Editing Alternative rock (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Live Chili Cookoff 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Live (band)|Live]], an alternative rock band from [[York, Pennsylvania]], performing in May 2008]]
In the past, popular music tastes were largely dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become the most popular, and therefore who could generate the most sales. These bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, and their works were then offered for sale through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations, along with eventually selling the merchandise into [[big box retailers]]. Record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making the decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, and those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were then excluded from this system.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kallen|first1=Stuart A.|title=The History of Alternative Rock|publisher=Lucent Books|year=2012|pages=6–7|isbn=978-1-4205-0738-6|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=-IhmDwAAQBAJ|page=6}}}}</ref>

Before the term ''alternative rock'' came into common usage around 1990, the sorts of music to which it refers were known by a variety of terms.{{sfn|Azerrad|2001|p=446}} In 1979, [[Terry Tolkin]] used the term ''Alternative Music'' to describe the groups he was writing about.{{sfn|Azerrad|2001}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}} In 1979 Dallas radio station [[KBFB|KZEW]] had a late night [[New wave music|new wave]] show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/arewenotnewwavem0000cate/page/n5/mode/2up |title=Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s |first=Theo |last=Cateforis |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2011 |page=38 |isbn=978-0-472-11555-6}}</ref> "[[College rock]]" was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the [[Campus radio|college radio]] circuit and the tastes of college students.{{sfn|Reynolds|2006|p=391}} In the United Kingdom, dozens of small [[DIY ethic|do it yourself]] record labels emerged as a result of the [[punk subculture]]. According to the founder of one of these labels, [[Cherry Red Records|Cherry Red]], ''[[NME]]'' and ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called the [[UK Indie Chart|Indie Chart]] was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels. At the time, the term ''indie'' was used literally to describe independently distributed records.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stanley |first=Bob |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jul/31/indie-chart-rise-again |title=Will the indie chart rise again? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223082406/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jul/31/indie-chart-rise-again |archive-date=December 23, 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=July 31, 2009 |access-date=July 20, 2012}}</ref> By 1985, ''indie'' had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status.{{sfn|Reynolds|2006|p=391}}

The use of the term ''alternative'' to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s;<ref>Thompson, Dave. "Introduction". ''Third Ear: Alternative Rock''. San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 2000. p. viii.</ref> at the time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were ''[[Post-punk#History|new music]]'' and ''[[Postmodern music|postmodern]]'', respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past.<ref name="altguitar"/>{{sfn|Reynolds|2006|p=338}} A similar term, ''alternative pop'', emerged around 1985.<ref>{{cite web |title=alternative pop |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alternative%20pop |website=Merriam-Webster |access-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522224355/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alternative%20pop |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1987, ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' magazine categorized [[college rock]] band [[Camper Van Beethoven]] as "alternative/indie", saying that their 1985 song "Where the Hell Is Bill" (from ''[[Telephone Free Landslide Victory]]'') "called out the alternative/independent scene and dryly tore it apart."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dNSW1RIkidsC&pg=RA1-PA24 |page=24 |last=Leland |first=John |author-link=John Leland (journalist) |date=May 1987 |title=Campers |magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |volume=3 |number=2 |issn=0886-3032}}</ref> [[David Lowery (musician)|David Lowery]], then frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, later recalled: "I remember first seeing that word applied to us... The nearest I could figure is that we seemed like a punk band, but we were playing pop music, so they made up this word ''alternative'' for those of us who do that."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Puterbaugh |first=Parke |date=April 7, 1994 |title=Crackers with Attitude |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/crackers-with-attitude-56959/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128070306/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/crackers-with-attitude-56959/ |archive-date=January 28, 2021 |access-date=August 26, 2020 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]}}</ref> DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American [[FM radio]] of the 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to [[top 40]] [[radio format]]s by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by [[Campus radio|college radio]] people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music."<ref>Mullen, Brendan. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RXE0biSWhGIC&pg=PA19 Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction]''. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2005. p. 19. {{ISBN|978-0-306-81347-4}}.</ref>

At first the term referred to intentionally non-mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems".<ref name="1997Definition">{{cite web|author-link=Neil Strauss |last=Strauss |first=Neil |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/02/arts/forget-pearl-jam-alternative-rock-lives.html |title=Forget Pearl Jam. Alternative Rock Lives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331075028/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/02/arts/forget-pearl-jam-alternative-rock-lives.html |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=live |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 2, 1997 |access-date=July 20, 2012}}</ref> Usage of the term would broaden to include [[New wave music|new wave]], pop, [[punk rock]], [[post-punk]], and occasionally "[[college rock|college]]"/"[[Indie rock|indie]]" rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' [[KROQ-FM]]. Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that ''Alternative'' also encompassed variants such as "rap, trash, metal and industrial".<ref name=gerr /> The bill of the first [[Lollapalooza]], an itinerant festival in North America conceived by [[Jane's Addiction]] frontman [[Perry Farrell]], reunited "disparate elements of the alternative rock community" including [[Henry Rollins]], [[Butthole Surfers]], [[Ice-T]], [[Nine Inch Nails]], [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]] (as second headliners) and Jane's Addiction (as the headlining act).<ref name=gerr /> Covering for MTV the opening date of Lollapalooza in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] in July 1991, [[Dave Kendall]] introduced the report saying the festival presented the "most diverse lineups of alternative rock".<ref>Kendall, Dave. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGJd77uzjw&t=30s "MTV Week in Rock – Lollapalooza"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831065008/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGJd77uzjw&t=30s |date=August 31, 2020 }}. youtube. July 1991. November 2, 2019.</ref> That summer, Farrell had coined the term ''Alternative Nation''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jake |last=Brown|title=Jane's Addiction: In the Studio |publisher=Black Market Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-9726142-7-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dpFdelxBFWsC}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref>

In December 1991, ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has formerly been considered ''alternative rock''—a college-centered marketing group with fairly lucrative, if limited, potential—has in fact moved into the mainstream."<ref name=gerr>{{citation |last=Gerr|first=Jim |title=Artist of the Year: Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction |work=Spin (magazine)|date=December 1991}}</ref>

In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific.<ref name="altguitar"/> In 1997, [[Neil Strauss]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle, '70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions."<ref name="1997Definition"/>

Defining music as alternative is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word. ''Alternative'' can describe music that challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream", and the term is also used in the music industry to denote "the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet."<ref>Starr, Larry; Waterman, Christopher. ''[[iarchive:americanpopularm0000star|American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV]]''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 2003. p. 430. {{ISBN|978-0-19-510854-5}}.</ref> However alternative music has paradoxically become just as commercial and marketable as the mainstream rock, with record companies using the term "alternative" to market music to an audience that mainstream rock does not reach.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dolan|first1=Emily|title='...This little ukulele tells the truth':indie pop and kitsch authenticity|journal=Popular Music|date=2010|volume=29/3|issue=3|pages=457–469|doi=10.1017/s0261143010000437|s2cid=194113672}}</ref> Using a broad definition of the genre, Dave Thompson in his book ''Alternative Rock'' cites the formation of the [[Sex Pistols]] as well as the release of the albums ''[[Horses (album)|Horses]]'' by [[Patti Smith]] and ''[[Metal Machine Music]]'' by [[Lou Reed]] as three key events that gave birth to alternative rock.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/alternativerock0000thom/mode/2up |title=Alternative Rock|first=Dave|last=Thompson|date=2000|publisher=Miller Freeman Books|isbn=978-0-87930-607-6}}</ref> Additionally, Rhys Wiliams of ''[[Loudersound]]'' observed, "musical genres collided more in the 90s than in any other decade, making 'alternative' rock ever harder to define."<ref>{{Cite web |last=updated |first=Rhys Wiliams last |date=2018-09-26 |title=The alternative 90s: A guide to the best albums |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-alternative-90s-a-guide-to-the-best-albums |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=louder |language=en}}</ref> Until the early 2000s, when [[indie rock]] became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock, the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably;<ref name="Fonarow">{{cite web|author-link=Wendy Fonarow |last=Fonarow |first=Wendy |date=July 28, 2011 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/jul/28/indie-professor |title=Ask the indie professor: why do Americans think they invented indie? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312043529/https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/jul/28/indie-professor |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |work=The Guardian |url-status=live}}</ref> while there are aspects which both genres have in common, "indie rock" was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American "alternative rock".<ref>{{cite web|last=Carew |first=Anthony |url=https://www.liveabout.com/are-alternative-music-indie-the-same-94033 |title=Distinction Between the Alternative and Indie Genres |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815102108/https://www.liveabout.com/are-alternative-music-indie-the-same-94033 |archive-date=August 15, 2019 |website=liveabout.com |access-date=December 29, 2023 |date=September 20, 2018}}</ref>