10 Most IMPORTANT Rock Musicians Of The 90s

There's a good chance that the entire '90s wouldn't have been set in motion if it weren't for the legacy that Kurt Cobain left. Ever since Nirvana hit it big, Cobain was being lauded as the Voice of his Generation, looking to stamp out the hair metal of days gone by and make way for a new guard in rock music. On the surface though, there's not really a lot going on underneath the hood.

Across Nirvana's records, most of what Cobain did was pretty standard power chords to soundtrack the melodies he would write. Though the songs themselves were outstanding, there was no real thought put into them other than trying to write the greatest songs he knew how. However, the random lyrical association of something like Smells Like Teen Spirit or Come As You Are spoke to something more than just singing for the sake of putting words in the song.

This was the start of a new brand of authenticity in music, as Cobain put all of the angst that he could muster right in the middle of every song he sang, whether it was the dejected pessimism of Dumb or the ode to loneliness that everyone feels in Something in the Way. Though the rock community didn't real have Cobain for too long, this is what happens when an artist puts every bit of themselves into their art for the rest of the world to see.