THE year was 1991.
Michael Jackson ruled the charts, boy bands were the flavour of the day and hip hop and urban music were still struggling to break into the mainstream.
It's no exaggeration to say that the release of Nirvana's Nevermind towards the end of that year changed the face of music.
It was a watershed moment that helped to finally push so-called ``alternative rock'' into the mainstream.
It was also the moment when grunge became a phenomenon, coalescing around Seattle and the record label Sub Pop.
Like punk less than two decades earlier, here was a style of music, a way to dress and even a too-easy slacker lifestyle in one neat alternative package for disaffected teens to latch on to.
The sound and aesthetic of grunge were a deliberate reaction to over-the-top, over-sexed hard rock and hair metal of the '80s.
This was about getting back to basics and playing loud, dumb and dirty.
Intricate guitar solos were for poodle-haired show-offs, and grunge was for any unhappy numbskull who could play a few power chords.
Many bands came before Nirvana and helped pave the way.
The term ``grunge'' is largely credited to Mudhoney singer Mark Arm, who first used it in a music mag in 1981.
Acts like Pixies, The Melvins and Mudhoney had prepared a musical landscape in the mid-'80s for the wave of long-haired, flannel-wearing screamers who followed.
The list of five grunge albums below is just a list of five good ones.
It's not intended to be a list of the most important grunge albums - there are some obvious omissions - but just five that have stood the test of time.
Doolittle< /i> - Pixies (1989)
SOME people would argue that this isn't a grunge album.
Certainly in 1989 there were far grungier records being released - Mudhoney's sludgey self-titled album, Nirvana's metal-edged debut Bleach, and Soundgarden's volcanic Louder Than Love all featured that familiar fuzzed-out roar.
But Boston quartet Pixies were drawing a blueprint for where grunge was headed.
Kurt Cobain would famously proclaim that Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt to write a Pixies song.
The famous quiet-loud dynamic can be found on Tame or the belting single Gigantic, while the style's mashing of melody and noise is evident from nonsensical opener Debaser and obtuse closer Gouge Away.
Like Nirvana, Pixies weren't afraid to show off their then-daggy love of The Beatles - Nirvana had About A Girl and Pixies had Here Comes Your Man.
In Utero - Nirvana (1993)
NEVERMIND might be the big one but Nirvana's third and final album is their most innovative.
By turns dark and poppy, discordant and beautiful, In Utero has a bigger range of emotions and a naked rawness that can't be found on its ground-breaking predecessor.
The band locks into a grungey groove on Scentless Apprentice as Cobain's demonic howl references Patrick Suskind's novel Perfume, yet on Dumb the trio sounds almost summery as cellos add extra gravitas to the stark lyrics and Lennon-esque melody.
The extremes of the album are best shown by the final two tracks.
The blistering 90-second punkish burst of tourette's is as loud and dumb as grunge gets, yet it's followed by All Apologies, a song of plaintive beauty that would serve as Cobain's epitaph.
Vs - Pearl Jam (1993)
WHILE Nirvana mined the punks and Soundgarden dabbled with the metal end of grunge, Pearl Jam added Americana to their sound for their second album.
The pressure of the success of their multi-million-selling debut Ten loomed over the band but this was the moment when Pearl Jam hit their stride.
The heavy songs are heavier and the quiet moments are quieter.
The flat-out riffing of Go is backed up by the angry Animal, in which Eddie Vedder vents savagely, but it's the more down-tempo moments that leave a lasting impression.
Daughter's popularity as a pub-rock singalong tends to deter people from realising what a great piece of alternative rock it is, while Neil Young's musical fingerprints linger on Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town.
When you add Rearviewmirror and Indifference to the tracklist, it's easy to see why some regard this as Pearl Jam's finest hour.
Superunkno wn - Soundgarden (1994)
GRUNGE albums aren't supposed to have so many great singles but the five killer cuts from this mammoth record helped nudge Soundgarden into the big time.
The darkly dreamy Black Hole Sun was a successful change of pace and blistering first single Spoonman is a stunning collision of rhythms. These remain two of the band's greatest achievements.
Chris Cornell's phenomenal range, particularly on The Day I Tried To Live, blew newcomers away.
Grunge seemed to be about to enter its final days, spurred on by Cobain's death, and Soundgarden were taking the sound into new and dark places for the genre's finale - Fell On Black Days was a fitting final single for the album.
Frogstomp - Silverchair (1995)
``TEENAGE angst has paid off well,'' Cobain sang on Nirvana's Serve The Servants.
It certainly did for the then-teenaged Silverchair, who poured every ounce of discontent, disillusionment and aggression they could muster into their barnstorming debut.
Frogstomp is a naive record lyrically but the riffs are driving and the melodies are catchy, making this easily the best grunge album by a non-American band.
Tomorrow remains a landmark Australian rock track which is all the more remarkable because it was written by 14-year-old.
The opening rumble of Israel's Son became imprinted in the heads of angsty teens everywhere.
It's the under-rated tracks Leave Me Out and Findaway that are perhaps the grungiest and while they smack of ``Nirvana in Pyjamas'', they help make this possibly the last great grunge album.