Originally Posted by thecoz

Really what was happening at the time is that record execs were witnessing the demise of charting metal. Believe it or not, before the internet there had to be a real tangible market for subculture. That meant staying competetive on MTV, meant being celebrities and personas. The public was sick to death of Guitar solo's long play songs about dragons, or from the streets rat-boy metal.

Classically when something like this happens you get an answer in a completely new genre like punk killing prog, or New Wave, Grunge killing hair metal.