Alternative
Rock Classic Rock Now
Alternative Rock Classic Rock Now
Alternative Rock, it is a genre of music that started its journey as underground music in 1980’s and got much popularity to the adults and young generation in 1990’s. This kind of genre is different from the mainstream music culture. It is difficult to define Alternative Rock Music. Generally Alternative Rock is anticommercial, antimainstream type of music and mostly depends on guitar chords. The New York Times correspondent Neil Strauss defined alternative rock music as “Where singers tormenting over their hassles until they take an epic extent and guitar riffing is inspired by 1970’s. Also hard rock recognized by brittle.” In most cases the word “Indie Rock” and “Alternative Rock” is used interchangeably where “Indie Rock” is British based and “Alternative Rock” is an American based term.
In 1980’s Alternative hard rock artists were performed in small clubs, released albums from Indie labels, spread out their attention via word of mouth. Earlier, Alternative heavy metal artists were getting much commercial success due to other genres of music. Most of the bands were signed with the independent labels. They were also getting less attention from radio, television and newspapers. But in 1990’s at the time of Grunge and Britpop movement alternative rock artists gradually became popular and started getting commercial success. Alternative rock band lyrics are written on Social strains like usage of drug, loneliness, environmentalism and so on.
In 1990’s music industries major labels started signing Alternative Rock Bands such as Nirvana, Firehose, Dinosaur Jr. etc. Nirvana gained the maximum popularity by their “Smells Like Teen Spirit singles from their second album Nevermind. As a result the Nevermind album sold 40k copies before Christmas week of 1991. Nirvana’s this success opened the doors for other alternative hard rock artists to sign with the major labels. The New York Times stated in 1993 that “Alternative rock will no longer remain alternative as every major label is signing with guitar driven bands who can conceal appealing tunes with noisy sounds.”
However, by the end of the last decade's alternative rock band's popularity declined due to the fact of Cobains death of Nirvana, Pearl Jam’s legal action against Ticketmaster and few more reasons. But the alternative heavy metal artists did not leave hope and keep their antimainstream practice. As a result. During the start of the 21st century, they again gained the popularity because of some band’s performance like Creed, Matchbox Twenty, Radiohead etc.
Presently, Alternative rock become a buzz word and day by day, its popularity is accelerating. U2, Coldplay, Muse, Foo Fighters, etc. bands got worldwide fame. Some may say reference to the Indie Rock genre is taking place instead on alternative rock, but alternative rock is still alive as Dave Grohl stated in The New York Times.