AnarchoNinaWrites
Confession time:
It's been like 35 years and I still don't have a single fucking clue what the term "Alternative Music" means.
I think it used to me "you will only hear this on American college radio" but then bands like REM, The Pixies, and Nirvana started cranking out chat topping mainstream hits and I don't think the word means anything right now. "Alternative Rock" is literally the most meaningless term in music categorizing.
AnarchoNinaWrites
Any musical genre that can simultaneously describe Violator and August and Everything After, is not a useful term.
AnarchoNinaWrites
@abuseofnotation Except all those bands were played on MTV by the time the 90's hit.
Jencel Panic
@AnarchoNinaWrites I think it used to mean "the stuff that is not played on MTV".
AnarchoNinaWrites
@dennis_moser Right? I mean what the fuck at least "post rock" describes something I can hear in my head - "ambient" could mean elevator music for all I know.
Dennis Moser
@AnarchoNinaWrites a term now closely followed by «ambient » anything…
AnarchoNinaWrites
@m3 I'm putting my foot down; as of now The Cure is Gothic Pop, REM and Counting Crows are Folk Rock, Depeche Mode is synth-pop, Nirvana is grunge, and Pavement is "weird." My playlists are unsortable if Aleternaive means "anything with guitars that doesn't sound like the Rolling Stones but also includes Britpop and several synth dance groups that are very popular and commercially successful."
I'm also banning "indie" rock because the fact that you don't have a label isn't a genre of music.
M Mayo-Moyle
@AnarchoNinaWrites I was a college radio DJ from ‘92 to ‘96 and the angst was real about what was and wasn’t “alternative” as bands like Soul Asylum, The Lemonheads and Beck moved to major labels and airplay on commercial radio. (By ‘92 we’d already written REM and Nirvana off, Pixies were still on the fence.) The label is meaningless if it means “non-popular” because that standard shifts, especially back then. Today I just assume it means some sort of bland ‘90s inspired rock.
AnarchoNinaWrites
@dennis_moser I just want to be able to easily sort and play lists of music that sound like each other depending on my mood. I couldn't give a rats ass if it appeared on one chart or another because a record exec felt a way.
Dennis Moser
@AnarchoNinaWrites as a musician, I have come to hate most «alleged » categorization of popular music… classical music has only escaped some of the nonsense by referencing historical periods… wonder if that will ever happen w/ « popular « music
Dennis Moser
@AnarchoNinaWrites that’s why I manually create folders of sonically/emotionally related music and use VLC to listen… the name of the folders informs me of the sounds…
AnarchoNinaWrites
@dennis_moser yeah I was doing that for a while but then I ended up with so many playlists that I started forgetting what each of them contained.
I could probably solve this by getting a better player than Windows Media, but I'm already several thousand songs invested.
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