Teen Spirit, Sliver, Negative Creep, Drain You, In Bloom, Heart-Shaped Box, All Apologies... All awesome favorites.
Also, Soundgarden. Spoonman, and Black Hole Sun.
Metallica's waning days of actually being good were in the 90s. Enter Sandman, Sad but True, Cure, King nothing... Ah. Not as good as Lightning - Justice but still pretty good metal.
Also, I haven't actually heard any of it, but Megadeth's Rust in Peace I've heard is very cool.
Kurt Cobain is an idol. Defiantly the revolution of music occurred because of Nirvana. Better yet, the guy who created Nirvana. (The guy who got them the record deals) he was my next door neighbor.
Yeah Pearl Jam was very good too. I still listen to a lot of their stuff. GnR was great, although I class them more as 80's rock, although several albums were released in the 90s
I have to say my favorite 90s band is Sleater-Kinney, but they weren't as popular as, say, Pearl Jam (at all, unfortunately). I love me some Pearl Jam, don't get me wrong though. Red Hot Chili Peppers are awesome as well.
Great bands and great music to cast of the boredom of gruuuuunge (nb I love grunge but they didn't so much :O). Great music to identify with.... the best is......