These artists were seen as lacking the underground roots of grunge and were largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock".
Týmto umelcom chýbali korene v undergrounde a boli vo veľkej miere ovplyvnení tým, čo sa z grungeu stalo, menovite „divoká populárna forma zahľadenosti do seba , seriózne mienený hard rock“.