3 Indie Songs From the 90s That Indie Fans Still Put on Their Playlists

Indie rock music will always feel timeless, no matter what the song is. Here are some classic 90s tracks that most indie music fans probably recognize.

Videos by American Songwriter

“Friday I’m in Love” by The Cure

Released in 1992, this is one of those songs that just feels effortlessly fun every time you hear it.

According to Robert Smith, though, who wrote lyrics for “Friday I’m In Love”, writing lyrics for a pop song is a lot more challenging than you would expect.

“I went through hundreds of sheets of paper trying to get words for this record,” he said of writing the song. “You have to hit something that’s not cringing – a simplicity and naiveté that communicates. There’s a dumbness that sort of cracks. We’ve always done pop songs. It’s just sometimes they’re way too down – sort of desperate.”

“Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star

If you want to know what magic and whimsy sound like, look no further than “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star. This one was written in one afternoon by band members Hope Sandoval and David Roback.

“It came almost at the same time,” Roback said of the track. “We weren’t trying to write a hit song—we were just writing a song,” he explained. “I think we had a melody and a feel and we just followed that feel. And that became the song…” 

“When You’re Gone” by The Cranberries

There are plenty of Cranberries songs that could have been mentioned here; these guys absolutely dominated the 90s.

Apparently, lead singer Dolores O’Riordan wrote this song for her grandfather, who had just passed away. As the singer told Songfacts, the song came to mean a couple of different things later on.

“Later on, on tour, when I’d be on the road, I might think about my kids when I was singing it, or I might think about my father who passed away,” she explained. “So, when you’re singing a song about loss, and then if you’re going through bereavement, it can take on a new meaning, and you think about what you’re going through at that particular time with that song.”

Photo by: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella