What got you into "alternative" music

One day, for some reason, MTV squeezed a Soul Asylum video into one of their metal video shows. It was for "Cartoon" from the Hang Time LP. Granted, that song's not very "alternative" at all, but it was a major change from what I'd become accustomed to hearing.

In the 9th grade, I met a girl named Laura who introduced me to Echo & the Bunnymen and The Cure (not too drastic a change, as there was still plenty of hairspray use to satisfy). From then on, I was hooked and started digging around in the sub-genres and have been doing so for nearly 15 years.

It seems like people with an older brother/sister or John Peel had a distinct advantage. I didn't have either, however, so I had to watch MTV and listen to the radio constantly for the few times they'd "slip in" something interesting. So, after moving out of my Genesis/They Might Be Giants phase in 5th grade, I started listening to Camper Van Beethoven (I think I must've liked "Pictures of Matchstick Men," and the rumor is that they were the first band to be branded "alternative"), the Pixies (I distinctly remember hearing "Here Comes Your Man" on the radio right before I fell asleep), Bob Mould, R.E.M., the Sugarcubes, Sinead O'Connor (I remember when she was on the Grammys pre-"Nothing Compares 2 U" and had a P.E. logo on her head), the B-52s, the Dead Milkmen, Talking Heads, VU, and a ton of other stuff. All on cassette tape. And I got the Bunnymen's Songs to Learn and Sing because I liked the Doors and they covered "People Are Strange" on the Lost Boys soundtrack, but I didn't like it cuz it the rest didn't sound like The Doors (!!).

Oh, and I also had to rely on my subscription to Rolling Stone. I still remember that they gave Bandwagonesque one star, which might have contributed to my completely baseless hatred of all things British, which lasted through high school. Ever since then, with the few music reviews I've written for publication, I always pretend I'm writing to myself at age 14; just TRYING to get the young me to see the light while avoiding being jaded or cynical. It's a good technique and I wish that more music writers would use it.

I wish more people who liked "alternative" music would admit that the feeling of difference is a massive part of the buzz - it's the only way of explaining why the pull of the 'scene' is pretty much constant even though the quality of bands varies so catastrophically.

I agree 100%. Music when you're a teenager and music when you're in your teens are two completely different beasts: teenager = defines who you are; older = lifestyle accessory or, in our case, object of bibliophilia.

I think once you've noticed that people judge you by the music you like and have tried to manipulate that in any way there's an 'innocence' that you can't get back which is why the second-guessing-of-motives threads generally have a teeny-tiny kernel of truth (and why the response gets so hot).

(As for Morrissey - oops if I implied it did. I love The Smiths and a lot of Morrissey's music since. It was just the only time I've ever tried to use a pop star as a guru and it was a foolish error on my part!)

I always liked money and cars. Lyrics about them though, that took me a while.

Okay, to answer the question, Thomas Pynchon and I don't regret it.

m.

Before that was punk with Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat et al.

which may speak for my recent/current VIOLENT RAMP obsession.

That, and Peel - got me into everything from The Flaming Lips, Pavement & Pulp to minimalist techno, early drum'n'bass, German folk music and African pop. Still don't like The Fall much, but.

Seriously, if I could point to one thing that turned me musically weird... WCDB Albany, NY. Used to be the most amazing college radio station. Now I hear it's all sports all the time or something... ugh.

Depends on how you define it obv, but if we mean alternative *mainly guitar-based music*, then I'd say it's narrower in every way - ambition, emotional range, use of sound, willingness to experiment and so on.

Also doesn't *alternative* get in the charts? Or does getting in the charts disqualify it as *alternative*? Which is silly.

The use of alternative seems so early 80's.

Pre-punk I was into whatever was in the charts plus the odd bit of prog which friends' elder brothers usually had. I also saw non-chart stuff on OGWT, but didn't really connect with it as much as chart music. Punk took its time to travel to the rural North, so I was about 6 months behind London. We'd heard The Pistols/Damned/Ramones/Subway Sect/Buzzcocks etc on J.Peel and read about them in the music press, but didn't fully get into it until the first punk recds hit the charts in 1977. I remember watching the Tony Wilson program 'So It Goes' too, but that was 1978 wasn't it?

And Boards of Canada, Neu!, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Field Mice, Montgolfier Brothers, Godspeed YBE!, Cat Power, Pixies, Jesus & Mary Chain, Tocotronic to name but a few. I like alt-country but there is a lot of alternative music I like which has nothing to do with it.

P.S. Concerning the definition of alternative in this thread, have a look at the question, Dr.C:
And by Alternative I dont just mean Alternative rock. I mean, pretty much, anything that isnt mainstream

the progression for me went as such:
7th-9th grade - classic rock
10th grade - pearl jam, smashing pumkins, nirvana...
11th grade - sonic youth, nirvana, pavement, yo la tengo
12th grade - sonic youth, pavement, yo la tengo, the pixies

college it all exploded into me basically listening to anything in my search for great stuff. its not like when someone says "oh I listen to everything" and really mean "I don't give a shit about music" I mean it as "I'll listen to anything once, and if it seems like it could be special, I'll listen to it again."

Were I more socially agile back then, my enjoyment of the music wouldn't have progressed past a superficial "because it sounds cool" brainwashed cock-sucking level. But, hey, when you feel ostracized (regardless of whether it's true or not) - better yet, when you WANT to feel ostracized (since that's easier to cope with than the grey areas of truth defining your feelings of inadequacy and awkwardness) - and you want to reinforce your self-worth, why not construct walls of counter-culture coolness covered in glyphs decipherable only by One Of Us, thereby reinforcing the ostracization that might / might not have lead you to this state of exile in the first place, along with reinforcing the bullshit strata that ultimately leads to the Us Vs Them mentality permeating most of pop culture?

(And I qualified strata w/ "bullshit" because that's what I want it to be, not because it actually is.)

Nirvana

Wanting to be the kind of person who had opinions on the Pixies.

bands

albums

those too

Melody Maker

My new friends in secondary school liked Green Day

are you still friends?

with most of them, yes

Do you still call them "basic bitches"?

on occasion