>> Nirvana

Nirvana's mixture of punk and metal would inspire legions of bands in the early '90s to pursue the style crafted by Kurt Cobain and his crew, which would be termed grunge. Though sitting closer to punk than other grunge bands following them, Nirvana's sound fused the spark of punk with the dirty, ruddy sounds of metal. By the band's third full-length album, Cobain was being heralded as the John Lennon of Generation X, mixing hauntingly dark and poetic lyrics with a unique brand of music. Comparisons to the late Beatle would fail to fully actualize after Cobain's suicide in April 1994.