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One event which signaled the end of the nineties, was the dissolution of the Smashing Pumpkins. With the Pumpkins gone, one of the most interesting, original and prolific phase in music was well and truly over. Now, as we gradually digest and drift away from the nineties, music aficionados have started to form two very distinct groups (at least among my friends). The Modernists and The Traditionalists (sounds arty, doesn't it). The former swear by the nineties and the latter (more vocal and dismissive) cannot take anything but the sixties!

For someone like me, who respects the Stones or the Beatles or Dylan as much as Radiohead or Blur or Jeff Buckley or Nirvana, this polarisation (or rivalry) seems a bit exaggerated and unnecessary.

It is a given that the sixties was the decade when rock music was invented and pioneered. Guitar distortions by the likes of Hendrix and Clapton or decadence of the Rolling Stones or the sheer popularity of the Fab Four, sixties was the epitome. Everything that could be done in the realms of rock n roll was done and perfected. But all this does not render the nineties irrelevant (or less relevant), as some people argue. From my point of view (and many would agree), the music that came out during the first half of the last decade was as original as anything. Whether it was the grunge rock of bands like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden, art - pop of Brit bands like The Stone Roses or Suede or something truly alternative as the Smashing Pumpkins or the Jesus and Mary Chain, they all were genre-smashing.

It's been only five years. Let us wait for a while, let the music age and see how it becomes immortal (remember The Velvet Underground).

My point of view might appear to be biased in favour of the nineties. I reiterate, that is not the case. It is just that nineties have been dismissed very early. Give those guys a break. Give them a decade, at least.