Alternative Rock
History of Alternative Rock
Alternative rock goes all the way back to the 1970's, in 1976 there were a few newly formed bands such as; The Cramps, The Cure, The Fall and U2. Through to the 1980's many more alternative rock bands were formed, many of the bands either split up or are still out there but are not very well known. In the 1980's one of the best bands R.E.M started making their start into alternative rock, in the 1980's most of the fans of R.E.M were college students, as they got a lot of air time on college radio stations. R.E.M's success came in 1990 when alternative rock started becoming popular with everyone.
Amber
Fashion
Alternative fashion is ment to be very different from any mainstream clothing, how ever alot of it has crept in to the media which now everyone wheres such as skinny jeans and converse.
It can consit of having brightly coloured hair with a choppy hair cut, make up with mad colours or very heavy with black and pale skin is essntsional. Converse and Doc Martens are very different how ever it slips the the different genre with in the genre itself. A lot of the older ones will get tattoos of skulls, swallows and mad ideas.
This look came from back when rock and punk started with the old style tight jeans and band tops. It has nearly always stuck with rock as the proper rocker look and then to morden day they have slightly changed with teh different new genres.
Its slowly changing to be a mainstream clothing for some as Vintage things are in.
Leanne
Club Nights & Gigs
In Cambridge there a few local pubs which hold live music nights, one of them is The Portland Arms.
The Portland Arms is a popular pub and is very popular when the live music nights are on, not all of the live bands are Rock but the majority is. You can go on their website and look on the calender to what bands are playing and when, it also has the genre of the band next to the bands name so you know its the right genre of music for you.
AmberAmber
The Origins of Alternative Rock
Alternative Rock emerged in the 1980's. It became widely popular in the 1990's with popularization of such bands as Nirvana, Hole, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Alternative Rock has lots of sub genres-
Independent music.
Grunge
Brit pop
Gothic rock
Indie pop
Alt rock became widely popular and originated from some of these places-
Athens, Georgia – Illinois – Manchester, England – Massachusetts – Seattle, Washington
1990's popularization-Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Hole, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Nirvana led the way for alternative rock, with songs like "smells like teen spirt". Off their hugely influencetle second album Nevermind.
Because of Nirvanas popularity Alternative rock suddenly became mainstream, and other Alt rock bands began to be noticed as well.
Unfortunatley at the end of the 90's alternative rock declined because Kurt Cobain, Nirvanas front man died and Pearl Jam had a lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
Thankfully at the beginning of the 21st century new Alternative Rock bands appeared-
Linkin Park, Muse, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Killers, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Starting a new Alternative rock era.
SophieAlternative Rock has lots of sub genres-
Independent music.
Grunge
Brit pop
Gothic rock
Indie pop
Alt rock became widely popular and originated from some of these places-
Athens, Georgia – Illinois – Manchester, England – Massachusetts – Seattle, Washington
1990's popularization-Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Hole, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Nirvana led the way for alternative rock, with songs like "smells like teen spirt". Off their hugely influencetle second album Nevermind.
Because of Nirvanas popularity Alternative rock suddenly became mainstream, and other Alt rock bands began to be noticed as well.
Unfortunatley at the end of the 90's alternative rock declined because Kurt Cobain, Nirvanas front man died and Pearl Jam had a lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
Thankfully at the beginning of the 21st century new Alternative Rock bands appeared-
Linkin Park, Muse, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Killers, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Starting a new Alternative rock era.
Fashion
It can consit of having brightly coloured hair with a choppy hair cut, make up with mad colours or very heavy with black and pale skin is essntsional. Converse and Doc Martens are very different how ever it slips the the different genre with in the genre itself. A lot of the older ones will get tattoos of skulls, swallows and mad ideas.
This look came from back when rock and punk started with the old style tight jeans and band tops. It has nearly always stuck with rock as the proper rocker look and then to morden day they have slightly changed with teh different new genres.
Its slowly changing to be a mainstream clothing for some as Vintage things are in.
Leanne
Networking Sites
http://www.facebook.com/paramore
The Facebook page was made about 22nd April 2008, so the page has been able to run for nearly 3 years and has over 12,000,000 fans. They are known world wide with a lot of fans that are not speaking english on their page from all over. They have a few haters over facebook and who want everyone to know about it, such as 'Paramore are RUBBISH' how ever they do not get so big as the Paramores offical site.
A lot of people on facebook really like the band will put Paramore in their names such as 'Alice Paramore Hunt'.
There is a lot of prolems of people prendting to be hayley williams on facebook and causing arguements which bands people from the site. This is also happening to other band members.http://www.youmeatsix.co.uk/
You Me At Six page looks like http://www.paramore.net/ as they are very silmiar in music. Their logos are differnent but the ellements of them are same. They both go on tour together sometimes around the world. YM@6 page is very vintage looking with the game boy as a video dock. They update their site quite often to keep their fans updated with everything going on with them like this newst blog entry,
Most people who are a really big fan of them will go on their site regually and will post to them through social networking sites as well saying how much they love them or they thought they were great at a gig.
Leanne The Facebook page was made about 22nd April 2008, so the page has been able to run for nearly 3 years and has over 12,000,000 fans. They are known world wide with a lot of fans that are not speaking english on their page from all over. They have a few haters over facebook and who want everyone to know about it, such as 'Paramore are RUBBISH' how ever they do not get so big as the Paramores offical site.
A lot of people on facebook really like the band will put Paramore in their names such as 'Alice Paramore Hunt'.
There is a lot of prolems of people prendting to be hayley williams on facebook and causing arguements which bands people from the site. This is also happening to other band members.http://www.youmeatsix.co.uk/
You Me At Six page looks like http://www.paramore.net/ as they are very silmiar in music. Their logos are differnent but the ellements of them are same. They both go on tour together sometimes around the world. YM@6 page is very vintage looking with the game boy as a video dock. They update their site quite often to keep their fans updated with everything going on with them like this newst blog entry,
Most people who are a really big fan of them will go on their site regually and will post to them through social networking sites as well saying how much they love them or they thought they were great at a gig.
Myspace started off a great place for a lot of bands such as All Time Low http://www.myspace.com/alltimelow
Alot of bands will have myspace as its free for having and would do small gigs around there area/country and then when they started getting more itersted by the public they then develope a proper site like paramore
Alot of bands will have myspace as its free for having and would do small gigs around there area/country and then when they started getting more itersted by the public they then develope a proper site like paramore
You Me At Six up your Facebook profile
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 | No Comments
TV and Films
Alternative Rock & Roll Years - Three part TV series. Host of show was Deborah Harry (Blondie). Documentary telling the story of pop culture traced across the globe, from rock n' roll of india and hong kong.
Almost Famous - Film in 2000. Starring Cameron Crowe. Cameron Crowe looks back on his time as a teenage journalist. William Miller is hired by Rolling Stones Magazine to tour with and write about an up and coming band Stillwater.
Last Day's- Film in 2005. Michael Pitt. A Seattle set rock and roll drama based on Kurt Cobain's last days.
Empire Records- Film in 1995. All the characters in this film look like alternative rockers. Some dark clothing, broody, converses/ dark sneekers, baggy clothes.
Brothers of the Head- 2005. Siamese twins get picked in the 1970's by a music producer who transforms them into a rock n' roll act.
SophieAlmost Famous - Film in 2000. Starring Cameron Crowe. Cameron Crowe looks back on his time as a teenage journalist. William Miller is hired by Rolling Stones Magazine to tour with and write about an up and coming band Stillwater.
Last Day's- Film in 2005. Michael Pitt. A Seattle set rock and roll drama based on Kurt Cobain's last days.
Empire Records- Film in 1995. All the characters in this film look like alternative rockers. Some dark clothing, broody, converses/ dark sneekers, baggy clothes.
Brothers of the Head- 2005. Siamese twins get picked in the 1970's by a music producer who transforms them into a rock n' roll act.
Magazines
Alternative Rock can be found in magazines such as;
AP (Alternative Press)
Kerrang
Q
NME (New Music Express)
Rolling Stones
All
SophieAP (Alternative Press)
Kerrang
Q
NME (New Music Express)
Rolling Stones
All
Club Nights & Gigs
In Cambridge there a few local pubs which hold live music nights, one of them is The Portland Arms.
The Portland Arms is a popular pub and is very popular when the live music nights are on, not all of the live bands are Rock but the majority is. You can go on their website and look on the calender to what bands are playing and when, it also has the genre of the band next to the bands name so you know its the right genre of music for you.
Another one of the local pubs that has live music nights is The Man On The Moon. Same as The Portland Arms a mixture of genres of music is played there it's not all rock but the majority is. The Man On The Moon I would say is more popular for the music scene, a lot of young people play their gigs their.
In London there are quite a few night clubs that put rock nights on, the night club : The Borderline is very popular for is music events and is well known for it's Alternative Rock night. There's a venue in London which is called Fighting Cocks it's a rock and live night venue, which has a jukebox in the club and Guitar Hero on the Wii for the customers to play for free.
A pub also in London called Filthy McNastys, it is described as a Rock'n'Roll pub with heart. It holds live music events just like The Man On The Moon and The Portland arms.
Labels
There are quite a few brands that are associated with the Alternative Rock genre, the big brands which are most popular would probably be Converse and Vans. The Converse brand has been around for many years, since 1908. Converse wasn't associated with the rock genre until 1948, before that Converse was supplying army servicemen and pilots in world war 2 with boots, and rubber protective suits. Then in 1948 Rock'n'Roll came into the music world, it was a movement looking for a uniform, Rock'n'Roll had found the leather jacket, blue denim jeans and high top sneakers. Also around this time also using high top sneakers was The National Basketball Association. In 1968 Converse footwear got a make over and you could now buy them in different colours, and they had changed the material to suede and added a logo which was the big bold star on the side of the high top. Even though Converse high tops were designed for basketball players, they attracted the rockers and skaters and they are still buying them now.
Also associated with the Rock'n'Roll genre is a website: http://www.bluebanana.com/
Blue Banana is a website were you can buy emo clothing, alternative clothing, hell bunny clothing and dresses. There is a huge variety of clothing and accessories, the website is set up very clearly and is easy to find your way around. There are drop down menu's so you can choose what you want sort of clothing you want and it will take you to the page.
Above is the women's drop down menu, as you can see everything is in categories; Clothing, piercing, footwear, accessories and brands. So there is a large variety to choose from. There's a tab for Festivals and on the drop down menu there is everything you will need to attend a festival. For example you can but inflatable beds, tents, wellies, backpacks/bags, chairs and seats and anything else you could think of.
You can also buy official band t-shits, hoodie's, accessories and band posters.
Amber
Activities & Lifestyle
The activities and the lifestyle of Alternative rock bands are all different, no band is the same so therefore they display all different types of behaviour and you can't just say they all live the same lifestyle. While many rock bands display partying and acting irresponsible and immature in their music videos, for example Blink 182 and Sum41.
Many other bands may have a more serious prospect on their music, they may be singing about political matters or love or things going on in their life at the time. There is also bands who write songs that are very angry and aggressive, the songs that come across as angry or aggressive are usually about the past, or even the present time. What I am trying to say is that you can't pin point one life style on a certain genre, in that genre there are sub-genres which are all different, everyone has a different view on the world and different bands show it in different ways.
Amber
