New topic
PrintableMsLegs said: 
Let us not forget the full name of Devo is Devolution. They're in a class by themselves music. Like most groups that came from the Punk era , they set the mode and still effect pop culture today. Alot of you aren't aware that some members of of Devo write the music for commercials, and cartoons. Whip It!  Whip It Good! | |
- E-mail - orgNote -  Report post to moderator |
I never understood the term. It just seems like a ubiquitous all encompassing 'superset' of genres.
I mean, sure, I know when I hear something that its an "alternative' band, but just cause something's classified as 'alternative' doesn't mean it gives me any clue as to what the band will actually remotely sound like.  | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The picture is funny (again, not the Devo one) except that there's nothing remotely alternative about Nickelback. Don't get me wrong, I think they're a good band, they fit a niche well, but alternative? Not by a long shot.
I think things got kinda confused when "Alternative" became a buzzword to sell records in the 90's. [Edited 3/14/08 7:59am] | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
theAudience said: Cheek said: So what is alternative really and where did it came from?
I think it all started in the 60's with avantgarde and proto-punk; with bands like The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground & Nico 1967, White Light/White Heat 1968), The Stooges (The Stooges 1969, Fun House 1970, Raw Power 1973) and mostly overlooked artists like Nico (The Marble Index 1969) or Yoko Ono (Plastic Ono Band 1970, Fly 1971). They all had a huge influence on later artists (like Patti Smith or The B-52's) and the future of rock music especially 70's-80's punk which later turned into the so-called alternative. So what do you think?  I don't think that works either. On Free Form FM radio in the 60s (a very popular format at the time), those artists, and others like them, got plenty of play. I looked at Free Form FM radio as an addition to instead of an alternative to Top 40 AM radio since I listened to both. To me, this "alternative" label smells more like some music biz marketing ploy to create a "big tent" for potential customers that were not purchasers of "mainstream" artists. Now i'm sure there are folks that genuinely enjoy the material that's been termed "alternative". There's also that "hipness" quotient for those that need to say things like, "I'm not into corporate music." I'm sure many have run into those hipper than thou music store persons that are more than willing to rattle off a slew of bands that nobody's heard of but them and give you the hairy eyeball if you don't wreckanize. Funny stuff. tA  TA, you gave a great retrospective of the radio airwaves. No one would imagine that the WWW has now become what FM was in the 60's.[Edited 3/14/08 9:51am] | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
guitarslinger44 said: The picture is funny (again, not the Devo one) except that there's nothing remotely alternative about Nickelback. Don't get me wrong, I think they're a good band, they fit a niche well, but alternative? Not by a long shot.
I think things got kinda confused when "Alternative" became a buzzword to sell records in the 90's. [Edited 3/14/08 7:59am] I think it's just a tongue-in-cheek commentary about how radio and mainstream music venues viewed alternative music. You have a band like Nirvana, which was classified as "grunge" (whatever that means) who took much of their influences from old punk bands and 70's rock, and whether they started the movement or not, the complete musical landscape in mainstream radio and MTV changed after "Smells like Teen Spirit" was released as a video (wierd, cause compared to Bleach, Nevermind was very mainstream). But what happens when you have that happen? Well you end up with all the big music companies taking crap bands like Nikelback and Busch and god-forbid, Puddle of Mud, which all have a copy-cat sound more-or-less to Nirvana or any number of the "Seatle" bands which themselves weren't particularly that original sounding to begin with. You saw it during the female "lilith" years when Alanis broke really big into the music scene.. You ended up with Meredith Brooke's contrived and stupid "bitch" making radio play off of that momentum. I think the picture there is just illustrating how something new comes out and it slowly devlolves into something that is barely recognizable--it digresses back into the mainstream soup from which it was proported to break away from. At least I think that's what the cartoon represents. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Imago said: .
You saw it during the female "lilith" years when Alanis broke really big into the music scene.. You ended up with Meredith Brooke's contrived and stupid "bitch" making radio play off of that momentum. By the time the media touches basis on some aspects of the undercurrents of the underground, it suddenly becomes passé.  "The Beat Goes On!" | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
MsLegs said: Imago said: .
You saw it during the female "lilith" years when Alanis broke really big into the music scene.. You ended up with Meredith Brooke's contrived and stupid "bitch" making radio play off of that momentum. By the time the media touches basis on some aspects of the undercurrents of the underground, it suddenly becomes passé. "The Beat Goes On!"Yup. You KNEW Lollapolooza was in trouble for a few years when Metalica was the headline act. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Imago said: You KNEW Lollapolooza was in trouble for a few years when Metalica was the headline act. Oh now, that's another story. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |