Best New Rock / Metal Band for Each Year of the 1990s

The '90s were a wild decade, with a pretty diverse span of music keeping fans entertained. It was a great time to be alive if you were a music fan, as you likely witnessed two major shifts in music, both of which led to rock sitting atop the music hierarchy.

The decade started with radio wave oversaturated with what we know as hair metal, which led to a musical revolution in 1991 when many of the acts that had been relegated to college radio finally got their shot at mainstream rock supremacy. Leading the way was grunge, which is well represented on this list with acts such as Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. While alternative rock (or alt-rock) became the dominant radio presence.

But as grunge started to reach its "sell by" date, another style of even heavier rock was ready to take over. The first real taste came from Korn years earlier, but nu-metal was thriving as the '90s closed.

READ MORE: Top Rock + Metal Albums of the '90s

Much like previous eras, we're looking at this through the lens of being within that specific year and viewing what music came to the forefront in making our choices. There are bands that went on to bigger things, but within that specific year our picks for the best new rock band are based on how they were immediately embraced within that specific year

So let's take a look back at the '90s and watch as trends either favored the addition of similar new acts or necessitated the emergence of something completely different. Check out the Best New Rock / Metal Bands of Each Year of the 1990s below.