𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔 - [Battle of] The Best 90s Rock Bands

It´s been a while since I said it....

Thank the G man it's #Ninetiesfriday.

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Now I have been doing some specials lately on bands that did not do squat in the USA. KLF, Prodigy, and this Robbie Williams bloke.

Bands That Did Not Do Squat In The USA

𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔 - Who´s That Monkey Williams?
𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔 - The KLF AKA The Band That Burnt £1,000,000
𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔 - Smack My Bitch Outa Space

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But although the USA seems to be turning its back on the wider world, I will not follow that example and neither were my pics meant as such.

It was just coincidence!

Coincidence?

How can it be that two of the five most iconic and best-selling rock albums were released on the same day?

Oh before I get into those details, you do know these 5 Iconic Albums, right?

You sure do when I list the Bands:

1. Nirvana
2. Pearjam
3. RHCP
4. Metalica
5. Guns & Roses

Now don´t come crying that RATM is not there just look at the numbers.

1. Guns N' Roses

• Best-Selling Album: Use Your Illusion I & II (1991)
  • Sales: Over 35 million copies worldwide.

2. Nirvana

• Best-Selling Album: Nevermind (1991)
  • Sales: Over 30 million copies worldwide.

3. Pearl Jam

• Best-Selling Album: Ten (1991)
  • Sales: Over 13 million copies in the U.S. and 30 million worldwide.

4. Metallica

• Best-Selling Album: Metallica (commonly known as The Black Album) (1991)
  • Sales: Over 16 million copies in the U.S. and over 30 million worldwide.

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP)

• Best-Selling Album: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
  • Sales: Over 16 million copies worldwide.

Rage Against the Machine´s Best-Selling Album did just over 6 million worldwide.

And it´s that I consider Greenday more punk than rock, at least back then because they would have done:

Dookie - Green Day (1994): ~20 million copies

Now why is this so important?

This is absolutely important if you consider that two albums in that list were released on the same day....

Why the hell did they go and do that?

I would say it was part of a "cosmic alignment," a deliberate attempt by the music industry to blow people's minds by dropping two iconic albums simultaneously.

And by doing so to dominate the airwaves and redefine the sound of the decade.

In reality, it might just have been a coincidence with a hint of marketing as people wake up to the holiday season when September ends.

And back in the nineties, all you wanted for Christmas was....

If Dad did not want to pay for that, well then at least a cool rock album would shake up that boring Christmas Eve.

Other than that I have no clue how they did it.

WTF is he on about?

Here we go:

Nirvana - Nevermind

• Label: DGC Records (a subsidiary of Geffen Records)
• Release Date: September 24, 1991

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

• Label: Warner Bros. Records
• Release Date: September 24, 1991

If I look at this pure sec, these two albums stretched the whole Nineties rock landscape, from grunge rock to funk rock; two albums, one day, an entire generation!

But what album would you pick as your all-time favorite out of that list, as I am in a good mood you can pick RATM and Dookie as well!

I will tell you my pick at the end but at least it gives you some time to think about it, while I do a useless compàrisson of these two magnificent rock monumentals.

Did These Guys Have Anything In Common?

Well, they both sold millions of an album released on the same day, and both enjoyed dabbling with Heroin.... but other than that let me see.

I would say these albums came from different musical worlds.

But both left lasting imprints on the music industry and my ears. When Under The Bridge hit my eardrums that first time I was like WOW!

But I knew these guys, they gave it away before. I did not buy the album till many years later when it was second-hand. Probably because at the time I spend my cash on Nevermind.

Because I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit, I went what the fuck did I just hear??

Nirvana - Nevermind
The sound was raw, distorted, and emotionally charged, with a heavy focus on power chords and dynamic shifts. It combined punk’s rebellious spirit with most important for me those melodic elements from classic rock.

It was full of all those pretty songs that I liked to sing along with....

Kurt Cobain's sing-along, that gritty, anguished voice made me feel the words even if I did not hear them the first time.

It helped that the album was produced by Butch Vig, who polished the band’s raw energy while maintaining its grittiness.

I wonder which of the two I would buy today?

Musically my taste has always been more towards Blood Sugar Sex Magik, I even like the title better but well, Nevermind that.

Still, back then, I had never heard something so pure & raw as Kurt. I guess they don´t compare because the RHCP album was a groove-heavy fuse of funk, rock, and rap with moments of introspection and tenderness.

My personal moment of tenderness was when they broke the girl.

And Anthony, he was no Kurt that is for sure...but I loved his hair! And his soulful melodic singing, and they had Flea and John Frusciante.

Ah, you wonder why I did not mention, that other dude from Nirvana who still is making money and music...well because I never really liked him.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik was produced by Rick Rubin, who encouraged a stripped-down, organic approach.

If you ask me he did not succeed till this song...

But nobody asked me.

Rick had previously declined to work with The Peppers as they were famous....for doing too much drugs.

The band recorded in a Los Angeles mansion rumored to be haunted, fostering a creative atmosphere. Rick Rubin tried to keep the guys in the house, saying he wanted them to be emerged in the house's mystical energy.

I think he was afraid that if they left they would not show up on time or ODed.

Anthony Kiedis, the band’s vocalist, and other members often described the house as having a magical quality that inspired their music.

Rubin later turned the house into a studio, that was used by other artists, such as Slipknot and Linkin Park.

Rubin is an Icon and produced that other Iconic RHCP Nineties albums as well.

Californication also sold 16 million copies but was released after the MP3 invention which probably did quite a bit of damage to the sales.

Evidently, Nirvana was a bigger commercial success

• Nirvana - Nevermind
  • Nevermind sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
  • The album was initially expected to sell modestly, but the breakout success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" turned it into a phenomenon.
  • It reached #1 on the Billboard 200, dethroning Michael Jackson’s Dangerous.
  • Nevermind became the defining album of the grunge era, bringing alternative rock into the mainstream.

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• RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
  • Blood Sugar Sex Magik sold over 16 million copies worldwide.
  • Singles like "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge" achieved major radio and MTV success, propelling the album to #3 on the Billboard 200.
  • The album solidified RHCP as one of the biggest rock bands of the decade.

When it comes to lyrics, on both albums they were heavily drug-induced

Lyrics

Nirvana - Nevermind
Nirvana´s lyrics touched on alienation, existential despair, and rejection of societal norms.

The lyrics lean into impressionism rather than direct storytelling. The ambiguity allows listeners to project their own meanings onto the songs.

Kurt's introspective and disenchanted words resonated with a generation experiencing disillusionment in a post-Cold War world.

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Like the title the lyrics expressed sexuality, love, spirituality, addiction, and personal struggle.

Anthony Kiedis blends playful and provocative wordplay with deeply personal confessions.

That Other Leaver

Guitarist John Frusciante, overwhelmed by the album's success, left the band in 1992, leading to years of instability before his eventual return on Californication.

But what happened to Kurt, did his struggle with the newfound fame become the death of him?

Me, I Blame Courtney... I just do not trust the girl with the most cake...

She can say things like:

And then release your album a week after Kurt's Death, riding the wave of his fame???

Trivia

BTW did you know that after the dude from Nirvana and his Foo Fighters opened for RHCP on their Californication Tour?

Or that Give It Away Now was such a huge and unexpected success that the boys had no clue how to follow up on this;

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Then when Frusciante began playing "Under the Bridge", Kiedis missed his cue; the entire audience began singing the song, instead. Kiedis was initially "mortified that I'd fucked up in front of Warner's people ... I apologized for fucking up but they said 'Fucking up? Are you kidding me? When every single kid at the show sings a song, that's our next single."

Yes, I would buy both albums again, and probably play neither.

I would play this Nirvana song:

But out of that top 5, there is just one album I would still play or at least two songs I would still play...

Use Your Illusion I

Is probably my favorite....simply because of Coma and well maybe this guilty pleasure as well

But what is your favorite from those 7 albums that shaped the real nineties music?

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#NinetiesFriday was brought to you by My Nineties Rant

Okay, Time To Go Shopping!

And maybe it´s best to remember that little firestarter like that because just imagine this:

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WTF do I do on #NinetiesFriday?
Well, don't do what I do because that would be copy/pasta!

But some ideas are music, movies, television, sports, or really anything Nineties related.

I assume movie, TV, or music topic reviews or talk will be most common, but you could also talk about a sports memory or something else.

Make sure to use: #NinetiesFriday and post or cross-post in the Nineties Friday Community

Thank Goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!

All Images by MyI & AI

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