Musical Years In A Metaphorical Hat

Nirvana - Bleach (American grunge / alternative rock, debut album)  808 State - 90 (British electronic music / acid house)  Melvins - Ozma (American sludge metal / grunge)  Faith No More - The Real Thing (American funk metal / alternative metal, their first album with vocalist Mike Patton replacing Chuck Mosely)  Pixies - Doolittle (American alternative rock) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (American industrial rock / synth pop, debut album)  A.R. Kane - “i” (British dream pop / avant-pop)  Operation Ivy - Energy (American ska-punk, their only full length album) The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Devil’s Night Out (American ska punk / ska-core, debut album)  Bad Religion - No Control (American punk rock)  White Zombie - Make Them Die Slowly (American heavy metal/ noise rock) White Zombie - God Of Thunder (American groove metal, EP featuring a cover of the title Kiss song plus two original songs, first release to feature guitarist Jay Yuenger, who...

Nick Drake - Pink Moon (english folk, his last studio album) Blue Oyster Cult - Blue Oyster Cult (American hard rock/ psychedelic rock, debut album)  The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St. (English rock and roll, double album)  Big Star - #1 Record (American power pop, debut album) Neil Young - Harvest (Canadian-American folk rock / country rock)  The Raspberries - The Raspberries (American power pop, debut album) Deep Purple - Machine Head (English heavy metal)  Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything (American pop rock / psychedelia, double album) David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (English glam rock, concept album)  Jerry Garcia - Garcia (American country rock / psychedelia, solo album by Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist)  Steely Dan - Can’t Buy A Thrill (American soft rock, debut album)  Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 (British heavy metal)  Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (British progressive rock, concept album cons...

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty (American alternative hip hop) They Might Be Giants - Severe Tire Damage (American alternative rock, live album also featuring three new studio recordings) Primus - Rhinoplasty (American funk metal / experimental rock, features six cover songs, one remake of an original song, and two “bonus live tracks”)*  Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (American indie rock/psychedelic folk, their second and final full length studio album)   Beck - Mutations (American folk rock/psychedelic rock)  Various - Deconstructing Beck (various artists create plunderphonics/noise sound collage pieces using unlicensed Beck samples, co-release by Illegal Art and Negativland’s Seeland Records)  Phish - Story of the Ghost (American jazz-funk/progressive rock)  Garbage - Version 2.0 (American alternative rock / synth rock)  Korn - Follow the Leader (American nu metal) System of a Down - System of a Down (Armenian American alternative met...

The canonical "big four" of grunge are said to be Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. Of these, really only Pearl Jam were active in 1998: Nirvana were no more in the wake of Kurt Cobain's death, Soundgarden were broken up at the time, and Alice In Chains were on hiatus. However, members of three of these groups would release solo material or other projects in that year.  Pearl Jam: Not only were Pearl Jam active at the time, they had two releases in 1998: Their fifth studio album Yield and first major live album Live On Two Legs . Yield is one of their stronger albums - by this point they had managed to turn the more experimental moments of Vitalogy into something more cohesive. Unfortunately rock radio had already started its pattern of playing one or two singles off whatever the newest album was, then going back to pretending only the first four albums existed. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of Pearl Jam on the radio a...

  Bill Haley & His Comets – Rock Around The Clock (American rock and roll) Miles Davis – Blue Moods (American jazz) Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons (American country) Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky – Tape Recorder Music (American electronic music) Les Paul and Mary Ford – Les & Mary (American vocal pop) Peggy Seeger – Songs of Courting and Complaint (American folk) Tony Bennett – Cloud 7 (American vocal jazz) Lord Invader – Calypso (Trinidadian calypso) Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours (American vocal jazz) Sarah Vaughan – In The Land Of Hi-Fi (American vocal jazz) Lotte Lenya – Lotte Lenya Singt Kurt Weill (Austrian cabaret) Kenny Dorham – Afro-Cuban (American Afro-cuban jazz) Thelonius Monk – Plays Duke Ellington (American jazz) Harry Partch – The Bewitched (American contemporary classical) Eartha Kitt – Down To Eartha (American vocal jazz/pop) Audiovisual extra credit (movie musicals etc): Oklahoma!  Notes: Thi...

Daft Punk – Daft Club (French electronic music, remix album) “ Weird Al” Yankovic – Poodle Hat (American comedy music) Belle And Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Scottish indie pop) Blue Man Group – The Complex (American experimental rock/performance art, concept album contrasting the urban workplace with rock concerts, guest appearances by Gavin Rossdale, Tracy Bonham, and Dave Matthews) Cave In – Antenna (American alternative metal/space rock, major label debut) The Exploding Hearts – Guitar Romantic (American punk rock/power pop, their only full-length album) Broadcast – Haha Sound (English indie electronic / dream pop) Fountains Of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers (American power pop) Mitch Hedberg – Mitch All Together (American stand up comedy) Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Streetcore (English alternative rock/reggae rock, final album by the former Clash frontman) Cheap Trick – Special One (American power pop) Ministry – Animositisomina (Am...