10 '90s Bands Everyone Forgets About
7. Dinosaur Jr.
The '90s were truly the era of the indie darling. As soon as Kurt Cobain started to break the door down for a new brand of rock and roll, a whole slew of obscure rock bands started coming to the forefront brandishing a new approach to the traditional rock song. If you were to ask Kurt himself though, there wasn't anything he was doing that Dinosaur Jr. hadn't already invented.
Before getting their first taste of mainstream success in the '90s, Dinosaur Jr. were already getting their sea legs as far back as the mid '80s, adopting a more laid back approach to alt rock. While the guitars may have still been crunchy on songs like Feel the Pain, the freewheeling vocal delivery and careful attention to melody made it impossible not to at least bob your head whenever any of their songs came on.
Compared to some of the more mainstream alt-rock bands, Dinosaur Jr. also managed to keep a lot of their indie cred even after having their fair share of hits, finding fans in artists as diverse as Eddie Vedder and Henry Rollins of Black Flag. When you've crossed that bridge of success when both sides of the pond can be happy, it's safe to say that you've hit on a formula that works.