I first heard this term attributed to REM. Supposedly their songs (in particular Losing My Religion) were “different” or “not like regular songs” or whatever. The Gin Blossoms, another very well known band of the time, were another. As someone who’s listened to the likes of Peter Gabriel and Culture Club in the 80’s, I really don’t see what’s so unusual about “alternative”. Anyone?
I had the entire subject title in there…
Anyway, the thread is “What is ‘alternative music’”? Just in case you didn’t catch the REM reference or anything.
Back in the 80’s the label “alternative” (we called it “college rock” or “underground rock”) made sense, since it applied to artists (like R.E.M. at the time) that were an alternative to the bland pap you heard on the charts. Nowadays, however, it’s a catch-all phrase that has been co-opted by the record industry to indicate just about anybody with a guitar as the primary instrument, and is pretty much meaningless.
Moderator’s Hijack: I’ve fixed the thread title, DKW. The error you encountered is caused by a known software bug. If you “preview,” anything inside the quote marks in a title gets truncated. Weird, huh?
Carry on, folks.
In the UK we didn’t really have ‘alternative’, but rather ‘independent’. This started out as referring to a band signed by an independent label (i.e. not playing whatever the mainstream music of the period was). The golden age of these ‘indie’ bands was, IMHO, around the early 1990s, when it became associated primarily with guitar-based bands often also using dance-music-influenced basslines and rumlines (e.g. Charlatans, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses). The term isn’t quite as common now since a lot of boy bands signed to subsidiary labels of major corporations are counted in the ‘indie’ charts, which annoyed the ‘indie’ press no little.
Basically, in the UK, guitar-based bands often sounding trippy or dance-influenced. I get the impression that in the US there’s more of a punk influence when it comes to ‘alternative’ labels.
It’s a meaningless marketing label. For a while, in the early 80s, it meant “bands on Geffen Records” or sometimes “bands on IRS records.” In the late 80s it meant “Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and maybe REM,” and “whatever is on ‘120 Minutes’ this week, even if it’s a Top 40 hit.” Now it means “bands with guitars who write three-minute songs and can harmonize in thirds and fourths vocally.”
That’s about as good as a definition you can get. Any band that hasn’t had a big hit or doesn’t get much radio play could be classified as “Alternative”.
When I was in high school and college (late 70’s/very early 80’s) the alternative bands were what is now todays mainstream, like U2, REM, Blue Angel(aka Cyndi Lauper) and Generation X (Billy Idol). Their music was great then, but the stuff they crank out now is (to me) absolute crap.
Collective Soul was a pretty good alternative band, but as they put out more albums and get more air play I can hear their sound slipping. I’ve found the best place to listen to good “alternative” music are the college stations like WMSE here in Milwaukee. If you can get them in.