I remember before Alternative music became the end-all/be-all of alt-rock music, there was a term kicking around called post-modern. Was this just another name for alternative music or was it a specific set of genres? I was always confused about it. To me, I always thought of Depech Mode or the Sugarcubes as post modern and Pearl Jam as just rock.

Does someone have a really simple breakdown of this?

[Edited 8/4/11 8:27am]

I would say it's music (or any art or thinking) that is more introspective of self and cognizant, perhaps even empathetic and evolutionary through the reality inherent in others.

It evolved out of the 60s, as many different people of many different backgrounds began to reject the ideas constructed in the past (modernism) that claimed to be a one-size-fits-all solution for human truth and happiness.

Or if you prefer, more bullshit labels.

I don't think it's never been a genre of music or a movement in music. "Post-modernism" is an umbrella term for a number of philosophical views that many theorists on art have also favoured. A lof art by the late-80s and the early-90s was called "post-modern", just because it had become the buzz word of the day. If it was applied to bands like Depeche Mode or Pearl Jam as some sort of a genre definition then it must have been just missapplied to them. Perhaps some journalists thought that all pop and rock music was "modern" music and after the 1960s and the 1970s we had reached a "post-modern" stage.

"Postmodernism" is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, the acceptance of numerous different views instead of just one, the loss of faith in grand narratives and the acceptance that science might never find answers to the big questions. It's also often quite pessimistic and ironic - so in that sense I could see why someone could call the music of Depeche Mode "post-modern".