DMusic.com | for indie musicians and fans | Free MP3 music downloads - Forums: Music: What the hell is alternative music?

Electric guitars, Classical guitars, Guitar amps and more.

zZounds.com offers recording equipment for starting and experienced musicians. Find the best prices on electric guitars, acoustic guitars, classical guitars and more.

Forums > Music

What the hell is alternative music?

GreatGooglyM...	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 12:00 PM Is there a real definiton for it?
guitaroo	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 12:09 PM " id="238180">http://altmusic.about.com/od/altindiemusic101/a/altmusic101.htm From the link above: 'So I guess what I'm saying is that the answer to "What is Alternative Music" is ever changing -- but it relies on being outside, other, new...'
EchoMinor	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 2:39 PM i always considered it an inbetween to metal and hard rock.
hantu	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 2:42 PM i dunno what any kind of music is anymore, its all a big blur in my head. I quite like it like that.
kingo	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 2:44 PM To me it seems like genre names sort of define themselves by the time/style for which they were coined. As far as I know "alternative" started sometime in the 80s, and so I associate it with whatever the hell music was considered alternative then, and the music that's sort of derived from that. In the same way terms like "progressive" can have many literal interpretations but will always somehow reflect the bands that were given that label when the label was first applied to music.
Intergalacti...	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 4:32 PM Alternative is music that someone personally feels is alternate to any of the defined genres. Thats my view anyway./
EvilPicnic	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 4:54 PM 'Alternative' is like 'Indie'. It's linked now to a certain genre. AND IT WON'T LET GO!
HenriRoger	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 5:16 PM Intergalacticwarheroe: "Alternative is music that someone personally feels is alternate to any of the defined genres." Ok , but what is "other" then ?
hantu	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 5:22 PM alternative?
HenriRoger	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 6:23 PM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_rock Truth or not ?
hate9wicket	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 6:29 PM I would say any rock music that is not played on the radio, except at college stations... Bands that seem to be selling quite a few records, but don't make the charts...hmmnn. However, in the early to mid '90's, due to the success of Nirvana, any band influenced by the Beatles AND Black Sabbath, wearing Chuck Taylor's and flannel were getting signed and getting radio play...not many of them left, a few good ones around, Nada Surf putting out good stuff, despite being a one hit wonder. I know I'm getting old when my favorite bands are starting to do reunion and nostalgia tours...ie Pixies, Jane's Addiction, Gang of Four.
pog	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 6:30 PM I think wiki is pretty much spot on... I have always seen is as a cruisy rock with punk roots. Bands such as The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Weezer... stuff like that.
Woof	Date: August 2, 2006 @ 10:40 PM Try this: A lot of genres seemed to be sprouting around the '80's and '90's. Some could clearly be classified as "Metal", "Jazz", "Soul", "Pop", and even still some "Prog". There remained individuals and bands, however, who had personal statements that they wanted to make with their art, who were miraculously offered contracts. Maybe because the majors thought that the public was hungry for that kinda thing. Some of it became popular, and so was labelled "Pop"; which of course, is short for "Popular Music". Some of it developed a faithful, even rabid, following... but never became popular enough to be "Pop". So that became "Alternative", as in: "An alternative to Pop".
Fraser	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 12:04 AM The music I listen to I dont classify as Trance, House, Techno, IDM, or anything. I just classify it as a hard thumping beat setting groove
Opossum	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 12:07 AM It's music from a alternate universe, of course. Pretty cool.
LiQuidMetamo...	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 1:27 AM Certain independent record labels also had a reputation as being 'alternative' such as 4AD (Pixies, Throwing Muses, Dead Can Dance, Lush, Pale Saints etc) and in Britain Creation (pre Oasis at least) - (Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine), Mammoth (Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield, VIolent Femmes etc) - the common thing being they were all independent labels even if the music ranged from college rock to industrial to shoegazing... Then again in the 1980's Talking Heads and Television etc were considered alternative, in the UK The Smiths, Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and the Bunnymen etc. The only other thing I can say is that alternative groups usually had a guitar driven sound?
pangtera	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 2:47 AM It seems that the media has it as popular rock music. Eh, to me, I tend to group everything together in one big group. All that Indie, "Alternative", Hard Rock...it's all rock music to me. Just like Ambient, Trance, Goa, etc. is all techno to me. Too many subgenres confuses me.
zedsalt	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 11:13 AM When the term first started to be bandied about, Wicket's description was spot-on. Around here, around '85-'86 or so, I noticed that what people had been referring to as "College Radio" or "College Rock" was, more and more often, being labeled "Alternative". And, as the term was being applied to a fairly wide variety of music that couldn't get airplay outside college radio and a few progressive NPR programs, it made sense. Then, about the time that more than a handful of people started using the term, the definition of the genre was narrowed down to the point that it became everything it was supposed to be an alternative TO and was reduced to the status of fashion statement.
LiQuidMetamo...	Date: August 3, 2006 @ 11:52 AM It's funny that a band stops being considered 'alternative' soon after they sign with a major label, REM became stadium rock after being considered alternative even though they had very commercial sounding songs on Document, Life's Rich Pageant and Fables Of The Reconstruction (the 3 albums on idie label IRS prior to WEA), Sonic Youth after signing for Geffen were no longer considered to be the weird open tuning noise maniacs of their indie-days etc. and although their recording did not veer too far from what they'd being doing on Daydream Nation, they were seen as less 'cool'...
PrincessTast...	Date: August 4, 2006 @ 10:49 AM No one's mentioned Yo La Tengo?
plungerboy	Date: September 12, 2006 @ 7:37 PM Alternative != Mainstream
invocati	Date: September 12, 2006 @ 9:24 PM Alternative is a term used for music created after the Heavy metal New wave Punk era of the 80's or around the 80's. It had to be rock influenced though
leflaw	Date: September 12, 2006 @ 10:36 PM Alternative = Sensitive white people music.
leflaw	Date: September 12, 2006 @ 10:36 PM except for tracy chapman.
Jennicide	Date: September 12, 2006 @ 10:42 PM tracy chapman is awesome! I don't know about that sensitive white people thing though.. although my alter ego is and alternative artist... sensitive .... A-N-D white OMG IT MUST BE TRUE
Safix	Date: October 14, 2006 @ 9:19 AM Alternative doesn't always mean that guitar shit! Even electronic dance music can be alternative! So basically, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE, its just invented by some twats who couldn't make people to listen to their music, so they named it alternative... so deep, so deep.

Post A Reply
From:	guest	(Icons - Linking)
Post: