History of alternative rock

Where did Alternative rock originate

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. The 'alternative' definition refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music and how they simply had a different style of music that wasn’t common at this time. They varied from having different guitar sounds and lyrics while the vocalist would sing in a different way. At times, "alternative" has been used as a word that refers music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition. It is seen to have descended from originally being punk rock which was popular around the 1990s where the music was made with the same intentions of punk rock but ended up having a different sound entirely.

Development of Alt rock

In the 1980's REM was making their start in alternative rock music. Their commercial success started at about the time that alternative started to really become popular in the 1990's. The popularity of alternative rock music came about after the grunge period. Grunge was a type of alternative rock music that didn't conform commercialism. This was ironic since it was this type of music that helped to create the commercial success for alternative rock music. Bands such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sound garden, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It can now be seen with modern artists such as The kooks, the arctic monkeys, the all American rejects and the killers etc. This genre is now becoming more well know but instead as indie rock.

How has Alt rock changed music today?

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several alternative rock bands emerged, including The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, The Rapture and Arctic Monkeys which are now very popular today and play a major part in the music industry by holding many top songs in the charts. These artists drew primary inspiration from post-punk and new wave which eventually lead to the come back or post-punk music. Which can now be seen in bands such as The Strokes and The White Stripes. Which caused many new alternative bands to emerge such as Modest Mouse, The Killers, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New artists that have now found commercial success in the early and mid 2000s are artists such as U2, Muse, Foo Fighters and Coldplay. As you can see Alt rock has had a major affect on many new artist in the modern day. This caused a new popularity of Alt rock to emerge which meant that new artists could be found.