Choosing the ’90s as your favorite decade of rock music is always controversial, as it tends to be the most divisive moment for rock ‘n’ roll. There were many bustling musical hubs at the time; there was Seattle’s grunge, led by striking vocalists like Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder and Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain. There were the Gallagher brothers, who were conquering the world from Manchester with Oasis. And there was everything in between: Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica, Radiohead, the list goes on.
The MTV generation, often without realizing or wanting to, changed the course of rock music forever. Now, it’s been over 30 years since most of the songs selected for this list were chosen, and they still hit as hard as they did when they first came out. Here’s why the 1990s gave us some of the greatest songs ever written.
10
Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
Few albums have been as era-defining as Nirvana‘s Nevermind. From the high-impact cover to the provocative lyrics and strong, purposely dirty tunes, Nirvana’s impact on music history has been insurmountable, especially considering their short-lived career. And undeniably, their greatest legacy is their most popular song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This song perfectly captured the angry youth of the time (the name was incredibly apt, as well as attention-catching), and Kurt Cobain‘s demanding, raspy screams, backed by a powerful rhythm section, still connects with young people as time goes by. It practically inaugurated the grunge movement, and carved a place in history for Nirvana.
9
Guns N’ Roses – “November Rain” (1991)
Guns ‘N Roses may have had their greatest hits in the late ’80s, but they changed the game with this power ballad. “November Rain,” from their 1991 album, Use Your Illusion I, is a nine-minute-long prog rock hit. It has everything: Axl Rose at his peak as a vocalist and pianist, Slash’s perfect solo, and the band functioning as a perfect, solid wall of sound. The video accompanying it is incredibly dramatic and intense, perfectly fitting for the song.
Slash’s solo has often been discussed for its beautiful melody, but it was practically an improvisation. The band first recorded it as an acoustic demo, and once they went electric, the solo felt almost instinctive. “As far as the guitar solo, it was so natural from the first time I ever played it on the demo that I don’t even know if I made any changes to it when we did the electric version on Use Your Illusion,” Slash explained. “One of the best things about a melody for a guitar solo is when it comes to you the same way every time, and that was definitely the case with ‘November Rain.’ When it came time to do the record, I just went into the studio, played the solo through a Les Paul Standard and a Marshall [2555, Jubilee head] and said, ‘I think that sounds right.’”
“Enter Sandman” is the kind of song that, if you hear it once, will stay in your head for weeks. Metallica released it as a single for their eponymous 1991 album, and at the core of the song is the hardest, and at the time, most catchy riff you’ll ever hear. The song was the first track they came up with for their album, and it was exactly what they needed. After the release of …And Justice for All, they wanted to go in a different direction, but they weren’t sure what to do.
“When we were done with the Justice cycle we were like: okay, there’s got to be a reset here, because we can’t just keep going longer and crazier and more progressive,” Lars Ulrich said about this period of the band. “It’s sort of like we hit a wall. So when we got together to write the next batch of songs, the mission statement was: simplify. And the first song we wrote, on day one, was ‘Enter Sandman’.” This song wasn’t just the start of a new era for Metallica; it also became an anthem of its time.
7
Radiohead – “Creep” (1992)
Radiohead‘s “Creep”, from their debut album, Pablo Honey, was a fairly autobiographical song that Thom Yorke wrote about feeling out of place. He started working on the lyrics long before Radiohead was a thing, and he never imagined it would become such a special song for other young people who felt exactly like him. “I wrote it at college,” he told Rolling Stone, “I wasn’t very happy with the lyrics; I thought they were pretty crap.”
The lyrics are about being a creep in a world of people who look and feel in control of their life while you’re spiraling, and they’re accompanied by a dirty, cough-like guitar sound that was entirely unintentional at first. “That nervous twitch he does, that’s just his way of checking that the guitar is working, that it’s loud enough, and he ended up doing it while we were recording. And while we were listening to it, it was like ‘Hey, what the f*** was that? Keep that! Do that!’”
6
Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (1996)
As proved by the raging success of Oasis’ comeback tour, the Gallagher brothers defined an entire decade of pop-rock. It’s hard to choose just one song from their 1996 album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, but many Oasis fans will agree that their single “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is the perfect example of their lasting impact on music. 30 years after its release, it remains unbeatable, something that took Noel Gallagher completely by surprise, because when he wrote it, Oasis was not successful at all.
“I remember writing it in Paris on a rainy night. We had just played a strip club: our set finished, the strippers came on. We were nothing, an insignificant little band,” Noel Gallagher explained. “And I remember going back to my hotel room and writing it, and thinking, ‘That’ll be pretty good when we record it.’ If I’d have known that night what I know now about people playing it at f****** funerals and weddings, I’d never have finished the song. Too much pressure.”
5
Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun” (1994)
“Black Hole Sun” was Soundgarden’s greatest hit, and it still keeps the legacy of the grunge band alive. Unlike their contemporaries, like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell‘s band didn’t experience the meteoric success of the grunge phenomenon, but their sound undoubtedly shaped the sound of ’90s rock, and this song is proof. Cornell explained that he wrote it because he misheard a news anchor, and thought he was talking about a black hole sun. The concept caught his attention, and he drew inspiration from that confusion almost instantly.
“It all came together, pretty much the whole arrangement, including the guitar solo that’s played beneath the riff,” the singer explained. “I spent a lot of time spinning those melodies in my head, so I wouldn’t forget them,” he continued. “I got home and whistled it into a Dictaphone. The next day, I brought it into the real world, assigning a couple of key changes in the verse to make the melodies more interesting. Then I wrote the lyrics and that was similar, a stream of consciousness based on the feeling I got from the chorus and title.”
4
The Cranberries – “Zombie” (1994)
Not many political anthems have the impact that “Zombie” did. Written by singer Dolores O’Riordan, it was a song from The Cranberries‘ second album, No Need to Argue, and it was her ode to her people. The Irish singer wrote this protest song about bombings during the later years of The Troubles, and her raw, poignant voice over the heavy, angry strumming of her electric guitar still shake you to the core.
“At the time Zombie was written, we were touring in the UK. It was before the peace treaty and there had been a lot of trouble. There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin,” O’Riordan explained. “We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing.” After O’Riordan’s death in 2018, the song rose in popularity again, and it became a chant not just in Ireland, but for people fighting for their causes worldwide.
3
Pulp – “Common People” (1995)
Pulp‘s “Common People” was their greatest hit, which catapulted the band into stardom, and what made it so successful was how relatable the lyrics are. In this track, singer Jarvis Cocker talked about the fascination that people with money have with less privileged people. He explained that he only became aware of the drastic class differences once he moved to London, and saw what was expected from people from different walks of life. In fact, the song was about a specific girl he’d met while studying at St. Martin’s College.
“I was studying film, and she might’ve been doing painting, but we both decided to do sculpture for two weeks. I don’t know her name. It would’ve been around 1988, so it was already ancient history when I wrote about her… It seemed to be in the air, that kind of patronising social voyeurism,” he said about her. This strange discomfort between people of different classes led him to write this timeless hit.
2
Foo Fighters – “Everlong” (1997)
Towards the end of the 1990s, the Foo Fighters were taking off. Born out of the ashes of Nirvana and led by Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters brought a healthy dose of humor and lightness to a decade when rock ‘n’ roll had embraced the gloomy side. Their 1997 album, The Colour and the Shape, included “Everlong,” the single that, to this day, is the closing track of almost every single show.
Much like was their style during the early stages of the band, the amazing song was accompanied by a hilarious and bizarre music video where Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins played husband and wife. They both fall asleep and share the same dream, in which they are Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy, and they’re running away from attackers, played by bandmates Pat Smear and Nate Mendel. Partly thanks to this video, this song remains one of the greatest Foo Fighters songs.
1
Pearl Jam – “Black” (1991)
Pearl Jam’s history is a roller-coaster from their very beginnings. In late 1990, Eddie Vedder connected with the surviving members of a Seattle band named Mother Love Bone, and within months, he had joined them and was recording an album. Ten, their debut album, came out in 1991, and it was an overwhelming hit. There are too many to choose from, but “Black” stands out among the rest for many reasons. First and foremost, Vedder’s voice is at its best in this song, partly because it’s written about his first love, and you can hear his emotion throughout the track. “I’ve heard it said that you can’t really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It’s a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can’t have forever,” he said about it. Another important part of this song is the hypnotic chord progression in the outro, which is somehow both catchy and moving. It’s a great song to hear live and sing along to, and no matter how much time passes, it’s always an intense experience.
