My all time favorite rock is the one that killed hair bands, grunge. Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam, and Alice N Chains kicked some major ass.
Today it's hard to find good hard rockers. The most mainstream hard/metal rockers are probably Seether, Three Days Grace, or Disturbed. For good hard rock these days you pretty much have to go underground.
Having grown up during the height of the Alternative scene when bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Bush, Oasis, Wallflowers, Foo Fighters, and so on were getting huge I'm greatly disappointed with the music scene these days. Emo is the closest thing to rock in mainstream music. Other than those whiny suicidal bitchy frat boys all there is in the music world is hot chicks who can't sing but look good in a thong or some dime a dozen one hit wonder rappers. Well, they say everything makes a comeback every 20 years or so and 1992 was 20 years ago. Maybe we're due for an influx of angst ridden pissed off 20 somethings who just wanna wear ripped jeans, spaghettio's tshirts and long sleeve flannel shirts, jumping into mosh pits and trashing their amps and guitars to end the gig. One can only hope.