10 Best Hard Rock Soundtrack Albums

No one really plans to put together the theme songs to their generation. Regardless of how many people may like to claim to be the puppetmaster of taste, songs can only be called classics after they've held up over a certain time. Though Cameron Crowe's rom-com Singles is pretty by the numbers on the whole, the soundtrack tells an entirely different story.

Set in the city of Seattle in the early '90s, the songs on display here were originally meant to be a mixtape of a bunch of bands that Crowe liked, along with a couple of one-off classic rock tunes sprinkled in for good measure. What happened instead turned into one of the most consistent alternative soundtracks of all time, capturing every single part of the grunge scene at the peak of its powers. Despite the lone exception of Nirvana from the track listing, songs like Birth Ritual by Soundgarden and Overblown by Mudhoney are a great summation of the slacker attitude of Seattle, with bands that are in it just to have fun with their friends.

Aside from the grunge label, this is also one of the most well balanced soundtracks ever conceived, going from the doom of Alice in Chains' Would? to the mellow acoustic jam that comes from Seasons by Chris Cornell. For as much as time has soured on Singles as a film, the mythic status of these bunch of songs should have achieved legendary status by now.