The Best '90s Songs You Can Listen to Right Now

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If you didn't wear flannel and mosh around to this song, were you really even around in the '90s? Nirvana set the standard for '90s grunge music, and (for better or for worse) opened the door to the millions of disaffected rock music that followed for the rest of the decade.

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According to the book The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory the whole concept of the iconic "...Baby One More Time" video, from the school setting to the uniform tied up at the waist, was all Britney's, in case you were wondering if she was truly a pop genius or not.

RELATED: Your Favorite '90s Pop Stars: Where Are They Now?

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It doesn't matter who you are or where you live, this song still gets everyone singing along with the chorus when you throw it on at karaoke — which is good, because it's in a very forgiving key that lets most people really nail the big note.

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Madonna got the '90s started by celebrating a dance move that even awkward kids in middle school could pretend to do on the dance floor. (Ahem.) The iconic "Vogue" video was directed by David Fincher, who ended the '90s with a bang by directing Fight Club.

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The same way guys who were around in the '90s still know every word to "Baby's Got Back," girls who were around at the time still have every lyric to "Shoop" seared on their brain. Which is good, because everyone walks a little bit more confidently when they've got "Shoop" on their mind.

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If you came of age in the '90s, like any angsty teenager, you probably ping-ponged between bouts of sullen quietness and moments of screaming rage. Björk manages to capture that quiet-loud dynamic in song — and make it sound good.

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If you want to think about the lonely nights and the more melancholy moments of the '90s, R.E.M.'s elegiac ballad is the perfect soundtrack. It's one of the band's simplest songs, but also one of the most beautiful.

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If this song doesn't make you want to slam your body down and wind it all around, we don't know what will. The Spice Girls made "Girl Power" cool, and "Wannabe" is the song that girl squads shouted out of their car windows.

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Is this the song from the '90s that's still most likely to tear up the dance floor at a wedding? The answer is yes.

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The catchiest Pavement song also happens to be about what it's like to form a band and sell out for success. The video also landed on one of the other most important cultural artifacts of the '90s: an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head.

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Phair's ode to an idea boy whose "kisses are as wicked as F-16" sounds as rockin' as the guitar-driven music at the time, is also as catchy as her later, poppier work.

RELATED: 35 Best Love Songs of All Time

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It's hard to pick one song from the Smashing Pumpkins sprawling album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness — which took up two CDs! — but "Tonight, Tonight" shows the band being both soft and sad and heavy and loud. It also earns points for its video, which references the beginning of film history by parodying Georges Méliès's famous "A Trip to the Moon."

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It's the song that sold thousands of pairs of cat-eyed glasses. The song famously became a hit because Lisa Loeb's neighbor, who just so happened to be Ethan Hawke, passed her tape along and recommended that the song be part of the Reality Bites soundtrack. The movie's director, Ben Stiller, agreed.

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This song is great because if you hear it just once, you can already sing along with the easy-to-remember chorus, and if you hear it twice, you can dance along to its boppy beat. It also reminds us that, "Love in the '90s is so paranoid."

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While Saturday Night Live may have started a disagreement this year about whether or not Weezer was good after the first two albums, everyone can agree that "Buddy Holly" is catchy fun, especially with a Spike Jones-directed video that throws back to Happy Days.

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The first single from The Notorious B.I.G. became his most iconic song. It's still consider one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.

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Nobody typifies '90s angst like Fiona Apple (who can do it even when she's writhing around in a wet t-shirt with mascara running down her face). "Criminal" won Apple the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Performance.

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As the decade continued and moved into the '00s, Radiohead moved on to more innovative music, but the band started off the '90s with a simple rock song that made it okay for everyone to embrace their inner weirdo.

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No one would have guessed from "Basket Case" alone that Green Day would be the California punk-inspired band that would go on to spawn a musical on Broadway. At the time, it was just a fun song about feeling alienated and outcast.

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"Mysterious Ways" remains to date one of U2's catchiest songs. Bonus points if you can sing it while trying to dance like the belly dancer in the video. (You can't.)