10 classic songs from 1996 that could never be made today
When songs become popular, it’s hard to predict whether they’ll still be relevant five, ten, or even 20 years later because there’s no set recipe for timelessness, and certain things that appear in a piece of music can become dated in ways we’d have never been able to foresee in hindsight.
Other times, a song is so good that it transcends all concepts of greatness, becoming something magical that could never be recreated ever again, and there’s a certain power that comes with such pieces of material, like hearing Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ and knowing that no one, not even a future prodigy, could ever emulate it. Or knowing that, no matter how many people try to cover Joni Mitchell songs, they’ll never be able to replicate the emotional appeal of her gorgeous crooning.
In other instances, songs are as great as they are because they’re intrinsically linked to culture or a specific period of time, becoming so deeply associated that they could never have the same impact if anything similar were released today, like John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, or Queen’s ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’.
In 1996, musical innovations were at an all-time high, but this also meant that many fell into the same category, with artists providing small droplets of brilliance that will forever be inseparable from the time they came from.
10 songs that could never be made today:
David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds – ‘Three Lions’
A song that quite literally needs no introduction, ‘Three Lions’ might re-emerge from time to time, but it’ll forever be tied to a specific time and place, namely, England’s involvement in the 1996 Euros.
An official anthem of English football since its release, ‘Three Lions’ is the epitome of a song that arrived due to a specific cultural event, immortalising that pesky “It’s coming home” chant for the rest of time. It also serves as a constant reminder that, no matter how much the hope that England will win again fades, the sense of high-spirited community will never cease.
Rage Against the Machine – ‘Bulls On Parade’
There isn’t a band on the planet that lives up to its name more than Rage Against the Machine does. The group are truly a testament to the ethos of punk, as they were able to take music and turn it into a form of unwavering rebellion. It lands a lot heavier than a lot of modern punk does, and it’s unlikely you’d ever find a band out there in this day and age who could make music that touches in the same way as theirs.
‘Bulls On Parade’ is a great example of how stellar their punk sound is, as they refuse to water down the sentiment behind their music. It’s unlikely a band would be able to write a song with this amount of emotion in the modern day, and this is a song that sits comfortably within the confines of Rage Against the Machine.
The Prodigy – ‘Firestarter’
A lot of people don’t realise how much the political landscape influenced the music that The Prodigy made. While the band might not write music that has a particular political message, a lot of their music and the nature of their sound were inspired by laws that were being passed by the government, as the drum and bass pioneers attempted to rebel against the strange decisions made by those higher up.
In 1994, Margaret Thatcher passed the Criminal Justice Act, and under Section 63 of this legislation, she banned people from attending raves. The style of music The Prodigy made was in complete rebellion of this law, and so, despite rave culture still being popular today, you would never get music that reflects a period of time better than tracks like ‘Firestarter’.
The Fugees – ‘Killing Me Softly’
You would never get this song again because you’ll never get another talent like Lauryn Hill. This track was a cover of Roberta Flack’s 1973 original ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’, a piece of music which very few musicians would dare touch because of how perfect Flack’s vocals are on the song.
Yes, people were hesitant to cover the song because of the strength of Flack’s performance, but on The Fugees’ debut, Lauryn Hill decided to give it a go, and she created a beautiful piece of music as a result. You would never get a song like this in the modern age because there is no one like Lauryn Hill out there making music; it’s as simple as that.
Oasis – ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’
This song is a stellar piece of music on its own, and there are probably bands out there today who are talented enough that they could knock up something close to ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. That being said, it wasn’t just the song itself that contributed to this Oasis track being the song of a generation; it was the time at which it came out.
You could never replicate the success of the song because it had to come out in 1996, at the height of Britpop, when the world was desperate for the kind of sound that Oasis were putting out. Even if a band wrote a similar song today, it couldn’t have the same level of success because the genre isn’t at its height in the same way.
DJ Shadow – ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’
When we talk about great albums put out by producers, one of the first records to escape the lips of music lovers is DJ Shadow’s Entroducing….. The album is one of the greatest pieces of music ever put together. It took Shadow two years to make, as he spent days on end working with a sampler in a bid to create these tracks, but the result is a piece of sheer genius.
While DJ Shadow is still making great music today, it’s unlikely there is any other producer who could put together songs like ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ in 2026. The process of producing music has changed, and the result is albums like Entroducing…… are harder to come by.
The Cardigans – ‘Lovefool’
Almost every song from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is iconic, and while ‘Lovefool’ is undeniably one of them, its inclusion is also one of the reasons why this song became a global smash hit, where lead singer Nina Persson also hit the nail on the head as she talked about how organic the song’s success was, noting that “the biggest hits are the ones that are the easiest to write”.
The song has become one of the most timeless in history, but it’s also incredibly nostalgic, navigating the bittersweet nature of love and loss, and when it comes to straightforward pop brilliance, it’s actually pretty close to perfection, which is exactly why no one would be able to come up with it today while still achieving the same level of impact.
The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘1979’
‘1979’ was a pretty harsh departure from The Smashing Pumpkins’ earlier sound, written by Billy Corgan with loops and structures that were more characteristic of their later, synth-leaning sound.
Inspired by the moment when Corgan felt he had grown up at 12 years old in 1979, the song explores gaining social awareness and the weight of new responsibilities, while culturally, the song was something of an anomaly, emerging as an alternative track in a largely pop-leaning radio landscape, and it also comes heavily tied to its own sense of nostalgia, making it feel like it was a slice of pure gold that arrived at a time when people were ready to welcome it.
2Pac – ‘California Love’
There are many reasons why 2Pac’s ‘California Love’ could never be made today: the fact that it’s performed by 2Pac being the main one, but broadly, it’s a song that feels like it could only ever exist once anyway, a fleeting piece of magnificence that was also quite possibly the comeback of the century.
A hit that instantly defined the sound of the era, ‘California Love’ also arrived with one of the most iconic music videos in history, which required a massive production to pull off. The song itself, however, is easily enough to warrant a place on this list, as it was only possible to begin with due to a string of specific era-defining factors.
Soundgarden – ‘Blow Up the Outside World’<br>
Chris Cornell once admitted that, when he was writing ‘Blow Up the Outside World’, he was “a little fucked up”. Sonically, there’s a little flavour of everything in the song, but lyrically and thematically, it tackles something very specific to the time, and the alienation that comes with wishing you could just reject the outside world for good.
Most Soundgarden songs could never be recreated purely due to the brilliance that was Cornell; however, ‘Blow Up the Outside World’ feels especially poignant, especially when looking at how it blended different facets of the 1990s rock scenes to come up with something truly special and unique.
