12 Best Hard Rock Singers Of The 1990s

For all the good things that grunge brought to the rock world, the scene could still get a little bit homogeneous. Even though each band was coming up with one killer song after another, many of these acts were mining the same low-register vocal style with very few bells and whistles. Soundgarden, however, was a different beast entirely.

As opposed to singing in a dour tone like his contemporaries, Chris Cornell was what the scene needed to bridge the gap between the hard rock crowd and the alternative scene. In each of the band's songs, there was a certain alternative quality to the riffs, only combined with a singer that sounded like he could compete with Robert Plant. The songs themselves may have been a change of pace, but Cornell would be the one who sold you on the band's material.

Outside of Soundgarden, Cornell also flexed his vocal chops in Audioslave, where he traded in his alternative styles for a more refined rock frontman approach. With one foot planted in hard rock and the other in alt-rock, Chris Cornell was the best of both worlds whose music helped bring rock fans together. Though he may have departed from this earth recently, Cornell's music is something that you're going to be hearing for many years to come.