The 1980’s also saw a rise in so-called Alternative rock, which was championed mainly by Michael Stipe and his mates in R.E.M, simple because they couldn’t be pigeon-holed into any existing rock genre, they thought they might as well create their own.
Although in itself the label ‘alternative’ meant anyone who didn’t fit into the traditional 4-piece rock band orchestration, it could technically apply to anyone! But regardless, by the early 1990s, "alternative" bands effectively marketed themselves as the successors to hard rock. The main culprits here were Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, The Smiths, Dinosaur Jr. Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, The Cure and countless others.
1990’s & 2000’s
The 1990’s rock scene belonged to Kurt Cobain and his mates in Nirvana who pioneered yet another sub-genre, Grunge.
This side of rock was seen as ‘dirty’ due to the vile lyrics and the sleazy sound of many of the songs, matched with the unkempt appearance of most of the musicians, who actively rebelled against the over-groomed images of popular artists.
The, as we slipped into the last 1990’s, Damon Albarn and his band of merry men in Blur started the phase of Britpop which opened the floodgates to the likes of Oasis, Suede, Supergrass, Manic Street Preachers and Pulp.
As we entered the 2000’s, the Britpop movement gave way for a more pop punk scene, with modern rock bands drawing influence from mainstream pop music, resulting in bands such as Green Day, Blink 182, Sum 41 and The Offspring.
Rap Metal, Nu Metal and Emo
As soon as pop music got it’s claws into the rock scene, it was typical that rappers wanted to get involved too, beginning with Faith No More and followed by the likes of Rage Against The Machine and Limp Bizkit, Korn and Slipknot.
It brought a fresh, new attitude to the genre, one which is popular today and can be seen dominating 2009’s Download Festival next month. In this bracket of music, the turntable scratching of rap is fused with distorted guitars of metal-oriented rock.
As it became more and more mainstream to listen to this music, bands such as Linkin Park and P.O.D jumped on the bandwagon and began receiving radio airplay which led to record labels signing more and more nu metal bands.
In turn, Scandinavian metal also grabbed a foothold on the rock scene, with several continental metal bands scoring albums in the top 20 of the charts between 2003 and 2008, including Finnish melodic death metal band (and my celeb best mates) Children of Bodom, Norwegian symphonic extreme metal act Dimmu Borgir, and two power metal groups, Germany's Blind Guardian and Sweden's HammerFall.
And finally….
In all, there is no doubt that the umbrella of rock music covers such a wide spectrum that we could never cover in just one day, but one thing is certain, it’s influence reaches far and wide, in fashion, film and social groups. And for now, rock music lives. m/
Explore how rock has influenced fashion further here.
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Tagged in The Beatles