4 Epic Songs From the 90s That Prove Our Attention Spans Are Longer Than We Think

If our attention spans are shrinking due to social media and information overload, no one told music fans. Rock history is filled with epic songs working against the idea of bite-sized singles to help sell albums. This is only surprising if you’d never heard of “Stairway To Heaven”, “Free Bird”, or “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. Listeners have more patience than you think. And to prove it, here are four epic songs from the 90s still keeping our attention spans engaged.

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“Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica

Metallica’s self-titled “Black Album” has more in common with the classic rock of AC/DC than the band’s thrash metal roots. Lars Ulrich simplified his drumming, focusing on groove instead of breakneck tempos and complex rhythms. Guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett played memorable riffs, like “Enter Sandman”, which became something like their version of “Smoke On The Water” for young guitarists. Yet the emotional ballad “Nothing Else Matters” slowly builds to one of Metallica’s most powerful crescendos. It’s so well constructed, the track feels much shorter than six and a half minutes.

“November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses

Axl Rose echoes Elton John on “November Rain” as Guns N’ Roses stretched its ambitions in 1991 across a two-album release, Use Your Illusion I and II. But Rose was already thinking big even before Appetite For Destruction hit the record stores. The piano ballad dates back to 1986, and you can find early demo versions where the song comfortably blows past the 10-minute mark. As grunge emerged, GNR and Metallica were two of the biggest bands in the world. And listeners were eager for Rose’s epic tune and the dramatic video that accompanied it.

“All Around The World” by Oasis

Oasis had been rehearsing “All Around The World” since the early 90s. But Noel Gallagher held off on recording it until the band had a budget for an orchestra. To call Be Here Now a dense record is an understatement. It remains an avatar for the bloat and excess of Britpop, with its lengthy arrangements and layers upon layers of guitars. But Oasis’s multi-movement opus reveals how Gallagher already had a knack for stadium anthems while his band was just beginning in clubs. “All Around The World” is the sound of Oasis hooked on key changes. And it’s worth your while to make it through all nine minutes, as you’ll hear the whole of British guitar history on this one epic track.

“Paranoid Android” by Radiohead

Thom Yorke ran in the opposite direction from “Creep” on The Bends. And if casual fans were hoping he’d return to another Pixies-style grunge hit, “Paranoid Android” was going to be the song to set them straight. Radiohead was outgrowing rock music, and the second track on OK Computer fuses three songs into one. But it wasn’t easy to perfect this genius tune. Early versions uncomfortably put the band in prog-rock territory, and guitarist Jonny Greenwood said it was so painful he couldn’t listen “without clutching the sofa for support.” Both lyrically and musically, “Paranoid Android” distills Radiohead’s groundbreaking work in six minutes and twenty-seven seconds.

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