What exactly is Alternative Rock?

[Biggirl]

How is it different from grunge. What is it besides not metal? It’s not not punk. What the hell is it?

[Ike_Witt]

There really is no such thing as alternative. At first it was applied to grunge, but it really just seems to imply stuff that doesn’t get much commercial air-play. It also could be used for music that doesn’t sound like everything else.

[Alice_The_Goon]

Alternative Rock is often described as being the opposite as Pop. It’s also known as Modern Rock. There are several sub-genres to Alternative, which include grunge, punk, and garage.

[ultrafilter]

Alternative rock is a catch-all for accessible rock that was influenced by R.E.M.'s breakthrough into the mainstream.

From the AMG page on alternative rock:

Alternative Pop/Rock is essentially a catch-all term for post-punk bands from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s. Though there is a variety of musical styles within Alternative Rock, they are all tied together since they existed outside of the mainstream. In some ways, there are two waves of alternative bands, with Nirvana’s success in 1991 acting as a dividing point. In the '80s, most alternative bands were on independent labels; if they were on majors, they didn’t receive as much support as most of the label’s mainstream acts. During the '80s, alternative included everything from jangle pop, post-hardcore punk, funk metal, punk pop, and experimental rock. After Nirvana’s popularity in the '90s, alternative included all of these subgenres, but many of the edges were sanded off because the music was now being marketed as part of the mainstream. Hard rock and punk-derived music were more commercially successful than the left-of-center pop that dominated late-'80s alternative pop/rock, so alternative lost some of its quirkier tendencies in the '90s. Most experimental bands were relegated to indie rock.

[Nobody]

And the stations I listened too, if they went back to the 80’s then they would play people like Howard Jones and Depeche Mode.

[Nobody]

Oh, and if you have cable or sattalite and get VH1 Classic, they have a show called “The Alternative” every Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

They’re kind of the descendants of the Mods, the Psychedelics, the Punks and the New Wavers. Their influences are less Bluesy and American in general than more mainstream Rock; Alternative tends to be more European, more gay- and drug-friendly. Their roots go through Gene Pitney and Lou Reed instead of, say, Elvis and the Eagles.

Of course, from around 1992-onward, “alternative rock” (Not just Nirvana, but REM and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other non-Grunge alt bands) outsold the hair bands and the “We Are The World” veterans, blurring any meaningful distinction between “alternative” and “mainstream.” But the term basically refers to the bands that branced away from the Teddy Boys, headbangers, country- and blues-influenced bands and anyone connected to the 70s “singer-songwriter” movement.