Alt Rock: Grunge to Emo

Got cobwebs in your ears? Well, they're about to be righteously blown away by two decades-plus of blistering alt rock from across the pond. Prepare for tinnitus-inducing visitations from Mudhoney ("Touch Me I'm Sick"), whose singer, Mark Arm, is thought to have been the first to attach the word grunge to music back in '81, hard rock fusionists Rage Against the Machine ("Killing In the Name"), and California desert royalty Queens of the Stone Age ("No One Knows"). J Mascis plants the alt seeds of the future with Dinosaur Jr. in Next Steps.

Formed in Massachusetts, 1984, Dinosaur Jr. prefigured many alt-rock mutations of the '90s by combining dual loves of speed metal and jangle rock: "Freak Scene" smartly balances jagged dissonance and sweet melody. The Beastie Boys hijack our heads with rapcore classic "Sabotage", and Beck nails Generation X to the post with his cleverly constructed "Loser", which he later admitted was the result of his dire attempts to rap like Chuck D. Alt translates as funny, in Deep Cuts.

Alt rock can be as serious as a nuclear war, but not if it's played by the Presidents of the United States of America, whose trademark surreal humour fuels "Lump", or Tenacious D (a.k.a. Jack Black and Kyle Gass), whose "Tribute" documents the creation of the best song in the world, as demanded by Satan. Disturbed undermines the levity with their corrosive classic "Down With the Sickness" and Lit adds a splash of Orange County pop punk to the mix with "My Own Worst Enemy".

Bookended loosely by the bands that pioneered grunge at one end, and those who (often reluctantly) carried the emo banner into the 21st century at the other, this Essentials playlist offers a sprawling, genre-surfing, and never-less-than-magnificent overview of U.S. alt rock. Here, you will encounter the kings (Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins) and the court-jesters (Wheatus, Bowling for Soup, Tenacious D) alongside every band of note that rose above the rank-and-file to rock hard in spite of the mainstream. Anyone caught yelling "Freebird", or flipping unironic devil-horns, will be asked to leave.