Top of the 90's?

I was thinking about music yesterday - that it's not all that easy to select who might be the greatest band of the nineties. In my mind the preceeding decades each have an obvious candidate (though I'm sure others may disagree)...

50s - Elvis Presley
60s - The Beatles
70s - Led Zeppelin
80s - U2

For the nineties I found it harder to pick just one band. I could quite easily choose a top 5, and from that narrow it down to 2 or 3, but found it very hard to narrow it down to just 1.

My top 5 would be Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, No Noubt and REM. All of these bands started out in the early 90s (except REM) and all had some degree of longevity. I can't really think of any really stand-out bands that surfaced in the latter half of the 90s. All of these bands have their own unique sound as well which I think is an important factor - you instantly know it's them when you hear one of their songs.

If I had to pick, I would probably go with Radiohead just simply because of their massive popularity and influence without really much airplay. I obviously exlcuded what many consider to be the best band of the era (Nirvana) but to me they are not that creative or original.

What do you think?

[Currently playing on my IPod: Everywhere I Go by The Call]