10 Perfect 90s Albums That Changed Rock And Roll Music

Every single rock fan seemed to have the wind knocked out of them the minute that Kurt Cobain's death was announced on MTV. In just a few short years, Kurt had become an icon, and it looked like his death was going to signal the end of the entire rock scene as we knew it. There was a lot of darkness surrounding rock music at the time, and Green Day was where most people went to to move on from grunge's shadow.

Coming out of the Bay Area punk scene, Dookie became the next real movement of the '90s, with Green Day penning tunes that fell somewhere between the kind of snide attitude of a band like The Sex Pistols while also being filtered through the more pop flavored acts of the '70s like Cheap Trick and the Cars. With smash singles like Basket Case and Longview, rock got a lot less serious, as songs dealt with topics like masturbation and even the odd love song on a track like When I Come Around.

While the band may have had a strong backlash from this album and were branded as sellouts, there's a lot more that goes into an album like this than just cashing in at the right time. Green Day may have been looking to take that next step, but underneath all of that piss and vinegar was a rock and roll institution getting ready to explode.