Things were not particularly rosy when the Red Hot Chili Peppers retreated to a Los Angeles mansion in 1990 to record BloodSugarSexMagik. The funk rockers had weathered the 1988 heroin-overdose death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, and singer Anthony Kiedis and new guitarist John Frusciante had struggled in the drug's grip. Meanwhile, their music had devolved into a tiresome formula of sex-obsessed camp and gratuitous riffage.

Enter Rick Rubin. Insisting on airborne melodies, filtering the rhythmic rumble down to a brutal essence, the acclaimed Beastie Boys producer changed the Chilis' dynamic. The pummeling "Give It Away" and the incendiary "Suck My Kiss" established a template for rock punctuated by the beatcentric relentlessness of hip-hop that would be appropriated by everyone from Limp Bizkit to Dr. Dre. But it was the more introverted material — the lashing, triple-meter "Breaking the Girl" and Kiedis' drug confessional "Under the Bridge" — that revealed new dimensions. The rhythm section displayed a growing curiosity about studio texture and nuance — interests it would explore on the expansive ballads of the subsequent multiplatinum Californication (1999) and By the Way (2002).

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”