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Alt/Punk

 
 

Description of Alt/Punk

 
A gigantic stylistic umbrella for everything from early garage rockers the Stooges to noise artisans Sonic Youth, and from Synth Pop royalty New Order to Postmodern Pop pioneer Beck, the "alternative" moniker was introduced into the mainstream in the early 1990s -- but as an alternative to what? Alternative represented a collision of several genres whose momentum had been building for several decades. Beginning with the artsy, seedy undercurrents of the Velvet Underground in the late '60s, and continuing through both Punk's heyday in the late '70s and the college rock/Post-Punk of the '80s, the groundswell of the underground ultimately broke big in January 1992 when Grunge upstart Nirvana's Nevermind improbably topped album charts worldwide. The brashness of the original Punk movement has played a significant role in forming the attitude and identity of most alternative music of the last twenty years, yet the underground's original scorn of mass acceptance became so diluted in the wake of its ever-growing commercial success, its near-complete metamorphosis into the mainstream was an inevitability in the hodgepodge '90s.
 

Alt/Punk Key Artists

 
Arcade Fire

Canadian indie rock
up-and-comers who
combine horn and string
orchestrations with a
shouting choir of post-pu...

Bad Brains

Not just one of the first
Hardcore bands ever, the
Bad Brains remain one of
the few all-black Punk
bands ever. Bad Brains sta...

Beck

Beck's post modern take on
beats, folk music and funk
has earned him both critical
and commercial success.
Beck's grandfather was a...

Cat Power

Chan Marshall began playing
and singing her haunting,
musically spare avant-folk
songs as Cat Power in the
early 1990s, sometimes pe...

Coldplay

This British quartet's casual
dream pop melodies and
poetic lyrics have brought it
international stardom. The
band formed in 1997 at th...

Death Cab For Cutie

With loops, jangly guitars,
and the occasional Farfisa,
DCFC craft a melodic
backdrop for Benjamin
Gibbard's cozy vocals. De...

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode's romantic,
gloomy, synthetic pop has
made them one of the first
New Wave acts to find
arena-sized success. Tho...

Fall Out Boy

The members of Fall Out
Boy started out in hardcore
punk bands before making
the move to something more
melodic. The band is nam...

Feist

One of the more unusual
success stories in 2000s'
pop music, the
singer-songwriter born
Leslie Feist has gone from...

Foo Fighters

The Foo Fighters were the
first and most successful
success to emerge from the
ashes of Nirvana, but the
band's roots were in the...

Franz Ferdinand

This Scottish quartet update
the early '80s post-punk
template with an air of
camp, polish and sleaze.
The original Franz Ferdina...

Green Day

Punk revivalists in style, this
raucous trio achieved
triple-platinum status with
their major-label debut,
Dookie. Although Gre...

Interpol

Contemporaries, if not quite
close pals, of such New
York City acts as the
Strokes and Yeah Yeah
Yeahs, the members of Int...

Nirvana

In case you missed it,
Nirvana changed the entire
musical landscape in the
early '90s with their no-frills
Grunge. Childhood friend...

Oasis

You know the story by
now: Mancunian brothers
start a band, set out to
become the biggest band in
Britain. And it works. For...

P.J. Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey
continues to influence
musicians and serve as a
feminist role model with her
eerie blues aggression. PJ...

Panic at the Disco

This next generation
punk-pop band teeters
between futuristic and
nostalgia with the use of
drum machines and accor...

R.E.M.

R.E.M.'s jangling guitars,
mysterious-but-melodic
vocals and DIY touring
method pretty much
defined 1980s indie rock....

Radiohead

Radiohead are one of the
most revered bands of the
1990s and beyond. Quite a
change from their initial
one-hit wonder tag. Radio...

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Alongside fellow L.A. band
Jane's Addiction, the Chili
Peppers proved influential
among modern rock and
metal groups. Original me...

Sonic Youth

Born out of the New York
no wave scene in 1981,
Sonic Youth grew into one
of the most successful art
rock bands in the world....

The Clash

From angry three-chord
anthems to more thoughtful
riddim explorations, they
earned the title, "The Only
Band That Matters." Singer...

The Cure

Dubbed the "masters of
mope rock," the Cure rose
from Britain's late-'70s punk
scene to become one of
the biggest-selling "under...

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips play
nasal-inflected indie rock
touched with psychedelia
and consistently
experimental sonic textur...

The Killers

The Killers are a Las
Vegas-bred group whose
epic neo-post-punk rock is
marked by elements of style
and paranoia. The group...

The Stooges

Also known as Iggy and the
Stooges, this was the
greatest rock band ever
produced by the United
States. The Stooges forme...

White Stripes

Detroit duo whose love of
punk, blues, and piano-led
cabaret have made them
critical favorites. In 2000,
the White Stripes release...

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