The 1990s were one of the best decades for heavy music, so here’s who we think make up the “Big 4” of both ’90s rock and metal.
The reason the ’90s were so unique was because various subgenres peaked during the decade. Hair metal was on its way out during the early days of the decade and grunge replaced it as the leading branch of rock ‘n’ roll. Thrash was still going strong but some of the more extreme types of metal (black, death, groove) started to really take off.
Then there was alternative rock, which had previously been known as college rock, as well as nu-metal, Brit pop, punk and buzzing extreme metal underground.
Rock and metal giants such as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, AC/DC and Aerosmith still put out solid releases and played massive shows during the ’90s as well, so it really was an amalgamation of sounds old and new.
When deciding which bands would make up our Big 4 of ’90s rock and our Big 4 of ’90s metal, we considered a few different factors. The group didn’t have to form in the ’90s but had to have peaked in popularity then and had some sort of big influence that had a long-lasting effect.
READ MORE: The ‘Big 4’ Bands of 27 Rock + Metal Subgenres
We also did our best to choose artists that represented various subgenres in order to accurately depict how diverse the soundscape of the decade was.
The ‘Big 4’ Bands of ’90s Rock
The four bands that best encapsulate all of ’90s rock — Seattle grunge, politically-charged rap-rock, punk and alternative.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
The ‘Big 4’ Bands of ’90s Metal
Since there have been so many different eras of heavy metal, we picked four groups to represent the ‘Big 4’ of ’90s metal.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
Top 90 Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 1990s
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