Alternative Rock: Difference between revisions

Alternative rock evolved, presumably, from [[Post Punk]] back in the early eighties, although [[The Velvet Underground]] is often cited as the [[Ur Example|first alternative band]] and they predate punk itself. For the rest of the eighties, it blossomed underground, and was truly "alternative"; if you were bored of all that tiresome [[Hair Metal]], you could just switch on the [[College Radio|college campus radio station]] and hear the music of moderately obscure bands like [[REM]], [[The Smiths]], The Replacements, [[The Fall (Musicband)|The Fall]] and [[Dinosaur Jr.]]. There was obviously an audience for it, but only a few alt-rock bands got popular in the eighties. Among these popular bands were the previously-mentioned [[REM]] (the key band of the whole genre) and [[The Cure]].

* [[Cocteau Twins (Music)|Cocteau Twins]]' [[Dream Pop]]

* [[The Fall (Musicband)|The Fall]]'s angular [[Post Punk]]

* [[Kate Bush (Music)|Kate Bush]]'s art pop

* [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]]'s [[Shoegazing]]

* [[New Order (Music)|New Order]]'s quirky dance pop

* [[The Pixies (Music)|The Pixies]]' surf-punk

* [[Red House Painters (Music)|Red House Painters]]' depressing [[Slowcore]]

* [[REM (Music)|REM]]'s jangle pop

* [[Sonic Youth (Music)|Sonic Youth]]'s [[Noise Rock]]

* [[Ten Thousand10,000 Maniacs (Music)|Ten Thousand Maniacs]]' folky pop-rock

* [[They Might Be Giants (Musicband)|They Might Be Giants]]' geek rock

When the nineties came, everyone suddenly decided to spontaneously make alternative rock hugely popular in the mainstream by buying loads of copies of ''[[Nirvana (Music)|Nevermind]]'' and ''[[Pearl Jam (Music)|Ten]]'' and bringing [[Grunge]] into the limelight. Into a place the musicians didn't want to be. Pretty soon, other alt-rock bands were made hugely popular, including [[Radiohead]], and [[The Smashing Pumpkins (Music)|The Smashing Pumpkins]]. Although [[Dead Horse Music Genre|grunge itself died with Kurt Cobain]], alt-rock itself continued to be popular until... well, today. In fact, it is probably the dominant form of rock music in the mainstream right now. Which is why so many people stopped calling it [[Non-Indicative Name|"alternative"]].

In the mid-90's, a contrived search by major labels to find "The next Nirvana" saw most of the international underground scene trawled, which briefly did see a bunch of varied genre bands being signed to major labels as "alternative artists", such as Japanese experimental band Boredoms, art punk group Butthole Surfers, Oklahoman psych-punkers [[The Flaming Lips]], Celtic singer Loreena McKennit and the Swing Revival or [[Ska Punk]] fad bands. However, once majors and rock radio began to embrace [[Post -Grunge]], these artists were dropped in droves, with few exceptions (such as [[The Flaming Lips]]).

The lack of originality on alternative radio caused indie rock, an outgrowth of the late-80's alternative sound, to basically become the new "alternative". In the same period, indie rock's figureheads, the California band [[Pavement]], became celebrities of the underground with each of their albums garnering critical success. They even had a minor hit with "Cut Your Hair", all without betraying their underground roots or signing to a major label - they had all they ever needed at the indie label Matador. [[Guided By Voices (Music)|Guided By Voices]] also became an unlikely success story, at least for a while.

Another Alternative offshoot that became popular in the mid 90's was [[Britpop]], which sounded refreshing to American underground rock fans when compared to the popular American [[Post -Grunge]] bands at the time. However most of Britpop was virtually ignored by most American rock fans with the exceptions of several [[Oasis]] songs (most notably "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova"), [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]]'s "[[Black Sheep Hit|Song 2]]" and The Verve's "[[One-Hit Wonder|Bittersweet Symphony]]". Blur, along with two other Britpop bands, Super Furry Animals and Pulp, became critically adored cult heroes in the United States and often played on college radio. Even when [[Radiohead]] became popular in the US, they were mostly seen as an "album band" and most rock stations were content playing their earlier hit "Creep" and maybe "Karma Police" late at night so it wouldn't get in the way of the constant stream of Seven Mary Three, Tonic, Candlebox and other faceless [[Post -Grunge]] acts.

In the mid-2000's however, many American alternative stations decided they had grown tired of spinning [[Nu Metal-metal]] and [[Post -Grunge]] (and to a lesser extent [[Pop Punk]], which had become popular in the mid 90's) and began to play music from a handful of indie rock influenced bands that retained the original alternative sound instead of bands like [[Creed]] and [[Nickelback]]. Music magazines called this movement "The Return of Rock", which was led by a handful of new young bands whose names all began with "The": The Hives, The Vines, The Donnas, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Mooney Suzuki, The Music, [[The White Stripes]] and [[The Strokes]]. Most of these bands - with the noteworthy exceptions of [[The Strokes]] and [[The White Stripes]] - have since fallen out of favor partially due to [[Critical Dissonance]], but their success allowed Alternative radio to take a chance on other indie rock music, like [[Death Cab for Cutie]], [[The National]], and [[Modest Mouse]]

[[Radiohead]] also remained wildly popular throughout the world, influencing bands that were heavily indebted to their sound. Some, such as [[Muse (Musicband)|Muse]], [[Coldplay]] and [[Snow Patrol (Music)|Snow Patrol]], made major commercial inroads in the United States.

This indie boom did come with some problems: [[Kings of Leon (Music)|Kings of Leon]], a former Return of Rock offshoot, recently became successful in the US by watering down their sound. To contrast, [[Muse (Musicband)|Muse]], a [[Radiohead]] influenced progressive rock band have also recently gained some popularity in the US without changing much of the sound they've had for a decade.

** [[Alternative Hip Hop]] (to a degree)

** [[Alternative Metal]]

*** [[Nu-metal]]

** [[Baroque Pop]]

** [[Britpop]]

** [[Dream Pop]]

** [[Emo (Music)|Emo]]

** [[Grunge]]

*** [[Post-Grunge]]

** [[Indie Rock]]

*** [[New Wave (Music)|New Wave]] Revival

*** [[Pop Revival]]

** [[Noise Rock]]

** [[Noise Pop]]

** [[Post Punk]] (although for most of the 80's Post Punk = Alternative Rock)

** [[Post Rock]]

** [[Shoegazing]]

** [[Slowcore]]