Alternative Rock

A number of factors combined to introduce me to alternative rock in the '90s. I have an older sister who was in the target audience (Generation X), who shared such bands with me as Nine Inch Nails, Bush, Garbage, Green Day, and Stone Temple Pilots. My parents also like this music, especially my dad. And then there was 103.9 The Edge, a station that for at least three glorious years before they became The X, played almost nothing but the best in '90s rock.

I was a fan.

103.9 became The Edge in 1995, and that's probably around the same time my musical awareness really took off. I was 10 years old and in 5th grade. I have a lot of jumbled memories of when I received CDs by my favorite artists (although it was mostly Christmas) and quite a few photographs. Here's one now:

Wearing my Insomniac t-shirt at Camp Kern, 1995.

Being only 10 in 1995, Kurt Cobain's suicide didn't have as big an impact on me as it would have had on a slightly older crowd - in fact, I'm not even sure I knew about it until years later. I liked Nirvana and got their CDs from the library all the time, but they weren't my favorite band. During the '90s, my favorite band was The Smashing Pumpkins. My parents took me to a concert when I was 11 years old, a story I'll go into later.

Getting NIN's Broken for my birthday - probably '97

Another favorite band of mine was Nine Inch Nails. Although they played on The Edge, they were not alternative rock. The songs off the album Pretty Hate Machine that played were "Head Like A Hole" and "Down In It." But that album was much less abrasive than Broken and The Downward Spiral, which only spawned one hit single, "Closer." It's funny that I think of myself as having been sheltered, considering that my parents didn't forbid me to listen to any music. The Downward Spiral is very explicit, featuring themes of sex, murder, nihilism, rape, and suicide. I borrowed it from the library regularly from the age of 12, listening to it while blowing monsters away in Doom II, another much maligned bad influence.

IDDQD

The darkness and aggression of Nine Inch Nails was contrasted by the upbeat and energetic pop punk tunes of Green Day, a band that always puts me in a good mood. The first album I got by them was Dookie, and it's still one of my favorites. I also had Insomniac.I frequently borrowed 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours from the library, and it has some of my favorite songs on it, too. I was dimly aware, having a friend who was into older punk music, that Green Day were not considered "authentic punk." This is just hilarious to me now - they weren't cool enough to join the outsider clique.

And speaking of bands that were considered "posers," there's Bush. They were another of my favorite bands, although telling people that I liked them often brought out some resentment because "they ripped off Nirvana." Listening to them now, they sound no more like Nirvana than Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, or other bands in the same genre. Bush sounds more polished, has better guitar playing (and solos), and better singing. I like Sixteen Stone better than any of Nirvana's albums. I also had Razorblade Suitcase.

Me at the bat exhibit, Cincinnati Zoo

So there you have it, a shallow look at my top five favorite bands of the '90s as I would have listed them growing up, all featured on my favorite radio station, 103.9 The Edge. Around 1998, the Edge turned into The X, and alternative rock was gradually pushed out by ska and nu-rock, which ultimately led to my turning off the radio and seeking out new music on my own. But of course I always kept my favorite music with me.