A2 Media

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that became widely popular during the 1990s and 2000s with bands like Arcade Fire and Franz Ferdinand releasing popular albums. The genre emerged from the independent music (also known as Indie) during the 80's with the word 'alternative' indicates the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music. However this could be contested ever since some of the major alternative artists such as The Killers have achieved mainstream success making it the norm. This was first suggested by The New York Times declaring in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs. Before this though in the 1980s, alternative rock was still a mainly underground sensation while on occasion a song would become a commercial hit and some albums would receive coverage and praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone, alternative rock in the 1980s was primarily featured on fanzines, and on college radio stations.