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Why Do "They" Call Early Alternative Music, "80's College Rock"?

post #1 of 25
8/24/10 at 12:32am
Thread Starter 
Has anyone else seen this on iTunes or wherever? I find it really annoying. That music, to me, was the original Alternative music.

Groups like Love and Rockets, Depeche Mode, New Order, REM, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, etc...
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post #2 of 25
8/24/10 at 12:52am
Don't forget The The.
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post #3 of 25
8/24/10 at 1:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tck13 View Post
Has anyone else seen this on iTunes or wherever? I find it really annoying. That music, to me, was the original Alternative music. Groups like Love and Rockets, Depeche Mode, New Order, REM, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, etc...
Because most people heard this music through college radio? Sure, there were exceptions like WLIR, but most of this music simply didn't get mainstream radio play (back when radio play actually counted for something.)
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post #4 of 25
8/24/10 at 1:08am
A lot of those groups only got played on college radio stations and rarely on mainstream AM or FM stations.
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post #5 of 25
8/24/10 at 1:12am
idk why anyone cares about genres if you like the music, why does it matter what its called
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post #6 of 25
8/24/10 at 1:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fffffut View Post
idk why anyone cares about genres
if you like the music, why does it matter what its called

+1. Although I do have a special place in my heart for "alternative" as that was always the section I would turn to in those BMG music catalogs as a middle schooler.
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post #7 of 25
8/24/10 at 10:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tagutcow View Post
Because most people heard this music through college radio? Sure, there were exceptions like WLIR, but most of this music simply didn't get mainstream radio play (back when radio play actually counted for something.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackjack View Post
A lot of those groups only got played on college radio stations and rarely on mainstream AM or FM stations.

Well, yeah, that's the point. It was alternative.

After Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Grunge became mainstream, alternative wasn't alternative anymore because it simply became mainstream. I don't understand why today's 'alternative' is considered as such. How is it alternative? Now it's just a marketing term.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Magician View Post
Don't forget The The.

+1
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post #8 of 25
8/24/10 at 10:51am
College rock is a subgenre of alternative, so they're really just being more specific.

The bands listed as college rock are alternative, but alternative is a really broad genre. So, in the interest of not lumping, say, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam in the same broad category, you would list R.E.M. as college rock and Pearl Jam as grunge.

This is pretty common. Take metal, for example. There's the genre of metal, and then there's a bunch of subgenres as well - nu metal, death metal, and so on.
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post #9 of 25
8/24/10 at 11:04am
The funny thing is that I would consider New Order new wave or 80's pop rather than Alt. But what can you do, just get your flannel boxers out of bunch and continue living.
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post #10 of 25
8/24/10 at 11:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tck13 View Post
Has anyone else seen this on iTunes or wherever? I find it really annoying. That music, to me, was the original Alternative music.

Groups like Love and Rockets, Depeche Mode, New Order, REM, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, etc...

whoever grouped REM, Love and Rockets and Echo and the Bunnymen in one genre never grew up in that period, or if he did he was more into "Early Adult Contemporary".
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post #11 of 25
8/24/10 at 11:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrG View Post
College rock is a subgenre of alternative, so they're really just being more specific.

The bands listed as college rock are alternative, but alternative is a really broad genre. So, in the interest of not lumping, say, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam in the same broad category, you would list R.E.M. as college rock and Pearl Jam as grunge.

This is pretty common. Take metal, for example. There's the genre of metal, and then there's a bunch of subgenres as well - nu metal, death metal, and so on.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense except that there seems to be a strangely wide range of groups lumped into '80's college rock'. Meh...
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post #12 of 25
8/24/10 at 11:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tck13 View Post
Yeah, I guess that makes sense except that there seems to be a strangely wide range of groups lumped into '80's college rock'. Meh...

Yeah, they definitely have an odd definition of "college rock." As I read your list I thought "OK, I see why they'd break out into subgenres, but who in the world would consider some of these bands 'college rock?'"

Their method makes sense to me, but there are some flaws in the way they've applied it.
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post #13 of 25
8/24/10 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magician View Post
Don't forget The The.

Quote-worthy.
Just about wore out "Infected".
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post #14 of 25
8/24/10 at 6:12pm
It also depends on where you are. In Australia, the Hoodoo Gurus are pub rock. Whereas, in the States they are "college radio." Either way they fucking rule!!!! BTW they are touring the US in October.
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post #15 of 25
8/24/10 at 6:18pm
it should be called 80s jr high school rock
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