KISW - Celebrating 40 Years of Rock

Aerosmith

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Album: Get a Grip Year: 1993 Label: Geffen website

Get a Grip became Aerosmith's best selling studio album worldwide, achieving sales of over 20 million copies, and is tied with Pump as their second best selling album in the United States. Let us not forget the video trilogy that went along with singles "Cryin", "Crazy" and "Amazing", which featured actress Alicia Silverstone.

Alice in Chains

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Album: Dirt Year: 1992 Label: Columbia website

Dirt spawned 5 singles including "Would?", "Them Bones", "Angry Chair", "Rooster" and "Down in a Hole". The songs on the album focused on depression, anger, drug use, war, death and other emotionally heavy topics. Dirt was certified four times platinum status in the United States, platinum status in Canada and gold status in the UK. The album is Alice in Chains' highest selling album to date.

Alice in Chains

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Album: Jar of Flies Year: 1994 Label: Columbia website

Written and recorded in just one week during September of 1993, Jar of Flies was produced by the band members themselves and marks their first studio recording with bassist Mike Inez. According to lead vocalist Layne Staley, the title for the album came from a science experiment Cantrell conducted in the third grade. "They gave him two jars full of flies. One of the jars they overfed, the other jar they underfed. The one they overfed flourished for a while, then all the flies died from overpopulation. The one they underfed had most of the flies survive all year. I guess there's a message in there somewhere. Evidently that experiment had a big impact on Jerry."

Beastie Boys

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Album: Ill Communication Year: 1994 Label: Capitol website

For the Beastie Boys, this was the second #1 album on the Billboard charts due in part to the success of their hit "Sabotage" which was accompanied by a music video produced by Spike Jonze that parodied 1970s cop TV shows. The album would also be their second album to gain triple platinum status.

Black Crowes

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Album: Shake Your Money Maker Year: 1990 Label: Def America website

Shake Your Money Maker peaked at # 4 on the Billboard 200. Two of its singles reached # 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, "Hard to Handle" (their cover version of the Otis Redding song, which would prove to be their breakthrough single) and "She Talks to Angels". "Jealous Again", "Twice As Hard" and "Seeing Things" were also charting singles in the US. The album is named after a classic blues song written by Elmore James.

Bush

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Album: Sixteen Stone Year: 1994 Label: Truama website

The debut album from British rock band Bush was released in 1994 through Trauma Records. It boasted numerous successful singles and is widely regarded as the band's most popular album. It spawned two Top 40 singles, and after about six months of promotion with "Comedown" and "Glycerine" hitting America, the album's sales began to skyrocket. In 2010, US sales for Sixteen Stone passed the six million mark. The record received fairly good reception overall, though the band did meet some criticism as some said their sound was too much like Seattle's Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Creed

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Album: Human Clay Year: 1999 Label: Wind-up website

Human Clay went 11 times platinum and then went on to certified diamond status. The album is #54 in the list of the "Top 100 Selling Albums of All Time" in the United States, as of February 2007.

Foo Fighters

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Album: The Colour and the Shape Year: 1997 Label: Roswell/Capitol website

The Color and the Shape is Foo Fighters' biggest US selling album, having sold over two million copies. It was loosely conceived by Grohl as a concept album which documented the beginning and end of a romantic relationship. Over the course of the making of the album, Grohl's own marriage to photographer Jennifer Youngblood ultimately ended in divorce.

Green Day

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Album: Dookie Year: 1994 Label: Reprise website

Dookie became a worldwide commercial success, reaching # 2 on the US Billboard 200 and charting in seven countries. The album helped to propel Green Day into mainstream popularity, amid claims from the punk rock community that the band had "sold out". Dookie produced five hit singles for the band including "Longview", the re-recorded "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", "When I Come Around" and the radio-only single "She". As of 2010, Dookie is the band's best selling album, with over 16 million copies sold worldwide. Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1995.

Guns N' Roses

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Album: Use Your Illusion I Year: 1991 Label: Geffen website

It was the first of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other being Use Your Illusion II. The two are thus sometimes considered a double album. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified seven times platinum by the RIAA. Use Your Illusion I was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992. This was the first time the band had demonstrated more prominent elements of blues, classical music, and country in their all on one album. Slash has stated that a great deal of the material for the album was written on acoustic guitars in a couple of nights at his house after several months of non-productivity. Some of the singles included "Don't Cry", "November Rain" and a cover of The Beatles song "Live And Let Die".