What made alt rock "alternative"?

[orioles70]

Punk was different. New Wave was different. Grunge was different. But in the early to mid '90s, there was Alternative. I never really got what they meant by that label - just seemed like bands playing straight up pop and rock but selling fewer albums.

How do you define Alt Rock?
which artists are the prototypes?
why?

[dillwyn]

never really considered it to be a genre in of itself ... i guess my view would be REM, Pixies, Husker Du that type ...although i'm sure it is must broader and wider than that

[Timeblue]

Defining alt rock is like saying how long is a piece of string, I've seen bands like Siouxie and the Banshees,Nickelback,Depeche Mode and Nirvana described as alt rock.

[orioles70]

before there was "Alt-rock" there was college radio, where people played whatever they wanted
the "classic" rock stations kept playing less and less new music, and it wasn't really because of a lack of supply
the fact that "they" stopped playing ELO on rock formats in the 1980s was a sure sign that programming had gone off the rails
they being the corporations that bought up all the commercial radio stations

I remember Depeche Mode playing on the alternative stations. The Breeders and Ani DiFranco, too. Ani actually was pretty "out there" and actually fit the label.

REM was getting play on classic rock stations in the late '80s. Somehow they got accepted in both worlds.

[Chippa]

Oct 4, 2019 11:07:15 GMT Timeblue said:

Defining alt rock is like saying how long is a piece of string, I've seen bands like Siouxie and the Banshees,Nickelback,Depeche Mode and Nirvana described as alt rock.

Nickelback are "alt", alright...alternative to good. 

[tightrope]

Oct 4, 2019 12:20:39 GMT orioles70 said:

before there was "Alt-rock" there was college radio, where people played whatever they wanted
the "classic" rock stations kept playing less and less new music, and it wasn't really because of a lack of supply
the fact that "they" stopped playing ELO on rock formats in the 1980s was a sure sign that programming had gone off the rails
they being the corporations that bought up all the commercial radio stations

I remember Depeche Mode playing on the alternative stations. The Breeders and Ani DiFranco, too. Ani actually was pretty "out there" and actually fit the label.

REM was getting play on classic rock stations in the late '80s. Somehow they got accepted in both worlds.

80's radio is the reason I still can't stand to listen to Phil Collins. They played his solo stuff AND Genesis at least once every hour. Then throw in Peter Gabriel and Mike and the Mechanics for good measure.

[BIuebird]

I think of bands like R.E.M. as the pioneers of alternative rock. They did their own thing and they didn't really care if they weren't wildly popular, as long as they stayed true to themselves, their music, and their ideals. They weren't going to change their music to appeal to a larger audience, to make more money, or to gain more popularity. R.E.M. actually dumped a record producer for their first full length album, "Murmur," because he wanted them to make it sound more current (i.e. wanted them to add a lot of synthesizers). They flat out refused to sign with any label unless they were given total creative freedom and a high percentage of their own earnings (they were trying to avoid any of the issues that they had seen bands in the past have with bad management, where the actual musicians made next to nothing from their work, while their management was riding high). They also refused to lip sync anything for live television performances, which was a common practice at the time; even their early music videos were done as live takes/performances for this reason. So, I think of (at least classic) alt-rock bands as not just different musically, but also fiercely individualistic/independent. A lot of classic alternative bands were also a little off the wall, both sonically and lyrically. Think not only R.E.M., but also The Smiths, The Talking Heads, and They Might Be Giants, for example. I guess a broader definition would be underground music that eventually gained mainstream success, but not by pandering to what they thought would necessarily be popular? That's my take, anyway.

PS: I absolutely do not consider Nickelback alternative rock by this definition.