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Underground rock went mainstream—and upended conventions

The ’90s started with a big bang: Nirvana’s Nevermind, a grunge-punk earthquake that doubled as a cathartic cultural exhale after the bubbly ’80s. But Nevermind’s success cast a long shadow over the rest of the decade, mainly because the album encouraged rock music to loosen up and colour outside the lines. Gone was hair metal’s big-budget production gloss and in its place arose the modernised spin on classic rock favoured by Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden as they blurred the line between alternative and mainstream rock. Formerly underground scenes—chaotic pop-punk (Green Day, blink-182), fuzzy power pop (Weezer) and industrial-rock abrasion (Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails)—had a major mainstream moment. Even veteran rockers found creative inspiration in an anything-goes approach: Tom Petty reinvented himself as a hazy folk troubadour, and uni-student idols R.E.M. cranked up their amps and made the loudest, glammiest music of their career.

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