Why Did 90s Nickelodeon Music Slap SO HARD?! 

TV show composers deserve so much more credit

I was born in 1986 and let me tell you. Growing up, All That was the SNL of my age group. I always tuned in every Saturday and to see who were the musical guest. I missed that era. I watched it including Kenan and Kel. They was always my favorite comic duo and I watched those shows religiously.

Can we also mention how hard Hey Arnold's soundtrack lowki slapped?! I have a softer spot for jazz because of that show lol

I always thought of All That as a kids version of In Living Color. As a kid, both shows introduced me to hip-hop.

Peanuts holiday specials tricked me into being a Jazz fan, and 90s Nick did the same for Hip Hop. Neither of those are bad traits. Thanks for taking up the topic...

Younger people might not appreciate that Hip-hop/Rap wasn't quite mainstream yet in 1995-96. Soul, R&B, rock, grunge, pop, were all dominating the charts. The Grammys didn't even award a best hip-hop album until 1996 and it wasn't until 2004 that OutKast would win best album. So this was cutting edge at the time.

Also, it should be noted that the announcer of "All That" would become famous in their own right. Believe it or not, it's Courtenay Henderson AKA Soup of underground rap group Jurassic 5.

I remember someone saying Nickelodeon was the Black channel for kids back in the day lmao 🔥

I have a jazz playlist. The Hey Arnold theme is on it next to all of the greats. That show injected jazz into my psyche at an early age.

"All That" was fresh, fun, and gave our generation a show we could really relate to.

I can't see Kenan on SNL without thinking of him on All That. He was hilarious then and he is now. He's gonna go down the greatest working entertainer in history if he keeps this up. He's had a 30 year career and he's only 45 years old.

As a Kid grown up in the '90s I still Cant believe how they get all the Legends in the Show. Kids nowdays will never understand what it means to wait for a Show and get so excited When they Call Out the Artists. Great Video 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I used to really like the weird library music that they would dig up for Ren and Stimpy.

As an 80's baby, I really got to be in the passenger seat of a great entertainment ride courtesy of some great parents and grandparents. Growing up in The Bronx, my parents had early access to Cablevision. Out in Reading, Pennsylvania, my grandparents were able to get Nickelodeon! One show that caught my musical ear was ROUNDHOUSE. Particularly that end theme. Reprise the theme song and roll the credits!❤

Nickelodeon's golden age was something truly special. This was still in the era when young, scrappy networks that wanted to try something new had a chance to actually make it. They almost shut down in their "silver ball" era because they were perceived as corny and didn't engage kids on their level but rather just beat the fact that they were "educational" over their parent's heads, but with some outside help, they managed to rebrand into their "orange splat" era with a focus on engaging kids on their level and it worked. I even remember the first sketch comedy show on the Snick lineup - Roundhouse, which was also good and doesn't seem to get much recognition, but All That was on another level for sure. I know a lot of people call All That "SNL for kids", but I always felt it was more in line with In Living Color or MadTV.

We didn't get much Nickelodeon over here in Scandinavia back in the '90s (unless you had cable or satelite TV, but both were expensive), so I'm not super familiar with any of the shows, but I do know this: One of the greatest hip hop bangers ever was written for a kids movie. I'm talking, of course, about Hit 'Em High from Space Jam. Such a sick tune with some on point verses from some of the absolute best in the game.

Thanks for this! 😊🙏🏾 I feel like alot of people slept on how good the music for 90's Nick was. It really added to the overall style they had 😎🤙🏾💙✌🏾🎨⛅️

Damn this is one aspect of the '90s that doesn't get talked about enough. Fantastic video as always.

Its crazy how much 90s pop culture subconsciously influenced my taste today. That guest star lineup flew wayyy over my head when I was young

Nothing slapped harder on Nick than Hey Arnold!!! 🙌🏾 (as far as show music) shout out Jim Lang!! 🔥

Hey Arnold soundtrack is goated

A dedicated video/documentary of the legendary Electric Lady Studios would be great! So many legendary LPs and tunes have been recorded there, apart from 1996-2002 ;) Thanks, as always, for your content and love!

Absolutely wild, I never saw All That but Keenan & Kel was the absolute greatest. That list of musical guests is incredible, just think of the number of artists working today who were influenced. Music changes lives, Wutang is for the children!

"Awwwwwwwww, here it goes!!!!!" baw baw baaaaawww🤟

This is one of my favorite episodes because I got to relive my childhood. It’s been so many years I couldn’t forgot that these shows had musical acts, but it must have affected my taste in some unconscious way. Plus, I didn’t know you play bass for Nas! 🤯

Nothing like Saturday night All That & Kennan & Kel. You had to be there.

This actually got me to watch Good Burger 2. Well done, everyone!

Let’s add The Adventures of Pete & Pete (for its important musical cameos/performances) into the mix 👏🏼🔥

I'm 48 love keenan and kel from my childhood. My daughter is 8 and her favorite movies are the Good Burger ones

common digging the greats birthday video w

90s is still the best generation of hip hop.

And big up to you for highlighting these incredible shows and how they changed our lives and WHY they changed our lives! THey never talked down and really inspired us.

A video about adult swims connections to people like doom and danger mouse would be cool

TV show composers really get down man glad they getting their flowers now

Can we talk about how crazy Jazzy the Hey Arnold intro was? It introduced me to Jazz and rabbit hole of rap.

You can't get into 90's Nick music and not mention Pete and Pete. Just like All That introduced me to Hip Hop and R&B, Pete and Pete introduced me to indie rock. And that Polaris soundtrack for the show...c'mon now.

Magnificent interview. I can tell you're a fan and I appreciate you sharing this passion and conducting a great interview and video essay of this topic. Much respect.

Just thought of this after watching my spotify wrapped, and remembered how you talked about how the Nick shows influenced your music tastes. Every one of my top listened to artists for the year have at least 1 video on your channel here, where I watched your stuff then just wemt back and listened to an album of thier stuff. Just wanted to say a general end of the year "Thanks" to you and this channel.

I just talked about 90's music in my newest paint video. Wish I would have watched this first!! So many Gems in here. Great work as always man!

All That, Wild N'Out, and the Chappelle Show put me on to hip-hop growing up. I was always a kid that was listening to a lot of rock music because of my dad. Very thankful for all of them

You said 2 things that stood out. 1. Is Ross Peru. I got my mom to vote for him when I was a kid BC of what I saw in all that. 2. You play bass for NASs live band. I've been wanting to start studying live hip hop... this is where I'll start!

Great video 🙌🏾🙌🏾 informative for someone like me who wasn't around at that time

Yes, yes, yes! 🙌 I was 10 or 11 when All That premiered and that whole time for Nickelodeon was fun for me and other kids from that era. The main reason why this was special was because these were artists that were all over the radio and even MTV at the time. Putting them on a show that was for us (the kids) gave it legitimacy. We’re too young to understand that broadly at such a young age but kids have a sense of realness. Thanks so much for making this video!

Definitely been a Nickelodeon Kid since "You Can't Do That On Television" and seeing the growth from the "Wild & Crazy Kids" & "Hey Dude" era to "All That", "Kenan and Kel" & "RoundHouse" you could see how the culture evolved and the kids along with it. It's definitely one of those, "You had to be there" periods

Man, this made ME feel like a kid again.

Awesome content always. Thank you. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

3:38 The Show and Rhyme and Reason are two of my favorite music docs. Crazy that the same dude that did The Show ALSO did All That 🤯. Crazy.

This is so awesome. Such great highlights. I loved this show and 90’s hip hop it’s no wonder I watched this show all the time. ❤ 😂

Such an great interview with this geniuses

I love this channel so much! I’ve always said that All That is the BEST opening song of a kids show. And they were so funny. The proud family was also a banger. Me and my mom would get so excited whenever wed hear “OOOOO AH AHH THIS IS AALLL THAT”

1:03 They were getting nothing but legends

I wish you could do a video on Kurt Farquhar, the guy that did the background music for shows like Moesha, The Parkers, C Bear and Jamal, just to name a few

Excellent video! This is so niche and I’m glad I came up in the 90s and can remember this time so fondly. Nickelodeon was definitely for the culture back then and at the right time too. ❤

this channel has been great, thank you for the dope videos!

You should get Kenan or Kel. They should have a ton of stories

90's Nickelodeon was 🔥🔥🔥

This is why I'm subscribed to you the content is always creative and very well done

This brought me back, thank you 🙏

+ Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO) did music for Rugrats and other shows + Polaris (Miracle Legion) was the house band for The Adventures of Pete and Pete performing the theme song and even appearing in one of the episodes.

I know I'm a month late, but the 90s was my era as a young kid and teen. And Nickelodeon was a huge part of it at the time. Still look at it very fondly. So this was a gift. Nickelodeon was truly in tune with us at the time. And knew how to integrate the culture of hip hop and r&b into its universe.

The beats on the cartoons were bangers. I mean look who was on the Rugrats movie soundtrack. Awesome as always.

Nick in the 90s was nuts. I hated at least half of All That, but I watched because of the music guests. Wait, Tribe was on?! And Nas?!? Hahaha, thank you for making this one, man.

Yeah Looking back at it now, It was wild, I never really noticed how much this shaped my tastes. Thanks guys involved, its good stuff.

I didn’t realize how much Nick was for the culture back in the 90s. Much respect 👏🏾👏🏾

Dude, this feels like a reminder of a piece of my personal puzzle that I didn't even realize was part of me. Thank you

Oh My God 90's Nickelodeon was top tier Entertainment growing up for me. From Rugrats, All That, Kenan And Kel, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life, Ren And Stimpy, Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Even to the lesser known Gems like Roundhouse, What Would You Do?!?! and My Brother And Me. I'm telling you man Nickelodeon around the '90s with some of the best entertainment you can ask for growing up as a kid besides afternoon TV shows on your local TV station.

My dad was a big hippie dude he introduced me to amazing music but he never liked hip hop. I was born in 1990 and I remember watching all that as a kid and loving the musical guests it was my first introduction to hip hop. Good stuff.

I was born in March of 2000, so I just missed the 90s by a hair. Luckily though I have young parents who were growing up during this era of Nickelodeon, so I've been blessed by them introducing me and my younger sister to shows like All that, Keenan and Kel, Different Strokes, and even other shows like Bebe's kids and Fat Albert. Great video as always man!

They soundtrack for Harriet the Spy (1996) was funky as hell. Hey Arnold regularly played some of the smoothest jazz I ever heard

being able to talk to these childhood legends must be a feeling words cant really describe

I was today years old when it dawned on me how legendary the various Nickelodeon musical guests were. Never saw it in a list or gave it much thought and had no idea how good i had it as a pre-teen/teenager

Great video!! I agree that you over corrected the power levels on this one, I think adaptability mightve been a step too far, but a fun run regardless

One of the best videos you've done 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Niceloden was literally All Def Digital for the 90’s

The one time Lauryn Hill showed up on time…maybe.

Damn! Grew up with All That but forgot how many great guests they had!

I haven't even watched the video yet but the title already lets me know this will be dope.

Mark Mothersbaugh (from Devo!) wrote themes for Nickelodeon shows during this time too. What a wild era.

One of, if not “the” Golden Era’s of Hip Hop (&RNB)..👋🏾‼️ I’m a HipHop Dad. Mine listen with me, and we’re thrilled when the saw them on All That

Dude, you play bass in Nas's live band??? Been watching this channel for a while now. Never knowing I already saw you in real life. Keep up the good work.

that all that lineup is nice

Man i was watching the kenan and kel and all that intros just last night Cause i remembered they were bangers and the next day you put this out.

Love this . Love to see this format on Yo Gabba Gabba My daughter loved that show . So many great artists and Mark Mothersbaugh most episodes . 🤘✊ Love the channel Dude

Using 702's _"Steelo"_ for *Cousin Skeeter* was genius!! Changed the lyrics around 🤌✨ Amazing‼️

Maaaaaaan Nickelodeon was so impactful for me in terms of my taste in music. My folks played a lot of jazz, funk, etc and it was a solid foundation to build off of. Nick just enhanced my pallet even more! ☮️

I was born in '96, but I caught reruns of Kenen & Kel and All That growing up. Kenan & Kel is my favorite live-action show from Nickelodeon.

So dope. And FINALLY I know who the "5 minutes! 5 minutes!!!" guy is lmao

Nickelodeon's music spoke to a generation of 90s/2000s Youth

Yeah, those were some great years. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network literally slapped back then. I really miss those eras of my childhood. I really grew up during the best time in children's animation.

Just having Coolio on that Kenan and Kel joint will forever be GOATED and legit MADE sure our asses was in that seat when the show came on 😂

Mannnn I remember that Usher performance. And the Erykah Badu one. Also IMX (Immature)

Roundhouse! Wow...I watched this growing up and totally forgot all about the music.

Amazing video! All That was my childhood !

not to mention how good soundtracks like hey arnold were

You play for NAS????!?!!? Can we get a vlog about that?? We going to need a episode diving into bass for sure!

All that theme goes crazy 💯💖

Just got a new subscriber 🔥🔥

Some clips recently trended on twitter, and I can’t believe The Lox performed on All That 🤣

I’m a little too old for those shows. But I was buying albums from those artists. In Living Color introduced to me a lot of artists which went right into watching Yo MTV Raps.

Everyone needs to thank Hip Hop for making our childhood shows be classics.