The History of Alt-Rock: Chapter 9

Ongoing History of New Music

Curiouscast

History, Music, Music Commentary, Music History, Music Interviews

4.8 • 605 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

It had taken a few years, but by the middle 1980s, the underground music scene in north America had reached some kind of a tipping point...enough people had discovered punk, new wave and all the sub-genres associated with both so that things started to become really interesting... Campus radio stations began to have more clout...the more support they gave to these non-mainstream bands, the more they were appreciated and the more power they wielded... And as these stations began to communicate with each other through publications and charts and conventions, their influence and reach grew even more...turns out that a surprising number of people were really tired of whatever the mainstream rock industry was pumping out...each day, the “alternative” scene–that’s what we were calling it by the mid-80s–attracted more fans who were only too happy to evangelize the epiphanies that led to their conversion... Yes, college radio helped...so did all the bands willing to tour alt-friendly clubs...and so did independent record stores which set themselves apart from the big chains by stocking more of the weird stuff.... But we can’t forget the roll of MTV and any channel or show that played videos from all those weird, new telegenic bands from the UK... If you spent any time at all watching music videos in the middle 80s, it was obvious that as interesting as the growing alt-rock scene was in north America, there was something just as interesting happening on that cold, rainy rock in the north Atlantic...and it was all happening so fast... This is the complete history of alt-rock, chapter nine... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing
0:04.3	history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.
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0:26.5	from startups to scale ups online in person and on the go shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you
0:33.3	sign up for your one dollar a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:39.0	Hey, it's Alan Cross, and this summer we thought we would do something special with the ongoing history podcast and give you our fantastic audience a bonus episode every Sunday from now through Labor Day.
0:51.3	We're going all the way back to the spring of 2010 and a 15-part deep dive
0:56.8	into the history of Alternative Rock. It's the history of Alt Rock series. So every Sunday,
1:01.7	you'll get a brand new episode of this series that examines every single facet of Alt Rock from the
1:07.5	1950s right up to, well, pretty much today. And don't worry, because we'll have a
1:12.1	brand new episode of the ongoing history podcast for you every Wednesday as well. So you're
1:15.7	getting two podcasts every week now through Labor Day. I hope you enjoy. And thanks for supporting
1:21.6	the ongoing history of new music. It had taken a few years, but by the middle 1980s, the
1:26.8	underground music scene in North America
1:28.6	had reached some kind of a tipping point. Enough people had discovered punk, new wave, and all the
1:34.2	sub-genres associated with both, so that things started to become really interesting.
1:39.8	Campus radio stations began to have more clout. The more support they gave to these
1:44.1	non-mainstream bands, the more they were appreciatedout. The more support they gave to these non-mainstream
1:44.9	bands, the more they were appreciated, and the more power they wielded. And as these stations began
	...

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