Everything about Alternative Rock totally explained
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Alternative rock (also called
alternative music,
alt-rock or simply
alternative; known primarily in the UK as
indie) is a genre of
rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. The term "alternative" was coined in the 1980s to describe
punk rock-inspired bands on
independent record labels that didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. As a musical genre, alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the
independent music scene since the 1980s, such as
grunge,
Britpop,
gothic rock, and
indie pop. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.
Though the genre is considered to be rock, some of its subgenres are influenced by
folk music,
reggae,
electronic music and
jazz among other genres. At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from
underground artists in the 1980s, all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself,
New Wave, and
post-punk), and, ironically, for rock music in general in the 1990s and 2000s.
While a few artists like
R.E.M. and
The Cure achieved commercial success and mainstream critical recognition, many alternative rock artists during the 1980s were cult acts that recorded on independent labels and received their exposure through college radio airplay and word-of-mouth. With the breakthrough of
Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the early 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became commercially successful.
The term "alternative rock"
The music now known as alternative rock was known by a variety of terms before "alternative" came into common use. "
College rock" was used in the
United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the
college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the
United Kingdom the term "indie" was (and still is) preferred; by 1985 the term "indie" had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than a simple demarcation of status. "Indie rock" was also largely synonymous with the genre in the United States up until the genre's commercial breakthrough in the early 1990s, due to the majority of the bands belonging to independent labels.
By 1990 the genre was called "alternative rock". The term "alternative" had originated sometime around the mid-1980s; it was an extension of the phrases "new music" and "post modern", both for the freshness of the music and its tendency to recontextualize the sounds of the past, which were commonly used by music industry of the time to denote cutting edge music. Individuals who worked as DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American
FM radio of the 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to
top 40 rock radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving the DJs more freedom in their song selections. One former DJ and promoter has said, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music . . ." Thus the original use of the term was often broader than it has come to be understood, encompassing punk rock, New Wave, post-punk, and even
pop music, along with the occasional "college"/"indie" rock, all music found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as
Los Angeles'
KROQ-FM.
Overview
"Alternative rock" is essentially an
umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of the punk rock movement since the mid-1980s. Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth. As such, there's no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although
The New York Times in 1989 asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback." Sounds range from the dirty guitars of grunge to the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitar pop revivalism of Britpop to the shambling innocence of
twee pop. More often than in other rock styles, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, and environmentalism.
Although alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success. The popular and commercial success of
Nirvana's 1991 album
Nevermind took alternative rock into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability. As a result, alternative rock became the most popular form of rock music of the decade and many alternative bands garnered commercial and critical success. However, many of these artists rejected success, for it conflicted with the rebellious,
DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity. As many of the genre's key groups broke up or retreated from the limelight, alternative rock declined from mainstream prominence.
In the first decade of the 21st century, mainstream rock has largely moved beyond alternative's 1980s roots and low-fidelity ethos. Today's most popular rock music acts, typified by youth-oriented modern rock groups such as
Linkin Park that owe a debt to both
metal and grunge, incorporate complex electronic beats and a sophisticated production style. Many alternative rock fans don't see these bands—despite their debt to the genre—as alternative, but rather as
nu metal acts. In 2004, alternative rock received renewed mainstream attention with the popularity of indie rock and post-punk revival artists such as
Modest Mouse and
Franz Ferdinand, respectively.
Alternative rock in the United States
In the 1980s, alternative rock in the United States was primarily the domain of
college radio stations. Most commercial stations ignored the genre. On television,
MTV would occasionally show alternative videos late at night. In 1986, the network began airing the late-night alternative music program
120 Minutes, which would serve as a major outlet for the genre before its commercial breakthrough in the following decade. Ultimately, in the late 1980s, commercial stations such as
Boston's
WFNX and Los Angeles' KROQ began playing alternative rock, pioneering the
modern rock radio format.
The 1980s underground
Early American alternative bands such as
R.E.M.,
The Feelies, and
Violent Femmes combined punk influences with
folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; its debut album,
Murmur (1983), entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of
jangle pop followers.
Minneapolis bands
Hüsker Dü and
The Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic, Some bands such as the Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically. In the early 1990s, it launched a large movement in mainstream music. The year 1991 was very significant for alternative rock, especially grunge, with the release of
Nirvana's second and most successful album,
Nevermind;
Pearl Jam's breakthrough debut,
Ten;
Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger; and
Red Hot Chili Peppers'
Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Nirvana's surprise success with
Nevermind heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. In the wake of
Nevermind, alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming [.. .] into the mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands.
The explosion of alternative rock was aided by MTV and Lollapalooza, a touring festival of diverse bands that helped expose and popularize alternative groups such as
Nine Inch Nails,
The Smashing Pumpkins, and
Hole.
The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance." Alternative bands who were leery of broad commercial success and stayed underground were termed "indie rock"
Alternative's mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events, notably the death of Nirvana's
Kurt Cobain in 1994 and Pearl Jam's lawsuit against concert venue promoter
Ticketmaster, which in effect barred them from playing many major venues around the country. By the start of the 21st century, many major alternative bands, including Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden,
Alice in Chains,
Rage Against the Machine, and Hole had broken up or were on hiatus. Meanwhile indie rock diversified; along with the more conventional indie rock sounds of
Modest Mouse,
Bright Eyes, and
Death Cab for Cutie, the
garage rock revival of
The White Stripes and
The Strokes and the neo-post-punk sounds of
Interpol and
The Killers achieved mainstream success. Due to the success of these bands,
Entertainment Weekly declared in 2004, "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again."
Alternative rock in the United Kingdom
British alternative rock is distinguished from that of the United States by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles, as well as greater openness to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US. Since the 1980s alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by
DJs such as
John Peel (who championed alternative music on
BBC Radio 1), Richard Skinner, and
Annie Nightingale. Artists that had cult followings in the United States received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly press, and many alternative bands had chart success there.
Genres and trends of the 1980s
Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk. Most of the first goth bands, including
Bauhaus,
Siouxsie & the Banshees, and
The Cure, are labeled as both post-punk and gothic rock. With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock," gothic rock utilizes a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes," and the genre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism." Gothic rock began to develop into its own in the early 1980s with the opening of
The Batcave nightclub and the emergence of a
goth subculture. By the mid-1980s, goth bands such as
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Mission, and
Fields of the Nephilim achieved success on the UK pop charts. Meanwhile Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure moved away from goth, broadening their sound and becoming internationally successful by the start of the 1990s.
British indie rock and indie pop drew from the tradition of
Scottish post-punk bands such as
Orange Juice and
Aztec Camera, utilizing jangly, shambling guitars and clever wordplay. The most popular and influential band to emerge from this lineage was
Manchester's The Smiths. The band managed to score a number of hits and influence a generation of bands while signed to an independent label,
Rough Trade Records. Their embrace of the guitar in an era of synthesizers is viewed as signaling the end of the New Wave era in Britain.
Other forms of alternative rock developed in the UK during the 1980s.
The Jesus and Mary Chain wrapped their pop melodies in walls of guitar noise, while
New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band
Joy Division and experimented with
techno and
house music, forging the
alternative dance style. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr and the
dream pop of
Cocteau Twins, were the influences for the
shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the bandmembers' tendency to stare at their feet onstage, shoegazing acts like
My Bloody Valentine,
Slowdive,
Ride, and
Lush created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated the British music press at the end of the decade along with the drug-fueled
Madchester scene. Based around
The Haçienda, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and
Factory Records, Madchester bands such as
The Stone Roses and the
Happy Mondays mixed
acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop.
Britpop and post-Britpop trends
With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene and music press in the early 1990s. Dubbed "Britpop" by the media, this movement represented by
Oasis,
Blur,
Suede, and
Pulp was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion. Oasis also had major commercial success overseas.
Britpop faded as Oasis's third album,
Be Here Now, received lackluster reviews and Blur began to incorporate influence from American alternative rock. At the same time Radiohead achieved critical acclaim with its 1997 album
OK Computer, which was a marked contrast with the traditionalism of Britpop. Radiohead, along with post-Britpop groups like
Travis and
Coldplay, were major forces in British rock in the subsequent years. Recently British indie rock has experienced a resurgence, spurred in part by the success the Strokes achieved in the UK before their domestic breakthrough. Like modern American indie rock, many British indie bands such as
Franz Ferdinand,
The Libertines,
Bloc Party, and
Arctic Monkeys draw influence from post-punk groups such as Joy Division,
Wire, and
Gang of Four.
Alternative rock in other countries
Australia has produced a number of notable alternative bands, including
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,
The Go-Betweens,
Dead Can Dance,
Silverchair,
The Vines, and
Eskimo Joe. Double J, a government-funded radio station in
Sydney and the Melbourne-based independent radio station
3RRR broadcast alternative rock throughout the 1980s. In 1990, Double J, now known as
Triple J, began broadcasting nationally. Much like America's Lollapalooza festival, Australia's
Big Day Out festival serves as a touring showcase for domestic and foreign alternative artists. To the east, New Zealand's
Dunedin Sound was based around the university city of
Dunedin and the
Flying Nun Records label. The genre, whose heyday was the mid-1980s, produced bands such as
The Bats,
The Clean,
Straightjacket Fits and
The Chills.
Mainstream alternative rock in
Canada ranges from the humorous pop of
Barenaked Ladies and
Crash Test Dummies to the post-grunge of
Our Lady Peace,
Matthew Good Band, and
I Mother Earth. In
Montreal, an indie infrastructure developed in the aftermath of economic and social trouble during the 1990s. The city is now home to many indie rock bands such as the
Arcade Fire,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and
The Dears.
The Sugarcubes were the most successful band to emerge from
Iceland. After the band's breakup in the early 1990s, vocalist
Björk embarked on a solo career that incorporated influences including
trip hop, jazz, and
electronica in addition to alternative rock. Icelandic indie rock bands include
Múm and
Sigur Rós. Continental Europe has produced numerous alternative styles and bands, from
Germany's
industrial rock and
industrial metal acts such as
KMFDM or
Rammstein to more idiosyncratic bands like the
Netherlands'
The Gathering and
Italy's
Bluvertigo.
Japan has an active noise rock scene characterized by groups such as
Boredoms and
Melt-Banana. Indie pop band
Shonen Knife have been frequently cited as an influence by American alternative artists including Nirvana and Sonic Youth.
Many bands active in
Mexico in the early 1990s can be considered alternative rock, though they're generally grouped in the
Rock en español genre.
Fobia and
Café Tacuba are two of the most popular bands.
Argentina has many alternative rock bands. Groups such as
El Otro Yo, Jaime sin Tierra, Bicicletas,
Babasónicos, Peligrosos Gorriones, and Los Brujos emerged in the 1990s as part of the so-called Nuevo Rock Argentino (New Argentine Rock) movement. While alternative rock hasn't broken into the Argentine mainstream in a broad way, Babasónicos became one of the most popular bands in the country.
Underground pop-influenced alternative rock went mainstream in the
Philippines during the 1990s. Alternative
Philippine rock bands include
Eraserheads,
Yano,
Parokya ni Edgar, and
Rivermaya.
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