Last summer, we ran down the best songs, albums, and videos of the 2000s. Four years ago, it was the best songs of the 1960s. Next week, the 90s are back. A series of features that kicked off early this week with our Top 50 Videos of the 1990s continues as we run down the decade's 200 greatest songs. The feature will take over Pitchfork for the week, and we'll put reviews and the Playlist on hold until after we've reached #1.

In the last couple of years of indie music, you've been able to hear pretty clearly where younger artists who came of age in the 90s got some of their ideas. These sounds are in the air. Though the 80s have been back for longer than most can remember, artists are revisiting the sounds of the 90s and putting them into a new context. Which marks a good time to go back to what went down originally.

It was a time: Here in the U.S., Bill Clinton was in office, the money was flowing, and renting multiple helicopters for a video shoot wasn't a thing. Nirvana changed everything, at first in a good way and later in a very bad way. Hip-hop was growing from a niche genre to global pop ubiquity. Electronic music was changing at a rate commensurate with Moore's law. Indie was growing out of 80s punk and splintering. Some of us were kids watching SNICK and flipping over to see what was new on MTV; others of us were finishing college and figuring out what came next. All remember it a little differently. Next week, see how we at Pitchfork remember it, one song at time.