{"id":522465,"date":"2026-07-02T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/522465\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:44:09","slug":"10-best-rock-songs-of-the-1990s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/522465\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Best Rock Songs of the 1990s"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels tempting to stereotype the 1990s as a decade of angst, part of being from the whole Gen X attitude, and part of being from the decade being maybe\/kinda\/sorta generally stable? Like, there were many movies released at the end of the decade that were about people in seemingly decent\/stable jobs rebelling or lashing out at something in their lives out of boredom or general malaise (see Fight Club<\/a>, American Beauty, Office Space<\/a>, and maybe even the first act of The Matrix<\/a>), so perhaps the angst-related stereotype isn’t entirely unfair.<\/p>\n

You could hear it in some of the music, too, particularly on the rock side of things, because the rock that was popular in the 1990s was generally of the grunge or alternative variety, plus a bit of Britpop thrown in, for good measure. And that genre is going to be focused on below, with this being a ranking of some of the very best rock songs of the 1990s, with a limit of one song per artist \u2013 as is usually best to do \u2013 to keep things a little more varied.<\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

“Say It Ain’t So” (1994)<\/p>\n

Weezer<\/p>\n

\u201cSay It Ain\u2019t So\u201d was released as a single in 1995, but it first appeared on Weezer\u2019s self-titled debut album in 1994. \u201cWhich self-titled album?\u201d is a valid question, now that there have been several, but it\u2019s also The Blue Album, which isn’t as good as Joni Mitchell\u2019s Blue, but not much is. And that\u2019s a very different sort of album. What are we talking about again?<\/p>\n

Oh, Weezer. Good ol\u2019 Weezer. Weezer was a good old band back in the mid-1990s, and then they became an inconsistent band in the 2000s, and then a weirdly good band again about 20 years later (The White Album kind of came out of nowhere with how strong it was), and then they were back to their inconsistent thing before too long. Like, The Teal Album. Anyway, \u201cSay It Ain\u2019t So\u201d is a highlight from a great alternative rock album<\/a>, and could well be Weezer\u2019s very best song, so that\u2019s why it\u2019s here. About “Say It Ain’t So,” this has been said. So it be. So it is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

“Common People” (1995)<\/p>\n

Pulp<\/p>\n

You can call Pulp Britpop if you want to, just as you can dance and leave your friends behind (agghh, wrong decade, sorry<\/a>), but since it\u2019s a sort of alternative rock (for the most part), Britpop can be included here. It is a safe space for Britpop. So, here\u2019s \u201cCommon People,\u201d the first of a handful of Britpop songs that are going to be here, which you might just have to learn to deal with, if you don\u2019t love it. As was the case with Weezer\u2019s \u201cSay It Ain\u2019t So,\u201d this is probably the band\u2019s strongest track overall.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost six minutes long, but you can\u2019t really tell while it\u2019s playing, since it\u2019s very catchy on a musical front, and then lyrically, it\u2019s an example of good storytelling, what with the satire and very British wit found throughout it. It\u2019s Wittish, and certainly works on both those fronts, musically and lyrically<\/a>. Maybe some other fronts, too. It\u2019s just a winning song any way you want to slice\/define it.<\/p>\n

8 <\/p>\n

“Katy Song” (1993)<\/p>\n

Red House Painters<\/p>\n

Of all the bands here, Red House Painters probably feel the least \u201crock\u201d in the traditional sense, and also, \u201cKaty Song\u201d is easily the most downbeat track in this whole ranking. It\u2019s probably the most obscure pick, too, but it feels right to throw at least one outlier into the mix. Otherwise, you’re just going to get nothing but the usual suspects, and there were already enough Usual Suspects in the 1990s, thanks to that movie from 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaty Song\u201d is quintessential slowcore, which is a sub-genre of indie rock, and then indie rock itself is kind of a sub-genre of rock. This song is slow, and very despairing<\/a>, but also incredibly beautiful and moving. It\u2019s sad in a visceral \u2013 and hopefully cathartic \u2013 sort of way, and does technically have rock instrumentation, so it counts. \u201cKaty Song\u201d is a fantastic epic ballad of sorts, but not a ballad in a conventional way. It\u2019s just worth listening to, and certainly worthy of devoting about eight minutes of your time to (what do you have to lose? Besides eight minutes and 22 seconds, of course).<\/p>\n

7 <\/p>\n

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)<\/p>\n

Nirvana<\/p>\n

From the most obscure song here to the one that might well be overexposed, in the eyes (or ears?) of some, \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d is the boring pick for the crown of Nirvana\u2019s best song, but it is an anthem and a staple of the \u201890s for good reason. If you want to get technical, it\u2019s grunge, rather than straightforward rock, but grunge was what rock more or less evolved into, by the early 1990s, with grunge and some alt-rock differentiating themselves from the \u201cclassic\u201d rock popular in the 1970s, and into the 1980s, to some extent.<\/p>\n

Even if it\u2019s potentially not the best \u201crock\u201d song of the decade, it is likely the most well-known and also the most decade-defining.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also hard to know what else to say about \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit.\u201d It\u2019s been viewed more than 2 billion times on YouTube alone, and it was already beyond iconic before it ever got officially uploaded to YouTube in 2009. Even if it\u2019s potentially not the best \u201crock\u201d song of the decade, it is likely the most well-known and also the most decade-defining<\/a>, so that counts for quite a lot here, in the interest of being at least somewhat objective about all this.<\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

“Strangers When We Meet” (1993\/1995)<\/p>\n

David Bowie<\/p>\n

This song\u2019s a bit of an odd one to try and classify, year-wise, but either way, it did come out in the 1990s. It\u2019s an underrated David Bowie song called \u201cStrangers When We Meet,\u201d with a version initially appearing on an album called The Buddha of Suburbia, which is sometimes considered a soundtrack, and sometimes a studio album<\/a>. Then, it was recorded again and made into the closing track on Bowie\u2019s Outside, which is sometimes called 1.Outside.<\/p>\n

And Outside might well be the most experimental and inconsistent of David Bowie\u2019s studio albums, with it having some great material and then a few super questionable and unusual tracks. It\u2019s an endurance test of an album, at times, but does stay interesting throughout, and then quite a lot can be forgiven when the whole thing concludes with a track as cathartic and moving as \u201cStrangers When We Meet,\u201d which is probably the best David Bowie song that doesn\u2019t often get considered a candidate for the title of \u201cbest David Bowie song,\u201d<\/a> if that makes any sense.<\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” (1997)<\/p>\n

The Verve<\/p>\n

\u201cBitter Sweet Symphony\u201d marks another win for Britpop representation here, and it\u2019s also not far off \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d in terms of being decade-defining and hard not to mention, at least in passing, when you’re talking about the \u201890s. It\u2019s got that whole orchestral sound going for it that feels weirdly timeless, and a very effective (and, for a time, controversial<\/a>) sample from The Rolling Stones<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a broadness to \u201cBitter Sweet Symphony\u201d that might make it feel somewhat tempting to resist, or downplay its greatness, but to go big and broad in this way and have it all still work is not easy, just as making a true crowd-pleaser in the world of cinema ain\u2019t easy. This is the kind of song that splits people into two camps: those who like it, and those who don\u2019t admit they like it, when they do. Both camps, of course, are basically the same. It\u2019s more bitter than sweet that they remain so divided.<\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

“Closer” (1994)<\/p>\n

Nine Inch Nails<\/p>\n

There might be a certain catharsis and broad appeal to \u201cBitter Sweet Symphony,\u201d but you don\u2019t really get anything nice with \u201cCloser,\u201d even if it is pretty popular for a song that\u2019s largely so dark. It was a hit by the standards of Nine Inch Nails, and saw the band being oddly close to mainstream success, with \u201cCloser\u201d nearly cracking the top 40 in America, and coming bizarrely close to hitting #1 in Australia, getting to #3, at its peak. Hmm? Hmm. Hmm!<\/p>\n

Oh, #25 in the UK, too. It did well, and then it\u2019s also endured, because if you know one Nine Inch Nails song, and one only, it\u2019s probably this one. As for what \u201cCloser\u201d is about lyrically, that\u2019s hard to get into<\/a> without the commentary straying out of PG-rated territory. Speaking of not PG-rated territory, \u201cCloser\u201d has a pretty alarming \u2013 and, for better or worse, hard-to-forget \u2013 music video, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

“Stay Together” (1994)<\/p>\n

Suede<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a song here that\u2019s the second-most obscure, after \u201cKaty Song,\u201d it\u2019s probably Suede\u2019s \u201cStay Together.\u201d This is also the last Britpop song worth mentioning, and if you\u2019ve got a problem with Blur not being here, tough. Comment about it. It\u2019s good for views\/engagement. Also, \u201cSong 2\u201d wasn\u2019t short-listed, if you want something more to be angry about. \u201cGirls & Boys\u201d and (especially) \u201cTender\u201d are better, anyway.<\/p>\n

As for \u201cStay Together,\u201d this is grandiose and bombastic stuff, being as much a throwback to glam rock as it is a Britpop song, or, actually, it\u2019s probably more glam rock than anything else. But it\u2019s also unhinged and extra-theatrical glam rock<\/a>, with glam rock already being more theatrical than ordinary rock, usually. It is a long and sweeping song that goes right up to the line of being too much, but keeps dancing on that line for about seven minutes, rather than outright crossing it. It\u2019s glorious<\/a>. Some of the band members apparently didn\u2019t like it that much, but with all due respect, they’re off the mark.<\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

“Let Down” (1997)<\/p>\n

Radiohead<\/p>\n

To mention Radiohead on a ranking like this isn’t inherently a hot take, but to pick \u201cLet Down\u201d over some other songs from OK Computer<\/a>, or maybe that one song about being a creep, a weirdo, and not belonging somewhere\u2026 that might be a hot take. And it is hard to pick a song from OK Computer as the \u201cbest,\u201d when all 12 tracks on that album feel essential to the album as a whole, but \u201cLet Down\u201d might well work the best in isolation.<\/p>\n

It is a big song, and maybe the author likes big and kind of in-your-face sad songs. \u201cLet Down\u201d is the sort of thing 21st-century Radiohead<\/a> might be a little embarrassed by, because they don\u2019t really do ballads the way they used to, in the 1990s (see also \u201cFake Plastic Trees,\u201d which is quite broadly moving by Radiohead standards). Still, when they did do this kind of song, they did it so well, and it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone actually being let down and stuff by this one.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

“1979” (1995)<\/p>\n

The Smashing Pumpkins<\/p>\n

One of the best songs of the 1990s being called \u201c1979\u201d would be a bit like one of the best songs of the 2020s being called \u201c2009,\u201d but time marches on, always, and it doesn\u2019t care about your feelings. But \u201c1979\u201d does feel more open and caring, in terms of \u2013 once more \u2013 being a cathartic sort of rock song, and definitely one of the mellower side of things (it is undoubtedly \u201crock\u201d enough, though).<\/p>\n

There are some other great songs by The Smashing Pumpkins<\/a>, of course, and there are a good many of them that can be found on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, since that\u2019s a particularly grand double album of almost 30 tracks, all up. \u201c1979\u201d is a highlight, though, and maybe even the centerpiece of the whole gargantuan album. It\u2019s very nostalgic, bittersweet, and effortlessly emotional, with all that adding up to a song that\u2019s ultimately hard to resist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels tempting to stereotype the 1990s as a decade of angst, part of being from the whole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-522465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}