Audio 2008—Alternative Rock: Forced Exposure is Good for You

Alternative rock didn't deserve what it became in the post-Nirvana 1990s. Reduced to a marketing catchphrase—effectively rendering it meaningless—major label co-optation helped blur the line between artistic expression and cloned sounds. Before Nirvana broke through to the mainstream with the blistering sarcasm of its major label debut, Nevermind, countless artists were producing albums worthy of greater public access. Unfortunately, prior to the arguably damaging proliferation of major label signings, myriad worthy bands went unnoticed.

So what is “alternative rock”? Many would say it was born with the advent of rock'n'roll itself: surely 1950s youth considered Elvis Presley's hip-shaking rebelliousness an alternative to the Pat Boones of the pop world. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis delivered dangerous excitement to kids and fearful uneasiness to parents.

In the 1970s, David Bowie took his chameleon act to the masses, creating gender-ambiguous personas that challenged the very nature of rock's predominantly testosterone-driven aesthetic. The late-1970s punk explosion stirred the pot, changing the rock landscape once again. Many of the bands inspired by punk's do-it-yourself mantra came to embody alternative rock, displaying an unabashed love for their melting-pot influences and, most importantly, clinging to market-oblivious creative control.

Artists profiled here generally fall into the postpunk 1970s and beyond, stopping short of punk's commercial breakthrough. Genre crossovers are inevitable: many of these artists were initially influenced by punk but refined their sound as the Decade of Greed wore on. Like the bands themselves, fans of punk music created their own outlet via the production of fanzines, indie labels, and journalism, all documenting the evolution of a new way of life.

Many shoestring zines like Forced Exposure and Flipside endured as symbols of the alternative scene. Writers Jack Rabid and Ira Robbins expressed their joy and fascination with the movement via musings in self-produced publications, respectively, The Big Takeover and The Trouser Press Record Guide. Despite its undeniable artistic productivity, the postpunk period dividing The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks… (1977) and Nevermind (1991) is an era that, because it hasn't the revolutionary dictum of punk, remains a relatively unmined territory for writers, filmmakers, and historians.

However, the music lives. British bands like Joy Division and Gang of Four added dance beats and keyboards to punk aggression. Mission of Burma and Big Black harnessed sonic textures that channeled the raw proto-punk of the Stooges. The Raincoats and Laurie Anderson challenged the challengers by painting broad brush strokes from minimalist palettes. Southern bar bands R.E.M., the dB's, and Pylon displayed their love not just for punk tempos but the jangle-rock ear candy of Big Star and the psychedelic harmony of The Byrds.

The Minutemen and Meat Puppets borrowed the concise song structures of Delta blues; added a dose of bluegrass, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Flying Burrito Brothers; and rolled it all into two-minute blasts of punk fervor. Heavy-hitting industrial pioneers Ministry can claim influences as diverse as Buck Owens and Slayer. Bands considered alternative can be as different as night and day, and that's what makes alternative rock a fascinating and necessary area of collection management. Unfortunately, several landmark records worthy of inclusion here are out of print, most notably The Raincoats' self-titled debut (1980), Lydia Lunch's Queen of Siam (1979), and The Feelies' Crazy Rhythms (1980). If and when they become commercially available, snap them up.

All titles below are considered essential for most collections.