Alternative rock emerged in the 1980s as a genre involving guitars, drums, bass, and vocals without synthesisers. It grew popular in the 1990s with bands like Nirvana and R.E.M. Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind" featuring the hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" exposed alternative rock to mainstream audiences. While originally underground, the genre saw increasing popularity throughout the 1980s and 1990s before some decline in the 2000s, though remains an influential genre today.

1. Alternative Rock
Sub-genre of rock.

2. Introduction
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that
emerged in the 1980s and became widely
popular in the 1990s. It tends to involve
guitars, drums, bass guitar and vocals, and is
not synthesised.

3. Bands/Artists
Artists and bands in this genre include:
• 30 seconds to mars
• All American Rejects
• Bombay Bicycle Club
• Lana Del Ray
• Mayday Parade
• Radiohead
• Two door Cinema Club
• Tegan and Sara
• Marina and the Diamonds

4. Origins
• Alternative rock music became popular in the
1990's but has been going for much longer
than the 90s.Nirvana made alternative rock
music quite mainstream, the music genre had
been gaining popularity with the college
crowds and music underground.

5. 1980’s
In the 1980s alternative rock was mainly an
underground occurrence, the genre was
mainly associated with independent record
labels, fanzines and college radio.
Alternative bands tended to form through
already existing alternative bands, so this
created like a circuit of bands in the
underground.

6. 1980’s
There were not many mainstream alternative
bands around, however there were exceptions
including R.E.M.
Throughout the 80’s the genre grew increasingly
popular so in 1989 there was a package tour
where different bands performed including
‘New Order’, ‘Public Image Limited’ and ‘The
Sugarcubes.’

7. 1990’s
R.E.M were so successful it led other bands to
try ad follow in their footprints.
By the start of the 1990’s alternative rock had
become popular, record labels were interested
in bands including ‘Nirvana’ and ‘Jane’s
Addiction.’

8. Nirvana
Band members included – Kurt Cobain,
Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl
Nirvana had their breakthrough in the
beginning of the 1990’s with their first single
‘Smells like teen spirit’ from their second album
‘Nevermind,’ which “marked the instigation of the
grunge music phenomenon.”
Nevermind was played across MTV loads leading to
over 400,000 copies of the album being sold
weekly by December 1991.

9. Nirvana
Nirvana opened doors for many other
alternative bands after its popularity
increased, including heavier alternative bands.
To date, since their debut, Nirvana have sold
over 75 million records worldwide, and 30
million records in USA alone.

10. R.E.M
The band formed in 1980 and held their first
show April 5th 1980. The band was formed by
singer Michael Stipe, Peter Buck on guitar, Mike
Mills the bassist and Bill Berry the drummer.
R.E.M were one of the early favoured
alternative rock bands due too Buck's
ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's
unclear vocals.

11. R.E.M
The first single that R.E.M released was in 1981
called ‘Radio Free Europe’ by the independent
record label Hib-tone.
R.E.M then had very good continued success
until their split in September 2011 which they
announced on their website.

12. Generic Features
Alternative rock tends to be associated with
being non-mainstream however this has
changed over the years as many alternative
bands have reached mainstream success.
Alternative rock tends to be quite guitar based
with different kinds of guitar sounds including
gloomy gothic rock sounds and jolly indie pop
sounds. The lyrics in alternative rock songs tend
to be based on social issues like drugs and
depression.

13. Instruments
Most alternative rock bands have a traditional
instrument set with guitars, vocals, a bass and
drums. Sometimes keyboards will be used.
However obviously there will be exceptions in
the instrument choice.

14. Vocals
The voice of alternative rock sounds quite
effortless, like no energy goes in towards what
their vocals sound like. The tone of the voice is
quite flat. The vocals come in many varieties
from quite wispy to droney and moany.

15. 21st century
Several alternative rock bands emerged in the
late 90’s early 00’s during the ‘post punk revival
movement’. Bands included Franz Ferdinand and
The killers.
Entertainment weekly said in 2004 “After almost
a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-
metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good
again”.

16. 21st century
Despite this, most advertising focus was aimed
at pop and R&B music, leaving alternative rock
with declining sales and few bands appearing in
the UK Top 10 between 2005-2010.