How long ago did "alternative rock" become corporate? 15 years?

[Rabrrrrrr]

I'm just wondering if this might be the 15th anniversary of when "alternative rock" became so mainstream it earned it's own placards at Tower Records and Musicland and Sam Goody's. I'm thinking it was about 1989, maybe a year or two earlier or later.

I have to admit, I've always thought it funny that "alternative" quickly became a corporate branding opportunity. And that "alternative" bands continued to work under it.

:evilgrin:

[NWHarkness]

1. When REM signed with Warners

That was more than 15 years ago, wasn't it? 1987, thereabouts?

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. That's pretty much about when I'd peg it - when REM sold out

But I don't really know when that it. I know "I've got my Orange Crush" came out in or before 1988, now that I think about it, and I'm damned sure it was before 1988. And had to be after 1986. So I guess either '86 or '87.

So I guess we're past the anniversary point.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

15. orange crush was in 1989 (from the 'green' album)

rem made it to heavy rotation with their last IRS album 'document' in 1987. they then signed to warners and released grenn in '89

in their defense, i think their music didn't suffer at all green, out of time, and automatic for the people were fuckin' great cds

[Deja Q]

2. By 1994 it lost its steam totally and became 'establishment'...

KJJO 104FM was my favorite radio station. They always changed format every 2 years, so the 2 that were 'Modern Rock' were the best as that was around 1991-1993. They went from metal to country to modern to hard rock to another then another and back to country...

I'm amused they still call it 'alternative'. It isn't really alternative at all...

[Droopy]

3. I think they just call it "New Rock" now

But then again new rock might just be what it is and the alternative stuff is still being made and we're just too out of touch to realize it.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

4. it became corporate pretty early

even bands like sonic youth were on major labels by the end of the 90s

this didn't affect the integrity of the artists.

if you ask me, alt rock as a creative force died when stone temple pilots' career took off (mid 1993). once gen x showed that didn't care if mtv churned out a dirivitive knock off of a superior artist (in stp's case, pearl jam), the flood gates were opened and we got a string of creeds, nickelbacks, etc

and as cliched as it is to say, kurt cobain's death sealed the deal

[Khephra]

6. Alternative music is still out there, it's just going by its original name

College Radio.

[JanMichael]

7. I'll let Bill Hicks tell you....

By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself.

No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can.

Kill yourself.

Seriously though, if you are, do.

Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers.

Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming.

You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke... there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking makinations.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. No, this isn't a joke. Really - if you're in marketing, kill yourself

"Oooh, Bill's going for the anti-marketing market. Big market!"

[JanMichael]

14. Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags!

"Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar."

[dolo amber]

18. "Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags!

Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!" :mad:

That man was a god.

[JanMichael]

19. "Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge."

"Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that."

"God, I'm just caught in a fucking web."

[MikeG]

8. Bad news - I just heard "The Cure" on a Top 40 station.

Sounds like a new song.

Alternative may become mainstream.

[bloodyjack]

11. the cure have been on top 40 radio for about two and half decades now

incidentally, they started sucking about 15 years ago.


god, they need to drop dead.

[MikeG]

20. Two and a half decades would be 1979. I think not.

That was the end of the disco era.

I'm talking Top-40, not college.

[bloodyjack]

31. "BOYS DONT CRY" anyone???? helloooooooooo?????? n/t

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

12. that's nothing new

the cure's had top 10 hits before

'love song' went to #2 in the u.s. back in '89

surprised about the new song getting airplay, as the album isn't exactly catchy

[MikeG]

16. It was them. On the same station that just got Howard Stern.

Maybe they changed formats too.

I forgot about the 89 song. You're right.

But this song was much more Cure-like.

[Ivan Zero]

9. Seems to me it was '92

After Nevermind sold a zillion copies. Of course, that brought Grunge overkill, but also took "alternative" mainstream.

I'm trying to remember when "alternative rock" replaced "college rock". That might have been around '88.

[vi5]

13. When Nirvana became big in 1992 or thereabouts...

Prior to that bands like Husker Du and the Replacements and Sonic Youth, etc. had signed to big labels but with no success so there was no reason for other bands to take the plunge.

But once Nirvana hit big the labels went trolling for any band that pretended to have alternative/indie cred. They signed some that did but the only ones they really had success with were the shit bag bands that suddenly turned "alternative" overnight when it became lucrative to do so. Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Tool, etc.

[Zero Division]

17. What was really horrific was when....

bland bands like Matchbox 20, Eve 6, and Better than Ezra began falling under the alternative label.

I can just hear what the marketing conversations about those bands were like at the time: "Excellent. It sounds so alternativey and yet it's so unchallenging. The market for this will be huge, huge, huge!"

[asthmaticeog]

29. God, that brings me back...

I was working (OK, standing around sneering at people) at a bad record store right when the Alternative Nation (TM) arose, and I almost choked on spite and disbelief at having to file insults like Crash Test Dummies, Carnival Art and 4 Non Blondes in the store's brand-new "Alternative" section.

This record store, by the way, insisted that we had to file My Bloody Valentine under "B," because the bar-code stickers they put on the CDs at the warehouse read "Bloody Valentine, My."

[SarahB]

21. It evolved that way between 88-92.

Ironically, the same years that replaced youth and hope in my own life with bowing down to doing everything I was "supposed" to do and being so grown-up, I wanted to hurl. :puke:

[asthmaticeog]

22. Right out of the box.

The first Ramones album was on the Warner-Brothers affiliate Sire. Devo were also a Warner Bros. band, if memory serves.

The first Clash album was on Columbia, a property of CBS.

When the term "alternative" gained currency in the late '80s, The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, and countless others were already on corporate labels.

If by alternative you mean grunge, it was early 1992 that "Nevermind" burst the dam. But Sonic Youth, the Screaming Trees and several others were already on corporate labels before Nirvana.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. No, by "alternative" I mean the bands that called themselves "alternative"

Some of them were mentioned before - the replacements, early REM, etc. I remember in the early- to mid-80s, olne had ot go to "alternative" record (and then CD) stores to get the music.

Then, mid- to late-80s, "alternative" was its own brand, with its own bins at the shitty national chain record stores.

"Grunge" was entirely different. So Nirvana has nothing to do with "Alternative" music, though it might have been somewhat influenced by it and outgrowth of it - or perhaps even a reaction against it.

[asthmaticeog]

24. Nitpick:

Approximately NONE of the bands that called themselves alternative actually were.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. LOL!!

Yes, and that's the whole ironic point, isn't it?

[Ivan Zero]

30. I still think Nirvana's success still had something to do with it

if only to show the bean counters at the labels and big chain record stores that there was a lot of money to be made in music that wasn't anything like the stagnant crap that was clogging the pop charts at the time.

So the floodgates opened, and in a few years the "alternative" bin was full of dreck.

[Taverner]

26. "Alternative? Alternative to WHAT?"

Loved that t-shirt - mine became threadbare

[asthmaticeog]

27. My fave:

The hand-scrawled shirt on the dust jacket of that Seattle photo-diary: "All you trendy grunge people SUCK!"

Totally summed up my feelings, seeing the music I adored getting trampled on by fratfucks and other assorted assholes in the early '90s -- the same dickheads who physically threatened me for having the temerity listen to the exact same stuff just a few years earlier.

[TheFarseer]

28. You guys gave up too early

There was alot of good music in the mid 90's. I would say after '97 it really took a nosedive and it's been steadily declining since then. There are only scattered traces of good music left relegated to college radio and Kazaa if you know what to look for.