10 Best Alternative Albums Of The 1990's
Announcing the sound of rock to come.
Once the 80's came to a close, the rock scene appeared to be reaching the end of its rope. New wave had long been in the rearview, arena rock acts were going through rough patches in their career, and hair metal had run out of new tricks. There needed to be a new energy to come from rock music. Something new, something different, something.... alternative.
As the 90's got underway, new bands came out of the woodwork that were playing rock music with a completely fresh sound. Almost overnight, the rock scene was flipped on its head by these bands that came to be called alternative rock.
While they had certain things in common like guitar-based songs and more thoughtful lyrics, the best of these alternative acts all had their own distinct identity. This caused the rock landscape to shift and the alternative scene began to include its own subgenres from grunge to pop-punk to Britpop.
From that point on, it was no longer about making a million off of mindless party songs. Now the focus of each artist was how to use their music to affect the world around them. Here are the records from the scene that had a little something for everyone.
10. Nimrod - Green Day
After grunge had called it a day around the mid-90's, pop-punk acts like Green Day picked up the mantle for alternative rock. However, the three brats from Oakland had gotten burnt out on their own material. Billie Joe Armstrong even went on record about being restless and not wanting to play three-chord punk forever.
With Nimrod, Green Day decided to throw every style imaginable into their sound to see what would stick. For your average Green Day fan, many will be happy to see ragers like "Nice Guys Finish Last" and "Reject," but that's not the whole story of this record. Reaching for new sounds, Green Day ran the gamut of styles from classic rock ("Redundant," "Scattered") to folk ("Walking Alone") to swing ("Hitchin a Ride") to instrumental ("Last Ride In.")
And let's not forget "Good Riddance," which everyone and their mom thought was the greatest graduation song in existence. This record is the epitome of meshing genres against one another to create your own distinct sound, which fits the alternative label perfectly. In making a record with sonic right turns, Green Day threw caution to the wind with zero regard for what their critics said, which is probably the most punk thing they could have done.