00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those artists
00:09popular in the 90s that received a lot of pushback during their day.
00:25Despite delivering pop-punk masterpieces like Smash,
00:28The Offspring became a lightning rod for backlash as the 1990s wore on.
00:33Purists accused the California band of selling out underground punk when they signed with major
00:37label Columbia. The hatred reached a boiling point with 1998's Pretty Fly for a White Guy.
00:49While a massive global hit, the novel novelty single, silly music video, and goofy frat bro
00:55humor alienated serious rock fans who viewed it as cheap commercial gimmickry. Frontman Dexter
01:00Holland's nasal vocals and the band's shift toward radio-friendly pop rock left diehards
01:04cringing. They moved millions of records, but for many, The Offspring epitomized sanitized
01:10MTV-packaged punk.
01:18Number 9. Third Eye Blind
01:21Third Eye Blind defined late 90s radio with infectious, upbeat pop rock smashes like Semi-Charmed Life
01:34and How's It Gonna Be.
01:37How's it gonna be when you don't know me?
01:43But while their hooks were undeniable, the band quickly earned a reputation for taking
01:48themselves way too seriously. Frontman Stephen Jenkins became infamous in the music industry
01:53for his massive ego, public beefs, and notoriously difficult personality. Music critics were quick
01:58to dismiss them as glossy, sanitized alternative light, while rock purists bristled at their overly
02:04calculated radio-friendly sound. They sold millions of records, but Third Eye Blind's internal drama,
02:10backstage arrogance, and ubiquitous, inescapable radio presence turned a massive chunk of the
02:16alternative scene permanently against them.
02:25Number 8. Insane Clown Posse
02:28And I love my mom for giving me this time on this planet, take nothing for granted.
02:33Violent J and Shaggy2Dope built an empire with their horrorcore rap rock group, creating a fiercely
02:39loyal fanbase known as Juggalos. But outside of their dedicated dark carnival, Insane Clown Posse
02:45was widely regarded as a complete musical joke. Critics routinely slammed their graphic, cartoonishly
02:51violent lyrics, outrageous clown paint, and signature gimmick of drenching audience members
02:56in cheap Faygo soda.
02:57Who's going chicken hut? We's going chicken hut!
03:00Who's going chicken hut? We's going chicken hut!
03:03The mainstream media treated them with total disdain, framing their aggressive aesthetic as a threat
03:08to suburban youth. By the time they released Miracles and famously questioned how magnets work,
03:13ICP's place as one of the most relentlessly mocked acts in music history
03:17was firmly sealed.
03:26Number 7. Spin Doctors
03:35For a brief shining moment in 1992, you couldn't escape the Spin Doctors.
03:40Their hit singles, Two Princes and Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, were played on a non-stop loop
03:45across MTV and commercial radio stations nationwide.
03:56At first, their breezy, jam-band light funk rock was a refreshing alternative to Grunge's
04:01brooding darkness. However, extreme overexposure quickly turned public fascination into pure
04:07exasperation. Chris Barron's quirky vocal delivery and the song's repetitive, endlessly looping
04:12guitar hooks wore thin in record time. Before the decade was even halfway over, the Spin Doctors
04:18went from chart-topping festival headliners to the ultimate punchline of corporate radio fatigue.
04:29Number 6. Bush
04:39Hailing from London, Bush burst onto the American scene in 1994 with their multi-platinum debut album
04:4516 Stone. Hits like Glycerine and Machine Head made them massive stars, but rock critics aggressively
04:50tore them to pieces. The band was widely accused of being a shameless corporate-manufactured
04:56knockoff of Nirvana, tailored specifically for American teens.
05:06Purists argued that lead singer Gavin Rossdale was using a forced grunge vocal style and riding
05:10the coattails of Kurt Cobain's tragic death. Despite selling out arenas worldwide and earning
05:15steady MTV rotation, Bush could never quite shake the nagging reputation that they were just handsome
05:20with composers playing watered-down grunge for quick cash.
05:30Number 5. Smash Mouth
05:32And I saw her face
05:34And I'm a believer
05:38And not a trace
05:39Long before they became immortalized as a walking internet meme,
05:43Smash Mouth was a ska-punk band trying to make it big. They scored a legitimate hit with 1997's
05:49Walking on the Sun. But their total transformation into a bright glossy pop machine turned off
05:53traditional rock fans. By the time All-Star hit the airwaves and was subsequently licensed to virtually
05:59every movie trailer and commercial in existence, Smash Mouth fatigue reached a critical boiling point.
06:05Hey now, you're an all-star
06:07Get your game on, go play
06:09Hey now, you're a rock star
06:12Their relentlessly cheery, frat boy aesthetic and endless commercial tie-ins, most notably with Shrek,
06:18cemented them as a band that music fans loved to dunk on, regardless of how catchy their melodies were.
06:24The way that you walk
06:27It's just the way that you talk
06:29Like it ain't nothing
06:31Number 4. Dave Matthews Band
06:41They were an absolute touring powerhouse in the 1990s,
06:45packing stadiums with dedicated fans who obsessed over their jazz-infused jam rock solos.
06:51But for non-believers, Dave Matthews Band was pure torture.
06:55Detractors despised Dave Matthews' unique vocal delivery,
06:58the endless scat singing, and the band's signature-meandering 15-minute acoustic jams.
07:10They quickly became the unofficial soundtrack for college frat culture, which only alienated
07:16indie rock snobs even further.
07:17Throw in the infamous 2004 Chicago River tour bus incident, where their driver dumped a tour bus septic tank onto
07:23an unsuspecting sightseeing boat, and the internet had all the fuel it needed to mock Dave Matthews and his band
07:30for life.
07:30And is this real, or am I dreaming?
07:38Number 3. Hootie and the Blowfish
07:40Hold my hand
07:46In 1994, Hootie and the Blowfish released Cracked Rear View, which went on to become one of the best-selling
07:52debut albums of all time.
07:54Songs like Only Wanna Be With You and Hold My Hand were completely unavoidable.
07:59However, their polite, ultra-sanitized roots rock sat awkwardly alongside the angsty, edgy alternative music dominating the mid-90s.
08:14Critics savagely dismissed them as bland dad rock for suburbanites, lacking any real bite or artistic edge.
08:21The public eventually suffered severe burnout from hearing Darius Rucker's deep baritone vocals every five minutes on the radio, causing
08:28the band's massive popularity to plummet almost as fast as it rose.
08:39Number 2. Creed
08:48This band dominated the late-90s post-grunge boom with massive radio-destroying anthems like Higher and With Arms Wide
08:55Open.
08:55But while Creed sold tens of millions of records, they also generated an unprecedented wave of intense hostility.
09:02Viewers grew deeply fatigued by frontman Scott Stapp's overly dramatic Eddie Vedder-esque vocal style, his messianic stage persona, and
09:10the band's heavy-handed religious imagery.
09:19Rock purists viewed their polished, bombastic sound as a hollow, commercialized shell of authentic grunge.
09:26As Stapp's offstage antics and erratic behavior hit the tabloids, Creed evolved from a chart-topping powerhouse into one of
09:33the most universally ridiculed bands of the entire decade.
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09:55Number 1. Limp Bizkit
10:03At the turn of the millennium, Limp Bizkit was the absolute king of new metal.
10:07Hits like Nookie and Break Stuff captured the aggressive energy of a generation, but Fred Durst and company quickly became
10:13public enemy number 1 for rock purists.
10:21Durst's obnoxious red cap persona, frat bro arrogance, and questionable lyrics made the band an insanely easy target.
10:27for hatred. Adding fuel to the fire was their disastrous, riot-inducing performance at Woodstock 99, which critics blamed for
10:34escalating the festival's chaos.
10:43Limp Bizkit embraced being the villains of alternative rock, leaning hard into the backlash, but the overwhelming cultural fatigue eventually
10:51turned them into a punchline.
11:00Feel like defending any of these groups? Shout your support out loud in the comments.
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