The History of Rock and Roll: The 90s

Rap Rock Takes Off

Following the success of the Run DMC/Aerosmith remake of "Walk This Way", other bands began to realize the potential of mixing rock with urban styles of music. The Red Hot Chili Peppers mixed funk with hard rock. Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, and Linkin Park mixed rock and hip hop. In the early 90s, several metal bands collaborated with rap and hip hop artists to create songs in the style of rap metal.

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Hair Metal Goes on Hiatus

The End of 80s Excess

By the early 1990s, hair metal ruled the music scene. Rap was also growing in popularity, and gangsta rap would very soon become the rulers of the Top 40 charts.

However, by 1991, hair metal had become a cliche. The formula for selling records and getting singles on the radio had been set in stone. EVERYONE was putting out a power anthem as their first single, followed by a power ballad as the second. Even Metallica, with their enormous hit Black Album, was criticized by many as being too mainstream, too "sell out".

Mainstream metal was dying, and a new scene that had been slowly building up would soon take its place...

The History of Rock and Roll:

Grunge

Seattle takes over the world!

The 1990s

As pop metal lay dying, a new breed of bands came from Washington state, mostly from Seattle, and changed the musical landscape with a mix of hardcore punk and metal that came to be known as grunge.

The name "grunge" described the dirty sound of the music and the generally sloppy appearance of the musicians. Gone were the spandex, sparkles, and big hair of pop metal. Grunge musicians, instead, chose to wear flannel shirts, ripped jeans, and old tennis shoes.

Grunge dominated the early 90s, with record companies frantically looking for bands that sounded like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains.

However, grunge was a short-lived movement, which quickly died along with Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994.

Post-grunge bands, from all over America, kept the sound of grunge going for a few more years, but grunge was essentially dead by the late 90s.

Alternative Rock

Do It Yourself!

Since the beginning of rock and roll, there have been bands and artists that have avoided big record companies to make their albums. In the 90s, the music of these independent bands really exploded, pushing alternative rock into the mainstream.

By recording music in their own home studios, or by going through small record companies, indie bands were able to create music that didn't follow the rules set forth by big record companies, and truly unique music came out during this time.

Pop Punk

Punk Becomes Radio Friendly

In the 90s, there were punk-oriented bands that began producing radio-friendly music that began to be referred to as "punk pop". Of these punk pop bands, the most successful has been Green Day.

Green Day's 1994 album, "Dookie", surprised the band and Reprise Records, when it quickly sold over 10 million copies (eventually 16 million) and spawned 5 Top Ten hits.

They paved the way for other pop punk pioneers, such as The Offspring and Rancid, to hit the charts and sell lots of albums.

A second wave of pop punk followed in the late 90s, with bands such as Blink 182, Good Charlotte, and Sum 41, also having success.