The Rock Album Survivor Reviews Thread

[JGuy Grungeman]

I've said many times, a genre has multiple things that make a genre, and that not all bands follow all of the rules. Let me see if I can do this, not that I'll be good at it:

Alternative rock's sound, to me, seems to be interchangeable between slightly fuzzy guitars (a trait from early alternative such as Sonic Youth or Pixies, who were both major influences on the indie scene), and notably sustained notes between the acoustic and electric guitars as well as the vocals occasionally. As far as the tone goes, the tone seems to be based on the lyrical content of social disconcern. However, unlike grunge and punk, alternative seems to show off a control of the emotion, using anyt and all emotion the artist expresses as a musical instrument rather than a way to relate to the audience, although he may still succeed at relating, like with OK Computer. The music itself is an emotion.

That's it. It's its own emotion. Folk rock, post punk, punk rock, genres genres based on emotion. These are lighlty influenced in the majority of modern alternative rock. Alternative Rock is a musical emotion.

Well, I got my own description for it. I think I'll use that. As far as the fuzzier alternative bands gpo, they seem to take after the early alternative before this "underground" scene had a distinct sound, so I could say to myself that's an original form of alternative rock from the 80's that helped form the more emotional sound that popularizes the common 90's and 2000's sound.