Have you ever been hanging out with a friend, they put something on Spotify, and you say, “I forgot about this song!” In a way, it’s a little like discovering a track all over again. Some of you reading this may not have been born yet in 1998, which serves as a reminder of just how long ago the 1990s were drawing to a close. So, let’s refresh your memory with—or introduce you to—three rock songs from 1998.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Dragula” by Rob Zombie
Following White Zombie’s commercial breakthrough, singer Rob Zombie struck out on his own and released Hellbilly Deluxe in 1998. He continued the industrial metal of White Zombie’s 1995 hit “More Human Than Human”. But this was anything but human. Here, Zombie pays homage to Grandpa Munster’s dragster with a mainstream rock banger you may have forgotten about.
Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches
I slam in the back of my Dragula.
“Given To Fly” by Pearl Jam
Endurance defines Pearl Jam as much as flannel or corduroy or “Jeremy”. Unlike many of their grunge peers, the band has survived. They also survived themselves after having spent a good 10 years trying to dismantle their outsized fame. “Given To Fly” feels like a metaphor for Eddie Vedder. Soaring regardless of the headwinds one faces. In what may be his most emotional tune since “Release”, Vedder screams at the heavens, an imperfect human trying to survive the chaos of life, existence, and solitude. In other words, the art of sticking around.
He floated back down ’cause he wanted to share,
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere.
But first he was stripped, and then he was stabbed,
By faceless men, well, f**kers, he still stands.
“Celebrity Skin” by Hole
If you can imagine Billy Corgan singing this one, it’s because he wrote it with Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson. In “Celebrity Skin”, Love addresses fame, its costs, and how to manipulate it in your favor (“No, I’m not selling cheap”). Using Corgan’s piercing guitar riff, Love uncovers the sordid underbelly of celebrity culture. She mentions Cinderella, but this time she’s in Hollywood, where Love puts a modern twist on Grimm’s fairy tale.
No second billing ’cause you’re a star now,
Oh, Cinderella, they aren’t sl*ts like you.
Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses,
Can you stand up or will you just fall down?
Photo by Niels van Iperen/Getty Images
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