Brief History of Alternative Rock

Although many Alternative rock to be quite a modern movement, it turns out that the origins of this genre came from the late 1960’s when the first alternative music was made. Groups such as The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges and others made the first music of this type. This then continued on into the 1970’s with bands such as David Bowie, The New York Dolls. These combined intellectual lyrics with artistic impression. Punk rock was very important in the progression of alternative rock. By the 80’s, punk was transforming into New Wave and so this was then passed on to a new generation.

In the early and mid 80’s, bands like REM were achieving a lot of airplay on college radio stations as well as 120 Minutes on MTV and also on other TV venues. Soon after, major alternative radio stations started popping up all over the US. In 1991 when Nirvana’s album made it into the charts, there were some changes to the genre. This genre was now part of the mainstream. Bands such as Oasis were now being marketed as alternative. Many people despise the term Alternative Music because everything is now labelled alternative music, causing the term to actually become a term describing popular music. There are rock Record labels and artists who are true to the definition of Alternative music as a way to express ideas and songs which fall outside the pop genre.