3 Ballads From the 1990s That Make Us Wish We Had a Time Machine
This is a lighthearted list feature from American Songwriter highlighting three power ballads from the 1990s that the writer argues surpass modern pop music in emotional intensity and vocal ability. The piece is nostalgic in tone, framing the decade's biggest hits as a lost art form of unabashedly dramatic songwriting that today's more restrained pop landscape rarely attempts.
The three songs picked are Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (1996), Mariah Carey's "Hero", and the 1998 duet "When You Believe" by Carey and Whitney Houston. Each entry praises the singers' vocal power and the sweeping, melodramatic style of the era, with the writer suggesting only artists such as Ariana Grande come close to that level of performance today.
- American Songwriter picks three standout 1990s power ballads.
- Featured: Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and a Carey-Houston duet.
- Article laments modern pop's lack of similar vocal drama.
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Pop music of the 1990s was known for its big, dramatic ballads, often performed by powerhouse vocalists who built their reputations on emotionally charged love songs. Singers such as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston were among the era's most successful artists, and their soaring, theatrical delivery became a defining sound of that decade's mainstream music.
This kind of retrospective piece is a common feature in music journalism, where writers revisit older songs to celebrate their craftsmanship and compare them with current trends in pop. Such articles are generally personal, opinion-based reflections rather than news reporting, intended to spark nostalgia and discussion among readers about how musical styles and vocal performance have changed over time.