Billy Corgan Believes Rock Music Was "Purposely Dialed Down" in Late '90s

Corgan thinks maybe it was the CIA, however the more obvious answer is this was fallout from the 1996 telecommunications act, which removed restrictions on how many radio stations a company was allowed to own in a set market.

With the restrictions lifted, clear channel and Viacom bought up an enormous number of radio stations and now currently open about 50% of all US radio stations between them, and standardized the music played across the entire market.