Keep in mind there was no internet as you think of it today...kids and teenagers got all their music recommendations from MTV and the radio. If you were really into music you might pick up magazines or hang out at the record store to listen to a bunch of random things.

Pop music was dominated by boy bands and a whole bunch of cheese in the late 90s. Then Green Day and Blink-182 blew up on MTV...it was vulgar, aggressive, and appealed to teens sick of the bubblegum pop. Record labels do what they do anytime a style becomes big and sucked up every pop punk band they could. Sum 41, Sugarcult, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, and a hundred others. Those are the bands that got promoted (still "pre-internet") and fed to teens as the next big thing.