20 Most Important Hard Rock Albums Of All Time

If you were a fan of hard rock in the early 90's, there wasn't much cause for celebration. Though veterans like Guns N Roses and Metallica were still making great material, the new hair metal bands were well past its expiration date and hard rock seemed to be dead in the water. Once 1991 rolled around, the world was changed by one baby in a swimming pool.

Emerging from the rainy city of Seattle, Nirvana burst onto the charts with Nevermind and rewrote the rulebook on everything hard rock. While no one could deny the intensity behind the band's tracks, each song had an inherent tunefulness that seemed to blend the Beatles with Black Flag. Leading the charge was Kurt Cobain, whose immaculate pop sensibilities were able to bring the punk rock attitude to legions of kids across the world. Even if you couldn't understand a word of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," you could understand the emotion through each syllable Cobain uttered.

This might not be the most technically complex rock album out there, but this one record showed an entire generation of kids why rock and roll is so powerful. To this day, labels are trying to find the next Nirvana, but rock like this only comes when you reach into your soul and share your musical identity with the world.