Those of you that were in high school in the mid to late 90s, remember the Sarah McLachlan/Paula Cole/Shawn Colvin craze?

Yes, and Alanis all the time too

I never appreciated Sarah McLachlan at the time, but I listen to her music now and she was SO good.

I guess they were the anti Britney/Christina/Jessica Simp/Mandy Moore

Also Jewel was really popular and I never got into her.

Joan Osborne "what if God was one of us..." got played a lot too.

I heard that poor Sarah McLachlan is working as a landscaper in Portland.

Sarah's doing all right, R5. She sold the rights to "Arms of an Angel" to ASPCA and is rolling in dough.

Remember South Park? “I’m Sarah McLachlan. I was famous for two months.”

[quote]They thought they were so much deeper than all the other kids.

Definitely. I understood where Sarah's place was in all of that. She was a bit like Lana Del Rey in that era. Simple lyrics backed by a symphony that made it sound much deeper than it was.

Paula Cole was the horse girl favorite.

Shawn Colvin got all the girls that wanted to move to NYC like Felicity and practice their "art."

[quote]Yes, and Alanis all the time too

I wouldn't put Alanis with them (not that you were). Yeah, she had music out at the time but her lyrics were much more relevant to all teens back then. She had no problem being angry and her lyrics were deep without insisting upon themselves. "One Hand in my Pocket" was such a mood back then.

graduated '82

Oh Yeah. All the "Lilith Fair" Dykes were huge for a short period. Add Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco & PJ Harvey to the list.

Paula Cole is probably the one I personally enjoyed the most. I think she would have had more success in toda musical climate.

And damn Sarah McLachlan for her part in those rupulsive, unwatchable ASPCA commercials!

Here's the Arms of an Angel commercial. Still gets to me.

I remember one time in the 90s a local radio DJ referred to Paula Cole as “Paula ‘I need a shave‘ Cole.”

I was never really clear on why Paula Cole was so pissed off. Apparently, the man she was fucking didn't like doing the dishes, and she wanted to do the dirty, smelly, shitty work of being a cow-hand. Why not negotiate a healthier division of labor? It's easy, happens all the time.

And to be clear, I liked all three of them. I just hated the attitude that their fans had.

WHET Billie Myers? She had a song called Kiss the Rain and she was trying to cash in on the Lilith Fair type singer craze.

That was her only song.

Natalie Merchant

[quote]I was never really clear on why Paula Cole was so pissed off.

She was upset because she married him and was happy to be his wife and do all the housework but then she got bored because the romance was gone. He just went to bars while she stayed home and took care of the kids. I guess it spoke to bored housewives.

But ole' girl lucked out with that, "I Don't Want to Wait" track after it became the theme song for Dawson's Creek for 128 episodes.

I'm upset Meredith "I'm a Bitch" Brooks hasn't been mentioned yet.

[quote] I'm upset Meredith "I'm a Bitch" Brooks hasn't been mentioned yet.

She's a....bitch and a huge Republican.

I remember that period.

I would prefer to forget about it.

Paula's second album was crap

WEHT Dido? I vividly remember hearing Thank You the morning after I lost my virginity, & wanted to play it for my deflowerer.

I hated Meredith Brooks and that stupid song. She looked 45 years old trying to be 20. I always thought she was a poser.

In the mid-90s, the cool girls in high school (the smokers at the back of the bus) rocked the riot grrrl and kinderwhore look. Think cutsey with Magic Marker scrawled slogans on their arms or legs. They were more into Courtney Love.

Paula is pissed because she is wearing her new dress tonight but he don't, but he don't even notice her.

I preferred Lil Kim’s very relatable lyrics to young girls.

“I used to be scared of the dick. Now I throw lips to that shit. Handle it like a real bitch.”

All the shit they played in the montage at the end of Ally McBeal in other words..

During the period, I loved Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine

What the fuck kind of song is Sunny Came Home.

Yes r26!

"I don't want dick tonight, eat my pussy right."

Alanis Morissette singing about being sexually groomed by an older man she slept with from 14-19 ... but putting it to a pop beat.

Was scary and brilliant.

I didn't even know what the song was about until I was an adult and actually licensed to the lyrics.

R23 Meredith Brooks was already around 40 when that song came out. She has previously been in a band with one of the former Go-Go’s in the late 80s that failed to take off. They had one minor hit that was covered by Belinda Carlisle a few years later.

R29 Shawn Colvin had been around long before that song came out, and yet somehow that’s the only song of hers anyone has ever heard.

[quote]I guess they were the anti Britney/Christina/Jessica Simp/Mandy Moore

The Lilith Fair chicks were all before Britney and the other sluts came on the scene. Britney killed them and ruined music.

R13, that reminds me of all these songwriters who talk about how they 'wish [they were] a bird', how they're "like a bird", how they're "more than a bird".

Bitch you wouldn't last ten goddamned seconds as a bird! You have no fucking idea!

Nelly Furtado is too fat to fly like a bird.

The one that always got me was that song that went "I'm more than a bird, I'm more than a plane [blah blah blah]. It's not easy to beee meeeeeee."

The nerve.

I went to Lilith Fair and saw Alanis perform at it, I think that was 1997? I love all of the music in this thread, still do. My first boyfriend played Sarah McLachlan's album Fumbling Toward Ecstasy on his CD player the first night I stayed at his house, I'll never forget! That album remains interesting now and is better than the soppy lite-FM stuff she started putting out later like that ASPCA song she's now become synonymous with. Listening to FTE makes me feel like a heartbroken teenager all over again though because that boyfriend broke up with me six months later and I listened to that album into the ground.

Natalie Merchant was great, too. She was huge for awhile then kind of disappeared.

Miss Bernhard hath spoken.

Nobody in 2022 knows who Sandra Bernhard is.

[quote][R23] Meredith Brooks was already around 40 when that song came out. She has previously been in a band with one of the former Go-Go’s in the late 80s that failed to take off. They had one minor hit that was covered by Belinda Carlisle a few years later.

Charlotte "Junkie" Caffey's band was called The Graces and their single was Lay Down Your Arms. It's much more anthemic than Belinda's version. The other one in the group is Gia Cambiotti. They followed the Bangles templated and each had songs with the lead vocals. Meredith and Gia didn't write any of the songs.

When I hear Lilith Fair I think of Kathy Bates in Six Feet Under where she played Bettina, Patricia Clarkson's nurse. At one point she declares "We don't want any of that Lillith Fair crap" at an event with the Fishers.

[quote]But ole' girl lucked out with that, "I Don't Want to Wait" track after it became the theme song for Dawson's Creek for 128 episodes.

When the DVDs came out, they hadn't the budget for the song (so stupid that they didn't get the later rights as part of the TV show lincense) so the song was missing. It wasn't Dawson's Creek without it.

Dawson's Creek DVD had this theme song:

Not remotely the same but captured the same era and sound.

[QUOTE] there was a certain type of teen that were into these three.

Yes. They're called lesbians.

I read that originally the theme song for Dawson’s Creek was supposed to be Alanis’ “Hand in my Pocket”. But that song had been out for a couple years at that point, so the producers went with Paula Cole’s newer “I Don’t Want to Wait”.

R38- did you see my parents there? They left me w my Aunt to see that crap. BUT...my Aunt treated me like the King I was for three days.

Shirley Manson from Garbage was the most memorable of that whole slew of post-grunge, Lilith Fair crowd. Pre-global fame Sarah McLachlan was far more interesting than the smoothed out, ready for VH1 version that blew up with "Surfacing". I will say this though: "Silence" is a monster of a club banger.

R48 I still break out the Tiesto mix of Silence a few times a year. Absolutely euphoric. I remember hearing it at Twilo on that Phazon sound system and losing my mind.

There were some great remixes of Sarah tracks back in the day, the Rabbit In The Moon of Possession being one of my faves.

I’m also partial to this track by Manufacture with her on vocals.

OP, I don't really recall these artists (minus Alanis) being too popular with teens in my area -- or at least people didn't cop to being huge fans. They were considered more Adult Contemporary/VH1.

But their music was everywhere.

R15 she had a couple of club hits but I don’t recall any other mainstream hits after Kiss The Rain.

I went to Lilith two years and she was at one. She climbed up the scaffolding supporting the stage and I remember being so nervous about her possibly falling that I can’t even remember what she sounded like while singing.

I loved the video for Paula Cole's I Don't Want To Wait, where she's this immortal woman who lives her life throughout history.

R22 she has been releasing music the last few years under the name R Plus with her brother Rollo.

Some other adjacent artists: PJ Harvey Bjork Ani DiFranco Poe Tori Amos Fiona Apple

Music for co-eds to lez out to.

[quote]Shawn Colvin had been around long before that song came out, and yet somehow that’s the only song of hers anyone has ever heard.

Shawn Colvin's song, "Nothin' on Me" was the theme song for the second season of Suddenly Susan.

And that + the other song are the only songs of hers I can remember.

I don’t know that these artists were that popular with high school and teenage crowds around that time. They definitely had a large following among college-aged people during Lilith Fair.

[quote] Those of you [bold]W H O[/bold] were in high school

Here's Paula Cole in 2005 with Chris Botti. 'My One and Only Love'

Gorgeous.

Quite a change, but then, we all got older.

Jewel was a favorite. She had some good songs. Then she tried to go pop/dance, which backfired and ended her mainstream career. I remember her performing with Beyonce at some VH1 concert, and she lwas so out of her element.

Either she's wealthy or she married money, because last I checked, she hangs out in Hollywood with a group that includes Carole Bayer Sager and Roma Downey.

I thought Jewel’s mother stole all her money?

I always thought Paula Cole was singing "Ottawa, wait."

Then I saw some live footage of her on YouTube - woman can sing.

Natalie Imbruglia and The Corrs were also on a lot of these lineups.

Jewel won the Masked Singer last year and seems to be having a small resurgence (I think people are singing 'Hands' or something on Tik Tok).

Does Norah Jones count? Or is she too jazzy. I remember that album was just in everyone's house somehow, the way the Alanis and Dido one were at the time. Especially with women of this sort of demographic.

Lilith Fair inspired Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Kelis, and Jill Scott to do a black version of it (I think it was called Sugar Water Festival or something) and frankly it was a much better gig.

Jewel, Alanis, Tori and Sarah M were the CDs in heaviest rotation in my emotionally volatile teenage sister’s stereo back in the latter half of the 90s. She’d play these albums at full volume so as to hear music while showering and while blowdrying her hair before school in the morning.

All that baby dykes in college were into this music.

My only contribution was penning What If Bob Were One of Us about a boss I had that was a real ahole .

What about Loreena McKennitt? She catered to the Himalayan crystal, tarot card-reading, henna tattooed lez.

What about me, bitches?

[quote] Those of you that were

Oh DEAR

Shawn Colvin's album "A Few Small Repairs" is still one of my favorites; I think I remembering hearing how she was an alcoholic & wrote the songs after a period of trying to get sober & put her life together again, which I can believe because there's such a tinge of sadness, anger & regret to all those songs. After she got sober, she married some guy & I guess a happy life doesn't make for good music or art.

Roseanne Cash wasn't exactly part of this group, but her music is/was in the same vein as these other artists. Her album "The List" is very good.

R66 I loved that song!

All great artists, I wouldn't include Morissette in this grouping.

Side note: Loreena McKennitt put out a Christmas album with some classic English/Irish songs (alas, no "Baby It's Cold Outside." It's kind of a nice alternative to more modern, but way overplayed Christmas music.

[quote]After she got sober, she married some guy & I guess a happy life doesn't make for good music or art.

All these chick’s careers fizzled out as soon as they got into stable relationships and had kids. They definitely can’t write the good songs anymore once they have a happy, settled life.

I agree, r69 - that entire album is one of my favorites. I follow her on Facebook and she tours, but I haven't really liked anything else she has done.

You guys always give Sheryl Crow so much shit on here, but she had two fantastic albums (Globe Sessions and her self titled album), and a few good ones. She's been far more consistent than anybody else mentioned here

The Globe Session is a very good album, supposedly made after her breakup with notorious creep & racist, Eric Clapton. Talk about an angry & sad album!

Speaking of Sheryl Crow, Strong Enough holds up well all these years later.

Ooh you get me ready in your 56 Chevy,

Why don't we go sit down in the shade?

Take shelter on my front porch;

The dandy lion sun scorchin’,

Like a glass of cold lemonade?

Sophie B. Hawkins, Lisa Loeb, Mazzy Star, No Doubt, Hole, Liz Phair, Fiona Apple and Garbage.

Typical sound from that era. Not a huge hit but I blasted it in my dorm for months.

Alana Myles started it in 1990.

Human by The Pretenders evokes quintessential 90s feelings for me. I'm thinking of myself and friends in a Central Perk-like joint in New York

Britney sings Paula Cole Feelin Love at 1:00

That Britney vid was from a 2002 documentary. She danced to it more recently though.

Here is a video of Britney dancing to it.

[quote] Loreena McKennitt put out an album with some classic English/Irish songs

FTFY

Women got radio airplay in the '90s.

Stop the presses!

R76 'Hundreds Of Tears' from the early 90s (found on the POINT BREAK soundtrack) is a stunning track by Sheryl, and so underrated.

It has this moody, icy, unsettling and desolate quality than few songs of this genre did. Almost like the perfect mid-point between the anthemic and spacious drama of 80s power ballads and more stripped-back and intimate confessional 90s Lilith songs. There's no other pop song I can think of like it.

I was in middle school at the time and it was awful. But not as awful as Britney Spears and the teen pop craze.

[quote] WEHT Dido?

Whenever I read her name, I automatically say "dildo" instead.

It's genuinely depressing that poor R22 popped his cherry to Dido.

R37 that was from "Superman (It's Not Easy)" by Five for Fighting, a male singer. It received a lot of airplay after 9/11, particularly for this verse:

♪ It may sound absurd, but don't be naive

Even heroes have the right to bleed

I may be disturbed, but won't you concede

Even heroes have the right to dream?

And it's not easy to be me ♫

Sarah McLachlan's 'Angel" also was played a lot on the radio post-9/11, but I don't understand why. Isn't the song about contemplating suicide?

Here’s a 90’s flashback.

Liz Phair & Lisa Loeb cover Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony.

Thanks autocorrect. Sympathy ^

Not one of Sarah's heavier songs but one of her best. She was more than that "Angel" song.

Paula Cole was a horrible "singer". Puke. I went on a date with this guy who was listening to her and I was like she fucking sucks. He goes this date is over. I laughed. And left.

It grossed me out that Paula Cole didn't shave her arm pits. 🤢 It's very noticeable in the "I Don't Wanna Wait" music video. 🤮

Also, I remember taking great offense when in an interview she stated that her most embarrassing moment was having to sing "I Enjoy Being a Girl" for a school recital, because it's a nauseating anti-feminist song, yadda yadda yadda. As a gayling, I loved recreating Nancy Kwan's interpretation in my room in front of my mirror. 😂

R93/R94 nah you had it right the first time pal. It's mistitled on the video. And it's three separate words, if anyone wondered. 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'.

As you fookin' were.

My friend and I changed “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” to “Where Have All the Razors Gone?”

Also, remember Tracy Chapman had her comeback around that time with “Give Me One Reason”. I also think Lauryn Hill hit the Lilith Fair circuit after she went solo.

If you ever wanna make someone kill themselves or stab their ears to make it stop, play them this shit-tastic song.

Fuck! here it is

Also Jewel and Meredith Brooks. The late 90's was very female oriented. Remember the Lilith fair? Is that still a thing?

Not all of them were horrible like Paula Cole. I liked closet carpet muncher Sarah McLachlan. Has she ever come out yet? She married a beard for awhile there in the 90s.

R104 what makes you think she's Lebanese?

Ha R99, fucked that one up.

-r 94

It was weird to see Shawn Colvin turn up in Tremé because her sound is more pop than the other music on that show. Especially as she interacted with Steve Earle and the violinist.

Building A Mystery is a fantastic song

At my high school, the Shawn Colin/Sarah Mclachlan girls were the virginal Christian types who were slightly judgmental. Virtually all of them grew up to be very liberal and not at all religious.

R105 Har har. Ya Golden Girls watching fucking geezer. You old turds find that stupid humor hilarious.

Shaw Colvin seemed more easy listening/adult contemporary to me.

Shawn Colvin’s “Steady On” album is amazing, and it’s how I first came to know of her. The title track is far superior to “Sunny Came Home.”

“Dead of The Night” from that album is amazing.

I preferred Meredith Brooks’s second single over “Bitch.” The video had sexy Billy Wirth as the male lead.

Meredith Brooks’ Twitter feed was insane. She was always 2 degrees short of going full Breitbart.

Ok bitches, I have to admit something. I was a big fan of these artists (Jewel, Paula Cole, Sarah M etc) bc they were heavily featured on Dawson's Creek and Buffy every week.

What an era for music!

I hated Shawn Colvin though. I heard Sonny Came Home and wondered how the hell that made the Billboard charts.

I had a soft spot for many female fronted bands, not just the folksy ones (like Hole, Veruca Salt, and secretly No Doubt).

I didn’t discover Tori Amos until the 2000s, other than liking a few songs. Later I appreciated more of her music catalogue from the 90s..

Poor forgotten, underrated Heather Nova...I liked her better than any of these other bitches.