10 Hard Rock Albums That Changed Music History

As the rock scene stumbled its way into the '90s, the alternative scene was still very much underground. Though there were people like Red Hot Chili Peppers and even the Pixies that notched up a couple of hits under the alternative banner, this was supposed to be music that was a little more left of the dial, more reserved for the likes of college rock than any massive scale. Once the sounds of hair metal started to die out, the whole rock scene seemed to flip in an instant after watching one band start a revolution in a gym.

While it would be easy to chalk up Nirvana's Nevermind to just the power behind Smells Like Teen Spirit, what Kurt Cobain was aiming for here is something a lot smarter than what we give him credit for. Bringing with him his signature sense of irony, every one of these tracks has a lot of emotions attached to them, sounding almost punk-ish in the guitar tone and having melodies that sound like they could have been written by John Lennon. Even if you didn't know what Kurt was getting at in the lyrics, you could hear a full range of emotions in his words, being sardonic in one minute and then hurting the next.

Whether Kurt wanted it to or not, this became the lynchpin for grunge rock to follow, with the alternative scene taking over MTV for the next decade, all under the banner of being yourself. We had been in the shadow of larger than life people in rock for years, and the age of the anti rock star was about to show itself.