User:Inepttothesewordsyouspeak/sandbox

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A good question it is. Being defined as something 'other' has always left Alternative Music with an essential identity crisis. Alternative to what, exactly?

Well, to orthodoxy. To the status quo. To playing it safe. To being in the music-business for the business, not the music. To the man. To repressive politics. To racism, sexism, classism, etc. Music has always attracted the free-thinkers and the radicals, and underground music has been the place where the most radical of the radicals has been championed.

Fittingly enough, right as rock'n'roll was becoming the dominant musical mode of the Western World. As soon as rock was king, there quickly grew an underground of acts providing, an 'alternative' voice.

If you're looking for a ground zero, let's say 1965. That was the year the Velvet Underground first got together in a New York loft, that MC5 first turned up their amps in a Detroit garage, and that a kooky Californian kid started calling himself Captain Beef heart.

In the early to mid 80's bands like REM and Echo & the Bunnymen were getting major airplay on the college radio stations as well as 120 Minutes on MTV and other TV venues. Soon major Alternative radio stations began appearing around the US. Independent or rock record labels were discovering a scene awash with untapped talent. In 1991 when Nirvana's album 'Never-mind' hit the charts there were some changes in the genre. Alternative music was now a part of the mainstream. New releases who didn't belong were now being put into the Alternative category.

Metallica, Gin Blossoms, Sonic Youth, Ani DiFranco, Alice in Chains, and Oasis were all now being marketed as alternative. Many people despise the term Alternative Music because everything under the sun is now labeled 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.

Still, the real intended alternative meaning was in fact, un-mainstream, different, unlike most, with a great sound. Peoples have just deteriorated the sense of the word.

Today's alternative consists of things in the way of such:

Rage against the machine