Alternative rock is probably the most popular genre to come out of the 1990s and remains incredibly popular to this day. Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Weezer are a few of the groups that helped lead the alternative rock boom of the 90s. It has remained one of the most influential genres in my music taste and has remained one of my favorite genres to this day. In this post, I am going to describe to you a few of my favorite alternative rock albums.
Built to Spill’s Perfect From Now On is alternative rock in its truest sense. The guitars dominate every other instrument on this record with their power chords, buzz and fuzz, and crackling riffs. The vocals compliment the guitar with its slightly off-tune nature and wavering pitch. Six of the eight tracks on this record are over six minutes long, so each song puts a heavy emphasis on its instrumentals and even steps into the post-rock genre. Whereas most alternative rock groups put a heavy emphasis on melodies and lighter lyrics like Pavement, Built to Spill puts more emphasis on their chord changes and gloomier lyrics.
The Strokes have probably capitalized the most on the indie rock boom at the beginning of the 2000s. Their debut album Is This It, has reached high status and songs like “Someday” and “Last Nite” are still played on the radio today. The New York group released their record in the U.S. during the aftermath of 9/11 and now their sound is a reminiscence of the despair and lost hope that the people of New York recently attained despite their general uplifting and hopeful sound. The Strokes were the band for the underdog. Almost no one thought that an indie rock group would go gold in 2000 and went it did, the teenagers and young kids of that era felt as if they had someone to represent them.
Radiohead’s The Bends is possibly their most defining album and helped to revive alternative rock from its gloomy days after the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. Coming off of their slightly disappointing, yet still popular debut album Pablo Honey, Radiohead finally began to come into their sound with The Bends. Most people consider The Bends to be just another stepping stone in the release of OK Computer and Kid A, but a lot of their songs such as “Fake Plastic Trees” and “High and Dry” gave Radiohead a proper name in the musical world.