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- For a while, alternative just referred to rock acts that intentionally stayed out of the mainstream and weren’t influenced by heavy metal ballads, new wave, or pop-like dance anthems. Eventually, alternative owls include new wave, pop, punk rock, post-punk, and college or indie rock.
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Apr 12, 2024 · alternative rock, pop music style, built on distorted guitars and rooted in generational discontent, that dominated and changed rock between 1991 and 1996. It burst into the mainstream when “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ”—the first major-label single from Nirvana, a trio based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.—became a national hit.
- Alternative Definition and Genres
- The History of Alternative Music
- Important Alternative Bands and Artists
- Other Styles of Alternative Music
- Final Thoughts on Alternative Music
In music, alternative is a really simple concept that can get messy and confusing quickly. By definition, alternative music is produced by performers who are outside of the musical mainstream. It’s typically more eclectic, original, and challenging than most popular music and it’s usually distributed by independent labels instead of major ones. Urb...
Looking at the history of alternative music, we’ll mostly be focusing on just rock and pop since those two are the main genres that fit into the alternative categories (yes, I know, alternative doesn’t fit into categories, it’s too cool). This is mainly to help keep things simple and look at the two biggest movements in alternative music, both of w...
Nirvana
If you couldn’t tell from the history of alt-rock, we can’t talk about alternative music without discussing Nirvana. They literally and legitimately pioneered alternative rock and brought it to the mainstream music world, and were the first band to make alternative rock seem like a commercially viable genre for record studios. The band was formed in 1987 by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. In 1990, they would recruit Dave Grohl as their full-time drummer, and their lineup was set. Nirvana was...
Foo Fighters
After Nirvana ended, Dave Grohl wasn’t done making music. The Foo Fighters started off as a one-man project with Grohl as the sole member and picked up the alt-rock sound where Nirvana left off. They would continue evolving over time, bringing us massive hits like Everlong, Learn to Fly, The Pretender, and Times Like These. Foo Fighters are one of the most successful rock acts in history, racking up 15 Grammy Award wins, five of which were for Best Rock Album (even with an alternative rock st...
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers started out as an indie band that made it into the mainstream thanks in part to Nirvana opening the door, but mostly on the merits of their insane talent as musicians. It’s hard to describe their music as anything other than alternative, even if alternative rock is just one of the elements they use when producing music. Funk metal, rap rock, rap metal, nu metal, punk rock, psychedelic, funk, and hip-hop are all genres the band takes inspiration from to craft their on...
So look. It’s honestly a very complicated subject trying to dissect alternative music as a whole and distill it into something that’s actually digestible. Pretty much any music genre or style that doesn’t fit into a neat little category is potentially going to be deemed an alternative style of music. We have tons and tons of examples of this with a...
Some of my all-time favorite bands and music can be qualified as some form of alternative music, but it’s important to understand that the definition of it as a whole has changed as time has gone on. It’s not just indie music from independent labels that were produced in a garage. It’s also not the post-punk style of music that it originated from. ...
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge, shoegaze, and Britpop subgenres in the United States and United Kingdom ...
- Late 1970s–early 1980s, United States and United Kingdom
- Alternative music, alt-rock, alternative
Jun 10, 2021 · Music. Alternative Rock Guide: The History and Bands of Alt-Rock. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 10, 2021 • 3 min read. Beginning in the 1990s, rock musicians who were out of sync with mainstream culture developed a genre known as alternative rock.
Jul 2, 2023 · 1. What is alternative music? Alternative music is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. It encompasses a variety of sub-genres, including grunge, indie rock, Britpop, emo, and many others. 2. How did alternative music get its name?
Alternative rock (also called alternative music or simply alternative) is a branch of the rock music genre that became widely popular in the 1990s. It was a term that was liberally used to describe the bands involved in the early 1990s phenomenon of independently recorded music gaining profound commercial success.
Aug 24, 2023 · Alternative rock, often simply referred to as “alt-rock”, is a musical genre that emerged in the 1980s as a counter-response to mainstream rock. Characterised by its diversity, rebellion, and willingness to experiment, alternative rock has remained a favourite among those who seek something “different” from the chart-toppers.
