Ranking the Follow-Ups of Best-Selling ’90s Albums by 20 Bands

What did some of rock’s biggest bands do after scoring the biggest-selling album of their careers in the 1990s? With this list, we’re taking a closer look at the albums that followed these career-making records and ranking them on how well they performed in terms of furthering the band’s career.

In this list, we have 20 acts who scored their biggest-selling albums between 1990-1999, but the real interesting part comes when you look at how each band chose to approach recording again after enjoying the biggest success of their career to date. Some kept the momentum going and even issued albums that rivaled their past high water mark. (Well done, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.) Others struggled to market their record (sorry, Smashing Pumpkins), suffered from overexposure (we’re looking at you, Hootie and the Blowfish) or battled internal tensions that came with the newfound attention.

We should clarify that these rankings aren’t necessarily how good the album is as a whole, but rather are primarily based on how well the band managed to achieve the unenviable task of trying to follow what is often considered to be their masterpiece. Were they able to keep it going or did they see a significant fall-off?

READ MORE: The 75 Best Rock Songs of the 1990s

It’s also a positive to say that each act on this list had varying degrees of success with their follow-ups. There’s no total clunkers here, just albums ranging from okay and adequate with some issues to overall outstanding.

So join us as we take a closer look at how these 20 acts managed to follow-up their biggest selling records from the ’90s and see how they did.

There’s success and then there’s success. Below, see almost three dozen bands with five or more platinum albums.