10 Perfect Rock Frontmen Of The 90s
The Wild Men of Alt-Rock.
The rise of alternative music in the '90s didn't really make for the most camera ready rock stars or anything. As time has gone on, you were more likely to find people who were more reluctant of fame rather than embracing everything that comes with rock and roll. That didn't make any of their antics any less spellbinding though.
As the decade went through one reinvention after another, we also got to see many different types of rock star frontmen who dominated the charts. While you had some of the tortured souls of grunge, you also had the start of the nu metal crowd along with bands from the pop punk and Britpop movement that were laying claim to the top of rock's throne.
When you're a frontman though, you need to do a little more than just stand in the middle of the stage and belt out the hits, and each of these men managed to rise to the challenge, whether it be through their outlandish behavior or actually managing to put their own lives on the line for the sake of the fans that were coming to see them every night. Compared to the usual care free songs from the previous generations, this wasn't just your fun rock and roll anymore. Rock had become a lifestyle, and it was about time they all started acting like it.
10. Jonathan Davis - Korn
When you look back on the initial surge of nu metal bands, it's hard to not cringe just a little bit. While some of them may have indeed had some legitimate pain behind their lyrics, some of the songs ventured more on the side of whiny than actually saying something meaningful. There was a dark side to the genre though, and Jonathan Davis knew it all too well.
From the very first Korn record onward, Davis was the epitome of what you thought of as the tortured heavy metal vocalist. On songs like Blind, you can hear him basically talking to himself, almost like he's a prisoner in a mental institution that's been let out of a cage to front a metal band for a couple of hours. As the years go by though, Davis has done a lot to refine his anger over the years.
While ignoring some of the more aged sides of their catalog, Davis has put a lot of genuine terror into some of his songs, from the wordless chant in the middle of Freak on a Leash to actually having a full blown breakdown in the vocal booth when recording the vocals for the song Daddy off of their self titled record. Though you're not really guaranteed to have the best of times whenever you listen to Korn's music, the off kilter weirdness of Davis tells you that there'll never be a dull moment either.