If there was any indication that we had tipped from being a rebellious kind of despondency into all-out depression somewhere in the course of 1993, it's the unlikely success of Radiohead's seemingly on-the-nose ode to obsessiveness and feeling sorry for yourself. When it was first released in '92, "Creep" failed to catch on, and Radiohead swiftly moved onto promoting their next single, "Anyone Can Play Guitar." But rather unexpectedly, "Creep" began to catch fire in Israel, Spain, and New Zealand. Then San Francisco started giving it major airplay. Then radio stations in the rest of the States followed suit. Suddenly, Radiohead had almost no choice but to re-release the single in England. And that's the real story of music fans in 1993. We wanted to be depressed. We thrived on the feelings of heavy-heartedness and melancholia that grunge had taught us all about. And when we didn't get enough of it from our grunge go-tos ("All Apologies" and "Plush" weren't satiating our fix), so we forced a new representative into the role. This, despite the fact that the rest of mainstream radio was pouring out the sunshine and happiness at every possible turn. Honorable Mentions: Stone Temple Pilots - "Plush," Blind Melon - "No Rain," Tom Petty - "Mary Jane's Last Dance," Lenny Kravitz - "Are You Gonna Go My Way?"
