In Defense of the Earnest 1990s Pop Ballad
Have I told you lately that I love them?
I grew up in the 1990s, glued to the TV for entertainment. This was the early days of cable TV, back when The Disney Channel was still considered “premium,” and because I had a stay-at-home mom for the first few years of my life, I often spent hours in front of an endless stream of commercials and primed-for-young-eyes programming. Because I spent my days at home instead of daycare, what stands out the most in my memory is the nonstop inundation of a certain kid of programming: infomercials for Time-Life compilations. Before Spotify gave us curated playlists, and even before “Now That’s What I Call Music!” (currently on its 70th volume), there was a company called Time-Life that, in addition to publishing volumes of nostalgic and historical encyclopedias of pop culture and human history, gave us multi-CD sets of the biggest and best songs, past and present, that you just had to add to your personal collection. And no Time-Life collection stands so perfectly crystal clear in my memory than “The Power of Love.”
The commercials for “The Power of Love” compilation ran on TV day and night. It felt like a constant cavalcade of nostalgia. The massive box set of nine CDs featured the likes of Rod Stewart, Celine Dion and Michael Bolton. It was the perfect time capsule of love songs from the era, and I’m pretty sure I can still hear each song snippet in order. But aside from being ingrained in my memory as quintessentially ’90s, it also instilled in me a love for the earnest balladry that often topped the charts 30 years ago.
These are pop songs dripping with perfect, crafted-for-radio emotion. The singers and songwriters are really feeling it, and doggone it, you’re gonna feel it too. They’re unabashedly cheesy, and I can’t help but love them for it.
Today, the pop ballad is mostly absent from the pop culture landscape, sidelined by teen pop in the 2000s and generic EDM-dance-pop in the 2010s. Sometimes there’s a tease that maybe this bygone artform is back; there was a resurgence when Adele hit the scene and brought her powerhouse vocals to the populace. While her material certainly isn’t as earnest or cheesy as some of the songs from the heyday of the ‘90s, it was at least an indication that there’s still an appetite for ballads and honest, emotional love songs. The problem is that the industry and mainstream audiences both failed to elevate other artists to the same level of saturation, leaving a vacuum in the industry. Paloma Faith tried, but she remains mostly a U.K. artist. Sam Smith bubbled up to critical mass, but then mostly fizzled out as the mainstream consciousness moved onto other things. No one has time for earnestness and sappy love songs these days. Even Ariana Grande, often lauded as one of the best voices in music today, and a successor to Mariah Carey’s throne as queen of the pop diva pipes, isn’t producing traditional ballads. Our culture has just moved on.
Regardless, my heart will go on for these everlasting classics that evoke the power of love, and I’ve collected a few of my favorites below — but don’t worry; some sweet, baby angel on the Internet has compiled the songs from the original Time-Life “Power of Love” compilation into a Spotify playlist that you can find here.
So slap that fuzzy filter onto your hifi VHS camcorder and buckle in. We’re about to get sentimental.
Vanessa Williams, “Save the Best for Last”
Better known today for her iconic role on “Ugly Betty,” Vanessa Williams was once known as a disgraced Miss America winner (sexism is a bitch) who staged an impressive comeback as a singer. This track hits all the right notes, encapsulating everything that makes ’90s ballads perfect: nonsensical lyrics and a sweet sentimentality. “Sometimes the sun goes ‘round the moon,” in all is glorious nonsense, still somehow perfectly illustrates the profound irony in a unexpectedly rekindled love affair. And really… does anything say, “Take me seriously as an artist” than the music video’s black-and-white aesthetic, softened with the haze of the ‘90’s trusty fuzzy camera filter and set within a room filled with enough candelabra to make a fire marshal cry? Oh, and don’t forget the orchestra chilling in the background? This is true art, folks.
Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, “Don’t Know Much”
Does it get more iconic than this? Can I use “iconic” any more without going overboard? It doesn’t matter — we’re dealing in excess here, and this song doesn’t disappoint. It swings for the fences and comes at you full force. Dripping with longing, paired perfectly with Neville’s signature trembly falsetto and Ronstadt’s sweet vocals, the track rises to a quintessential guitar riff in the second half. And that may be all you need to know.
Mr. Mister, “Broken Wings”
I’ll pause for a moment and give you a moment to sing the chorus’ iconic opening line to yourself. You know you want to. It’s the kind of pop song serendipity that every mainstream artist craves; a line so catchy that it instantly shoots its song into the pop culture stratosphere. If you took Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” and dipped it in a vat of high-fructose syrup mixed with lube, you might get something resembling Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings.” It’s the best kind of love song that deals equally in heartbreak, loneliness and those esoteric staples of the human condition: Flesh, blood, and… the Book of Love?
Exposé, “I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me”
Packed to the brim with lush strings and a perfectly timed sax solo — so, so ‘90s — Exposé’s big hit of the decade completely sheds the synth-y ’80s dance vibe from their previous two albums and ushered them into the pantheon of iconic breakup ballads. Sounding like a precursor to Selena’s “Dreaming of You,” or S Club 7’s “Never Had a Dream Come True,” this heartbreak anthem shirks “fuck you” bravado for earnest pain that a former lover has moved on, complete with hyperbolic declarations that this will be the case “as long as the stars shine down from the heavens, long as the rivers run to the sea.” It’s gonna take a while to get over this one.
Celine Dion, “It’s All Coming Back to Me”
“My Heart Will Go On” might be a master class in pop balladry, but anyone alive in the ‘90s witnessed Dion’s incredible warm-up to this titanic crescendo. It started in 1990 with Dion’s debut English album, “Unison,” and by 1996, she was in full pop power ballad diva mode. And holy hell did she lean into it. “It’s All Coming Back to Me” is by no means her best work, but paired with an album of certified hits and lyrical content that absolutely screams 1996 LOVE SONG (hello again, rekindled love affair), you’d be remiss to miss this ‘90s gem.
Starship, “Sara”
Some songs just leave an impression… and “Sara” is one that refuses to be erased from my brain. I remember being six years old and singing it to an unrequited love named Sara because… relatable. Starship, once known as Jefferson Starship, once known as Jefferson Airplane, has an impressive streak of hits, misses and iconic classics, yet “Sara” endures as an encapsulation of its time. The late ’80s and early ’90s were a time to shed the psychedelic prog-rock of the past and chase the yuppie culture. The White Rabbit has shed his funky sunglasses and stopped doing acid; now he’s into catchy hooks and sorrowful love songs. “No time is a good time for goodbye,” indeed…
Wilson Phillips, “Hold On”
I wanted to put every Wilson Phillips song on this list, but, alas, I can not. I can, however, insist that this track is still 100% a certified bop to this day while still being the quintessential 1990s pop power ballad. It just doesn’t get much more iconic than this. It’s empowering, it’s overflowing with the group’s impeccable harmonies, and it’s just plain catchy as hell. That rapid-fire chorus is perfectly primed for earworm status, and it delivers in spades, which is more than could be said for most of the group’s releases after this. Their follow-up, “Release Me,” checks the requisite ballad boxes but doesn’t quite live up to the catchiness of “Hold On.”
There are so many great pop ballads from the ’80s and ’90s that I didn’t list here. What are your favorites? Let me know below! And in the meantime, enjoy the Power of Love playlist on Spotify:
