'90s Hard Rock

Few song snippets scream "'90s!" like the alt-rock-revolution-cry intro of Nirvana's generation-definer, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Slapping you upside the head with sucker punch drums and windshield wiper guitars, it signified everything that was new and electrifying about the decade in music. And it was quite a decade in music, featuring the grunge of Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice In Chains; the B-movie metal of White Zombie, the industrial S&M throb of Nine Inch Nails, the mommy-never-loved-me rock of Korn, and the flapjack funk of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In many ways, the '90s hard rock scene split into as many sounds and subgenres as a middle school lunchroom. Over at the table of bookworms and future philosophers, Weezer channeled the power pop of the Cars and Big Star, Veruca Salt whipped thrift store boys into a frenzy with scrambled guitars, and Screaming Trees shimmied to the Singles soundtrack standout, "Nearly Lost You." As for the jocks, they enjoyed shouting about the big game and senior pranks over such shove-first/ask-questions-later staples as "Whatever," "Mudshovel," "Sugar," and "Hey Man Nice Shot."

"Blue Monday" sure sounds familiar, doesn't it, oh children of the '80s? Of course, it does — it's a steely, streamlined cover of one of the best songs New Order and new wave ever produced. Turns out that the '90s had plenty welcome whiffs of nostalgia, including the puff-puff-pass rock of Kyuss, the acid-laced bizarre-isms of Butthole Surfers, a Peter Gabriel cover featuring hot-poker guitars and the eternal-torment vocals of Ozzy Osbourne ("Shock the Monkey"), and the influenced-just-about-everyone-in-its-wake indie rock of Sonic Youth.

The so-called slackers of the '90s were anything but, defying the decade's downbeat headlines with some straight-up rock 'n' roll — overheated amps, dustbowls of distortion, and drums that could punch holes through concrete walls. But the music was also accessible enough to crack the charts like a dozen eggs, while filling airwaves and arenas with spastic turntable scratches and stabs ("Down"), valley-of-death drums ("The Beautiful People"), tantalizing yet terrifying metal ("Enter Sandman"), middle-finger masochism ("Killing in the Name"), and slice 'n' dice chord progressions ("Are You Gonna Go My Way").