Rock Is Rollin'

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If there's any musical link among the three, it's an emphasis on melody--at least compared with the testosterone-drenched, jock-rock chants of Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. And that may help lure pop kids. "There's a lot more stuff that everybody can sing along to, that girls can take home and listen and sing to, as well as those guys hitting their heads on the wall," says Elektra A&R associate Jill Katona. But if the three don't make a movement, they may represent the desire for one, and a first taste of things to come. "There is a nation of great up-and-coming rock bands right now, and in the next couple of years we're going to see something really exciting," says Poneman of Sub Pop. "Have we made that switch and turned on a dime in one week?" asks Alan Light, editor-in-chief of Spin. "I don't know, but I think it obviously shows there's a hunger for something else."

That something else could be less homogeneous than grunge was, considering today's cafeteria-style music culture. "Kids aren't necessarily identified as being a heavy-metal kid or a punk kid or something else," says MTV2 general manager David Cohn. "There's no better evidence of that than the rap-metal thing." Says Katona: "Kids today with the Internet and all the access they have to tons of music have a wider array of interests. But you know: once into rock, always into rock."

Does this mean a return to musical authenticity after years of prefab pop acts? Perhaps--at least, there's hope for bands that actually record their own music--but don't expect a return of the grunge era's rejection of rock-star pomp and artifice (or its embrace of flannel). From the spiked bracelets and studded belts of runway fashion to the recent reappearance of Motley Crue's Tommy Lee on the cover of Rolling Stone, there's a creeping nostalgia in pop culture for the old-fashioned rock-star myth in all its showboaty, leather-pantsed glory. "If you're going to stare at your toes and play guitar and look depressed, that's not going to cut it," says Avery Lipman, president of Republic Records. "It's important for artists to be stars." (Even the dirge-slinging Tool is known for performing, glitter rock-style, in masks and wigs.)

Ironically, this is the same sort of glammed-up rock excess that alt-rock reacted against. But despite Weezer's nerd-rock image, Cuomo was originally inspired by such over-the-top metal acts as the Scorpions. "I was a metal kid at heart," he says. "But I couldn't do all the right poses and I couldn't wear leather pants." Who knows? Rock stardom could even be more fun for Weezer the second time around than in the alterna-purist mid-'90s. "At the time, it was definitely not okay to be successful. It wasn't cool," he says. "The whole rock-star thing was considered to be lame. Nowadays, it's totally come back in style." The world has indeed turned. Three hundred and sixty degrees.