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Hi, this is Alan Cross.

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All right, let's talk music, shall we? One of the great things about the alt-rock revolution of the 1990s was its diversity.

The sounds from this part of the rock universe had always been varied.

That's because the idea of alternative music was so amorphous.

If it was A, non-mainstream and ignored by most radio stations, B, a little left of center in terms of aesthetics, and C considered weird by the majority, well, then it qualified as alternative by default, simply because there was no other way to categorize it.

Humans love to organize things into piles, so this was an all-purpose pile.

Multiple genres thrived in the alt-rock universe.

Plus, there were all the sub-genres and sub-sub-sub-genres and even sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-genres.

This means that if you were into alternative music before the 1990s, you were spoiled for choice.

There was something for everyone.

Then along came grunge, the biggest sound of the decade.

It ripped a hole in the music spacetime continuum, this tear into a parallel universe, allowing

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