Cultural Ground Zero: The Silent Killer of Rock

A recent Rock Feed segment highlights comments from Billy Corgan about the sudden sidelining of rock in the late 1990s. That was when music industry bigwigs, exemplified by MTV, suddenly went all-in on promoting hip-hop while slamming the door on rock bands.

Corgan points to 1997 as the turning point when the tone changed almost overnight.

Longtime readers already recognize the date.

Keen observers like authors JD Cowan, David V. Stewart, and yours truly have called 1997 Cultural Ground Zero for years. Something fundamental fractured in the West around that time. The break did not announce itself with fireworks. Instead, it came through a thousand seemingly isolated programming decisions, boardroom votes, and regulatory tweaks.

But by the time the average American noticed, the once-soaring heights of 1980s and 90s pop culture had been leveled.

Rock music offers a clear case study.

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