60 Songs That Explain the '90s

by Rob Harvilla

Tragic Kingdom, the ’90s record I’d most underestimated as a commercial behemoth when I returned to this decade as a nostalgic podcasting adult, documents the world’s most cheerful hostile takeover, with Gwen’s bandmates (including her brother, outgoing co-founder Eric Stefani) all but physically knocked offstage by the fearsome power of her spotlight. It’s not that the band entirely abandons its ska roots on this record (see the first and last 10 seconds of the anti-phone-harassment anthem “Spiderwebs”), but those roots are no longer a focal point (see the whole rest of the song, a zippy New Wave jam in its own right). But maybe with “Just a Girl” it’s best to imagine No Doubt as a space shuttle where the rocket boosters burn out and detach once it achieves true superstar orbit, and in this case, those abandoned rocket boosters just happen to be labeled “SKA” and “EVERYBODY IN THE BAND OTHER THAN GWEN.” That’s not really selling out; that’s a little something called personal growth.