Reality Bites...at least it did for the early 1990s Grunge movement (which happened to be Heavy Metal's La Brea Tar Pit). You see, once any underground-ish music movement catches on in white suburbia, you know over-exposure is not too far behind. And so the Post-Grunge genre was born. And from it came the Adult Alternative Rock genre. And at that point, the music formerly known as Grunge/Altern... [+]

Reality Bites...at least it did for the early 1990s Grunge movement (which happened to be Heavy Metal's La Brea Tar Pit). You see, once any underground-ish music movement catches on in white suburbia, you know over-exposure is not too far behind. And so the Post-Grunge genre was born. And from it came the Adult Alternative Rock genre. And at that point, the music formerly known as Grunge/Alternative was playing on the speakers of Mom and Dad's Voyager Mini-Van.

How did this happen? I blame it on "Reality Bites", the movie. In 1994, this movie came out and the world was still in the throws of Grungy bliss. But the soundtrack to this movie gave the world a peek at the next wave of music that would sweep the nation. This so-called Post-Grunge genre was well-represented on the "Reality Bites" soundtrack. I would like to pinpoint the actual song that caused this transformation to shift into high gear: Lisa Loeb - Stay.

You see this movie was sold as an alternative/hip/cool/GenX flick, but it featured songs that even Mom and Dad could appreciate. Hence, Alt Rock Went Pop... The songs on this list ruled radio in the latter half of the 1990s. They were the songs that you heard every time you turned on the radio, and they all kinda sounded the same, didn't they? Well, since they are now deeply planted in the annals of popular music, it is kinda fun to go back and listen for a bit. Even if the reality of Post Grunge music kinda bites...
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