The 15 best alternative rock songs of 1996, according to Loudwire

Alternative rock was one of the genres that dominated the first half of the Nineties, and in 1996 it was still in full swing. Loudwire magazine has dedicated its new ranking to precisely those alt-rock classics now celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. "It was one of the last great years for alternative rock in its most melodic form," the magazine notes in its introduction. "Not long after, many US radio stations devoted to the genre would gradually abandon that sound in favor of heavier fare, paving the way for the nu metal explosion that arrived about two years later. Grunge, pop-punk and nu metal — three strands that had a well-defined identity of their own in the Nineties — were deliberately excluded from the selection. That's why you won't find artists like Soundgarden, Green Day or Rage Against The Machine, who were leading figures of those scenes precisely in 1996. Instead, we find Smashing Pumpkins, by then far removed from their grunge origins thanks to the nostalgic success of '1979', one of the year's defining singles. 1996 also gave us great tracks from R.E.M., from Oasis, at the time probably the most popular band on the planet, from Alanis Morissette, and from new acts like Garbage and No Doubt. Different styles that coexisted perfectly under the broad umbrella of alternative rock."

So here are the 15 best alternative rock songs of 1996, according to Loudwire (full feature here).

• Smashing Pumpkins – "1979"
• Counting Crows – "A Long December"
• Oasis – "Champagne Supernova"
• Dishwalla – "Counting Blue Cars"
• No Doubt – “Don’t Speak”
• 311 – “Down”
• R.E.M. – “E-Bow The Letter”
• Gin Blossoms – “Follow You Down”
• Spacehog – “In The Meantime”
• Alanis Morissette – “Ironic”
• Tracy Bonham – “Mother Mother”
• Garbage – “Stupid Girl”
• Cake – “The Distance”
• Sublime – “What I Got”
• Beck – “Where It’s At”

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