The nineties are the decade where radio formats fragmented, and the stations here reflect it. Grunge and alternative rock, Eurodance, hip-hop's golden age, Britpop, trip-hop, jungle and the rise of superclub house all belong to the same ten years and to entirely separate audiences.
Eurodance in particular is worth calling out, because it dominated European radio in a way that is invisible from an American perspective: fast four-on-the-floor tracks with a sung chorus and a rapped verse, produced largely in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Stations tagged 90s in mainland Europe will play a great deal of it; stations tagged 90s in the United States will play almost none.
The decade also brought the loudness war into full swing, so late-nineties material is mastered considerably hotter than early-nineties material. On a station that covers the full decade you will notice the level jumping, which is in the recordings rather than the stream.
