How are you?
Following the last week, I am going to
start my 67th lecture.
The topic for this week is “Alternative
Rock”, the 6th theme of “The History of Rock”.
This lecture is a summary of the
contents of “67. History of Rock Music: 6. Alternative Rock” introduced on November
5, 2016.
The term “alternative rock” is a generic term for underground music that has been born following punk rock since the mid-1980s. In general, alternative lock was defined as rejecting the commerciality of mainstream culture, even though some artists entered the mainstream and achieved commercial success. In the 1980s, alternative rock bands performed mostly in small clubs, recorded at indie label records, and made their names known through oral tradition.
There is no established musical style
for alternative rock, and the musical spectrum is greatly wide, from gloomy
gothic rock vibes to loud guitar sounds of indie pop, grunge guitar sounds, and
Britpop revival sounds of the 1960s and 70s. The lyrics of alternative rock are
mostly related to social interests such as drugs, depression, suicide and
environmental protection movements.
In the 1980s,
alternative rock was an underground genre. Alternative rock bands established
their presence in the underground, consistently performing and regularly
releasing low-budget albums. In the case of the United States, new bands have
been formed and these bands have built up a wide range of underground forces.
Although American alternative artists did not gain special popularity in the 1980s, they became the foundation for the success of later bands. By the beginning of the 1990s, the music industry recognized the potential of alternative rock's commercial success, and accordingly major record companies started to sign the alternative rock bands such as Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dinosaur Jr. and Nirvana. In particular, R.E.M.'s success became a blueprint for many later alternative rock bands from the late 1980s to 1990s.
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| Jane's Addiction |
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| R.E.M. |
The big success of the group Nirvana led to the huge popularity of alternative rock in the 1990s. The single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's second album, "Nevermind (1991)" sparked a grunge musical phenomenon. The success of “Nevermind” surprised the music world and not only raised the popularity of grunge, but also established the generalization of the cultural and commercial survival of alternative rock.
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| Nirvana |
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| Nevermind, Nirvana (1991) |
Other grunge bands followed Nirvana's success, and Pearl Jam's debut album "Ten", released in 1991, became a gold album by the second half of 1992 and peaked number 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
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| Pearl Jam |
In the late 1990s, the popularity of alternative rock declined due to various incidents such as the death of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana in 1994 and the prohibition of a number of Pearl Jam’s performances in the United States due to the sue regarding the performance schedule of Ticketmaster Entertainment, the promoter of Pearl Jam's performance.
However, following the success of bands such as The Strokes and The White Stripes in the early 2000s, new alternative rock bands such as Modest Mouse, The Killers and Yeah Yeah Yeahs emerged, and they made a commercial success in the early and mid-2000s.
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| The White Stripes |
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| Yeah Yeah Yeahs |
You can also review this lecture from following media.
Next week, I will lecture 7th topic “Garage Rock”.
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