10 Most IMPORTANT Rock Musicians Of The 90s

2. Tom Morello

Once the hair metal scene promptly died out, the era of the guitar god was officially dead. After the grunge movement gave way to much more authentic approaches to songwriting, guitarists who had studied under the Eddie Van Halen school of shred had to drop their usual schtick and start trying to play from the heart. However, Tom Morello managed to take the guitar and form a lane unto himself with Rage Against the Machine.

While experimenting with his setup throughout college, Morello began to incorporate different random sounds into his playing style, which sounding absolutely gargantuan when playing off of Zack de la Rocha's poignant lyrical flows. As opposed to just sticking with the traditional effects like wah wah and delay, Morello's weird eccentricities made for sounds that you didn't even think were possible coming out of a guitar, like the synthesizer like work on Know Your Enemy or the movie score uneasiness that comes on Ashes in the Fall.

In fact, the guitar sounds he was creating ended up being so mind-blowing to both fans and critics alike that Rage actually had to put a statement in their liner notes saying that everything you heard was coming from a guitar. Above all else, Morello's unorthodox rise to fame was a good proof of concept for the entire '90s. If you had the guts to just be yourself, you were going to go a long way.