1), in Virginia, were among the most creative, particularly on their second album, Exploder (1993), that featured exotic instruments, synthesizer, trombone, and oboe.

New York-based Fountains Of Wayne, on the other hand, became America's prime Brit-poppers through Fountains Of Wayne (1996) and Utopia Parkway (1999).

Quite unique was the style of the Ben Folds Five in North Carolina, because keyboardist and vocalist Folds was an unusual disciple of Todd Rundgren and Elton John, best heard on the ballads of Ben Folds Five (1995).

In Oklahoma, Tyson Meade's Chainsaw Kittens (1) launched a revival of glam-pop with Violent Religion (1990), a concentrate of Aerosmith, New York Dolls, T. Rex, Cheap Trick, Patti Smith, Stooges, Velvet Underground, etc. Glam-pop's comeback continued with Sponge in New York, and Running With Scissors in Seattle.

In Texas, the hyper-pop muzak of Tim DeLaughter's Tripping Daisy evolved from the sugary Bill (1992) to the grandiose and baroque Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb (1998).

Canada's most successful pop bands were the Barenaked Ladies, revealed by Gordon (1992), and the Crash Test Dummies, with God Shuffled His Feet (1993).

Non-pop 1990-95

The Pixies invented the most creative form of pop of the 1980s, one that conveyed the fractured tics of hardcore punk-rock and the enigmatic dynamics of the new wave into a melodic format that was not straightforward at all but sounded like it. The greatest disciples of the Pixies' late quirky-pop sound were the Breeders (2), a supergroup featuring the Pixies' bassist Kim Deal (now on guitar) and the Throwing Muses' guitarist Tanya Donelly. Pod (1990) explored a broad range of tones, from the ecstatic nursery-rhyme of a naive little girl to the harsh, syncopated riff of a hard-rock band. The band continued to blur daydreaming and nightmare on Last Splash (1993), having replaced Donelly with Kim's twin sister Kelley, an even more powerful post-feminist statement that employs an even wider repertory of "voices" (girl-groups, jangling folk-rock, country, even grunge). Donelly went on to create Belly (1) and craft the charming and subtly primitive Star (1993), while the twins remained more faithful to the eccentric rhetoric of the Pixies, Kim with the Amps and Pacer (1995), and Kelly with the Kelly Deal 6000 and Go To The Sugar Altar (1996).

Boston was also the home base of one of the greatest bands of the decade, Morphine (112), a guitar-less trio whose style borrowed heavily from blues and jazz but shared with the Pixies the same casual, detached approach to melody. Three masterpieces established them among the masters of the "noir" atmosphere. Good (1992) highlighted their ability to turn ballads and rockers into metaphysical dialogues between bass and saxophone. The languid crooning of former Treat Her Right's bassist Mark Sandman, who chiseled one of the most evocative voices of the era, added another layer of meaning, a Tom Waits-like mourner and Nick Cave-like preacher floating inside the stark, unreal, heavy fog of the music. The trio contrived melodies that offered a quiet vivisection of post-industrial anxiety. Sandman refined the way he rode (like a surfer) the gloomy and occasionally even lugubrious lines of Dana Colley's saxophone on Cure For Pain (1993), a less claustrophobic and more accessible work, featuring drummer Billy Conway (also ex-Treat Her Right). Yes (1995) followed the route that seemed less congenial to the trio, by emphasizing rhythm over melody. Less depressed and distressed, it almost sounded like a return to rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues of the 1950s. Their representation of reality provided an anti-spectacular synthesis of transcendental and mundane elements, additionally soaked into premonitions of a merciless destiny. After the mediocre Like Swimming (1997), Morphine's last album, The Night (2000), released after Sandman died of a heart attack on-stage in 1999, turned out to be both their most introspective and their most orchestrated work (piano, cello, horns, organ, choir).

Georgia was still a favorable turf for alternative pop. Magnapop (1), the band of vocalist Linda Hopper and guitarist Ruthie Morris, played in a style halfway between folk-rock and hard-rock on Magnapop (1992). Toenut delivered unsettling tunes on Information (1995).

Los Angeles' Madder Rose (2) was an oddly schizophrenic band that relied on the contrast/friction (rather than the amalgam/fusion) of Billy Cote's abrasive guitar and Mary Lorson's sweet vocals. Bring It Down (1993) and Panic On (1994) were poetic, idyllic works whose mood fluctuated between autumnal singalongs and tormented rockers. They converted to trip-hop with Tragic Magic (1997) and reinvented themselves with the surreal stylistic melange of Hello June Fool (1999).

North Carolina, which had become one of the main centers for alternative rock, was also one of the venues in which musicians truly tried to speak new melodic languages.

The brand of power-pop concocted by the Archers Of Loaf (2) on Icky Mettle (1993) and Vee Vee (1995) mixed the eccentric dynamics of the Pixies and the anthemic tone of the Replacements, and added a generous dose of Television's guitar noise. Archers Of Loaf's guitarist/vocalist Eric Bachmann (1), disguised as Barry Black (1995), revealed his real self (and ambitions) with a program of all-instrumental chamber music that was both demented and virtuoso. His next project, Crooked Fingers (1), capitalized on that experiment for a chaotic and eclectic repertory of carefully-arranged, dark, pensive ballads, particularly on their second album Bring On The Snakes (2001).

Other notable albums of the North Carolina school were Small 23's True Zero Hook (1993) and Spatula's Medium Planers and Matchers (1995).

In Los Angeles, Franklin Bruno's Nothing Painted Blue (1) experimented with an introverted and intellectual form of power-pop on their second album Power Trips Down Lovers Lane (1993).

By bridging the Pixies' eccentric pop with new wave's eccentric dance music, Wisconsin's Garbage (1), a trio of veteran producers (including Butch Vig on drums) fronted by sexy/trashy vocalist Shirley Manson, obtained the success that had eluded the Pixies with their Garbage (1995).

Vancouver's Superconductor, led by Carl Newman, experimented with a bizarre six-guitar line-up on the loud and tuneful Hit Songs For Girls (1993) and the rock opera Bastardsong (1996).

Holland was perhaps the most fertile place for college-pop, outside the USA. The Dutch contingent was led by Daryll-Ann (1), who pursued an implosion of country-rock and folk-rock stereotypes on the lyrical Weeps (1996), and Bettie Serveert (1), who served cold clever melodies on Palomine (1992).

Lounge-pop 1990-95

A brief fad in America was "lounge-pop", that was rediscovered in Rhode Island by Combustible Edison: the soundtrack to their "Combustible Edison Heliotropic Oriental Mambo and Foxtrot Orchestra", partly collected on I Swinger (1994), was its manifesto, while their third disc, The Impossible World (1998), wed it to the other big fad of the time, trip-hop.

In Canada, Zumpano, the new project of singer/guitarist Carl Newman, fully acknowledged that zeitgeist on their second album, Goin' Through Changes (1996), adopting lounge music and easy-listening within the alt-rock framework.

New York's Ivy, fronted by the breathy vocals and exotic accent of French-born singer Dominique Durand, delivered bittersweet vain ballads on Realistic (1995). Los Angeles' Sukia (born Ross Harris) played futuristic lounge music for keyboards, horns, drum machines and samplers on Contacto Espacial Con El Tercer Sexo (1996). In Sweden, the Cardigans, who wrapped Nina Persson's soft, sensual, dreamy phrasing around sophisticated, lush, lounge-pop arrangements on Life (1995).

North Carolina's Squirrel Nut Zippers harked further back in time, to the ballroom blues-jazz combos of the 1940s, on Hot (1996).

Two Georgia bands flirted with easy-listening: Jody Grind, whose vibrant jazzy vocalist Kelly Hogan propelled One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure (1990), and the Opal Foxx Quartet, with the elaborate The Love That Won't Shut Up (1993).

Seattle's Satchel (1), featuring Pigeonhed's vocalist Shawn Smith, crafted elegant pop-soul-jazz ballads, bordering both Steely Dan and Prince, on EDC (1994).

Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico highlighted the melancholy country and blues meditations of The Shadow Of Your Smile (1995), by the Friends Of Dean Martinez (1), a work centered on the atmospheric picking of Naked Prey's guitarist Bill Elm.

The Aluminum Group pushed easy-listening into the age of post-rock with collections such as Plano (1998).

Folk-pop 1995-97

College-pop continued to strive throughout the 1990s. The new trend, though, was to follow the route opened by Tom Petty and R.E.M., the hybrid of power-pop and folk-rock that, mutatis mutandis, is what the Byrds taught in the 1960s. Just add a touch of populism. Bands that played in this style included: Minnesota's Hang Ups, with their second album So We Go (1997); Ohio's Throneberry, with Sangria (1994); Texas' Fastball, with their second album All The Pain Money Can Buy (1998); Chicago's Fig Dish, with That's What Love Songs Often Do (1995); San Diego's Supernova, with Ages 3 And Up (1995); Los Angeles' Possum Dixon, with Star Maps (1996); New York's late bloomers Nada Surf, with Let Go (2003) and The Weight Is A Gift (2005); Florida's Matchbox 20; etc.

Elephant 6, 1996-98

The breakthrough in this quest for the perfect melody came from the south, from Georgia and Louisiana, where a group of bands (the "Elephant 6" collective) started the single most influential school of the decade in pop music. Robert Schneider, founder of the movement and founder of the Apples In Stereo (1), was the Phil Spector of this generation: the songs on Tone Soul Evolution (1997) were miracles of pop metabolism, incorporating one century of melodic tricks.

Will Hart's Olivia Tremor Control (2) struck an elegant balance between retro' Sixties sound and state-of-the-art production techniques on Dusk at Cubist Castle (1996) and Black Foliage (1999), which were, first and foremost, tours de force of eccentric and oneiric pop arrangements. Each song was a mini-collage of oddities and spaced-out harmonies, and the albums in their entirety could be viewed as one giant, frantic collage, a work of pop-art a` la Andy Warhol.

Neutral Milk Hotel (1), Jeff Mangum's creature, codified that style on In the Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998), one of the most perfect pop albums of all times.

Elf Power's A Dream In Sound (1999), their best album, was fundamentally bubblegum music: cheesy pop for brainless people. Nonetheless, it was the elegance and the decorum that still made it unique even within that garbage can.

The works by Of Montreal, or Kevin Barnes, such as The Gay Parade (1999), were whimsical collections of carefully-crafted pop tunes assembled and sequenced in a way to compose a flamboyant psychedelic vaudeville. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (2007) even set existential depression to the beat of dance music.

These bands raised dramatically the qualitative standard of pop songs, a fact clearly visible in popsters of the next generation: Ladybug Transistor (1), the project of New York-based vocalist Gary Olson, particularly with the sumptuous arrangements of Beverley Atonale (1997) and The Albemarle Sound (1999), featuring guitarist Jeff Baron and keyboardist Sasha Bell; Art DiFuria's Photon Band (1), from Pennsylvania, with the sophisticated and encyclopedic All Young In The Soul (1998); Flake in New Mexico, with Flake Music (1997); Marcy Playground in Minnesota, with Marcy Playground (1998); Superdrag in Kentucky, with Regretfully Yours (1996); Spoon in Texas, with Girls Can Tell (Merge, 2001), etc.

Noise-rock's epitaph 1995-97

In the mid-1990s noise-rock picked up steam again. The new generation was led by creative outfits that reinvented rock music by embedding twisted melodies into atonal structures and, sometimes, irregular rhythms. Frequently, their songs were aural puzzles soaked in the history of rock music. Occasionally, their method straddled the line between trance and dissonance. Significant albums in this genre to come out of New York included: Poem Rocket's Felix Culpa (1996), Lynnfield Pioneers' Emerge (1997) , Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon (1996) by Skeleton Key (1), In An Expression Of The Inexpressible (1998) by Blonde Redhead (1).

Firewater (2) was a noise super-group formed by Cop Shoot Cop's vocalist Tod Ashley, Jesus Lizard's guitarist Duane Denison, Motherhead Bug's pianist/trombonist Dave Ouimet, Soul Coughing's percussionist Yuval Gabay and and Laughing Hyenas' drummer Jim Kimball. Ashley's tormented soul dominates Get Off The Cross (1997) and The Ponzi Scheme (1998), wandering in the paleo-gothic purgatory inhabited by the likes of Tom Waits and Nick Cave.

Teen-pop 1995-99

But the real million-sellers in the USA were the "teen pop" sensations of the south: Florida's Backstreet Boys, whose Backstreet Boys (1995) sold some 13 million copies in five years, Oklahoma's Hanson, Louisiana's Britney Spears, whose Baby One More Time (1999) sold ten million copies in just one year, New York's Christina Aguilera, whose Christina Aguilera (1999) boasted more robust vocals and an explicit sexual image, Florida's N'Sync, whose second album No Strings Attached (2000) sold more than one million copies on the first day it was released and spawned the career of Justin Timberlake, whose solo debut Justified (2002) sold even more.