What is Alternative Music?

The Top 20 artists tagged “alternative” on Last FM

1		Radiohead	8,993
2		Muse	5,760
3		Coldplay	4,997
4		Placebo	4,648
5		Red Hot Chili Peppers	4,610
6		Björk	3,780
7		Beck	3,700
8		The Smashing Pumpkins	3,663
9		The White Stripes	3,543
10		Nirvana	3,391
11		Gorillaz	3,351
12		The Killers	3,185
13		The Cure	3,147
14		System of a Down	3,079
15		Foo Fighters	2,892
16		Incubus	2,857
17		Linkin Park	2,818
18		Franz Ferdinand	2,740
19		Pixies	2,665
20		Death Cab for Cutie	2,456

See more top artists…

Do people not know the meaning of alternative???

According to dictionary.com alternative (adj. entry #6) means “employing or following nontraditional or unconventional ideas, methods, etc.; existing outside the establishment“.

while alternative music is “a catch-all term for the newest rock music, which has not been around long enough to acquire a specific name”.

Therefore it seems to be that alternative music is something really different, something that can’t be put in a box or a genre or categorised. I don’t understand how a band which has sold millions of albums, is extremely popular on mainstream radio, and most probably is known to one or more of your parents can be considered “alternative”. Sure Radiohead might once have been ‘alternative’ but how can they be considered so now??? It used to be kind of cool and somewhat different to like Radiohead, but now so many people like them that some older fans are turning away (what I like to call “The Killers syndrom”).

I would like to point out i am a Radiohead fan so i am not bashing them in any way, rather I am questioning people who think they are alternative. Actually, I would question if any of the above 20 artisits really should be in an “alternative” chart.

BTW ( & this only applies to some people ) it’s really not cool just to like music because people think it is alternative. Like music for what it is and because you enjoy listening/dancing/working/and whatever else to it, not because its not mainstream.

What do you consider the criteria for something to be alternative? Which artists do you consider alternative? and which of the artists in the top 20 above should be there?