Alternative rock

"The phrase “alternative rock” generally makes people think of the ’90s, but it’s been well documented that Nevermind was the culmination of something that had been bubbling up since the ’80s, not the genre’s birthplace. It’s never really possible to pinpoint an exact time or place that a genre was born, but for alternative rock–especially the kind that was born out of the American punk underground–1984 might have been the first year that multiple pivotal, widely-influential albums came out at once."

"Soon after punk hit, intense, speed-driven hardcore bands formed in California and New York and DC, and their fans built an infrastructure — a coast-to-coast network of clubs, mimeographed fanzines, college radio stations, record shops, and small record labels that would make indie possible. Some of them (Camper Van Beethoven, Pixies) sounded like the indie that would come after; some of them (Black Flag) didn’t. But the movement — whether called alternative rock, modern rock, college radio, or whatever — was now grounded."

"In the 1990s, a great deal of music which had been considered underground, punk, or just plain weird in the 1980s could suddenly be found in the mainstream; playing on commercial television, on the radio, in shopping centres and sporting arenas. By the decade’s end, alternative music was both triumphant and meaningless. Its stars played to massive crowds and its music was used to sell cars on television. It had integrated itself completely into the media spectacle, and could no longer reasonably claim to be offering an alternative to it. At the time, this was cause for both celebration and despair -- and from our current vantage point, both reactions might seem a little over-the-top. We may choose to see the alt-rock crossover as just another turn of pop culture’s eternal cycle, its artists subject to rock-and-roll’s most basic physical law—what comes up, must sell out. [...] On the one hand, this gave rise to a resilient and resourceful underground, and on the other, to a hunger for pop justice, for a future world where good music could be popular, and popular music could be good. Thus, when underground music finally broke through to the mainstream in 1991, the event was either denounced as a gigantic sellout or celebrated as a revolution, sometimes both at the same time. It was an intellectual balancing act that could only pulled off with the help of that staple of ‘90s pop life—postmodern irony."

"The '80s indie and alt-rock era would ultimately diverge in many directions, detouring to the depths of goth-rock and riding the speedway of punk while hitting the off-ramp to post-punk on the way, before finally nestling into the safe harbors of jangle pop. But amidst the chaos, fresh music was forged via increasingly interesting and off-beaten techniques."

"Musical genres collided more in the 90s than in any other decade, making ‘alternative’ rock ever harder to define."

"Back then, you weren’t allowed to have dreams of being huge. None of the major labels [had] touched anything that’s remotely left of field since the punk movement. It was all Huey Lewis. That changed with Sonic Youth and then Nirvana signing to Geffen. Alternative became this huge business, and now Arcade Fire or Vampire Weekend can be [number one]."

"And likely, whether you're using Arcade Fire as some background ambience or a '90s alt-rock Pandora station as encouragement to fight for your right to rage against the machine (even as you dutifully fill out your tax returns), alternative music as a genre is perfect for any number of moods."