ABSTRACT
As Michael Jackson slid from his status as the "King of Pop" to the king of schlock in the late eighties, acts ranging from U2 and R.E.M. to Roland Jane's Addiction, the Pixies, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were on the rise. These acts paved the way for Nirvana to set off the early-nineties alternative rock boom, which delivered the coup de grace to the mainstream styles of music that had dominated the eighties. Along with Sonic Youth, the Pixies were a major influence on Nirvana and the seemingly endless list of alt rockers in the nineties. Nirvana and other Seattle Sound bands derived their grunge sound not only from the hardcore punk of the eighties but also the early punk of Iggy Pop's Stooges and the guitar riffs of heavy metal godfathers Black Sabbath and seventies stadium rock gods Led Zeppelin. Nirvana cemented their underground credibility with European and United States tours in support of Bleach.
