10 Most IMPORTANT Rock Musicians Of The 90s

Once the real era of irony started to set in, the thought of anything dark and disturbing populating the charts seemed less and less likely. Why would we want metal warlords singing about something depressing when we had random dudes in flannel already singing about that? It's one thing to make beautiful music with dark lyrics...but what happens when you make dark music with dark lyrics though?

Coming out of the late '80s as a more electronic artist, Trent Reznor's arrival on the scene with Nine Inch Nails was something a lot nastier than what was on the charts. Instead of hearing someone like Eddie Vedder talk about demons in himself and others, these industrial bangers were pretty much open letters of spite in song form, as Reznor tore into his soul to pull out some of the most disgusting lines ever put to tape.

Across both Pretty Hate Machine and the Downward Spiral, Reznor was both creating the benchmark for industrial rock while also giving artists permission to say whatever they want so long as they do it with conviction. If you've got the right to make something like Wish a hit through shock factor alone, you can do pretty much anything. You had better believe that the Marilyn Mansons of the world were taking notes.