a couple of things
first, i'm 50, so i was around for the early stages of punk and rap/hip-hop, and i personally believe that the 1990s (at least the early to mid-90s) were creative and ideological high-points in the lineages of both these realms of music. i've already carried on enough about early and mid-1990s "indie" music, but seriously, it was a great time to have a sick local record store with lots of vinyl. also, it's funny to me to see The Offspring listed next to Dinosaur Jr above (sorry Dale)--the latter was on the original SST roster after all.
also, i love the ska conversation, and--ironically i guess--i'm thankful i stopped paying attention to "new" ska around the 1990s...yuck. that being said, considering ska's long history, i do indeed think the whole 2-Tone era was a "golden era" for ska, at least for bands doing lots of cool covers of original stuff, and in this regard, i love a number of the performances from that old Dance Craze movie...The Specials' performance of "Concrete Jungle" was intense as hell. i'll include some favorites here just because i can (i've probably shared these somewhere else, but i'm too lazy to look):