10 Perfect Albums That Will Make You Love Alternative Rock

The entire rock scene was in dire need of a wake up call at the start of the '90s. It was pretty clear that the hair metal bands that clogged up the airwaves for the past few years had run their course, but we weren't quite sure just what was going to come up to take their place in the meantime. Just when rock started to take a back seat in the charts, one riot during a pep rally shifted the entire focus to the city of Seattle.

While Kurt Cobain might not have wanted Nevermind to have as broad an appeal as it did, this was the kind of underground music that had the ability to speak to the masses. Almost constructed like children's songs, the simplicity of these tracks made them nearly impossible to get out of your head from the moment you heard them, talking about how proud these guys were to be misfits and even mocking the more mainstream fans who didn't understand them on songs like In Bloom.

And even though it's hard to decipher what Kurt was saying a lot of the time, Smells Like Teen Spirit is the kind of rallying cry that summed up just how we were all feeling. This was an anthem that was more about withdrawal than taking on the world, just letting out a primal scream about wanting to be entertained. Though rock had been dominated by the more superficial side of the business for the last few years, this was the warning from Generation X that the music industry better be on its toes. Because you never know when the next cultural change is going to strike.