No one likes to admit that we are living during a period of history that, culturally, simply doesn't matter much. Or maybe you are in one yourself. It is painful to face the fact that it doesn't matter any more. But history moves on and that is over now and nothing has taken its place. History is big, bigger than we are, and it doesn't usually bring one thing that matters directly on the heals of another.
Some people get to live in between.
Grow up and admit it. Alternative music is that tragic but invevitable, last-gasp, feeble attempt to stay connected to the thing that mattered. They haven't let go and moved on. In the near future Alternative will finish dying its dull, gray death. Pop music will shrug off the decaying yoke of Rock and go in search of itself.