10 Rebellious TV Rock + Metal Performances

It isn’t really a surprise how rock music is seen and thought of as music for the rebellious, especially the youth trying to figure themselves out in a world full of dull, controlling adults. The harsh, loud, and brazen quality of rock’s sound may have helped in empowering these deviants with a morale boost only overdriven guitars, a thumping bass, and a steady drumbeat.

Although most rock music connoisseurs were only defiant inside their heads and still continued to lead seemingly normal lives, the rockstars that popularized these hits have all the right to live out their performances the way they intended to.

The result? Some of the most rebellious and, quite frankly, outrageous displays of musical showmanship in history. One great example is Nirvana’s Top of The Pops performance in 1991. Top of the Pops is notorious for requesting their performers to play along with a backing track, to which Kurt Cobain didn’t agree. Instead, he mimed his way along with the rest of the band as the “Smells Like Teenage Spirit” backing track played while taking advantage of the live microphone, botching his vocals by using a deep chest voice instead of his usual singing style.

Watch Loudwire’s compilation of the most defiant rock performances on the video below!