Every Story Has Its Beginning

So have you ever wondered where it all began? How Alternative Rock Music has become what it is today? According to the website Silver Dragon Records, the phrase Alternative Rock Music was used back in the early 1980s to describe the bands that broke out of the trend of pop and hair metal. However the website also states that Alternative Music was originally started in the 1960s with such bands like The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, and many other Alternative Rock bands. In the 1970s such music legends like David Bowe, T- Rex, and Knaftwerk started to hit the Alternative Rock radar with their intellectual music and expression of art being combined together.

By 1976-1977 Punk Rock Music was created bringing Alternative Rock pretty much back to its main roots. Through the years Alternative Rock Music was mainly limited to college radio stations but as the eighties approached Alternative Rock Music was about to rock the world. Soon Alternative Rock was not only on college radio stations, but it could also be viewed on MTV (a popular music television station) and other stations as well. In 1991 Alternative Music was changed forever when Alternative Rock Band Nirvana’s album hit number one on the charts. Alternative Rock Music finally hit the mainstream. Bands like Metallica, the Gin Blossoms, and Oasis were put in the category of Alternative Rock, a category in which they didn’t belong. Many other bands were put in this category as well. According to the Dragon Records website “the true definition of rock music is a way to express ideas and songs which fall outside the pop genre”. As long as we have this in mind Alternative Rock should go on to live forever.

I found this website and article really fascinating. I love alternative rock and I have been a fan of it for many years. It was my current knowledge that Alternative Rock Music had started in the 1990s with the birth of Alternative Rock Group, Nirvana, which also had a hint of Grunge in them as well. I had absolutely no idea that Alternative Rock Music came to birth as early as the 1960s. I will be the first to admit I have no clue who Iggy and the Stooges or The Silver Apple are. I have heard of the rock group The Velvet Underground. I was under the impression that alternative music did not exist back then.

I was also surprised when they said that David Bowe (musician) was discovered in the 1970s and that R.E.M (musical group) was discovered in the 1980s. When the article talks about everything being classified as Alternative Rock Music I will say I have to agree on that one. Bands such as Metallica, Breaking Benjamin, and Blink 182 are all classified as Alternative Rock bands, but at the same time they all have their different type of rock. So would they truly be classified as Alternative Rock Bands? I don’t know about you but I will have to say I learned a lot from the article. I learned I definitely have to brush up on my Alternative Music Rock History Time Line.

St Peters Staff Writer (1997). Soungarden's End Called the End of Grunge. Stargate.net (accessed September 27,2006).

Wikipedia.Timeline of Alternative Rock. Retrieved October 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org

Unknown Author. Silver Dragon Recors. Copyrighted 2003. History of Alternative Music. Retrieved October 2009, from http://silver-dragon-records.com/alternative_rock