The significance of MTV Unplugged amid the network’s heyday cannot be overstated, and Alice in Chains’ 13-song set at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theatre in April 1996 ranks among the best ever.

For reasons never fully explained, MTV reduced their rotation of rock videos significantly the following year, and by 2000 the network was airing 36.5% fewer music videos overall, according to Billboard.

The death knell had been rung. It was the end of an era, and the scene will never recover.