The History of Alternative Rock as a Genre

1980s – Alternative rock derives from different stylistic origins such as punk rock, post-punk, new wave and hardcore punk. Throughout the 1980s Alternative Rock remained as an underground phenomenon with songs sometimes reaching critical success when covered by large magazine companies. Bands were usually covered by independent media such as unofficial radios and fan made magazines. As a result of this alternative rock bands never tended to generate spectacular record sales. Alternative Rock bands built large followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low-budget albums. An extensive underground circuit was established in America from new bands being formed in the wake of previous ones. British alternative rock had a more pop-focus over their American counterparts; as well as a focus of primarily British concerns, making it difficult for British alternative rock bands to achieve success over the Atlantic. Subgenres of alternative rock emerged through America in the 80s with established bands trialing new styles of music such as jangle pop pioneered by R.E.M as well as Paisley Underground. Styles such as grunge (commonly refered to ‘The Seattle Sound’ until the 1990s) was created as a result of alternative rock. Early grunge bands like Soundgarden and Mudhoney found success in both the US and the UK, respectively; this eventually lead to an explosion of grunge music in the 90s. Alternative rock’s future was set as gold and platinum records were achieved by artists that signed with major labels towards the end of the decade, compared to early signings that gave little success. Manchester’s The Smiths were among R.E.M that were referred to as “the two most important alt -rock bands of the day” by distinguished music journalist, Simon Reynolds. Reynolds saw that The Smiths' "whole stance was predicated on their British audience being a lost generation, exiles in their own land” where they were “eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". The Smiths' hold of the guitar in an era of synthesizer-dominated music is viewed as signaling the expiration of the new wave era and the advent of alternative rock in the UK. 1990s – Towards the beginning of the 1990s the music industry was interested with the possibilities of alternative rock as a genre. This lead to larger music labels signing bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. Widespread popularization of alternative rock as a music genre was triggered with the release of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit from their second album; this occurred due to the constant airplay of the song’s music video no TV platforms such as MTV. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general."1 The arrival of grunge from the US spawned domination of American acts in the British alternative scene. This gave way to the reaction of UK bands to ‘get rid of grunge’. This reaction propagated an equivalent, new patriotic genre; brit-pop, a genre represented by acts such as Pulp, Oasis, Suede and Blur. This then orchestrated a rivalry between the brit-pop artists who had singles releasing the same day and with this the media tabloids created ‘The Battle of Britpop’. During the latter half of the 1990s many more subgenres of alternative rock emerged such as post-grunge such as Creed and Nickelback, and post-rock pioneered by Talk Talk and Slint. Towards the end of the decade, alternative rock’s mainstream prominence had declined; adding to the decline, the death of Kurt Cobain and lackluster reviews for Oasis’s third studio album.

1 http://www.today.com/id/4652653#.V30yYaMrLxs

2000s – The turn of the millennia saw a revival of the mostly faded alternative rock genre. Most notably with the emergence of several alt-rock bands drawing inspiration from post-punk and new-wave; subsequently creating the movement of post-punk revival. Notable bands that followed this movement include; Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and The Strokes.