Alternative is the music that took the long way round. Mostly guitars, but never bound by them. Noise next to melody, songs that don’t land where you expect, and singers who mean every word.
New to it? Start with Nevermind or OK Computer. Between them, they cover where alternative went loud and where it went strange.
It began as a name for music that lived outside the mainstream, and its roots go back to the 1970s. Lou Reed’s Transformer, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Patti Smith’s Horses showed that rock could be arty, strange and personal. The post-punk bands that followed took that idea and ran with it.
Through the 1980s, American college radio and independent labels gave those bands a home. Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation and Fugazi’s Repeater were made a long way from the charts. Meanwhile, The Smiths in the UK and The Church here proved guitar music could be literate and intimate.
Then the doors blew open. Nirvana went from Sub Pop’s Bleach to Nevermind in two years. Suddenly Pearl Jam’s Ten, Alice In Chains’ Dirt and Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream were selling in the millions. In the UK, Oasis and Radiohead’s The Bends pulled guitar music in very different directions.
In Australia, triple j was the engine. Silverchair’s Frogstomp, Regurgitator’s Tu-Plang and Something For Kate built a scene of their own, while Nick Cave had been doing it his way for years. There’s more of that in our Australian collection.
Radiohead pushed it furthest. OK Computer took guitar rock somewhere colder and wider. Kid A set the guitars aside for the textures of electronic music.
Today alternative is less a sound than an attitude, and some of the best records here are ones you might not know yet. Melbourne’s Dirty Three make wordless, storming music from violin, guitar and drums. Anohni’s My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross is a soul record with a protest at its heart. Geordie Greep, formerly of black midi, went big and theatrical on The New Sound. And Angine De Poitrine sounds like nothing else on the shelf. Every one is a new pressing, chosen because we’d play it ourselves.
Want it scrappier? Head to Indie. Want it hazier? Try Shoegaze & Dream Pop. Want it bigger and more classic? There’s Rock.
