10 Perfect Albums That Will Make You Love Alternative Rock

4. OK Computer - Radiohead

The entire concept of alternative almost stopped having meaning during the late '90s. Since every other rock band was hopping on the grunge bandwagon and the weirder acts were getting spots on MTV, it was hard to say what these bands were even alternative to anymore. As the Britpop scene started to reach its peak though, Radiohead broke off from their one hit wonder tag and looked towards the future on OK Computer.

Stomping out most of their competition, this was one of the landmark records of the '90s for any brand of rock music, taking bits and pieces of electronic music and layering it on some of the most beautiful melancholy lyrics that Thom Yorke would create. Whereas most albums tie together using storylines or having a certain theme behind every song, it feels like you're being treated to certain musical vignettes on every one of these tracks, from the alien abduction going on in Subterranean Homesick Alien to the biggest depression lullaby of all time with No Surprises.

And we have to bring up Paranoid Android, the three part suite that almost acts as an alt rock answer to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, taking each musical idea and bringing it to its fullest potential. This wasn't just Radiohead trying to make something catchy in the hopes that they might get another hit on the charts. Radiohead were expanding the horizons of what rock and roll could be in the next decade, and they would spent the '00s continuing to explore what they were capable of.