Alternative/Alternative Rock Music

By Abbie Hallam

Alternative Music Alternative is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent

music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music.

The term ‘alternative’ first came around when bands formed that played mostly rock music but also incorporated other genres, such as reggae, folk, electronic, punk, grunge, etc, into their music. 

History of Alternative Music The breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of

the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. But before Nirvana brought alternative rock music to the mainstream audience, the music genre had been gaining popularity with the college crowds and music underground.

Some of the earliest bands being ‘The Cure’ who formed in 1976, then in the 1980's REM were making their start in alternative rock music. Most of their airtime was given by college radio stations. This is where their loyal fan base started. However, their commercial success started at about the time that alternative started to really become popular in the 1990's. 

In the late 80’s , there was basically no media coverage of alternative bands, except for a few late night alternative music videos on MTV. This changed in 1986 when MTV started showing a show called 120 minutes which introduced music by bands such as Nirvana, Butthole Surfers, The Smashing pumpkins, and later bands such as Weezer, Pearl Jam and Blind Melon. Also Cherry Red, NME and Soundsmagazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels.

History of Alternative Music Alternative music became truly

recognized by a larger amount of people through Nirvana’s album ‘Nevermind’ which was released in 1991 and was very successful. It was then that a lot of people started listening to grungy alternative music such as Nirvana and other bands. In the same year as the release of ‘Nevermind’, the American music festival ‘Lollapalooza’ took place for the first time, This was a big transition from only playing clubs and small venues and was the beginning of the commercialisation and popularity of alternative music.

History of Alternative Music Throughout the 90’s, alternative music grew a lot in popularity and

alternative rock became one of the most commonly listened to genres. By the start of the 21st century , a lot of the ‘original’ alt bands had broken up , for example Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains and Hole which many saw as the end of ‘real’ or ‘proper’ alternative music and those bands were replaced by more modern indie bands who were widely commercialised and had a lot of media coverage.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several alternative rock bands emerged, including The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Libertines, The Kooks, Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, and Interpol.

Conventional features of Alternative Music Videos

Conventional camera shots in alternative rock music videos include: High angled shots are usually used to establish the setting of the music video, and low angled shots are used to look up at the band performing to give them dominance over the viewers, close ups of the singer or instruments, long shots of the entire band, focus on the instruments, POV shots.

Editing - cuts between performance and narrative, edited to the beat of the music (generally fast paced, rock music videos are cut in beat to the drum beat or guitar rhythm), large amounts of shots used.

Mise en scene- Generally male dominate, usually filmed outside or on a stage, casually dressed or dark clothes. The general look for the band members would consist laid-back casual or carefree clothes. An example would be the song Breed by Nirvana.

Lighting - Natural and low-Key lighting are the two types of lighting that is mostly associated with music videos in this genre although High-Key lighting is sometimes used when the convention is being challenged, diegetic backlighting creates a silhouette and so this makes them more prominent.