The conversation about “alternative” should start with the same obvious things that started the conversation about indie music: it is not a genre as such. And since this is the case, as it is with indie music, alternative music is characterized by a certain identity crisis: it is always difficult to clearly articulate what we are talking about when we talk about alternative music. It is rather a series of quite different genres that have formed into a movement, the main feature of which is that they are opposed, relatively speaking, to what is played on the radio. More precisely, they were opposed once, at the beginning of the trend (which has now become just one of the branches of the mainstream).
So what is alternative music?
The most correct (in my personal opinion), given how popular alternative music is now, would be to say that it is a multi-genre music that does not fit into certain established canons and standards of traditional mainstream popular music. Often the term “alternative music” is also used to describe music that does not fit into any genre because it mixes several of them at once (because it is always easier to write “alternative” than to describe each one).
At the same time, it can also top the charts and win awards (often separately from traditional pop music), it can be very popular (like Foo Fighters, for example), or it can have a very limited circle of listeners and quite big problems with expanding the audience (you can find a lot of them on SoundCloud or Bandcamp). Therefore, to be fair, alternative music should be divided into mainstream and underground music.
Main characteristics of alternative music
- It itself and the way it is created often differ from what the industry defines as traditional;
- The main “requirements” are sincerity, creativity, and emotionality. Alternative music may not be very creative or innovative, but it should be emotional and creative;
- The opposite of the mainstream (this was the case in the beginning, but now it is not always relevant);
- Lack of a stable genre (for example, what is called “alternative rock” can be post-grunge, garage or dance rock, or a mixture of them;
- It does not always follow the established norms of song length and structure: alternative music is generally much freer (especially underground) than the radio-friendly format;
- The sound is multi-layered and has interesting melodic patterns, regardless of whether guitars form the basis or synthesizers.
The beauty and value of alternative music for the listener is not only in the sound. First of all, its value lies in the fact that it is always a challenge to something: certain established norms or shortcomings of society. It is always a kind of protest. It is not for nothing that the term “alternative music” was first applied to punk rock, which at that time could not be described by any of the existing terms. Songs about love are not uncommon in alternative music, but often the lyrics of these songs also raise various social issues.