at this stage of my life, i kinda just listen to random playlists that random people curate and i judge based on the name and thumbnail (eg. "sexy indie") or movie/tv/video game soundtracks. however. the following have stood the test of time for me. this probably due to sentiment and nostalgia, but here they are nonetheless:
for me, this is kitaro, this is enya, and, unfortunately, this is josh groban. i heavily associate this sound with being under the age of 10 and having completely disassociated into my own internal fantasy world, so it is very comforting. i love having enya on quietly any given day at home. kitaro and josh groban i more heavily associate with the fall and winter for some reason!
off the top of my head, this is the backstreet boys and the spice girls. it's the red hot chili peppers. kanye west. maroon 5. third eye blind. it SHOULD have included britney spears, christina aguilera, destiny's child, and so on, but i was primarily influenced by having an older brother and otherwise growing up in a pretty misogynistic household where female popstars were shunned. which is a damn shame.
however, i don't want to limit this to just the 90s-early 2000s. 2006-2008, and 2010-2013, were very formative years for me in terms of music preferences. and on the rare occasion these days, i come across someone -- whether they're brand new or have been around for a while -- that manages to hit the spot.
i was fortunate to have come across mitski's music very early. she really grabbed me, along with many others my age, with "first love/late spring." i can listen to each of her albums from top to bottom to this day, and i do!
i wish i could honestly find these/their lofi versions and put them on a mix, because i'd love to listen to them out-of-context: all of the sims 2 music, the early levels of bomberman 64 (because i never got very far), kirby and the crystal shards, harvest moon: back to nature (particularly spring), and various songs from zelda OOT and MM (song of healing, astral observatory, fairy fountain...). inject it all straight into my veins.