A lot of things happened in 1996. Bill Clinton got re-elected. It was a leap year (if you see the 29th comin’ you better duck). The Unabomber was arrested and brought to trial. I turned nine years old. And… a lot of good songs were recorded. To reflect that last aspect of ‘96, I drew this:

It’s the heads of the main songwriters of some of 1996’s best songs (according to the Billboard Modern Rock number-one tracks list, according to Wikipedia). “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins’ frontman Billy Corgan; “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova” by one-half of the Gallagher brothers, Noel, of Oasis (apparently they were on proverbial fire that year); “Ironic” (the ironically unironic song) by Alanis Morissette; “What I Got” by Sublime’s Bradley Nowell, who died of a heroin overdose that same year; “Pepper” by Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes; and “Novocaine for the Soul” by Mark Everett (“E”) of Eels.

I didn’t actually discover any of these songs until long after 1996, probably in the early 2000’s. And it should also be noted that these aren’t all the Billboard Modern Rock number-one tracks of ‘96. There were also more (which sucked, and were omitted from my drawing).

I was most pleased with how the heads of Billy Corgan and “E” turned out. I think I went a little overboard with the text for “Wonderwall,” though. And something about Alanis Morissette doesn’t quite feel right to me.

This style of illustration and content is something I’d be interested in pursuing further. What do you think? What other years or songs are worthy of being immortalized?