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Alternative rock

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   Alternative rock
   Stylistic origins: Punk, Post-punk, Hardcore
   Cultural origins: early 1980s United Kingdom and United States
   Typical instruments: Guitar - Bass - Drums
   Mainstream popularity: Limited prior to the success of grunge and
   Britpop in the 1990s. Widespread since then, although many artists
   remain underground.
   Derivative forms: Indie - Grunge
   Subgenres
   Britpop - College rock - Dream pop - Gothic rock - Grunge - Indie pop -
   Indie rock - Noise pop - Paisley Underground - Post-rock - Shoegazing -
   Twee pop
   Fusion genres
   Alternative metal - Gothabilly - Industrial rock - Madchester -
   Post-punk revival - Riot Grrrl
   Regional scenes
   Massachusetts - Seattle, Washington - Illinois - Maryland - Manchester,
   England
   Other topics
   Bands - College radio - History - Indie (music) - Lollapalooza

   Alternative rock (also called alternative music or simply alternative)
   is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely
   popular in the 1990s. The name "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 specific genre
   of music, alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have
   emerged from the indie music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge,
   indie rock, 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.

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 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 music was being termed "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. 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.
   The use of the term "alternative" gained popular exposure during 1991
   with the implementation of alternative music categories in the Grammy
   Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, as well as the success of
   Lollapalooza, where festival founder and Jane's Addiction frontman
   Perry Farrell coined the term "Alternative Nation".

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 is no set musical style for alternative
   rock as a whole, although common traits among many alternative bands
   and subgenres include distorted or jangly guitars. Sounds range from
   the dirty guitars of grunge and the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock,
   to the guitar pop revivalism of Britpop and the shambling innocence of
   twee pop, to name just a few examples. Lyrics in alternative rock songs
   typically address topics of greater social concern, such as drug use,
   depression, and environmentalism, an approach that developed as a
   reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and
   United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s.

   In the early 1980s a handful of college radio stations, like Danbury,
   Connecticut's WXCI, and WPRB in Princeton, NJ, and Brown University's
   WBRU broadcast alternative rock in the United States. Most commercial
   stations ignored the genre. Alternative rock became more popular and
   spread among other college stations in the mid-1980s, which served as
   one of the major outlets of exposure for the music. Alternative rock
   was 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. Finally, in the late 1980s in North America, commercial stations
   such as Boston, Massachusetts's WFNX and Los Angeles, California's KROQ
   began playing alternative rock, pioneering the modern rock radio
   format. Outside of North America, Double J, a government-funded radio
   station in Sydney, Australia and the Melbourne based independent radio
   station 3RRR began broadcasting alternative rock throughout the 1980s.
   In 1990, Double J, now known as Triple J, began broadcasting
   nationally, albeit with what some perceived as a watered down format.
   On television, MTV would occasionally show alternative videos late at
   night during the 1980s. In 1986 MTV in the United States began airing
   the late night alternative music program 120 Minutes, which would serve
   as a major outlet of exposure for the genre prior to its commercial
   breakthrough in the 1990s.

   Although alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular
   album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on the generation of
   musicians who came of age in the 80s 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 prior to 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 continued
   to evolve beyond alternative's 80s roots and low-fidelity ethos.
   Today's most popular rock music acts, typified by youth-oriented modern
   rock groups such as Linkin Park, incorporate complex electronic beats
   and highly produced albums, but owe a heavy debt to their metal and
   grunge influences. In spite of being influenced by alternative rock,
   many fans of the genre do not see these bands as being alternative, but
   instead as part of the nu metal genre. However, 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

   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 1983's Murmur entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle
   pop followers. One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 80s, Los
   Angeles' Paisley Underground was a revival of 60s sounds, incorporating
   psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock
   as well as punk and underground influences such as The Velvet
   Underground.

   American indie labels SST Records, Twin/Tone Records, Touch & Go
   Records, and Dischord Records presided over the shift from the hardcore
   punk that dominated the American underground scene at that point to the
   more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minneapolis
   bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were indicative of this shift.
   Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon they expanded their
   sounds and became more melodic, culminating in Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade
   and The Replacements' Let It Be, both released in 1984. The albums, as
   well as the follow-up material, were critically acclaimed and drew
   attention to the burgeoning alternative genre. That year SST Records
   also released landmark alternative albums by the Minutemen and the Meat
   Puppets, who mixed punk with funk and country, respectively.

   R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü set the blueprint for much of alternative rock of
   the 1980s, both sonically and in how they approached their careers. In
   the late 80s, the US underground scene and college radio were dominated
   by college rock bands like the Pixies, They Might Be Giants, Dinosaur
   Jr, and Throwing Muses as well as post-punk survivors from Britain.
   Another major force was the noise rock of Sonic Youth, Big Black,
   Butthole Surfers, and others. By the end of the decade, a number of
   alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major
   label signings Hüsker Dü and the Replacements had little success, late
   80's major label signings R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and
   platinum records, setting the stage for alternative's later
   breakthrough. Some bands like the Pixies had massive success overseas
   while being ignored domestically. By the start of the 90s the music
   industry was abuzz about alternative rock's commercial possibilities
   and actively courted alternative bands including Dinosaur Jr, fIREHOSE,
   and Nirvana.
   Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
   Enlarge
   Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

   Grunge, an alternative subgenre created in Seattle, Washington in the
   80s that synthesized heavy metal and hardcore punk, launched a large
   movement in mainstream music in the early 90s. The year 1991 was to
   become a significant year for alternative rock and in particular
   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 openess to
   alternative rock" among commercial radio stations and fans of more
   traditional rock sounds, and opened doors for more hard rock-oriented
   alternative bands in particular. While "alternative" was simply an
   umbrella term for a diverse collection of underground rock bands,
   Nirvana and similar groups gave it a reputation for being a distinct
   style of guitar based rock which combined elements of punk and metal;
   their creation met with considerable commercial success.

   The explosion of alternative rock was aided by MTV and Lollapalooza, a
   touring festival of diverse bands which helped expose and popularize
   alternative groups such as Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, and
   Hole. By the mid-90s, alternative was synonymous with grunge in the
   eyes of the mass media and the general public, and a supposed "
   alternative culture" was being marketed to the mainstream in much the
   same way as the hippie counterculture had in the 1960s (the existence
   of any such culture is debatable, and is often seen by some fans of the
   music to have been a creation of the media). During the 1990s, many
   artists who did not fit the "alternative" label were nonetheless given
   it by mainstream record labels in the hopes of capitalizing on its
   popularity. Some pop musicians, such as Alanis Morissette and Hootie &
   the Blowfish were given the label on the basis of nuanced differences
   from other pop artists. Many pop punk bands such as Green Day and The
   Offspring were also labeled "alternative". The most drastic mislabeling
   was given to African-American artists. African-American artists whose
   music did not fall into the genres of R&B, hip-hop, or pop, such as
   folk musician Tracy Chapman and heavy metal band Living Colour, were
   labelled alternative by the music industry despite the fact that their
   music did not derive from punk or post-punk influences. Additionally,
   post-grunge bands such as Third Eye Blind, The Goo Goo Dolls and
   Matchbox Twenty took the tropes of alternative rock and commercialized
   them. Nevertheless, alternative bands who were leery of broad
   commercial success and stayed underground were termed "indie rock" and
   developed movements such as lo-fi, a genre that espoused a return to
   the original ethos of alternative music. Labels such as Matador
   Records, Merge Records, and Dischord, and indie rockers like Pavement,
   Liz Phair, Superchunk, Fugazi, and Sleater-Kinney dominated the
   American indie scene for most of the 1990s.

   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. A
   signifier of alternative rock's declining popularity was the hiatus of
   the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find a
   headliner in 1998; the hiatus would continue until 2003. 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, various strains of
   indie rock including the garage rock revival of The White Stripes and
   The Strokes as well as the neo post-punk sounds of Interpol and The
   Killers achieved mainstream success.

Alternative rock in the United Kingdom

   Gothic rock developed out of late-70s 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. Gothic rock began
   to develop into its own in the early 80s with the opening of The
   Batcave nightclub and the creation of the goth subculture. By the
   mid-80s, 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 stylistically
   and broadened their sound to become 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, England's
   The Smiths. Led by the songwriting partnership of singer Morrissey and
   guitarist Johnny Marr, The Smiths 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 to have signaled the end of the New Wave era in
   Britain; the band also managed to gain a sizable cult following in the
   United States. Indie rock bands such as The Housemartins, James, and
   The Wedding Present emerged in the wake of The Smiths. The Wedding
   Present also featured on the C86 cassette, a premium offered by the NME
   in 1986. Featuring an array of bands including Primal Scream, The
   Pastels, and the Soup Dragons, the cassette not only was a major
   influence on the development of twee pop but the British indie scene as
   a whole.

   At the other end of the alternative rock spectrum, 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 the dream pop of Cocteau Twins and
   the space rock of Spacemen 3, were the influences for the shoegazing
   movement of the late-80s. Named for the fact that the bands often
   stared at their feet onstage, shoegazing bands like My Bloody
   Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Lush 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 traditional guitar pop, dance music, and rave
   culture, achieving massive mainstream success.

   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 90s. In contrast, only a
   few British alternative bands, most notably Radiohead and Bush, were
   able to make any sort of impression back in the States. As a reaction,
   a flurry of defiantly British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of
   grunge" and "declare war on America", taking the public and native
   music press by storm. Dubbed "Britpop" by the media, this movement
   represented by Oasis, Blur, Suede, and Pulp was the British equivalent
   of the grunge explosion, for not only did it propel alternative rock to
   the top of the charts in its respective country, but it centered it on
   a revitalization of British youth culture celebrated as " Cool
   Britannia". In 1995 the Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivarly
   between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their
   release of competing singles on the same day. Blur won " The Battle of
   Britpop", but Oasis' second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
   went on to become the third best-selling album in Britain's history;
   Oasis also had major commercial success overseas and even charted hits
   in the United States.

   Britpop faded as Oasis' 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 prior to 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

   Canadian band The Arcade Fire
   Enlarge
   Canadian band The Arcade Fire

   Australia has produced a number of notable alternative bands, including
   Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Go-Betweens, Dead Can Dance,
   Silverchair, and The Vines. 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 had its heyday during the mid 80s
   and produced bands such as The Bats, The Clean, 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 and I Mother Earth. In recent years cities like
   Montreal and Toronto have become important centers of Canadian indie
   rock, home to The Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Broken
   Social Scene, and numerous others.

   The Sugarcubes were one of the first internationally successful bands
   from Iceland. After the band's breakup, 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
   industrial rock bands like KMFDM.

   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.

   Underground pop-influencd alternative rock went mainstream in the
   Philippines during the early to late 1990s. Alternative Philippine rock
   bands include Eraserheads, Yano, Parokya ni Edgar, Rivermaya,
   Sugarfree, and the Itchyworms.

Influences

     * Punk rock
     * Post punk
     * New Wave
     * Hardcore punk

Styles

     * Alternative dance
     * Alternative metal
     * Baggy
     * Britpop
     * C86
     * Christian alternative rock
     * College rock
     * Dream pop
     * Dunedin Sound
     * Geek rock
     * Gothabilly
     * Gothic rock
     * Grebo
     * Grunge
     * Indie pop
     * Indie rock
     * Indietronica
     * Industrial rock

                                   * Jam band
                                   * Jangle pop
                                   * Lo-fi
                                   * Madchester
                                   * Math rock
                                   * Noise pop
                                   * Noise rock
                                   * Paisley Underground
                                   * Post-grunge
                                   * Post-rock
                                   * Post-punk revival
                                   * Psychobilly
                                   * Riot Grrrl
                                   * Sadcore
                                   * Shoegazing
                                   * Space rock
                                   * Twee pop

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