Alternativeindie Rock

Alternative rock emerged in the 1980s as a cheeky rebellion against the mainstream, when musicians decided that four-minute pop songs simply weren’t eccentric enough. It sounds like a mix of angst, jangling guitars, and the occasional wilfully confusing lyric, often delivered in a voice that’s either whispering secrets or bellowing despair. This genre has spawned an entire culture of thrift shop fashion and intense debates over which obscure band deserves the title of ‘most influential’, as if that matters more than whether their latest EP is available on vinyl.