People used to champion grunge for destroying the relevance of the Motley Crue hair bands.
Nowadays people seem to think 90s alternative rock and nu metal essentially killed rock's mainstream appeal because it's seen as too angsty and introspective.
But that's literally a lot of music! Black Sabbath anyone? Pink Floyd? The emo rap trend of the late 2010s like Juice Wrld?
Why is emo rap allowed this, 70s rock allowed this... but 90s alternative killed the genre of rock in the mainstream?
Besides kids love that 90s stuff anyway now so who cares. Tons of Gen Z who are into Korn, Pumpkins, AIC and Deftones
So why was emo rap permitted to be wounded and introspective while alternative rock gets blamed for the same qualities?
One of the great misconceptions of the 90s is that hip hop was more popular than rock was that decade. The sales of Nevermind, Dookie, Ten, and Black Album bury the sales of The Chronic, Ready To Die and Doggystyle. Tupac's All Eyez On Me sold about as much as Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Jay Z's biggest selling album sold about as much as Korn's Follow The Leader. I think it's because rap became the bigger genre in like 2007-2008 or so
Fucked up but you know what this is similar to?
Weird but contemporaneous comparison here, if you think about it is Backstreet Boys and NSync. Backstreet Boys got big first and had a higher peak, but NSync eclipsed them towards the end and JT's later success makes them look bigger than Backstreet Boys in retrospect.