its amazing how many good indie rock bands are out there right now

theres The Killers,The Bravery,The Used,Shiny Toy Guns,Bloc Party,Kaiser Chiefs,Test Your Reflex,Arcade Fire,Cold War Kids.The Sounds just to name a few and many many more coming..i think myspace has a lot to do with this but i havent been this excited about new rock music in a LONG time

i remember back in 93 when the only popular alternative music was crap like NIN, nirvana, REM, B52s, rollins band, pearl jam, sonic youth, hole, the cramps and crap like that.

thank GOD for the bravery and kaiser chiefs!

Hi I'm Matchbox Twenty from 1996. Have we met?

JasonStar said:

have you ever noticed their album titles are painstakingly vague? is that on purpose, like when hootie and the blowfish named records after penii and butts?

Anx said:

OK. Maybe Rob's solo album was better in that area.



Maybe not.

I love Shiny Toy Guns!

Rob Thomas/Matchbox 20 makes me want to sick up.

There are alot of great bands now, but personally I think alternative music in late 70's/early 80's was the peak... punk, post-punk and new wave, and lots of great Indie bands.... that's where it's at

Anx said:

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?

That is not alternative music.

NorthernLad said:

heavens no. :shinygoldhalo:

novabrkr said:

but wtf is alternative music these days?

dammme said:

wtf was alternative music EVER?

these days, REM is about as "alternative" as the police.

of course, in their day, the police were considered "alternative" too.

i remember seeing magazines when i was a kid where they were calling tom petty "punk".

dammme said:

I never cared for the "Alternative" label, I always preferred Modern Rock.

Anx said:

But I like REM better than the police



Really? I use to think that they were always a pop band even for the radio programs.

novabrkr said:

all those groups i mentioned are played on every alternative station in the country right now

Mazerati said:

I wanna push you around! I will..I will..I will..push you around and drag you down! I wanna push you around! I willlll!



I love Matchbox Twenty and Rob's solo stuff. They are the best in alternative to me.

Anx said:

WHAT? I dig a lot of those bands (I would hardly consider the B52s later stuff "alternative" anymore...they did the "Flintstones" theme a year later). I think the mid ninties was amazing for alt rock and everyone know is a soft and emo!

Soundgraden, Stone Temple Pilots, The Breeders, Frank Black (not to mention the Pixies were still gettting lots of love as if they were still around), Juliana Hatfield 3, Alice In Chains, Cranberries, Dinosaur Jr, Matthew Sweet, RCHP....there is a new station devoted to this music and while the playlist could vary more (they are very big on the staple artists like Soundgraden, STP, RCHP, Nirvana and Pearl Jam) it's still excellent!

JasonStar said:

Yes, they are alternative....Alternative to good!

if myspace is creating hit bands the music industry is in a lot worse shape than anyone could've imagined.

Mazerati said:

Which clearly proves they are not alternative music.

Alternative music is something like... Moha! or Six Organs Of Admittance.

Matchbox 20/Rob Thomas were never alternative. They weren't even scrunge. They were just run-of-the mill middle of the road pop music. They were as much of a "rock" band as Britney Spears. Sorry.

And "alternative" doesn't mean it wasn't popular in some circles. In the beginning "alternative" was The Cure. It was REM. It was alternative to the mainstream rock and pop music. There doesn't have to be this snobbery attached to the labeling of it. REM's "Murmur" was an alternative record.

Axchi696 said:

If it has a bar code on it, it ain't alternative.

novabrkr said:

Eh, maybe that's your definition of alternative, but that's not where alternative music began. REM, Violent Femmes, New Order is all "alternative" music.

Pfft.

Kids.

Axchi696 said:

And "alternative" doesn't mean it wasn't popular in some circles. In the beginning "alternative" was The Cure. It was REM. It was alternative to the mainstream rock and pop music. There doesn't have to be this snobbery attached to the labeling of it. REM's "Murmur" was an alternative record.[/quote]

No it was Modern Rock.

http://woxy.lala.com/

click on the vintage channel.....enjoy!

Oh and If you want to hear what modern rock is now just listen to the main channel.
[Edited 3/10/07 0:09am]

JasonStar said:

Jason I love you but WTF - Matchbox 20 is about as mainstream, middle-of-the-road, AM radio (cheese, I might add) as it gets!

lazycrockett said:

i thought "modern rock" is what each wave of alternative becomes after it's no longer the "alternative"

Tessa said:

I think the term alternative came up to describe music that the record labels couldn't fit into any particular category at the time. As I remember it, the original alternative music were acts like Devo ("Whip It" notwithstanding), Kraftwerk (before they came up with the label electronica), and Laurie Anderson doing pig squeals over bongo drums. But then it became a moniker for "college rock", which was basically any band that wasn't an arena rock band like Foreigner, Journey, or REO Speedwagon, wasn't hard rock or metal like Van Halen, Def Leppard, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, wasn't punk like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, or the Clash, and wasn't new wave like Talking Heads, the B-52's, Duran Duran or Culture Club. Most of you may consider R.E.M. to be totally mainstream now, but at the time they released "Murmur" they were literally the godfathers of alternative music. The same could be said for Husker Du. The Replacements, Camper Van Beethoven, The Pixies, Bad Religion, Sonic Youth, Jesus and Mary Chain and a number of other bands.

(BTW, as for U2, although many people lumped them in with the New Wave acts and others called them alternative, they were always a mainstream arena rock act.)

I think the high point of alternative music came between 1988 and 1994, just as people were getting sick of hair metal. There were a lot of really excellent alternative bands sprouting up, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins were playing small clubs, Pearl Jam was then Mother Love Bone, and grunge was truly outside the mainstream. It wasn't until "Teen Spirit" blew up and the alternative acts blew hair metal out of the water that this music became mainstream by default, since there was no other rock music in the mid-1990's to go against it. What was left of the metal scene went underground with Pantera, Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity, Cannibal Corpse, and other groups, and nu-metal was just in its infancy.

As for now, its hard to tell what music is "alternative", if there even is such music out there. That's not to say that there aren't any really cool bands out there my MySpace, but if any rock music today is alternative, then it's alternative to hip-hop, pop and country.

MikeMatronik said:

its funny a few months back Alternative stations picked up the new Twisted Sister songs and now are playing the new Guns N Roses so i guess the new Poison album this summer will be on Alternative stations