The ‘Big 4’ Rock Artists of 1995

Who were the biggest rock artists 30 years ago?

It’s pretty wild to think that 1995 was three decades ago, but now that we’re in 2025, that is the case. Sorry to break it to you!

We’ve been having some fun with our “Big 4” lists lately, so we wanted to look back at 1995 and determine who the Big 4 rock artists of that year were based on success and popularity.

Funny enough, by the end of 1995, three of the four artists we’ve chosen for this list had released three records. Thus, the majority of them had already been around for quite a while by the time 1995 came around.

Three out of the four artists were already also quite popular prior to 1995, but their success was taken to a new level due to radio airplay, Grammy Awards and other milestone achievements.

READ MORE: The ‘Big 4’ Bands of 2024

The fourth, on the other hand, started their career in a different musical style before transitioning to alternative rock. So for them, the success they experienced in 1995 was completely new to them.

Scroll below to see our Big 4 rock artists of 1995. Please keep in mind that there were obviously a ton of other massively successful rock artists during this period, but these four had unique situations that we wanted to highlight for different reasons.

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