Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged at Sony Studios in New York City - 100 best albums of the '90s The 1990s were a unique and exciting time in music. It gave us (and our ears) a little bit of everything from all around the globe, with hundreds of artists in various genres peaking in their careers and experiencing critical and commercial success with their records. We saw alternative rock gain vast amounts of mainstream traction with bands like Oasis, U2, and Green Day.