History of Alternative Rock

Alternative rock is a rock music genre that emerged from the independent music underground in the 1980s and had become widely popular by the 1990s. Although the term was most commonly associated with a loud, distorted guitar sound, its original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style, or simply the independent, D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the late 1970s. Alternative rock consists of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most alternative bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, and most acts remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became commercially successful.

Britpop is an alternative rock sub-genre originating in the United Kingdom. It emerged from the British independent music scene in the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream. Although its more popular bands were able to spread their commercial success overseas, especially to the United States, the movement largely fell apart by the end of the decade.