4 moments that rocked our world

1. A Death In Seattle ( April 5, 1994)

Not since the death of John Lennon has a musician's passing had such a profound effect on pop culture. In too few short years, the shy kid from dead-end logging town Aberdeen, WA, kick-started a musical revolution, propelling his punk ethos to the top of the charts and giving a generation of disillusioned youths their unofficial spokesperson: He was an anti-rock star rock star who suffered the same pains and torments they did.

Then, in a greenhouse above the garage of his Bellevue, WA, home, Cobain ended his own life -- a violent finale to all he created, which left fans to wonder what could have been. As with other momentous pop events, people remember when and where they first got news of Cobain's death at age 27. It was the gunshot heard around the world -- and it hasn't stop reverberating yet.

2. Woodstock 1999 Burns (July 23-25, 1999)

Put enough pressure on something and it's gonna blow. Thirty years after the original peace-and-love fest, 200,000 concertgoers were squeezed into a triangular plot of concrete, gouged on food and water, and given inadequate toilet facilities -- sadly ideal conditions for testosterone-tweakers like Korn, Kid Rock, and Limp Bizkit to whip a vast mosh pit into a groping, pyromaniacal frenzy. At its worst, reported SPIN, the medical tent was receiving 200 patients an hour. Mook rock had reached its logical conclusion.

3. Radiohead Release OK COMPUTER (July 1, 1997)

Radiohead's third album was a brilliantly buzzing contradiction, absorbing technology's bits and bytes while bemoaning the human alienation created by just such a deep immersion in machinery. Its impact was vast: (1) watered-down neo-Radioheads flourished (Muse, Coldplay, Travis, Snow Patrol, Keane, et al.); and (2) countless rockers suddenly felt empowered to not rock (see most bands now residing in Brooklyn).

4. Metallica Debut Their "One" Video (January 20, 1989)

Metallica approached the '90s having taken their panzerschreck sound far beyond its thrash beginnings, if not its leather-and- denim niche. So when the band decided to make their first video, for the antiwar single "One," fans wondered if the guys would start pulling punches.

Fat fucking chance. Spurred by MTV's airplay of the disturbing clip (which featured footage from the 1971 movie Johnny Got His Gun), the undeniably monolithic (and melodic) song went Top 40, priming the public for the mega-sales breakthrough of 1991's "black" album.