At the end of the last century, rock music reached a high level of development, which contributed to a rich style diversity and division into subgenres. Back in the 1980s, many subspecies appeared in the rock direction, the performers of which reached their highest rise only in the 90s. And in the list of foreign groups more and more appeared teams of grunge, heavy metal, alternative metal, nu metal and other types of rock. In the first half of the 1990s, punk rock was revived, divided into three main groups. Also during this period is the heyday of Britpop.
Alternative rock
After a stunning breakthrough by Nirvana and the unexpected spread of grunge, in the 1990s, alternative rock joined the music mainstream and became popular. The list of foreign groups of the 90s that got into the favorable stream of the rock industry, gaining tremendous commercial success, is becoming rather long. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the largest record brands actively courted such teams: Pearl Jam (founded in 1990), Alice in Chains (founded in 1987), Dinosaur Jr. (1984-1997, from 2005 to the present), Firehose (1986-1994) and Nirvana (1987-1994) - signing multimillion-dollar contracts with them.
Pioneers of alternative rock members of the REM group in the early years of the 1990s became the most popular in the world. And the RHCP team with the album “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” acquires special significance, promoting the growth of alternative rock and attracting the attention of the whole world to this genre.
Combining funky rock with other subgenres, Chili Peppers achieved major success in their climax album Californication. The most popular bands of the 90s in the list of foreign alternative rock musicians are represented mainly by American performers. Some in the list appeared much earlier, but the peak of their success came in the 90s (in parentheses is the year the group was founded):
- Creed (1994);
- Foo Fighters (1995);
- Californians Weezer (1992) and The Offspring (1984);
- Goo Goo Dolls (1986) from Buffalo;
- Matchbox Twenty (1996);
- Soundgarden (1984) from Seattle;
- REM (1980), Soul Asylum from Minnesota (1983);
- singer Liz Phair from Connecticut (on stage since 1991);
- Live (1984) from New York;
- Counting Crows (1991);
- Sublime's latest album (1988) brought her unprecedented fame in the United States after the breakup of the team.
Alternative metal
With the beginning of the 90s, a new style of rock music appeared, which combined elements of alternative rock with heavy metal. This genre, called "alternative metal", is considered the predecessor of the nu movement that arose in the last years of the last century. The style was typical for Helmet, Jane's Addiction and Tool. Other foreign groups from the list of the 90s, mixing funk and hip-hop elements, created Alternative metal subgenres - funk metal and rap metal.
Grunge
Since the beginning of the 1990s, grunge groups have gained popularity in the subgenre of alternative rock. Music, especially under the influence of the “direct, unpolished” rock Nirvana, contributes to the emergence of the youth grunge subculture. The very same kind of alternative music was born in the Pacific American states of Washington and Oregon in the 1980s. The groups Pearl Jam, Soundgarden "Nirvana", Alice in Chains brought alternative rock in 1991, and some of them were rather hostile to the grunge label itself, imposed on their music.
Among the voluminous foreign list of groups of the 90s, it is enough to note several of their most important albums:
- Pearl Jam with Ten's first studio album;
- Nirvana with the second and third studio album Nevermind and In Utero;
- Alice in Chains with Dirt's second studio album;
- Soundgarden with their fourth studio album, Superunknown.
The list of overseas groups of the 90s of grunge underlining has significantly decreased by the middle of the decade. Some teams broke up, others became less significant and noticeable. The death of Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) in 1994, as well as the problems of the Pearl Jam tour due to the widely publicized boycott of Ticketmaster, marked the decline in the popularity of the genre.
Post grunge
The term post-grunge describes artists who were followers and imitators of grunge. Their music was largely guided by commercial success and harmony, designed for broadcasting. The most successful post-grunge bands in the 90s were Creed, Live, Matchbox Twenty. Foo Fighters, led by its founder, Dave Grohl, a former Nirvana drummer, in 1995 helped popularize the genre. She became one of the most famous rock bands in the USA, especially after the broadcast on MTV.
The genre would have another wave of success that came in the mid-nineties. Nickelback (1995), 3 Doors Down (1996) and others achieved the greatest commercial breakthrough at the very end of the 20th century.
Indie rock
After the universal recognition of alternative rock in the 1990s, the term indie rock began to be associated with groups and genres that remained underground, that is, opposed to the mainstream and the popularization of rock. In the 90s, the list of foreign indie rock groups was led by Sonic Youth and Pixies. They were followed by: Sleater-Kinney (founded in 1994), Built to Spill (1992) and others.
Ska Punk, Skate Punk and Pop Punk
Punk rock was revived in the 1990s. During this period, ska-punk performers are particularly distinguished and achieve commercial success: Reel Big Fish (founded in 1992), No Doubt (1986), Sublime (1988). At the end of the decade, interest in these groups diminishes.
For a long time, punk rock was not commercially viable, so large labels did not seek to sign contracts with such artists. Until a number of independent recording brands appeared, created with only one purpose: to capture their own performance and music of their friends. Due to this circumstance, in 1994 a stunning breakthrough of the California skate-punk band Green Day took place. Her album, Dookie (1994), sold 10 million copies in the United States, and another 10 million scattered around the world. After that, punk rock gains popularity.
In the same period, the Smash album of the skate-punk band The Offspring was released. The album set a record for independent labels and was sold worldwide with a print run of more than 14 million copies. Until the end of 1994, the albums “Duki” and “Smash” were sold in millions of copies, and the commercial success of these two musical productions attracted the great interest of the largest labels in skate pop punk. For bands such as Bad Religion and Blink-182, well-known record brands offered incredibly lucrative contracts, as long as the performers left their independent labels.
In 1999, Blink-182 made a breakthrough with the release of Enema of the State, which sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Performers in the 90s led foreign groups in the list of the best teams, receiving multiple platinum status in the USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, New Zealand and once platinum status in the United Kingdom. The Blink-182 group had a huge impact on later performers.
Other types of rock music
The list of overseas rock bands of the 90s who performed the music of subgenres developed outside the commercial mainstream should be continued. Since the beginning of the 1990s, thrash metal has gained recognition thanks to the huge success of the Metallica album. It was released by the group of the same name, after which for the first time thrash metal hits the mainstream. Later came the explosive Megadeth Countdown to Extinction (1992), Megadeth's double-platinum album. The thrash metal bands Anthrax and Slayer, the groove metal band Pantera hacked the top ten, and then the released albums by regional groups Testament and Sepultura entered the top 100. In the late nineties, industrial metal became popular. The largest groups of this 1990s subgenre are Marilyn Manson and Fear.