Mainstream pop culture lost its countercultural edge by the late 1990s.

Evidence

By the end of the nineties, mainstream American pop culture had lost its edge. Grunge died with Kurt Cobain in 1994, leaving behind alterna-lite acts like Alanis Morissette and Hootie & the Blowfish. MTV, once a haven for countercultural experimentation, shifted focus in 1998 to mainstream programming like Total Request Live, which fueled the rise of factory-made teenpop stars and flyover-country favorites Limp Bizkit and Korn. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 53

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Countercultural music’s peak audiences came through mainstream broadcast television — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 569; Britpop’s 90s dominance suppressed a pluralist future that never materialised — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 101