Shop New & Used 90s Vinyl Records & Box Sets

It’s time to trade in the bell-bottoms and shiny vests for leather jackets and long black hair. When the 90s swung around, all the music of the preceding three decades was flipped into a visceral, moody hybrid that you wanted to bang your head to.

The rise of moodiness was not without controversy, but the overall tone of the 90s was power and digital coolness. Besides the ever darkening mood of metal, the decade also saw the rise of grunge and alternative icons. Even pop music felt like it had a cigarette sticking out of its mouth.

Disillusioned by music that was too commercial, too happy, and too boring, artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains invented grunge to shake us back to Earth with the intensity of their sonic power grooves. After being born In Utero and Superunknown at the start of the decade, there were at least Ten great grunge albums during the 90s that moshers still worship worldwide. Never before had music unleashed such cool headbanging power.

As another way of saying “screw you” to happy, boring music, alternative bands took off in a number of genres. Radiohead released their first few albums, culminating in the 1997 release OK Computer. In an ominous ode that eerily predicted social disconnection in the 21st century, the classic album has sold over 7 million copies. Other alternative legends like Incubus were born, merging funk, metal, hard rock, and electronic into a groundbreaking, unique blend.

Even U2, the upbeat, positive pop rockers of the 80s transformed themselves into alternative, piercing superstars. With their 1991 release Achtung Baby, recorded in post-wall Berlin, the band moved in “Mysterious Ways” towards an industrial, darker future.

Hip-hop and rap, which had previously been an underground and overlooked scene, burst to the mainstage in the genre. Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z all released albums that combined deep beats with lyrical wizardry, spinning tales of the struggles of modern urban life.

That which was heavy and angry in the 80s became heavier and angrier in the 90s. Compare Metallica’s Master of Puppets (1986) with The Black Album (1991). The latter is slowed down while the band viciously tears its listeners apart with the apocalyptic intensity of their power ballads.

Other bands like Rage Against The Machine, the Beastie Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers began to speak out against the growing establishment. They urge you to “Wake Up” and see the “Otherside”, hoping that one day we’ll get there together. This jaded phenomenon can be summed up with the term Californication.

If you own a leather jacket, chances are you like the aggressive, disillusioned records of the 90s. In a way, this era of cold-sounding digital recordings was oddly optimistic, pulling aside all the bullshit of modern mass media-penetrated life to express raw feelings of anger and ennui. Pick up one of our 90s albums and bang your head to the sincere decline of artistic sincerity at the hands of commercialism. There’s truly no other decade of music that captured this more than the 90s.