(Finished March 16th, 2026) Part 10 of Was 1989 and 1990 Really The Diet Slice Era of Music?

Esquire Digital has a feature about 1989 and 1990 being the two weirdest years of music. Esquire author, Dave Holmes, calls it the Diet Slice era. Holmes says about the drink and the music of those two years:

“The Diet Slice gets its name from the low-calorie version of Slice, a popular soft drink of the time which set itself apart from its shelf-mates by claiming to be somewhat natural; its can crowed “with 10% real juice,” later downgraded to “contains real juice,” and although I eventually stopped paying attention, I bet toward the end it was more like “is technically a liquid.” As a beverage, it was refreshing and indistinct. Like the music of the time, you would consume it if it were there, but you are never thirsty for it.”

Holmes is certainly entitled to his opinion. I have to agree there were some unusual songs in those two years. However there was also a lot of great music those two years. Included in that were a lot of great country songs, I’ve added several here.

Not only do I not think that 1989-1990 is the Diet Slice era, I don’t think there has ever been a Diet Slice era. These are some of the albums that arrived in 1989 (in no particular order): 1) Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” 2) Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” 3) Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood”, 4) Aerosmith’s “Pump”: 5) XTC “Oranges and Lemons” 6) Nine Inch Nails “Pretty Hate Machine” 7) Skid Row’s self-titled debut 8) The Cult “Sonic Temple” 9) Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” 10) Neneh Cherry’s and Prince’s funky “Batman” Soundtrack. The Danny Elfman score is also good.

I’ve spent several hours today working on, updating and improving all the blogs in this blog series. Why I did that? I have no idea, but these blog are much improved because of that. I published this specific blog back in 2024. I deleted several duplicates today. Now I only have Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown’s “She Ain’t Worth It” in these blogs one time instead of three times.

137) Wilson Phillips “Release Me”:

138) The B-52’s “Love Shack”:

139) Great White “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”:

140) Taylor Dayne “Don’t Rush Me”:

141) Cher “If I Could Turn Back Time”:

142) Martika “Toy Soldiers”:

143) XTC “The Loving”:

144) Bonnie Raitt “Have A Heart”:

145) Fine Young Cannibals “Don’t Look Back”:

If any band of this two timeframe would be the Diet Slice music, you would think it would be these guys. However while they were a very fake band, that 1989 CD has several amazing songs on it. 146) Milli Vanilli “Girl You Know It’s True”: