I think the ennui of the 90s, where it seemed a better world was no longer possible and a “long now” was all that was visible on the horizon did break some brains. That feeling of emptiness and boredom encouraged nihilism, selfishness, and a sense that not caring about things wasn’t just a default, but was cool. It became a thing where caring about anything was considered uncool and some took that well into the next century.
I don’t know what ultimately happened to Soundgarden, but a lot of Gen-X bands got really reactionary as years went on, such as Green Day being the one band of any note to sign on to so-called “MetalGate” (an attempt to bring gate to the metal fandom, fortunately unsuccessfully) and almost every personality featured on MTV back then (imagine “influencers” before social networks really existed) aged into a full blown GOP lackey or even a NewsMax propagandist.
I think the ennui of the 90s, where it seemed a better world was no longer possible and a “long now” was all that was visible on the horizon did break some brains. That feeling of emptiness and boredom encouraged nihilism, selfishness, and a sense that not caring about things wasn’t just a default, but was cool. It became a thing where caring about anything was considered uncool and some took that well into the next century.
I don’t know what ultimately happened to Soundgarden, but a lot of Gen-X bands got really reactionary as years went on, such as Green Day being the one band of any note to sign on to so-called “MetalGate” (an attempt to bring
gate to the metal fandom, fortunately unsuccessfully) and almost every personality featured on MTV back then (imagine “influencers” before social networks really existed) aged into a full blown GOP lackey or even a NewsMax propagandist.