Books: Trying to Define the 90s; the Nineties. by John Robb (Ebury Press, Pounds 9.99). Reviewed by Simon Evans

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The 60s were swinging, the 70s were drab, the 80s were greedy. But the 90s? How will we remember a decade that saw the fall of Thatcherism and the rise of Blairism, the rise of dance music and the fall of Michael Jackson?

The biggest selling artists of the decade were not Celine Dion, Mariah Carey or Oasis but the Beatles, a group that ceased to exist in 1970. The biggest grossing touring group was not U2 but the Rolling Stones, who SHOULD have ceased to exist in 1970.

John Robb, a former singer with forgotten sub-punk band the Membranes, an ex-journalist with Sounds and record producer for Cornershop, makes as good a stab as anybody could at summarising this strange decade but he's surely only half right when he claims "one of the cool things about the 90s …