October 27, 2025 by Elias Prodger (‘26)
As a writer and music fanatic born just on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis, I’ve had to learn about pop culture movements from a broader, reflective perspective. In the ’60s we had hippies, in the ’70s we had disco mania, in the ’80s we had giant hair with modulated synthesizers and reverb-gated drums. This view of pop culture often tends to be reductionist—used to simplify culture without covering the various subcultures or movements that help shape history. There is no decade more guilty of this than the 1990s.
The 1990s were almost defined by their fragmentation. Nirvana bursting onto the scene in ’91 brought an alternative boom that undoubtedly became a massive pop culture shift, but the idea of the band being this asteroid-level event that wiped out glam rock refuses to account for Kiss and Aerosmith’s massive mainstream hits. The pre-Y2K explosion of electro-pop and nu metal fails to explain the plethora of butt-rock bands that took Pearl Jam’s signature vocal compression and moping and turned it into a pseudo–South Park parody. In a decade plagued by flourishing counter-movements and an increasingly fractured monoculture, no band captured that contradiction better than The New Radicals.
The New Radicals, even in their name, hold that signature ’90s pretentiousness. The band’s core—lead singer Gregg Alexander and keyboardist Danielle Brisebois—formed the power-pop outfit in 1997 following failed solo careers for both. The band released their first and only album, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. The album cover features Alexander in a perfect hipster outfit surrounded by forcefully cheery yellows. The album is fantastically written from start to finish, with lush piano and keyboard arrangements and a delightfully off-kilter voice. It’s surprisingly consistent, given that the mainstream took one song as the band’s entire career.
“You Get What You Give,” from its opening count-off is bursting at the seams with angsty, danceable energy. Each section of the song is perfectly placed; not a moment is wasted in its glorious five-minute runtime. The chord structure masterfully voice-leads with the droning piano, paired with a scientifically perfect vocal melody and rhythm that seems like it should be illegal to be so catchy. It’s a songwriter’s song—it should be placed on a pedestal in every YouTube song breakdown and used as a template in every college songwriting course.
“You Get What You Give” only managed to reach number 36 on the U.S. charts while rightfully making the top 5 in the U.K. and Canada. U2’s The Edge said he was jealous of it, Joni Mitchell called it one of the only songs in decades that excited her, and Ice-T sang its praises on an appearance on Conan in 2006. Despite the critical success, Alexander’s signature tilted bucket hat seemed to symbolize his distaste for fame, and he broke the band up less than a year after the album was released. In the breakup note, Alexander stated that he felt more at home in the background, producing and songwriting for other artists. This is where Alexander and Brisebois truly shine.
Alexander got to work quickly, writing hits for Carlos Santana and Rod Stewart. However, his arguable magnum opus comes in Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor.” The song saw a revival with the release of the movie Saltburn, rightfully pushing the track back into the pop charts. As for Brisebois, she co-wrote a little-known song called “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. I assume everyone reading this does know the song—and if you know “Unwritten,” you likely know every word of that iconic chorus.
After decades of writing, the band reunited at the Biden–Harris inauguration in 2021, as well as releasing a cover of “Murder on the Dancefloor.” The band is now widely regarded as one of the best one-hit wonders of the 1990s. Not only do I find this to be true, I think it’s shameful we’ve forgotten what this group has done for the history of popular music. The next time you feel down in an increasingly frustrating and fragmented world, throw on “You Get What You Give” and celebrate one of the greatest songwriting duos we forgot about.