By 1992, Michael Jackson had reigned over the pop music world for a decade, so when Nirvana's Nevermind toppled his long-awaited comeback album, Dangerous, from the No. 1 spot, it was heavy with symbolism. Prior to Nirvana's chart coup, "alternative" music was just that -- a variety of edgy styles and bands that functioned completely outside of major-label conventions and provided an alternative to the kind of vapid, commercially driven pop Michael Jackson represented. Alternative music proliferated throughout the Eighties through 'zines, college radio stations and word of mouth, but it rarely dented the pop charts. When Nirvana unseated the King of Pop, it signaled the arrival of a new zeitgeist and forever changed -- for better or worse -- what could be considered "mainstream."

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