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Genre/Indie Rock
Alternative music was first referred to in the early 80s and was used as a means to describe bands
which broke from the general conventions of pop and heavy metal music, and formed a new
direction of more focused and honest rock. Within the alternative genre, there are many
subcategories, including Grunge, Hard Rock and Punk Rock. The focal connection between each
subcategory is the English pink movement. In the early 80s, alternative music was limited to only a
few college radio stations. By the mid 80s, it became more popular and it began to take over college
radio throughout the country. Around the time of the late 80s, many commercial stations began to
embrace the genre which was also known as college rock. They never sold many albums but the
influence on the music community would be felt in a big way soon when the format evolved to the
next stage.
Alternative Rock
College Rock
Experimental Rock
Goth Rock
Grunge
Hardcore Punk
Hard Rock
Indie Rock
New Wave
Progressive Rock
Punk
Shoegaze
innocent; too weird; too sensitive and melancholy; too soft and delicate; too dreamy and hypnotic;
too personal and intimately revealing in its lyrics; too low-fidelity and low-budget in its production;
too angular in its melodies and riffs; too raw, skronky and abrasive; wrapped in too many sheets of
Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr./Pixies/Jesus & Mary Chain-style guitar noise; too oblique and fractured in
its song structures; too influenced by experimental or otherwise unpopular musical styles.
Regardless of the specifics, it's rock made by and for outsiders -- much like alternative once was,
except that thanks to its crossover, indie rock has a far greater wariness of excess testosterone. It's
certainly not that indie rock is never visceral or powerful; it's just rarely -- if ever -- macho about it.
As the '90s wore on, indie rock developed quite a few sub styles and close cousins (indie pop, dream
pop, noise-pop, lo-fi, math rock, post-rock, space rock, sad core, and emo among them), all of which
seemed poised to remain strictly underground phenomena.