[aidenn0]

Rock had a comeback in the early 90s, with the alternative movement. Rock acts popular from when I was in grades 7-12 included Nirvana, Perl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Greenday, The Offspring, Third Eye Blind, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz, Barenaked Ladies... Plenty of top 10 hits in the 90s there.

The late 90s also included some hits by Nu-Metal groups; you can decide for yourself if that counts as rock or not.

I do know what you're saying. For those from the suburbs at least, the easiest way to tell a late gen-X from early millenial is whether they are nostalgic about early hip-hop or Pop (Gen X) or alt-rock (Early millenial). I call it the "3rd Bass/Nirvana inflection point"

[pgodzin]

Late 80s and 90s also had huge acts like Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis (less so in the US), Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters.

[aidenn0]

I knew I forgot some. I could have sworn I typed in RHCP, but they aren't there. I was never a GnR fan, and I heard "Champagne Supernova" so many times I think I've intentionally wiped all memory of Oasis out of my head.

Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, and the Foo Fighers I have no excuse for forgetting. Ironically, I was listening to "The Color and The Shape" while typing this in but still forgot the Foo Fighers.

[douche]

It's hard to find an era that doesn't have huge acts. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Deep Purple and more stretch through the 70s into the 80s, leading into AC/DC, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Motley Crue.

It's more of a niche now than then, (and maybe I'm ignorant of developments outside of the harder rock zone) but there a still big rock bands now; The Black Keys, Godsmack, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, Chevelle, Disturbed. They may not be Beyonce or T Swift, but they can sell out arenas.

[ChemicalWarfare]

I highly doubt that any of the bands you mention in the 2nd paragraph will sell out an arena by themselves. Even in their heyday godsmack,a7x, disturbed would maybe fill a large club. But then once the "real metal" picked back up 10 years ago or so these bands lost their appeal to the old school slayer/pantera audience just because there were other "options" available. Same goes for the younger deathcore/metalcore crowd (with a7x managing to stay afloat in that pool but nowhere close to where they used to be popularity wise).

[serge2k]

The black keys are pretty mainstream compared to the others.