Rock History: More from the '90s, then the Effect of 9/11 and Rocking into the 21st Century

Woodstock '94 and Corporate Sponsorship

A number of Woodstock diehards were upset at the corporate sponsorship of this second festival (PepsiCola paid a reported $5 million as the main sponsor, though the fest cost $30 million overall to produce.) And members of the press weren't thrilled, either, at being gouged $400 a night for rooms at the local Holiday Inn, which usually charged $70 a night. The rooms had been bought up months before by a group called Global Village Enterprises (an ironic name!,) then sold to the press at inflated prices. So much for the original Woodstock spirit. Still, the music was often exceptional and the weekend ended with a moving, cleansing set by Peter Gabriel.

Technology Spotlight: Pro Tools Cont'd

According to Jack White of the White Stripes and Raconteurs, "I think Pro Tools is highly inappropriate to record music. It's too easy to correct mistakes, it's too easy to fix things. We hear this sort of clean, plastic perfection that's been applied to all the tracks. That is not the kind of music we grew up loving and listening to and wanting to be a part of.''Others argue, however, that it's never right to blame the tools, that the principles of audio engineering remain the same, and that the system allows a producer or musician to use it and a variety of ways. What is true is that Pro Tools is a complex tool that offers amazing production flexibility and it has forever changed how records are made.

11. The biggest selling American rock band is who?

Aerosmith

Santana's comeback

After being a perennial touring act known for great gigs and poor-selling albums, Latin rockers Santana, who had played the Woodstock Festival back in 1969, exploded in 1999 with the disc Supernatural. Devised by leader Carlos Santana and Arista Records president Clive Davis, the album was a duets project that sold an incredible 27 million copies worldwide and won 8 Grammy Awards. The leading track, "Smooth," was sung by Matchbox 20 singer Rob Thomas. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three months. Other hits were "Maria Maria" and "Put Your Lights On" (with rock/rapper Everlast.) Further collaborators on the album were Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Eagle-Eye Cherry, and Cee-Lo.

2. She signed with Madonna's record label and became an overnight sensation.

Alanis Morrisette

Alanis Cont'd

Alanis got the catharsis she needed, apparently, because her next albums did not reflect a similar anger. Nor similar record sales, unfortunately. Her followup, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie in 1998 sold three million copies—not bad—but a far cry from the mega-million sales of Jagged Little Pill. She turned to some New Age, droning chant-pop that confused listeners and left some people actually hoping that she'd get mad again.

Pushing the Boundaries: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Flaming Lips

Alternative rock eventually encompassed all kinds of subgenres, from industrial rock to grunge, rap-metal, and even prog-rock. Where once artists had to feed the MTV beast, now they had to feed the alternative rock beast. Rock continued to mutate into different forms. Many of these bands, like R.E.M., were first played on college radio stations before going to the majors. Next up is a look at the cutting edge—the freaky funk of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails, and the fractured whimsy of Flaming Lips. The Chili Peppers' unique performance style has helped define them.

Amanda Palmer and the Dresden Dolls Cont'd

Another equally bizarre tune, "Girl Anachronism," came from their debut and confirmed Palmer's new image as a brilliant eccentric. After playing festivals around the world and becoming underground darlings, the Dresden Dolls took a hiatus in 2007 and Palmer made a solo album with another satirical title, Who Killed Amanda Palmer. The Dolls have had occasional reunions since, while Palmer continues to fascinate on her own as well. She is continuing the fiercely self-reliant streak of Ani DiFranco who in the '90s paved the way for so many indie artists with her Righteous Babe record label. Palmer has become a leading light in exposing her work on the Internet and promoting herself through social media.

Historical Perspective

As the '80s drew to a close, there was a push for change, hence the origin of alternative rock, which wanted to go back to a punk-influenced, do-it-yourself ethic. Rock had become bloated again with fat-cat superstars, so it was time to challenge the mainstream once more. Thus the punk-metal Seattle sound of grunge was born, with Nirvana and Pearl Jam leading the way. Then came the two new Woodstocks—Woodstock '94 and Woodstock '99—which brought alternative rock into the limelight but unfortunately proved that you can't always go home again to the peace-and-love vibe of the original. Neither of the new Woodstocks came close to the cultural status of the first one in 1969. The world was in an upheaval too—1991 saw the beginning of the Gulf War and the end of the Soviet Union. There were riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after four police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, even though the beating was caught on video. Then came the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people, the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, and the terrorist murders in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, prompting the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This 9/11 tragedy also took its toll on rock, prompting the censorship of some songs deemed inflammatory by radio programmers. This effectively helped kill the "angry nu metal,'' alias rap-metal, movement of Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, and other acts that found themselves in the crossfire.

Technology Spotlight: A Classic Band on Stage

As we learned previously, the Allman Brothers Band are a blues-based outfit that helped pioneer the jam-band sound. Let's explore the stage gear of this classic rock band and look at how they blended historically significant, old-school rock equipment with modern state-of-the-art technology. The Allman Brothers work with Brotherhood of Light - a lighting company from the San Francisco Bay area that has been providing psychedelic light shows since the late 1960's. As you can see from the photos, they have an elaborate digital set up and are one of the only lighting companies around who still manually mixes oils during a performance to project amorphous colored blobs - a true fusion of high-tech and low-tech. A modern adaptation in sound reinforcement has been the proliferation of powered speakers used in speaker arrays. These modular speaker systems are designed to be scalable. The crew can add or subtract speakers from the array depending on the size and acoustic properties of each venue. The DiGiCo mixing board converts all of the audio from the microphones to digital audio, uses digital signal processing effects, has fiber optic cables, and has data storage just like a modern computer. The board also allows the front-of-house mixing engineer to send sonic signals in the venue, adjust the settings to suit the acoustics of the space, and save that profile as a preset, so when the band returns to the venue on the next tour, getting the sound right becomes easier. The Swedish made Lab.gruppen PLM series gear in the picture is designed to make the use of the powered speaker arrays as efficient as possible, enhance the sound, and to protect the speakers from any overloads.

Rolling Stones Keep Rolling

Billboard magazine says the Rolling Stones' "No Filter Tour" became the first post-pandemic tour to earn more than $100 million. In fact, the tour grossed $130.9 million from selling 577,000 tickets in just 14 dates in 2021 (that's almost $10 million per show!), according to Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Presents, which booked the tour. "Five decades later, they're still the biggest band in the world," said Marciano. "There's no question about it, and they've got the numbers to prove it."

Brit Revival with Oasis, Radiohead, and Coldplay

Brit pop had been dormant for a while, but sprang to life in the mid-'90s with Oasis, followed by Radiohead and Coldplay. They were very different bands—Oasis was more upbeat, neo-psychedelic pop, Radiohead was more experimental and eventually techno, and Coldplay had grandiose aspirations of being the next U2 (but were drubbed in the press because of their ambition.)

8. This artist played at the first and second Woodstock festivals and later became a well-publicized sperm donor.

David Crosby

Garage-Rock & Blues Revival: The White Stripes

Detroit has been home to plenty of primal rock acts—from the Stooges to MC5 to Ted Nugent—so it wasn't a surprise when the White Stripes emerged in the late '90s. They were just a duo, but they put out a lot of retro-spiced noise. Singer/guitarist Jack White and drummer/vocalist Meg White told the media they were brother and sister, but they were actually married until 2000. They were certainly married musically, helping to revive garage-rock and run counter to the nu metal of the time. Their self-titled debut album in 1999 was dedicated to blues legend Son House. It had the song "Jimmy Lee Explodes," which sounds like the '60s band Them featuring Van Morrison. The next Stripes album, White Blood Cells (2001), really spearheaded the garage-rock revival, along with other new bands such as the Strokes and the Hives. The album had the blues stomp, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," which became a hit. It also showed Jack White's versatility with the Paul McCartney-like ballad "We're Going to Be Friends," and the country of "Now Mary." Followup discs Elephant (2003) with the garage-y "Hypnotize" and "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine," furthered the cause, as did Get Behind Me Satan (2005), featuring the hit "My Doorbell" (with the line "I'm thinking about my doorbell—when are you gonna ring it?") and Icky Thump (2007), which had the change-of-pace folk song "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn." Jack White has become a music entrepreneur with his Third Man Records label and has championed a recent resurgence of vinyl records and limited edition releases.

Technology Spotlight: Pro Tools

Dramatic changes in recording have occurred because of the Pro Tools digital audio workstation (DAW.) If you look around the music business, Pro Tools is as ubiquitous today as a tape recorder was 25 years ago. Vast multitrack recording capability, nondestructive editing, MIDI sequence playback, automated mixing, signal processing, integrated software, synthesizers and samplers, full video support, and numerous other capabilities make it possible to use Pro Tools for anything that involves audio recording. It has enabled the rise of more low-budget home studios, but DAWs have hurt the longevity of big studios like the Hit Factory in New York, which is now out of business. Designed by UC Berkeley graduate Peter Gotcher and his friend, Evan Brooks, and developed by Avid Technology, Pro Tools first appeared in 1991. Its digital Time Domain Multiplexing (TDM) technology was borrowed from Bell Labs and the telephony field. The first album recorded, edited, and mixed totally in the tapeless Pro Tools format was the Beach Boys' "Summer in Paradise" in 1992. And its first no. 1 single was Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca." At first, Pro Tools only offered a four-track capability, but in 1997 it attained a 48-track level that made it more attractive to many artists and bands. At first its sound quality was criticized but advances in digital hardware and software technology in the past five to 10 years have all but silenced that critique.Some artists, however, still detest it for other reasons. Its computer interface and the ability to fix every imperfection doesn't sit well with some artists who feel the system has been abused by producers and engineers by making music that is too perfect and lifeless.

Sinead O'Connor

Dublin native, crashed onto the scene with an unusual look (her shaved head), but with an exquisitely sensuous voice that made her an overnight star on her I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got album in 1990. It had the hits "Nothing Compares 2 U" (a ballad written by Prince that became one of the fastest-selling singles in history), "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "I Am Stretched on Your Grave." But her traits as a provocateur constantly stirred controversy, as when she ripped up a picture of the Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992. She sang an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "War," but changed the word "racism" to "child abuse" as a protest against allegations of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. She then pulled out a picture of Pope John Paul II, said "Fight the real enemy" and ripped it up. She was attacked in the press after that. Even Madonna jumped in and said, "I think there is a better way of presenting her ideas than ripping up an image that means a lot to other people." But really, everything Sinead O'Connor did was rock & roll, especially with the perspective that the passage of time allows. And if you need any further proof of Sinead's influence, witness Phoebe Bridgers' faithful, emotional cover of "Black Boys on Mopeds," a song which is unfortunately just as poignant now as it was the day the original was written.

Limp Bizkit at Woodstock '99

During Limp Bizkit's set the fans got out of control by crowd-surfing on pieces of broken plywood and throwing water bottles in the air (promoters nationwide later sold water at concerts with the caps off so the water would run out if you threw the bottles; leave it to Limp Bizkit to start another trend.)

Dramatic New Voices

Four female rockers were among the most dramatic new voices as the next millennium approached. Sinead O'Connor was a controversial, non-traditional firebrand whose talent was never in doubt. Alanis Morissette was a bold new arrival—her anger exploded on the scene. Melissa Etheridge grew up influenced by Janis Joplin and it showed in her open-throated, full-throttle vocals. And in more recent years, Amanda Palmer revived "punk cabaret" and has been an income-generating guru of crowd-funding campaigns. Her Kickstarter campaign in 2012 raised $1.2 million from 24,883 fans who pledged.

Green Day at Woodstock '94

Green Day was the big breakout act from the festival. Called alternative rock but really an updated punk band, Green Day played during an intense morning rain and a mud fight broke out between the band and fans who started hurling clumps of mud at the stage. I had just gotten there and it was an extraordinary sight (with crazed crowdsurfing as well—remember, this is the morning hour) that helped propel the group to word-of-mouth fame. Their garage-punk intensity summoned memories of the early Who and the Jam.

Eric Church

Hailing from North Carolina, Church started out playing Jimmy Buffett cover songs in bars. He says his influences also include Metallica and AC/DC. His song "That's Damn Rock and Roll" has an electric rhythm guitar riff echoing AC/DC, plus lyrics calling rock a "ride in the street" and a "rebel revolution," while ending with the line "Give all ya got till there ain't nothin' left/ That's damn rock and roll!"

Oasis

Heavily affected by the classic psychedelic pop of the Beatles,fronted by two mercurial and often feuding brothers—Noel and Liam Gallagher—who made headlines for their rifts as much as their riffs. They were a cocky bunch from Manchester that had big-time radio success and were "anti-grunge" in their outlook. Noel was a Nirvana fan, but disliked the negativity of grunge. He said the Oasis song "Live Forever,'' a 1994 single, was "written in the middle of grunge and all that, and I remember Nirvana had a tune called 'I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.' I was like, 'Well, I'm not having that.' As much as I f------ like Cobain... I'm not having that. I can't have people like that coming over here, on smack, f------ saying that they hate themselves and they wanna die. That's f------ rubbish." fronted by two mercurial and often feuding brothers—Noel and Liam Gallagher—who made headlines for their rifts as much as their riffs. They were a cocky bunch from Manchester that had big-time radio success and were "anti-grunge" in their outlook. Noel was a Nirvana fan, but disliked the negativity of grunge. He said the Oasis song "Live Forever,'' a 1994 single, was "written in the middle of grunge and all that, and I remember Nirvana had a tune called 'I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.' I was like, 'Well, I'm not having that.' As much as I f------ like Cobain... I'm not having that. I can't have people like that coming over here, on smack, f------ saying that they hate themselves and they wanna die. That's f------ rubbish."

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hollywood group that broke big in 1991 with the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, but they had actually been together since 1983, when they were known for weirdness first, music later. They made waves by performing naked with socks covering their genitals (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols probably wishes he had thought of that.) Back then, the Chili Peppers were described as "a potent combination of L.A. skateboard cool, tattoos, thrash, and funk." Their self-titled debut album was produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four, then their second, Freaky Styley, was produced by George Clinton of P-Funk. It had songs like "Sex Rap" and "Lovin' and Touchin'," which did not become Top 40 standards. As bassist Flea (real name Michael Balzary, he's from Australia) said of singer/bandmate Anthony Kiedis, "He was a freak and I was a freak, so we decided to freak together." They freaked, for sure, on some unprintably titled songs that were tailored more for frat boys than anyone else. But then came a wakeup call. Guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988. He was replaced by John Frusciante, a skilled player, and new drummer Chad Smith also joined. But the hijinks continued—while taping an MTV spring break special, Flea and Kiedis leaped off stage, grabbed a woman, and Smith started spanking her. Flea and Smith were charged with, and convicted of, battery. Fortunately, they got their act together for the subsequent breakthrough of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which was helmed by producer Rick Rubin. It sold seven million copies in the U.S. and had a cavalcade of hits, including the funk-rock gem "Give It Away," the Hendrix-flavored "Suck My Kiss," and the thoughtful "My Lovely Man," about their deceased guitarist, Hillel Slovak. In later years, the hits kept coming, too, including 1999's massive "Californication."

Business Spotlight: Napster Jolts the Industry

In 1999, just before the end of the century, Napster debuted its peer-to-peer file-sharing service on the Internet. Consumers could now share audio files in the MP3 format for free. The results were revolutionary. Some consumers rejoiced—and said it reminded them of trading free cassette tapes among Grateful Dead fans—but the record industry generally saw it as a curse, alleging that copyrights were infringed and no royalties were being paid. Where the Grateful Dead had let the taping go on, many artists from Metallica to Dr. Dre would not let Napster get away with it. They both filed copyright infringement lawsuits. Dr. Dre filed his suit after Napster wouldn't remove his music from their service despite a personal request. Napster had been founded by Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning, but he and his partners were soon embroiled in legal issues. The Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) also sued on the behalf of the major record labels and they won their case. Napster was shut down and declared bankruptcy, then later became a paid subscription service which Best Buy, the electronics retail chain, bought in 2008 for $121 million. Napster was then merged with Rhapsody in 2011, but Best Buy still has a minority interest. Meanwhile, one of the original Napster partners, Sean Parker, was involved in the ascent of Facebook.

9. This Detroit artist sang the song, "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine."

Jack White of the White Stripes

14. If you travel to Key West the cover band in the bar is likely to play songs by this artist.

Jimmy Buffett

1. He was the Woodstock '94 copromoter who took a punch from Aerosmith's security guards.

John Scher

12. This band fancied themselves as a "rock brand" more than anything else.

Kiss

Phish

Like their jam band predecessors the Grateful Dead, didn't sell many albums, but sold millions of concert tickets thanks to their emphasis on live improvisation. Phish, which formed at the University of Vermont, also took control of much of their own ticketing (like the Grateful Dead's original template.) But it was their jamming across genres—jazz, classic rock, country, you name it—that built a fanatical, word-of-mouth following of Phishheads who, like the Deadheads, would travel to multiple shows per tour and to Phish-run, camping-allowed festivals in faraway Limestone, Maine and Florida's Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. Unlike the Dead, Phish has shown a more playful streak. Guitarist Trey Anastasio never seems to stop smiling, while drummer Jon Fishman has even brought a vacuum cleaner on stage and soloed with it. Phish also started a Halloween tradition of performing classic albums in their entirety, such as the Beatles' White Album, The Who's Quadrophenia, and the Talking Heads' Remain in Light. "Ghost," a 10-minute jam from 1998. Check out guitarist Trey Anastasio's wild sustained notes and blistering single-note, psychedelic runs.

MTV Unplugged

MTV had long endorsed electric rock, but won sudden popularity with its Unplugged' series where bands played with acoustic instruments. It was inspired by the Secret Policemen's Balls in England, where the likes of The Who's Pete Townshend performed acoustic sets in the '80s. MTV series took off in 1990 and got a special boost when Eric Clapton recorded an MTV Unplugged album in 1992 that won a stunning six Grammys, spurred by Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" single (a tender tribute to his deceased son.) Some 30+ albums from the Unplugged series were released, including discs from Paul McCartney and Nirvana. Everyone seemed to jump on the show's bandwagon, with artists ranging from Bob Dylan and Stone Temple Pilots to LL Cool J and Kiss.

5. He became the drummer for both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

Matt Cameron

3. This band has the top-selling album in the SoundScan era.

Metallica

TOP 10 BEST-SELLING ALBUMS IN SOUNDSCAN ERA, 1991-2011

Metallica by Metallica - 15,735,000 Come On Over by Shania Twain - 15,513,000 Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette - 14,714,000 Millennium by the Backstreet Boys - 12,158,000 1 by the Beatles - 11,985,000 The Bodyguard (soundtrack) by Whitney Houston - 11,829,000 Supernatural by Santana - 11,772,000 Human Clay by Creed - 11,574,000 No Strings Attached by 'N Sync - 11,122,000 Falling Into You by Celine Dion - 10,790,000

7. She was a punk legend who heaped praise on Green Day.

Patti Smith

4. This jam band has performed all of the Beatles' White Album in concert.

Phish

10. This British band was named for a Talking Heads song.

Radiohead

Rage Against the Machine at Woodstock '99

Rage Against the Machine's crunching, effects-laden riffs boomed over Woodstock '99 when they performed, "Killing in the Name," a song about busting out of conformity. "Now you do what they told ya, now you're under control" de la Rocha bellowed, but by the end he's screaming over and over "F--- you, I won't do what you tell me!" Scary and unnerving, especially in a crowd of 300,000 people. note the burning of the American flag on stage.

Alt-Rock Comes on Strong

Rock & roll keeps evolving and with it, new names for the genres that result. Note how punk evolved into new wave. Then came post-punk, and then alternative rock (also known as alt-rock), which found favor on many radio stations looking to reach a younger audience. Eventually, rock radio was divided into the separate formats of active rock (hard rock), classic rock (older hits from the '60s, '70s, and '80s) and modern rock (meaning alternative rock), which featured new bands trying to push boundaries. Age played a factor, as some bands got pushed out of categories as they got older, just as some acts were moved from the younger MTV to the more adult VH-1 on cable playlists. Then came the inevitable classic alternative rock format, which now features bands of the '90s, namely Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and others who were once the young bucks. Oh, and let's not forget the adult album alternative radio format, also known as "Triple A." Quirky singer John Hiatt once won the Triple A Artist of the Year award and when I asked him about it, he laughed, "Oh, you mean the adult aardvarks anonymous format?" Suffice it to say, the term "alternative" has been everywhere for most of the last 20+ years.

Long Live Rock: Into the Future

Rock is still a vital idiom, even though it has been splintered into so many subgroups in the last few years. Newer acts worth investigating include the Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Wilco, the Killers, Raphael Saadiq, Kaiser Chiefs, Warren Haynes, Band of Horses, and Fleet Foxes, to name a few. Overall, we've had a long trip through many rock cycles to get to this concluding point. I don't pretend to have any grand predictions as to where rock is headed, but it's clear that it's an unprecedented journey in this post-Internet, post-Napster universe. The good thing is that bands have more control of their image through their own websites and can announce whatever they want on them. The confusing thing is that they don't get as much support from record labels (which are disappearing by the day,) nor rock radio stations (also a disappearing act as many have been replaced by talk radio,) nor certainly Top 40 stations that are crammed with hip-hoppers and American Idol types. The college stations are still there, but their reach is modest compared to the big-city, commercial stations. It's a new world with the social media of Facebook, Twitter, and the like, but let's see how long they last The future is now: Watch Amanda Palmer reflect on blogging, twittering, and more. She also has had an amazingly successful Kickstarter campaign. In the summer of 2012 she used the fan-funding website Kickstarter to raise an impressive $1.2 million to finance her next CD and tour. Most people contributed under $125, but there were 34 pledges of $5,000—and each of those was promised a private house concert. Yes, futuristic marketing is here. Another example: Moby's album Play had every song licensed for an ad. One of them, "Find My Baby," was for Nike and the commercial showed Tiger Woods playing golf across downtown Manhattan.

Nu Metal and Rap-Metal

Rock was in another angry cycle, and it intensified with "nu metal," a general name for many of the rap-metal bands that made the original rap-rock fusion of Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith (on "Walk This Way") look like quaint child's play. Some of the nu metal leaders were Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park. Let's go onward through the decibels. Some of these we'll also deal with in our examination of Woodstock '94 and Woodstock '99.

Welcome to Grunge

Seattle became the new hotbed of rock in the early '90s. There was a remarkable convergence of great bands in that city—Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden. They formed the chaotic "grunge movement." It featured a love of guitar distortion and a reaction against stadium macho posturing, though it sometimes seemed that the only things these bands had in common were grungy clothes (suddenly, flannel shirts and work boots were back in style) and being from Seattle. Nirvana, for example, looked back to punk (and especially borrowed a lot from Boston's Pixies), while Pearl Jam and Soundgarden started with a more classic, Zeppelin-influenced sound. Grunge was viewed as a Northwest wing of alternative rock and the term was popularized by Seattle's Sub Pop Records, which signed Nirvana and Soundgarden before they switched to major labels. (It was chic to be "alternative" but many such acts still chased the brass ring of major label distribution in those days.) Let's look at some of these bands.

Nirvana's Legacy

Stardom arrived in a rush—punkers and metalheads loved Nirvana—and in 1992 the group won MTV Video awards for best alternative video and best new artist, though MTV nixed their desire to perform another song, "Rape Me.'' Regardless, Cobain couldn't handle all the attention and he developed an acute drug addiction. He overdosed on heroin twice, botched one suicide attempt, then succeeded with a 20-gauge shotgun blast to his head while at home in 1994. He left a suicide note that quoted the Neil Young lyric, "It's better to burn out than to fade away.'' Nirvana's influence continues to this day—they easily had the most impact of any new band in the '90s—and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, sold 25 percent of her stake in the Nirvana song catalog for a whopping $50 million in 2006. Plus, Patti Smith, Tori Amos, and Neil Young are among those who have written tribute songs to Cobain.

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

Started in 2002 and still running, held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., which is 65 miles southeast of Nashville. Music "goes around the clock" during its four-day run in June and the website notes "our main venue Centeroo stays open 24/7 with dance sets leading into the sunrise." It's a camping festival and past headliners have included Pearl Jam, Phish, Dead & Co., Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Eminem, Radiohead, and the Dave Matthews Band. Capacity is generally capped at 80,000.

Woodstock '94: Rain, Mud, the Launch Of Green Day, the Coronation of Metallica, and the Feistiness of Aerosmith

Taking place on the 25th anniversary of the original, Woodstock '94 took over a staggeringly large site in Saugerties, N.Y. The first Woodstock was on 37 acres total in nearby Bethel, but this one had two stage areas of 140 and 110 acres each, plus an additional 550 acres for camping. There were also 30 parking lots, five food pods, two 52-bed hospitals, and a "Surreal Field" with interactive computer displays and environmental booths. You can't say they were unprepared. Alas, rainstorms wrecked the plans. Echoing the original Woodstock rains, a number of storms created treacherous mud depths of four inches on the festival grounds by Sunday afternoon, yet a crowd estimated at 350,000 (200,000 paid) still showed up for the weekend. Many fans looked like refugees from a "Dawn of the Dead" sequel by the end, but they were witness to a symbolic passing of the torch between the old-school hippie acts who had also played the first Woodstock (Santana, Joe Cocker, Country Joe, and Crosby, Stills & Nash), versus the new mainstream rock champions Aerosmith and Metallica (the top acts were paid $350,000 each,) and a host of young, alternative acts from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Green Day and the Cranberries.

Electronica Thrives

Techno-rock started to become more prevalent in the '90s and has continued into the new millennium. MTV got behind the electronica trend in the mid-to-late '90s with acts like the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Moby, Aphex Twin, Daft Punk, the Crystal Method, and Fatboy Slim. Some arena-sized rockers also caught up to the trend, notably U2, David Bowie, Radiohead, and Smashing Pumpkins. And more recent years have seen the rise of electronica acts like Aviici, who is now a top headliner. Pro Tools made it more efficient to produce but is not entirely responsible for the trend.

Historical Perspective Cont'd

Technology grew by leaps and bounds too, whether it was the advent of SoundScan (a computerized way of charting record sales) or Napster, a music file-sharing Internet service that enabled people to get music for free, thus causing an uproar with record companies and leading to the reduction or demise of many of them. Also, the number of rock radio stations declined, especially when shock-rock DJ Howard Stern, who syndicated his talk show in the mornings on many rock outlets, went to satellite radio and many of the remaining FM stations opted to change formats. In the new millennium, many rockers have found that they make far more money on tour than they do from record sales since those have fallen off the cliff due to Internet plundering and the fadeout of record labels. Some of the baby boomer-era, classic rockers have become wealthy princes—the Stones now charge $350 and up for their top tickets (more for VIP packages), and Paul McCartney and Roger Waters are in the $250-plus range—but many other musicians are struggling in the new, fast-changing economy.

Tensions at Woodstock '94

Tensions ran high at times, however. Aerosmith rose to the Woodstock occasion with a metallic gem of a set that didn't end until 3:20 on Sunday morning, but their show almost didn't happen because of a fistfight that took place between Aerosmith's management and Woodstock promoter John Scher beforehand in Aerosmith's trailer. Manager Tim Collins said he called Scher a "liar" for making promises he allegedly didn't keep. He said Scher then blew up, threw a cup of water against a wall, swung at Collins and was pounded by two Aerosmith bodyguards. Aerosmith threatened to walk out when Scher wanted the band's bodyguards removed, but he eventually relented. "I took a punch," Scher admitted the next day, showing an abrasion on his left cheek. "I was stressed out. We had 350,000 people here on Saturday. And with 40 bands to take care of, I just couldn't give Aerosmith the amount of attention a superstar act like that deserves." (As for Metallica, they played just before Aerosmith on Saturday night and galvanized the crowd with a ferocious set of metal. The last three acts of the night were Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Aerosmith, so you can imagine the decibels.)

Jam Bands Capture Fresh Attention

The Allman Brothers Band has been jamming since the '60s. The Grateful Dead jammed until 1995 when Jerry Garcia ended an era by dying of diabetic complications. The remaining members of the Dead have continued in various forms with names such as the Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, Furthur, and Bob Weir's Ratdog. But it was time for a new era of jam bands (other than Widespread Panic, which has also been out there for years) and it arrived with Phish, a Vermont-based act that became the heir apparent to the Dead. And then came the Dave Matthews Band, a jazz-flavored act that won a stadium-sized audience at one time.

13. This band served as Bob Dylan's backup band for his 1965-66 world tour.

The Band

Jason Aldean

The Georgia native grew up "listening to all kinds of music—rock and Southern rock, and country and blues and rap stuff, too," he says. His song "That's the Only Way I Know" feels like Southern rock but with more twang, while the lyrics reflect rock sentiments in "Straight ahead, never turn round/ Don't back up, don't back down/ Full throttle, wide open." And in "Lights Come On," which has a hard-rock guitar intro, he describes his rock-like concert tours in the verse: "Then the six-string circus comes to town/ We hang them speakers over the crowd/ When the lights come on, everybody's screaming."

Shania Twain

The Ontario native had rock royalty in her corner—her producer (and husband) was Robert "Mutt" Lange who had worked with AC/DC. And her manager was Jon Landau, who also managed Bruce Springsteen. Her second album, "The Woman in Me," sold 20 million copies worldwide in the late '90s. And the one after that, "Come On Over,' became the best-selling album of all time by a female in any genre (it sold 40 million copies!). Twain has a pronounced rock edge in her stage shows, witness her crowd-pleasing version of "Rock This Country!"

Soundgarden Legacy

The group broke up because of musical direction—guitarist Thayil wanted to pursue a more metal path—but they finally, years later, reunited in 2010 for a spectacular tour that was one of the best of that summer. Another important aspect to Soundgarden is that their drummer, Matt Cameron, is the best to come out of Seattle or just about anywhere in the last 20 years. He helped write a bunch of Soundgarden songs and is also now an official member of Pearl Jam. He solidly blends heaviness and invention with both groups Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and members of Mother Love Bone combined forces as Temple of the Dog and released an album on A&M in 1991 that is a grunge-era classic.

Nine Inch Nails

The most important industrial rock band (signifying heavily synthesized electronics using a lot of sampling, distortion, and computer drum programming), which sounded like a power saw buzzed by your ear. Trent Reznor, the band's founder, was a one-man studio band, but hired musicians on the road to play his extremely aggressive, depression-rife songs, especially from the early hit albums The Downward Spiral (1994) and Pretty Hate Machine (1989.) Have done the music for The Social Network and Disney's Soul, have worked with Halsey to produce her 4th album "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power"

Business Spotlight: SoundScan Changes the Industry

The process of counting record sales changed completely with the advent of SoundScan in 1991. It was a computerized system that tracked bar codes to register sales in stores and also later tracked digital music services. Previously, Billboard had to telephone record stores to get the data, and there were widespread fears of mistakes and even fraud. A 1997 story in the New York Times noted that before SoundScan "people in the recording industry say manipulation of the charts was rampant, and for good reason. Billboard collected its data by phone, surveying a select number of music stores to report their weekly sales. But this method, they say, allowed many record labels to persuade music stores to report their albums at a high position in return for what were, in essence, bribes." The Times quoted Russ Solomon, then president of Tower Records, as saying, "Everything you've ever heard was true... everything was manipulated." SoundScan eliminated that manipulation and many would argue that was one of the best things that ever happened to the once-maverick music business. Today, SoundScan's clients include retailers, record labels, managers and booking agents, concert promoters, and venue operators. SoundScan, which is run by the Nielsen rating service, is also the official source for the Billboard charts.

Disastrous Effect of 9/11 On Changing Radio Playlists

The terrorist killings of 3,000-plus people at the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 had an effect on rock & roll. The corporate behemoth Clear Channel owned 1,200 radio stations at the time. The day after 9/11, it sent a list of "inappropriate'' and "potentially offensive'' songs to radio programmers, asking that they don't play them. It really hurt the angry rap-metal and hard-rock acts in particular, because they were at the forefront of the list. All of the Rage Against the Machine catalog was out, as was Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff," Korn's "Falling Away from Me," Metallica's "Seek and Destroy," and AC/DC's "Safe in New York City." Even such harmless songs such as Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" were on the list. The general tone of music calmed down and in the next year, 2002, the biggest-selling album was the mellow, nerve-soothing Come Away with Me by Norah Jones (daughter of Monterey Pop star Ravi Shankar.) And the year after, the Dixie Chicks were widely criticized for remarks made against President George Bush. As one writer commented: "With the so-called 'war on terror' that followed the 9/11 atrocity, it seemed a conspiracy of silence existed that was broken at the artist's peril." (From The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock.) Paul McCartney was the chief organizer for the Concert for New York.

Nirvana

Their Nevermind album (1991) blew by discs by Michael Jackson and U2 and sped to the top of the charts. Singer Kurt Cobain was viewed as a Jim Morrison-like shaman, and he captured the impatient, self-centered zeitgeist of the time in the anthem "Smells Like Teen Spirit," with its bellowed lines: Here we are now, entertain us!I feel stupid and contagiousHere we are now, entertain us! exploded on to the national scene in 1991. The song, called an "anthem for apathetic kids" in the new generation (dubbed Gen X by the media), helped Nirvana sell 10 million copies of Nevermind. It was a raw, blistering track that brought a new edge up from the underground. It didn't come as a surprise, then, that Cobain's all-time favorite album was the Stooges' Raw Power, which we studied in an earlier lesson. Another Nirvana song, "Lithium," had a similar rawness in the verse, "I'm so ugly, but that's okay, so are you." As Cobain later explained, "I'm such a nihilistic jerk half the time and other times I'm so vulnerable and sincere. The songs are like a mixture of both of them. That's how most people my age are.''

R.E.M. Cont'd

Their producer, Don Gehman, who was John Mellencamp's producer, insisted that Stipe sing more clearly in the studio. The result was Life's Rich Pageant, a 1986 album (R.E.M's fourth) that foreshadowed a bunch of hits to come. Grappling with stardom, they took a few years off from touring, but returned in a big way with 1991's Out of Time album, which went to no. 1 on the strength of hits "Losing My Religion" and the quirky, poppy "Shiny Happy People'' (a duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52's.) By then the group, minus Stipe, had also done a side project with Warren Zevon under the name of the Hindu Love Gods, featuring covers of such tunes as Prince's "Raspberry Beret" and bluesman Robert Johnson's "Travelin' Riverside Blues." Momentum continued with Monster in 1994 (with the oblique but rocking hit, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?.") However, Berry suffered a double aneurysm on stage in Switzerland that year and needed emergency surgery. He left the band in 1997 and it was never quite the same, though every R.E.M. record after that was still a must-listen.

Woodstock '99: An Anger-Filled Festival Erupts with Rap-Metal Bands and a Destructive Finale

Then, five years later, there was Woodstock '99—and this was where the Woodstock dream took another blow. The early planning looked good—the site chosen was the decommissioned Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., which had stored nuclear weapons at one time. Coproducer Michael Lang was back again and said it would be nice for the "peace and love generation" to end the century at a former nuclear base because it would be "a metaphor for our time." And there was no official commercial sponsor this time because promoters had listened to the backlash toward Woodstock '94 for having one. The new fest was another mega-spectacle with two 500-foot-wide stages (one designed by Peter Max with psychedelic images of doves and spaceships) and there was even a "Peace Wall" featuring portraits of hippie icons like Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and Country Joe McDonald. Parts of it were to be auctioned off later to support Red Cross aid to victims of the Kosovo War, which raged in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1998-1999. So far, so good. But a major mistake was made—none of the original Woodstock performers this time were invited, so a sense of legacy was absent. And, in an attempt to be hip and au courant, Lang and John Scher (who was back again too) booked many of the angry nu metal bands (Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine), who incited the crowd all weekend. Eventually, a woman claimed that she had been raped in Limp Bizkit's mosh pit. The angry tone had been set. "The loud, aggressive bands were what many people came to see," said Dalton Sim, the manager of Guster, a milder pop-rock act that performed.

Woodstock '99

There were plenty of high points—Godfather of Soul James Brown opened the fest on Friday afternoon in a resplendent blue suit; and all-night raves took place in an abandoned airplane hangar, featuring sets by Moby and Fatboy Slim. The energy at those was incredible and it was hard to pull yourself away. But the weekend was ruthlessly hot and dry (no rains came, unlike the two previous Woodstocks) and the heat, along with outrageously high vendor prices ($4 just for a bottle of water, which was absurd for the time), stoked a climate of frustration. It finally exploded during an ill-advised last set by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who performed with bassist Flea naked. They did the Jimi Hendrix song, "Fire" (with the line "let me stand next to your fire") and youths started lighting fires in the overflowing trash cans. Many of the fires were lit when some kids started expressing their anger by pushing the lit trash cans under vendor tents and the concession trucks. Twelve tractor-trailer trucks went up in flames and destroyed. They were still smoldering the next day and the grounds looked like a war zone. Thankfully, no one was killed, but there has never been another Woodstock again. Lang had hoped to have another one on the same site five years later, but nothing ever happened because getting another permit might be almost impossible.

Linkin Park

This Los Angeles rap-rock act was an unstoppable force. Their name was adapted from Santa Monica's Lincoln Park, and they featured a singer (Chester Bennington), a rapper (Mike Shinoda), and a turntablist (Joseph Hahn.) They had a hybrid sound, so it was appropriate that their Hybrid Theory album became the best-selling record of 2001. It exploded with young people, especially with the hits "Crawling" (which won a Grammy for best hard-rock performance) and the angst-driven "One Step Closer,'' with its verse "one step closer to the edge and I'm about to break." You couldn't turn a radio on without hearing it. And Linkin Park's hits kept coming with their Meteora album in 2003, notably "Somewhere I Belong," "Faint," and "Numb." They also paid their dues by playing Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest, Korn's Family Values tour, Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour, and their own Projekt Revolution tour with Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. joined forces with Jay-Z in holy rap-rock matrimony for Numb (Encore)

6. He was a Harvard graduate who played in Rage Against the Machine.

Tom Morello

The Start of Pearl Jam

Two of Pearl Jam's founding members, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard, were in Green River, a late '80s Seattle band that was among the first to be called grunge. They then formed Mother Love Bone, an underrated act with singer Andrew Wood, but Wood died of a drug overdose. They then hooked up with former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who sent a demo of their new music to his friend Eddie Vedder, who was living and surfing in San Diego at the time. Eddie got inspired and sent back lyrics for the songs with his vocals attached. He was quickly hired, and he came up with the name Pearl Jam, based on a food created by his half-Native American great-grandmother, Pearl. Those new songs became the basis for Ten, including the urgent "Alive," "Jeremy" (about a traumatized boy), "Even Flow," and "Black," about a lost love, Vedder sang ever so soulfully, "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life / I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky / But why, why, why can't it be, can't it be mine?" All of these were instant classics. Then came 1993's Vs. and 1995's Vitalogy, both big hits. The latter featured "Better Man," an intense song about an abused mother who couldn't find a better man to be with her.

Smashing Pumpkin's Legacy

Understandably, the Smashing Pumpkins couldn't maintain their intensity. Keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of heroin in 1996 on the same night that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin got arrested for it. Chamberlin was then kicked out of the band. The Pumpkins split up in 2000, but got back together in more recent years with a revamped lineup that included Chamberlin again.

Watershed Moments at Woodstock '94 And '99

While it seemed that nu metal and rap-metal were mostly focused on self-absorbed adolescent anger, the '90s also had a socially conscious side. After years of talking about a Woodstock followup, promoters finally pooled together to create two "sequels" to Woodstock '69. Original Woodstock hippie/promoter Michael Lang was joined by New York promoter John Scher and other investors to put on the events. Both were momentous, but sadly, they did not match the countercultural highs of the original. Let's take a look at what happened. There has not been another Woodstock since, and probably never will be, given what happened at the last one, Woodstock '99, where "alternative nation'' did not have its most glorious weekend.

Radiohead Cont'd

Yorke seems perennially tortured by the world in his lyrics, and Radiohead has always projected a serious "band that matters'' air, even if some of their music can be baffling. They took off on a particularly strange path with a pair of moody, deeply ambient, techno albums in Kid A and Amnesiac, released in 2000 and 2001, respectively, which sometimes reflected a Brian Eno flavor. Some fans preferred their earlier guitar rock, but a lot of new fans were enticed into the fold. Note Yorke's famous, tortured vocal style throughout.

Rock Goes Country

You'll recall at the beginning of the course that country music was an influence on rock's creation. We've now gone the other way with rock influencing "modern country" as the electric guitars get turned up and more Nashville singers sound like '70s and '80s rockers

The Black Crowes

a blues-based, Southern hard rock jam band that has sold more than 20 million albums. They were once praised by England's Melody Maker magazine as "the most rock & roll band in the world." They started out with a loose but heavy barroom influence of the English group the Faces before settling into more of a Southern sound and focus. They're led by yet another pair of brothers—Chris Robinson (lead vocals) and Rich Robinson (lead guitar), who have had their share of squabbles a la Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, though not as severe. They were initially discouraged from entering show business by their dad, Stan, who had a pop hit in 1959 with "Boom-a-Dip-Dip." But they persevered and their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, was a shocker in 1990 because it channeled such old-school Brit acts as the Faces, Humble Pie, and Free, but also nodded to Otis Redding in a great cover of his "Hard to Handle," which was an FM hit. The Crowes were outspoken and hedonistic—they played the 1992 Great Atlanta Pot Festival put on by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML)—but they always loved the old-school rockers. Years later, they had Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page back them on a tour to great acclaim. I caught one night when Joe Perry of Aerosmith joined them all for a classic jam. The Robinsons just smiled and let Page and Perry go at it.

Rage Against the Machine

a brutally blunt, highly political act led by rapper Zack de la Rocha and guitarist/Harvard graduate Tom Morello. Both came from families with political backgrounds—Zack's dad aided the Chicano community, while Tom's dad was a former guerrilla fighter in Kenya and became a Kenyan ambassador. Aside from his leftist politics, Tom's guitar sound was epic and original—he blended head-blasting sonics that he once described to me as sounding like a "cross between a rhinoceros and a lawn mower.'' The effect was mind-altering. Rage Against the Machine opened U2's "Pop Mart'' tour and gave their profits from it to various causes. self-titled album in 1993 scored with "Killing in the Name" and "Freedom.'' The first was a bold attempt by de la Rocha to link some members of the police with the Ku Klux Klan ("some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses," he rapped.) And the punishing riff came from Morello, who says it evolved from a guitar lesson he taught in which he played an Ibanez bass and was showing the hard-rock riffs that come from a drop-D tuning. "I just came up with the 'Killing in the Name' riff. I stopped the lesson, got my little Radio Shack cassette recorder, laid down that little snippet, and then continued with the lesson," he said. He also became known for substituting an Allen wrench for a guitar pick and slamming the toggle switch like a disc jockey scratching records. "We were melding hard rock, punk and hip-hop, and I was the DJ," he added. "It allowed me to emulate a lot of noises that I heard on Dr. Dre and Public Enemy records."

Limp Bizkit

a crazed, rap-metal vehicle for Fred Durst, a skateboarder and tattoo artist (he inscribed tattoos on members of Korn, who then got his demo tape and helped Bizkit get signed.) Durst became the maniacal focus of the movement. He had been in the Navy but was discharged after a skateboarding accident. Bizkit formed in Jacksonville, Florida, and also featured metal-edged guitarist Wes Borland and turntablist DJ Lethal (who had been with rap-party pioneers House of Pain.) Bizkit's major hit song "Nookie" has Durst raging against a woman who took his money and slept with his friends. It appeared on Bizkit's 1999 album, Significant Other, a rant-fest sparked by Durst breaking up with a girlfriend. The lyrics couldn't have been more blunt: "I did it all for the nookie / so you can take that cookie / and stick it up your, yeah!" Another track from it, "Break Stuff," became even more controversial. The testosterone-fueled lyrics were angry and cartoonish at the same time: It's just one of those daysWhen you don't wanna wake upEverything is f-----Everybody sucksYou don't really know whyBut you just want to justifyRippin' someone's head off...Give me somethin' to break...How about your f------ face! Durst peppered his rants with F bombs. Some critics called his style "aggro rap-metal." But he and his band had a great run. The ranting continued on the 2000 release, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water, which had the tune "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)" where Durst shouted his virtual mantra: "If you don't care, we don't care / Shut the f--- up / While we f--- this track up."

Sonic Pastiche: Beck

a lo-fi, indie-rock, folk-rap-rocker who specialized in creative sound collages that included unusual samples, beats, and even toy instruments. Born Beck Hansen, the Los Angeles-based Beck was the product of two bohemian parents—his mother Bibbe was in artist Andy Warhol's scene at the Factory in Manhattan in the '60s (remember how the Velvet Underground was his house band?,) while his dad was a bluegrass street musician, among other things. Beck's first single immediately suggested his subversive, culture-challenging tone: It was called "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack." Then came his single, "Loser,'' the era's ultimate self-deprecating song other than Radiohead's "Creep.'' It key lyric: "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?" It came out on Bongload Records but then a bidding war ensued and Beck was signed to Geffen Records with the unique proviso that he could still do indie projects when he wanted. Geffen put out "Loser'' on Beck's debut disc, Mellow Gold in 1994. It also had a great, tongue-in-cheek song, "Nitemare Hippy Girl.'' Beck then hit his stride with 1996's Odelay album, which was produced by the Dust Brothers (they had worked with the Beastie Boys) and was a thrilling triumph of varied influences plus hip-hop. Its big hit was "Devil's Haircut,'' which became another staple on alternative rock stations (a/k/a modern rock stations.) Beck was called a "hipster prankster'' and who could argue with that? Them's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (which Beck samples on his tune, "Jack-Ass")

Soundgarden

another key band that first started on Seattle's Sub Pop Records. In fact, they were the first Sub Pop group (and the first grunge band) to sign with a major, inking with A&M Records in 1989. Their debut album for A&M, Louder Than Love, came out that year, but they didn't start to take off until their Badmotorfinger disc in 1991, when they also opened a tour for Guns N' Roses. Still, the album came out the same month as Nirvana's Nevermind, so it was overshadowed. Soundgarden—named for a noisy pipe sculpture in a Seattle park—had also been on the famed punk label SST, but apart from some punk flavor (especially early on with their song "Rusty Cage,") they were strongly influenced by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. They rode the metallic guitar of Kim Thayil and the virtuoso, emotion-bending vocal wails of Chris Cornell, who later went on to further fame as the lead singer of Audioslave (featuring members of Rage Against the Machine.) Soundgarden were in the vapor trails of Nirvana and Pearl Jam until they scored mightily with their Superunknown album in 1994, which debuted at no. 1 and added a psychedelic twist to their sound. It had the mega-FM radio hits "Black Hole Sun" and the heavily Zeppelin-influenced "Spoonman." This last song was named for a Seattle street performer, "Artis the Spoonman," who added spoon percussion to the track.

Dave Matthews Band

another word-of-mouth group based out of Charlottesville, VA and started as a jam-oriented band at New York's Wetlands club, but developed more focused pop-rock arrangements later on when they scored some rock hits. Matthews grew up in South Africa and would watch some of the political protests against apartheid while becoming absorbed by the Zulu music played at them. He merged those rhythms into Western music, coming up with a jazz-R&B, world beat hybrid that made him a live sensation. Unlike jam bands like the Dead or Phish, however, he did not encourage the bootlegging of his shows (and the trading of tapes from them.) Instead he put out an early live album, Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, revealing his jam style. Dave also became socially conscious and started playing the Farm Aid concerts. He even became a codirector of Farm Aid with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp.

Alanis Morissette

arrived with a bang. Her Jagged Little Pill album, released in 1995, sold 28 million copies worldwide in the first few years, becoming the all-time, best-selling female rock album. She had been a teeny-bop singer in her native Canada as an early teen, but then suffered a romantic breakup and started writing very adult, very angry songs in the aftermath. She was still only 19 when she moved to Los Angeles and worked with famed producer Glen Ballard. They hit it off and he describes a nearly 24/7 burst of creativity in which they "chaneled" Alanis' anger and together wrote and recorded an amazing 11 songs in 11 days for Jagged Little Pill. It came out on Maverick Records, which was owned by Madonna—another case of Madonna showing business savvy and being in the right place at the right time. The hits kept coming from the album's palette of aggressive, confessional pop-rock—"Hand in My Pocket," "Ironic," All I Really Want," and "You Learn." But the most emphatic was the snarling, ranting "You Oughta Know," which really caught a national mood of how some women felt after being rejected. Alanis directed her anger at her ex in these lyrics: Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity?I hate to bug you in the middle of dinnerIt was a slap in the face how quickly I was replacedAre you thinking of me when you f--- her?

Woodstock '94 Legacy with Bands

attended by nearly 400,000 people, also saw top-notch performances by bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Aerosmith, but also a breakout set by the Cranberries from Ireland. Metallica played on the heaviest night at Woodstock '94—a Saturday when the last three acts were Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Aerosmith. Metallica was the only act to use pyro (Aerosmith's manager complained because other acts were denied use of their traditional stage props, which might include pyro) and Metallica took full advantage, playing an old-school metal set that tore up the crowd. Metallica has long been one of the best live acts in the business.

Punk-Pop Redux: Green Day

blew out of Berkeley, California with a rush. They formed as teenagers, reviving the punk-pop sound of the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols with a little full-throttle Ramones mixed in. They eventually compromised by signing with a major label (some modern punk acts like Fugazi never did and frowned upon it,) but it made them superstars, starting with Dookie, a 1994 blast of punk energy for Reprise Records that sold 10 million worldwide. Songs like "Longview" and "Basket Case" were self-deprecating hits as singer Billie Joe Armstrong sang about his nerdy anonymity, backed by Mike Dirnt on bass and the humorously named Tre Cool on drums. "Longview" had the bizarre revelation that "I'm so bored / and I smell like shit," while "Basket Case" found the jokester Armstrong singing, "Sometimes I give myself the creeps... Am I just paranoid? Am I just stoned?" paced a new, radio-friendly wave of punk-pop acts that included the Offspring and Blink-182. matured as time went on. Their Nimrod album in 1997 was more serious and had an acoustic-rock edge, but it was 2004's American Idiot that really enhanced their credentials. It was a rock opera—there's that term again—that dealt with a kid lost in a post-9/11 America that had "a redneck agenda." It was heavy on politics, but sold more millions and springboarded them into becoming a stadium act.The big single off the record was "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," which achieved the rare feat of going no. 1 on every major chart from rock to Top 40 and adult-contemporary. As one writer noted, Green Day were now viewed as "innovators, not the scene-hogging, bandwagon-jumpers... that many assumed they would be remembered as.''

Nirvana Cont'd

composed of singer/guitarist Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl, who later fronted the Foo Fighters. Cobain and Novoselic had been friends from Aberdeen, Washington, a logging town 100 miles southwest of Seattle. They made their first album, Bleach, in 1989 for just $616. Then Cobain heard the Pixies' album, Surfer Rosa. The album changed his mindset and led to his writing Nevermind and, most specifically, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." He noted, " I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.'' In reality, their melodies and chord progressions also echoed the Kinks and the Beatles. The "Smells Like Teen Spirit'' line was first inspired by Kurt's friend Kathleen Hanna, then the singer of the riot grrrl punk band Bikini Kill, who spray-painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit'' on his wall. What she actually meant, though, was that he smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit that his then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain said he didn't know of that deodorant until after the song was released. Ah, the wonder of how rock anthems are made. rekindled rock during their short, meteoric career.

Rage Against the Machine Cont'd

continued to blow minds with Evil Empire in 1996, which had the slamming "Bulls on Parade." And then 1999's Battle of Los Angeles was highlighted by "Guerrilla Radio." Rage's rap-metal landed like sniper fire in the mainstream. Like the Clash, Rage was a political band with even more emphasis on the political. Some of their other key songs included "Bullet in the Head" and "Bombtrack." Their revolutionary rhetoric was far different from some of the angst/sex/selfishness concerns of some other nu metal and rap-metal acts. As you might expect, they had trouble retaining their intensity and broke up in 2000. De la Rocha went out on his own with dubious results, but Morello and the other Ragers (bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk) formed Audioslave with Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. They became a multi-platinum act, but without the politics of Rage.

Pearl Jam's Legacy

did the unthinkable—they took on the mighty Ticketmaster agency, crying foul over Ticketmaster's increasingly exorbitant service fees assessed to every ticket at many of the big venues where it had exclusive contracts. Pearl Jam's Vedder was especially vocal on the issue, and the band sued Ticketmaster for a monopoly and refused to play Ticketmaster venues for a year. The band spoke out before Congress on the issue as well, but it ended in disaster. Other bands turned chicken and refused to support Pearl Jam publicly, while the band also found that playing alternative, non-Ticketmaster venues was a hassle because some of those places weren't convenient for their fans. The band lost the case and went back to playing Ticketmaster venues like the rest of their peers. Still, the band's respect among fans never lessened. At least they had the guts to try. Pearl Jam later solidified their bond with fans by making live albums available from every show. They carried a sound-mixing truck with them for that very purpose. They also stepped up to back Neil Young on his album Mirror Ball, which didn't turn out to be a great record but cemented Young's reputation as "The Godfather of Grunge." And Pearl Jam, in turn, cemented their classic-rock cred by doing The Who's "Love, Reign o'er Me" in a great hit version.

Coldplay

fittingly described by Allmusic.com as "not as heavy as Radiohead or as snobbish as Oasis." They started as mates at the University College of London and brought sincere, honest melodic pop back to the top of the charts. Singer Chris Martin's boyish tenor was a charismatic force, especially among female listeners. They were ambitious—Martin openly said the band wanted to be as big as U2—and they backed it up with lush harmonies and democratically written songs on their debut album, Parachutes, in 2000, which had the hit song "Yellow." There was a wholesomeness to Coldplay that was enhanced when heartthrob Martin wed well-liked actress Gwyneth Paltrow. They also won favor with some socially conscious U2 fans by donating 10 percent of their profits to charity, even though some U2 fans weren't thrilled about Coldplay's talk about becoming the next big band after U2. But Martin & Co. still had their heart in the right place. Their 2002 album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, had a title track that was a tribute to Johnny Cash—and when they won a Grammy for it, Martin dedicated it to Cash. A nice gesture. They had other great influences too—their hit "Speed of Sound" (from their more electronic-influenced X&Y album in 2005 was influenced by Kate Bush's "Running Up the Hill," and "Fix You" was inspired by Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross.") Another tune, "The Scientist," was penned after Martin had listened to George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass." early hits "Yellow" (a love song with Martin crooning "Look at how many stars shine for you") and the piano-driven "Clocks." Also, check out their more recent "Speed of Sound" and "Strawberry Swing."

Amanda Palmer and the Dresden Dolls

formed in 2000 in Boston. The Dresden Dolls are a duo consisting of Amanda Palmer (vocals, piano, ukelele, harmonica) and Brian Viglione (drums, guitar, bass, vocals.) They wear thick makeup, dress in outrageous, theatrical costumes, and perform punk cabaret or "Brechtian punk cabaret," as Palmer has called it. It's also known as "dark cabaret,'' a movement unto its own with further acts such as Beat Circus, Evelyn Evelyn, and Voltaire. As for the Dresden Dolls name, Palmer says she was keen on the contrast between Dresden (a city destroyed in World War II) and the general concept of dolls. "I liked the parallel between Dresden (destruction) and Dolls (innocence, delicacy), because it is very much in keeping with the dynamics of the music, which sometimes goes from a childlike whisper to a banshee scream within a few seconds,'' she says. Their self-titled debut in 2003 was produced by Martin Bisi, who had worked with the Swans and Sonic Youth. It boasted the stunning alternative hit, "Coin Operated Boy," with Palmer singing the impishly wry lyrics: "Sitting on the shelf he is just a toy / But I turn him on and he comes to life / Automatic joy, that's why I want a coin-operated boy."

Melissa Etheridge

former Berklee student., hard-belting but warm-hearted, who was strongly influenced by Janis Joplin, grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas. She played in bands as a teen, then attended Berklee (singing cover songs in a restaurant near the campus), then moved to Los Angeles. She signed with Chris Blackwell's Island Records and issued a juggernaut of records that made her an arena headliner after 1993's Yes I Am. That disc was produced by Hugh Padgham, who had worked with the Police and Phil Collins. It contained the emotionally compelling, dramatically sung (Etheridge didn't know any other way) Top 10 hits "Come to My Window" and "I'm the Only One," plus a Top 20 hit, "If I Wanted To." She also came out that year and declared she was a lesbian, but it didn't affect her sales and showed that rock audiences were more open than they might have been decades before. Her lover, Julie Cypher, eventually gave birth to a girl and a boy, and it was revealed the the sperm donor (through artificial insemination) was David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash. The tabloids had a field day with that news, but Crosby was quite proud of it. Etheridge's run on the charts continued with 1995's Your Little Secret album, which had two more heart-tugging Top 40 hits in "I Want to Come Over" and "Nowhere to Go." Etheridge received the Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 2006.

Flaming Lips

hail from Oklahoma City, of all places, and are fronted by Wayne Coyne, a quirkmeister supreme, minus the anger of some of his contemporaries. The Lips incorporate the early psychedelic whimsy of Pink Floyd's Sid Barrett, while leavening it with garage-rock, post-punk, and prog-rock tendencies, along with a lyrical sensibility that comes from outer space. Their shows are from outer space as well, complete with mega-sized balloons floating over the crowd. The best Lips album (in my personal opinion) is an early one, Telepathic Surgery, from 1989. It's one of their more accessible records. It has "Right Now," which evokes The Who, and the humorously titled "Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon (F*ck Led Zeppelin)," which sounds like Joey Ramone on a Zeppelin rhythm. And not to be overlooked is "Fryin' Up," which seems like Steppenwolf meets the Ramones. It also has the electro-acoustic "The Spontaneous Combustion of John" (these guys have great song titles) and the incredulously long, 23-minute "Hell's Angels Cracker Factory," which includes backwards-run vocals. Years later, the Flaming Lips showed their affinity for Pink Floyd by releasing a live record of Dark Side of the Moon in 2009, which included some special guests. It had the bizarre title The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon. Their ninth album, The Soft Bulletin is considered a classic and a stellar example of sonic experimentation and melodic rock.

Other "modern" country singers using rock as a staple sound

like Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban have used rock as a staple in their sound. And even Garth Brooks has acknowledged his rock influence by becoming friends with Billy Joel. Garth even sang the Joel songs "Allentown" and "Good Night Saigon" at the Kennedy Center when Joel received Kennedy Center Honors in 2013. And some older rockers have willingly joined the country wave. Kid Rock has gone over to country at times. Bon Jovi did a duet with Jennifer Nettles, "Who Says You Can't Go Home," in 2005. And Aerosmith's Steven Tyler fused rock with country in his 2016 album, "We're All Somebody From Somewhere," which went to no. 1 on Billboard's top country chart despite mixed reviews.

Korn

mainly a funk-metal band with rap influences. Their roaring, down-tuned, seven-string guitars became their trademark alongside singer Jonathan Davis's dark wails, alternately despairing and vitriolic. At times they sounded almost atonal. Curiously, Davis had been a mortuary science major in college. Anger spewed in torrents from Davis, who also had an abusive family situation and his cathartic vocal bursts helped attract a whole new alienated generation to the band. Korn was from Bakersfield, California, but relocated to Huntington Beach. They were an underground band that gained word-of-mouth popularity with 1994's self-titled debut album, then picked up steam with 1996's ironically titled Life Is Peachy, which the rather grotesque, singalong hit, "A.D.I.D.A.S.," standing for "All Day I Dream About Sex." They peaked with 1998's Follow the Leader, which went to no. 1 on the charts and had the eerie hit "Freak on a Leash," where Davis talk/sang "Feelin' like a freak on a leash / Feelin' like I have no release / How many times have I felt disease / Nothin' in my life is free." That year, Korn also launched the Family Values Tour (another ironic name) that featured Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, and German metal band Rammstein. It was a big hit and Korn continued the tour with various opening acts for years to come.

R.E.M.

marked "the point where post-punk turned into alternative rock," according to Allmusic.com. Don't take the jargon too seriously, though. R.E.M. was hatched in Athens, Georgia, and had a chiming, "jangle pop" guitar sound with influences from the Byrds and from garage rockers. What helped them was that they signed a four-album deal with Warner Bros.—such things don't happen today for a new band—that gave them time to develop their craft. Those were the days when record labels believed in career development, before it became a world of one-album deals and quick exits, which is more the norm now. was named for a state of dreaming in which the body has rapid twitching of the eyes—called REM for "rapid eye movement.'' The group started after singer Michael Stipe, an Army brat, attended the University of Georgia in Athens, where he met guitarist Peter Buck, who was working at a record store (as so many rockers have.) Stipe and Buck then met bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry at a party. Their band started at the bottom—playing "alternative" venues such as biker bars, gay discos, and pizza parlors. Although they are mostly now known as '90s superstars, they laid the foundation for their sound way back in 1981 with the single "Radio Free Europe," where Stipe first acquired his reputation for mumbling and slurring lyrics. (As drummer Berry once said, "I don't know what the f--- he's singing about.") The song was recorded on the independent Athens-based label, Hib-Tone, and then rerecorded for their debut album, Murmur, which was released on Miles Copeland's I.R.S. label (Miles is the brother of Police drummer Stewart Copeland.)

Radiohead

ranks among the most intriguing acts, British or otherwise, of the last 20 years. Making a career of being outcasts, they were known early on for the ballad "Creep," with singer Thom Yorke whining that "I wish I was special, but I'm a creep / I'm a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here? / I don't belong here." It became an alt-rock anthem with the "slacker generation," and had a heavy guitar crunch from guitarist Jonny Greenwood. The band later repudiated it and rarely did it in concert, which angered some original fans. Radiohead's bandmembers were schoolboy friends from Oxford and they named the group after a Talking Heads song, "Radio Head." They opened R.E.M.'s "Monster" tour in 1995 and R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe declared "they are so good they scare me." They were probably the brainiest British band since Genesis. Originally a guitar-rock band, they became huge with their Pink Floyd-influenced, prog-rock OK Computer album in 1997, which even Pink Floyd's Roger Waters appreciated. "My son Harry gave me OK Computer. I really liked it!" said Waters. (Yorke also joined the American band Sparklehorse that year to record Floyd's "Wish You Were Here.") The OK Computer album won the Grammy for best alternative music and readers of Britain's Q Magazine have even voted it the best record of all time, but such hypberbole has often followed Radiohead.

Grunge by Association: Smashing Pumpkins

sometimes associated with grunge rock, even though they were from Chicago, not Seattle. One reason was their angst-ridden lyrics and severely-distorted guitars. Another was that they were produced by Butch Vig, who also produced Nirvana. They were led by Billy Corgan, whose eerie, keening, unsettling voice was the group's trademark. It was a whiny, high-pitched but unforgettable voice you either loved or hated. Their breakthrough disc was Siamese Dream (1993)—on which Corgan also played most of the guitar and bass parts—and then came their smash double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a 28-song prog-rock-meets-punk-metal tour de force that soared to no. 1 on the charts in 1995. It had the angst anthem "Zero" and the ingeniously titled, and ironic, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." Sample lyrics from "Zero": ''I'm your lover, I'm your zero... Wanna go for a ride?", followed by the intensely phrased "Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness / And cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me / Intoxicated with the madness, I'm in love with my sadness." No, Corgan was not a happy camper, but he caught the zeitgeist of this latest lost generation, which is what rock has always done. And in "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," he got even further out. He snarled his opening verse—"The world is a vampire, sent to drain"—and moved to an edgy chorus that was everywhere on alternative rock radio in those days: "In spite of all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage." Ouch.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

started in 1999 and is still going. Coachella takes place in the desert in Indio, California. The capacity is set at 125,000, with a smattering of tabloid Hollywood types having discovered it more recently. Coachella also has evolved from focusing on rock in past years (AC/DC headlined in 2015) to more pop and contemporary hitmakers such as Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino and the Weeknd.

Napster's Legacy

was a lighting rod for controversy when it operated in its outlaw days from 1999 to 2001. Some acts approved of it, including Radiohead, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and Dispatch (which saw its concert sales grow because of having its music shared widely.) But others fought it tenaciously, including Metallica, whose drummer, Lars Ulrich, became the most vociferous anti-Napster debater. The upshot was that other free services jumped in to take Napster's place, so there has been a large part of a whole generation of music listeners (Napster at its peak had 25 million users) who feel that music should be free. They'll pay for shoes in a shoe store, but they won't pay for music in a record store, hence many record stores have gone the way of the bison and have closed in droves.

Lilith Fair

was an all-female festival founded by singer Sarah McLachlan because she was tired of promoters telling her that women couldn't tour without a male band included. Her timing was right. Lilith Fair ran 1997-99 and was the highest grossing touring festival of '97, but a revival in 2010 bombed.

Pearl Jam

was sometimes mocked by Cobain for its more straightforward rock approach—at one point he even said Pearl Jam "sucks" and that they were "fake grunge." But there's no denying that Pearl Jam's debut CD, Ten, in 1991 was one of the decade's best. (I once compiled a list of the top albums of the '90s at the Boston Globe and put it at no. 1; I'm never tired of hearing it.) It actually came out a month before Nirvana's Nevermind, and though it was eclipsed by it at the time (everything was), it has gone on to sell more copies than Nevermind. Surfer-turned-singer Eddie Vedder wrote lyrics about social issues and alienation, delivering them with an intensity that made him and his band mates major rock radio stars both on alternative and mainstream stations. They also tended to avoid making videos (very unusual at the time) and just let the music do the talking.

Lollapalooza

was the creation of singer Perry Farrell, singer for popular alternative rockers Jane's Addiction. Lollapalooza, which played very alternative venues at first (including Quonset State Airport in Rhode Island,) ran from 1991-97, and again in 2003. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, and Pearl Jam were among the acts that performed. Lollapalooza has been running from 2005 to the present at Grant Park in Chicago.

Alice In Chains

was the fourth blockbuster band of that era from Seattle. They leaned toward metal influenced by Black Sabbath and featuring druggy dirges about oppression and self-loathing. Angst metal, if you will. Singer Layne Staley became a tragic figure addicted to heroin (and later died of it), but the group was at its peak on the album Dirt in 1992. The record was essentially the cry of a soul lost to heroin, while the music had an eerie atonality and heavy fuzzed guitar from the often overlooked Jerry Cantrell (who has revived Alice In Chains in recent years with a new singer). The Dirt album featured "Rooster" (Cantrell's tribute to his Vietnam veteran father) and the bleak "Down in a Hole." also had some expressive acoustic-rock numbers that suggested a potential upside for the future, until Staley crashed and burned, dying of a drug overdose in 2002. Staley's pained, droning voice was an acquired taste, but it could be extremely haunting and brilliant. It's also featured in his gloomy but engaging side-project band, Mad Season, with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. Their album, Above, came out in 1995. It was before McCready successfully negotiated rehab. But Staley was not so lucky. Best known for Man in the Box

H.O.R.D.E.

was the strange acronym for Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere. It went from 1992-98 and was slanted toward roots rock and jam rock and started by the band Blues Traveler. Its touring acts included Widespread Panic and the Spin Doctors. Old-schooler Neil Young also did it one year.

Pixies

were a pioneering alternative rock band from the East Coast. Formed in Boston, they consisted of Black Francis (Charles Thompson) on vocals, Kim Deal on bass and vocals, Joey Santiago on guitar, and David Lovering on drums. They had elements of punk, surf-rock, and hardcore in their sound. They've been described as "the Beach Boys on acid,'' utilizing a surf-like guitar sound but with more noise and fuzz effects. They were college rock favorites who were ahead of their time and their albums included the influential 1988 release, Surfer Rosa (a big influence on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, as we'll see), the oblique song "Monkey Gone to Heaven," and the unusual "Debaser," with its line, "I wanna grow up to be a debaser." The Pixies played "sardonic nursery rhymes,'' according to the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. They were too abrasive for many tastes at the time, but they formed a blueprint of much that was to come. The Pixies didn't last long—Kim Deal left to form the Breeders with Tanya Donelly—but they had a triumphant reunion tour in 2004 when Black Francis decided that they should cash in on what they never earned during their early days.