The teenage years are an intense time, full of discoveries. Music often plays a central role in a teenager’s life, helping to shape their identity and forming bonds with their peers.
Recently, I switched from streaming to listening to music locally again. While browsing through my albums to choose which ones to upload to my smartphone, I came across CD covers that took me back to the ’90s, a time when I was listening to music on CDs and tapes, using my stereo system and my walkman.
I selected the 12 albums that deeply marked me during my teenage years in the ’90s. These albums helped me connect with people, sometimes in deep ways, and some of those connections have turned into lifelong friendships. They shaped my musical education, opened doors to other genres, and I still take great pleasure in listening to them to this day.
Here are the 12 albums that not only left a mark on my teenage years, but also on my entire life. They are listed by year of release, except for the first one, Nevermind, which holds a special place.
As you can see, for a ’90s kid, this isn’t an ultra-underground, subversive list of unknown albums. These are all genre classics, and many are considered cult albums. But each one holds a special meaning for me.
Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)
This album holds a very special place for me. It was the first CD I ever bought on my own. Nevermind is an icon of an entire generation I belong to. I played it an uncountable number of times. Nirvana, and especially Nevermind, changed my relationship with music—it was my first real independent step into the music world.
I discovered Nevermind thanks to my friends at school, who had discovered it through their older siblings. Nirvana, and especially this album, introduced a genre of its own, grunge, a sound forever associated with the early and mid-90s. Smells Like Teen Spirit is probably the anthem of my generation.
My Top Tracks: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium, Territorial Pissings
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction (1987)
I was too young when this album was released, and I discovered it in the early ’90s. Again, thanks to friends, and thanks to their older siblings. I remember being fascinated by the CD booklet, its photos and art. Those slumped guys, with tattoos and long hair, weird and/or ripped-off clothes, drinking alcohol, playing great, catchy, and aggressive hard rock… Wow! I was sold.
In 2023, I finally had the pleasure of seeing them live, and it was memorable, even after all these years.
My Top Tracks: Welcome to the Jungle, It’s So Easy, My Michelle
Megadeth – Rust in Peace (1990)
Another slap in my face! I didn’t know about Megadeth or any of their albums until 1994 or 1995, when some friends of mine, again, showed me this CD at school, telling me how awesome it was. At first, I was captivated by the CD cover and really curious about that radioactive look-alike disc inside the box. Rust in Peace. That alien, those colors. What the hell. I couldn’t borrow the CD that day, and didn’t get the chance to listen to it until several days later, when another friend kindly lent it to me for a few days. Of course, I made a copy on an audio cassette and played the hell out of that tape. I eventually bought the CD later.
I didn’t know anything about that kind of music, thrash metal, back then—fast, brutal, technical, with that Megadeth atmosphere I would learn to appreciate over time. I mean, I knew Metallica and their Black Album, but I didn’t make the connection between the genre and the two bands. And at that time, I didn’t know anything about their shared history.
My Top Tracks: Holy Wars… The Punishment Due, Hangar 18, Tornado of Souls
Metallica – Black Album (1991)
I don’t exactly remember how I ended up discovering and owning this album, but I remember it was not long after Nevermind and years before Rust in Peace. I didn’t know much about Metallica at the time, I wasn’t even aware they had already released many albums in a pretty different style.
The Black Album, as it’s usually named, is a turning point in Metallica’s discography. They transitioned from a more thrash and non-FM-radio-compatible sound to something more accessible and popular, yet still kicking ass metal. Like many of us back then, I was hooked by Enter Sandman, and Nothing Else Matters was one of the most popular slow dance songs at house parties—not to forget Wind of Change by Scorpions!
My Top Tracks: Enter Sandman, Sad But True
AC/DC – Live: 2 CD Collector’s Edition (1992)
I first discovered AC/DC with their album The Razor’s Edge, which I randomly picked and borrowed while browsing the Rock music section at my local library. I knew I liked rock music, and I guess I was attracted by the silver-red cover and the iconic AC/DC logo.
Anyway, that album led me to the Live Album, recorded at the same time as their awesome Live at Donington video, and it was mesmerizing. I think that was my first live CD, which added so much to the listening experience. I only knew a few AC/DC songs back then, but I was instantly hooked by each track as they played one after another. I think there was a time when I could have air-guitared both Angus and Malcolm through the entire 2 CDs, I knew the album by heart. This is probably the album that made me want to play the guitar.
The album also included an Angus Buck, a fake one dollar bill I used to always carry with me in my wallet. I lost it decades ago, though, too bad!
My Top Tracks: Thunderstruck, High Voltage, Whole Lotta Rosie
Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine (1992)
This band is unlike anything else in the music world. Everybody was blown away when they first heard Killing in the Name. It was unexpected, unknown, and surprising—in the best way possible.
It took me a long time to realize what was actually on the album cover, as I had to grow up a bit to fully understand the meaning behind RATM’s music, even though I could capture their mood of rage pretty early on. I didn’t know what their songs were about, but I could feel the anger and the rage. A solid album that hasn’t aged at all.
My Top Tracks: Killing in the Name, Know Your Enemy, Freedom
Korn – Korn (1994)
“Aaaare youuuu readyyyyy?”
I don’t remember how I stumbled on this album but, again, what a blast of a discovery. I’ll always remember the first time I heard Blind, and how powerful it felt. And so was the entire album that followed. A new genre was emerging, Nu metal, and it was perfect for the teenagers we were. Heavy riffs, screams and growls, use of samples, head-banging rhythms… you name it!
Korn was my entry to the Nu metal world, an album thanks to which I got into that genre and was able to discover other bands like Deftones or System of a Down.
My Top Tracks: Blind, Clown, Faget
The Offspring – Smash (1994)
In the ’90s, I used to listen to the radio a lot, especially Fun Radio which was at the time broadcasting mostly rock/grunge music (and great “Libre Antenne” shows). I think I discovered The Offspring by listening to that radio, with their famous singles Come Out and Play and Self Esteem. I loved it so much.
Smash was my first encounter with the genre of punk rock music. And I think I couldn’t have dreamed of a better album! I never had heard of punk rock before, yet there were other great punk rock bands that I discovered later.
My Top Tracks: Gotta Get Away, Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, Smash
Green Day – Dookie (1994)
Dookie came out the same year than Smash, yet I discovered it years later. I knew their famous song Basket Case, of course, which was played on the radio every day or so, and which I liked very much. That song sounded less angry, more fun, more colorful than the other bands I was used to listen at the time. And when I got my hands on the CD, I can’t remember exactly when, I had the same feeling for the entire album.
I remember that I chose Basket Case as the first song of a homemade rock compilation on a cassette, I used to listen a lot while in the bus for school.
My Top Tracks: Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case
NOFX – So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes (1997)
First, one funny/weird fact about this album. Since my eyes first fixed on this CD cover and to this day, I instantly think about that tricolored marzipan that is sold in supermarkets in France (and probably in other countries too).
I discovered NOFX thanks to their famous cover (at least in France) of Les Champs-Élysées by Joe Dassin. It was years after Drunk in Public, which is known to be their most famous record. I remembered buying So Long… at the supermarket, like I did for a few other albums and especially a lot of CD singles that used to contain only two tracks and were sold in slim cardboard boxes.
It was a different style of punk rock than I was used to, especially compared to The Offspring, of which I was a huge fan during the last half of the ’90s. The songs were short, fast, melodic, with a lot of group vocal parts and funny yells… I simply loved it! It was the only NOFX album I ever owned for a long time, and it’s still my favorite to this day.
My Top Tracks: It’s My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite, 180 Degrees, I’m Telling Tim
Silverchair – Freak Show (1997)
“Wow, this guy sounds and looks like Kurt!” is what I first thought when I saw the music video of Freak on TV. Years after our generation’s hero tragically passed away, I saw (like a lot of people) a young Kurt Cobain in the person of mid-90’s Daniel Johns.
Grunge was still a popular genre of music even after the end of Nirvana, and I used to listen to popular hits like Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden or Alive by Pearl Jam, but that album brought me back to when I first discovered it.
This is an album that feels very nostalgic to me. Unlike the other artists on this list, I only really listen to this particular Silverchair album. I know they released other records, especially Frogstomp, before Freak Show, which is a good one I should listen to more.
My Top Tracks: Slave, Freak, Lie to Me, No Association
Deftones – Around the Fur (1997)
Deftones have a unique style and atmosphere. I love this band so much.
When I discovered them (with this album and not Adrenaline, which I found out about a bit later), I was just blown away. Not only was the music good and loud with heavy riffs, but Deftones also had their own ambiance—something quite organic and melancholic, thanks to Chino Moreno’s singing, the cries and growls of the late Chi Cheng, and the use of samples.
When I play Around the Fur, it’s like I’m back in my teenage years—I feel good. It’s the kind of album that can make me headbang just as much as it can cradle me to sleep.
I recently stumbled upon this Deftones video that has quite a nostalgic and carefree mood:
My Top Tracks: My Own Summer (Shove It), Around the Fur, Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away), Headup
Final Notes
Music is, I think, one of the few things from the past that I can still enjoy today in the same easy and simple ways I did years and decades ago. Depending on my mood, it can work like a time machine.
Whether I discovered those 12 albums through friends, on the radio, or by chance, they have truly shaped my musical culture and a part of my personality. They’ve been continuing to influence me to this day, not just through their music, but through the memories and emotions they evoke. Of course, they live on my phone. With close childhood friends of mine, we still regularly listen to some tracks of those albums when we are together. These albums opened doors for me, not only to the rest of the artists’ discographies, but also to other artists and even different musical genres.
Without wanting to fall into easy nostalgia or sound like a “things-were-better-before” grumpy guy, it’s hard to deny that the ’90s were an exceptional time for music, especially rock music. I’m lucky to have experienced that decade during my teenage years, a time when music played a central role in my life. For me, those years produced some of the best albums, and I think they were one of the most influential periods in music.
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