Jon Sheasby
In 1994, the death of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain not only initiated the decline of grunge’s chart dominance but concurrently marked the MTV Generation’s ascent to adulthood. Soon after came the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, and the invention of AutoTune, as mainstream pop music sought to overthrow the alternative scene that had ruled for much of the decade. In 1999, however, a new class of agitators stormed the charts, ushering in the sounds of the new millennium. With them came the latest cohort of adolescents, the MTV2 Generation, as pop-punk, nu-metal, and post-grunge kickstarted the next wave of teenage rebellion and alternative superstars.Featuring exclusive interviews from Grammy-nominated music video director P. R. Brown, American Pie alumna Lauren Mayhew, acclaimed music biographer Joel McIver, and the unmistakable voice of Wheatus founder Brendan B. Brown, Teenage Dirtbags: A Brief History of the MTV2 Generation is a warts-and-all look back to a year that forever changed the course of music history, establishing Blink-182, Eminem, and Creed as mainstream giants on par with NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera as well as implicating Marilyn Manson and Limp Bizkit in the tumultuous aftermaths of the Columbine High School massacre and Woodstock ’99 respectively.
