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I spent a good amount of time trying to make a determination for 90's grunge and struggled because it seems like there are a handful of bands that are agreed upon as at the top: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden. A decent chunk of solid bands and then a big drop off. Then there are groups like Smashing Pumpkins and Bush, that sort of dabbled in grunge before branching into different directions.
The heavyweights have all had such different careers. Nirvana and Soundgarden packed a ton of influence into a 4-5 year period (although Soundgarden did some other stuff like 15 years later). Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains, I feel like they have/had long careers, but their peaks weren't as high as what Nirvana had.
Comparing the parameters to Poison and the Spin Doctors (where most folks can name 2-3 songs, I would think), maybe the answer is Soul Asylum? They had one huge hit (Runaway Train) and a couple of other songs that I feel like people may not be able to name, but would recognize if they heard (Misery, Somebody to Shove), but they were mostly irrelevant after about a 3 or 4-year run.
Good subject - interested to hear from posters about other genres.
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