Alternative Rock

Alternative rock is a sub-genre of rock that I personally have been a fan of for most of my life. It became popular when I was young enough to be impressionable and old enough to be interested in the music that I listened to, which is around the mid-nineties.

In the dust settling from punk music, an underground genre emerged. This was what is now known as alternative rock. This is a strange genre because it is really hard to identify what exactly alternative rock is. However, the primary instrument is the guitar and the lyrics often contain stories that directly address controversial social or political issues.

Nirvana was certainly one of the main if not the main inspirations for the popularization of alternative rock and rock as a whole in the 90's.

The video above is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. The song relies heavily on the drum set and guitar. The tone of the singer is calm until the chorus and then the singer simply yells. At the end, the singer seems almost hoarse from the yelling. An effect that the song uses is feedback from a guitar. This seems to reflect the small band style that included these kinds of sounds unintentionally when alternative was still underground.