Uncovering the Next Generation's Hall of Fame
| ⇦ 1995 | 1997 ⇨ |
The Best Music of 1996
Here is a selection of the best albums and songs from 1996. Hall of Famers are highlighted in orange.
For a list of the top artists who made their debut recording in 1996, check out this list.
| Albums (?) | Wikipedia | |
| 2Pac | All Eyez on Me | ☆ |
| A Tribe Called Quest | Beats, Rhymes and Life | ☆ |
| Aaliyah | One in a Million | ☆ |
| Alice in Chains | MTV Unplugged | ☆ |
| Aphex Twin | Richard D. James Album | ☆ |
| Beck | Odelay | ☆ |
| Belle & Sebastian | If You're Feeling Sinister | ☆ |
| Belle & Sebastian | Tigermilk | ☆ |
| Bowery Electric | Beat | ☆ |
| Burzum | Filosofem | ☆ |
| Cake | Fashion Nugget | ☆ |
| Celine Dion | Falling Into You | ☆ |
| Chris Isaak | Baja Sessions | ☆ |
| Counting Crows | Recovering the Satellites | ☆ |
| Dave Matthews Band | Crash | ☆ |
| De La Soul | Stakes Is High | ☆ |
| DJ Shadow | Endtroducing..... | ☆ |
| Eels | Beautiful Freak | ☆ |
| Fatboy Slim | Better Living Through Chemistry | ☆ |
| Fiona Apple | Tidal | ☆ |
| Fishmans | Long Season | ☆ |
| Fugees | The Score | ☆ |
| Jamiroquai | Travelling Without Moving | ☆ |
| Jay-Z | Reasonable Doubt | ☆ |
| John Mellencamp | Mr. Happy Go Lucky | ☆ |
| Johnny Cash | American II: Unchained | ☆ |
| Korn | Life Is Peachy | ☆ |
| LeAnn Rimes | Blue | ☆ |
| Lil' Kim | Hard Core | ☆ |
| Manic Street Preachers | Everything Must Go | ☆ |
| Marilyn Manson | Antichrist Superstar | ☆ |
| Matchbox Twenty | Yourself Or Someone Like You | ☆ |
| Maxwell | Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite | ☆ |
| MC Lyte | Bad As I Wanna B | ☆ |
| Modest Mouse | This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About | ☆ |
| Nas | It Was Written | ☆ |
| Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds | Murder Ballads | ☆ |
| Nine Inch Nails | Quake Soundtrack | ☆ |
| Orbital | In Sides | ☆ |
| Original Broadway Cast | Rent | ☆ |
| OutKast | ATLiens | ☆ |
| Paula Cole | This Fire | ☆ |
| Pearl Jam | No Code | ☆ |
| Phil Collins | Dance into the Light | ☆ |
| Phish | Billy Breathes | ☆ |
| Prince | Emancipation | ☆ |
| R.E.M. | New Adventures in Hi-Fi | ☆ |
| Rage Against the Machine | Evil Empire | ☆ |
| Shawn Colvin | A Few Small Repairs | ☆ |
| Sheryl Crow | Sheryl Crow | ☆ |
| Sleater-Kinney | Call the Doctor | ☆ |
| Soundgarden | Down On The Upside | ☆ |
| Spice Girls | Spice | ☆ |
| Stereolab | Emperor Tomato Ketchup | ☆ |
| Sting | Mercury Falling | ☆ |
| Stone Temple Pilots | Tiny Music....Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop | ☆ |
| Sublime | Sublime | ☆ |
| Suede | Coming Up | ☆ |
| Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | ☆ |
| The Cardigans | First Band on the Moon | ☆ |
| The Cranberries | To the Faithful Departed | ☆ |
| The Misfits | Static Age | ☆ |
| The Roots | Illadelph Halflife | ☆ |
| The Wallflowers | Bringing Down the Horse | ☆ |
| The_Brian_Jonestown_Massacre | Take It from the Man! | ☆ |
| Toni Braxton | Secrets | ☆ |
| Tool | Ænima | ☆ |
| Tori Amos | Boys For Pele | ☆ |
| Tortoise | Millions Now Living Will Never Die | ☆ |
| Trans-Siberian Orchestra | Christmas Eve and Other Stories | ☆ |
| Type O Negative | October Rust | ☆ |
| Underworld | Second Toughest in the Infants | ☆ |
| Various Artists | William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture | ☆ |
| Weezer | Pinkerton | ☆ |
| Weird Al Yankovic | Bad Hair Day | ☆ |
| Wilco | Being There | ☆ |
| Songs (?) | Wikipedia | |
| 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre | California Love (Remix) | ☆ |
| 2Pac feat. K-Ci & Jo-Jo | How Do U Want It | ☆ |
| 2Pac feat. Snoop Dogg | 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted | ☆ |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 1nce Again | ☆ |
| A Tribe Called Quest feat. Faith Evans | Stressed Out | ☆ |
| Aaliyah | One in a Million | ☆ |
| Aaliyah | If Your Girl Only Knew | ☆ |
| Backstreet Boys | Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) | ☆ |
| Barry Adamson | Something Wicked This Way Comes | ☆ |
| Beck | Where It's At | ☆ |
| Beck | The New Pollution | ☆ |
| Beck | Devils Haircut | ☆ |
| Beck | Novacane | ☆ |
| Belle & Sebastian | Like Dylan in the Movies | ☆ |
| BLACKstreet feat. Dr. Dre | No Diggity | ☆ |
| Bone Thugs-N-Harmony | Tha Crossroads | ☆ |
| Busta Rhymes | Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check | ☆ |
| Butthole Surfers | Pepper | ☆ |
| Cake | The Distance | ☆ |
| Cake | I Will Survive | ☆ |
| Celine Dion | Because You Loved Me | ☆ |
| Celine Dion | It's All Coming Back to Me Now | ☆ |
| Counting Crows | A Long December | ☆ |
| Dave Matthews Band | Crash Into Me | ☆ |
| Dave Matthews Band | So Much to Say | ☆ |
| Dave Matthews Band | Too Much | ☆ |
| DJ Kool | Let Me Clear My Throat | ☆ |
| Donna Lewis | I Love You Always Forever | ☆ |
| Duncan Sheik | Barely Breathing | ☆ |
| En Vogue | Don't Let Go (Love) | ☆ |
| Eric Clapton | Change the World | ☆ |
| Erykah Badu | On and On | ☆ |
| Fiona Apple | Criminal | ☆ |
| Fugees | Killing Me Softly | ☆ |
| Fugees | Ready or Not | ☆ |
| George Michael | Fastlove | ☆ |
| Ghost Town DJ's | My Boo | ☆ |
| Gin Blossoms | Follow You Down | ☆ |
| Ginuwine | Pony | ☆ |
| Goldfinger | Here in Your Bedroom | ☆ |
| I Mother Earth | One More Astronaut | ☆ |
| Jamiroquai | Virtual Insanity | ☆ |
| Jamiroquai | Alright | ☆ |
| Johnny Cash | I've Been Everywhere | ☆ |
| Luscious Jackson | Naked Eye | ☆ |
| Manic Street Preachers | A Design For Life | ☆ |
| Marilyn Manson | The Beautiful People | ☆ |
| Mark Morrison | Return of the Mack | ☆ |
| Mark Snow | The X-Files | ☆ |
| Matchbox 20 | Push | ☆ |
| Matchbox Twenty | 3AM | ☆ |
| Maxwell | Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder) | ☆ |
| MC Lyte | Cold Rock a Party | ☆ |
| Metallica | Until It Sleeps | ☆ |
| Metallica | King Nothing | ☆ |
| Nada Surf | Popular | ☆ |
| Nas feat. Lauryn Hill | If I Ruled The World (Imagine That) | ☆ |
| Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds feat. PJ Harvey | Henry Lee | ☆ |
| NSYNC | I Want You Back | ☆ |
| Orbital | Out There Somewhere Pts. 1 and 2 | ☆ |
| Outkast | Elevators (Me & You) | ☆ |
| OutKast | Jazzy Belle | ☆ |
| OutKast | ATLiens | ☆ |
| Paula Cole | I Don't Want to Wait | ☆ |
| Paula Cole | Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? | ☆ |
| Phish | Free | ☆ |
| Primitive Radio Gods | Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand | ☆ |
| Quad City DJ's | C'mon N' Ride It (The Train) | ☆ |
| R. Kelly | I Believe I Can Fly | ☆ |
| Rage Against the Machine | Bulls On Parade | ☆ |
| Republica | Ready to Go | ☆ |
| Robert Miles | Children | ☆ |
| Savage Garden | To the Moon and Back | ☆ |
| Sepultura | Roots Bloody Roots | ☆ |
| Shawn Colvin | Sunny Came Home | ☆ |
| Sheryl Crow | Everyday Is A Winding Road | ☆ |
| Sheryl Crow | If It Makes You Happy | ☆ |
| Sheryl Crow | A Change Would Do You Good | ☆ |
| Sneakerpimps | 6 Underground | ☆ |
| Social Distortion | I Was Wrong | ☆ |
| Soundgarden | Pretty Noose | ☆ |
| Soundgarden | Blow Up The Outside World | ☆ |
| Soundgarden | Burden in My Hand | ☆ |
| Spice Girls | Wannabe | ☆ |
| Spice Girls | 2 Become 1 | ☆ |
| Spice Girls | Say You'll Be There | ☆ |
| Sublime | What I Got | ☆ |
| Sublime | Santeria | ☆ |
| Sublime | Wrong Way | ☆ |
| Sublime | Doin Time | ☆ |
| Suede | Beautiful Ones | ☆ |
| The Cardigans | Lovefool | ☆ |
| The Cast of Rent | Seasons of Love (525,600 Minutes) | ☆ |
| The Cranberries | Salvation | ☆ |
| The Misfits | TV Casualty | ☆ |
| The Prodigy | Firestarter | ☆ |
| The Prodigy | Breathe | ☆ |
| The Specials | Pressure Drop | ☆ |
| The Suicide Machines | S.O.S. | ☆ |
| The Tragically Hip | Ahead by a Century | ☆ |
| The Verve Pipe | The Freshmen | ☆ |
| The Wonders | That Thing You Do! | ☆ |
| Toni Braxton | Un-Break My Heart | ☆ |
| Tonic | If You Could Only See | ☆ |
| Tool | Ænema | ☆ |
| Tool | Stinkfist | ☆ |
| Tool | Forty Six & 2 | ☆ |
| Tori Amos | Professional Widow | ☆ |
| Trans-Siberian Orchestra | Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 | ☆ |
| Underworld | Born Slippy .NUXX | ☆ |
| Velvet Babies | Tears | ☆ |
| Wallflowers | One Headlight | ☆ |
| Wallflowers | 6th Avenue Heartache | ☆ |
| Weezer | El Scorcho | ☆ |
| Weezer | The Good Life | ☆ |
| Weird Al Yankovic | Amish Paradise | ☆ |
| White Town | Your Woman | ☆ |
| Wilco | Misunderstood | ☆ |
| ⇦ 1995 | 1997 ⇨ |