Like new wave before it, "alternative" is basically a meaningless term. Punk, heavy metal, funk, rap, pop, rock & roll, singer/songwriter - everything fits under the term. Essentially, "alternative" is a catch-all for post-punk bands that appeared as new wave began to die out in 1983-84, and runs all the way into 1995, when alternative pop/rock is the mainstream. Although there's nothing alternative about Live and Silverchair, their inspiration by R.E.M. and Nirvana were decidedly part of an underground, anti-mainstream rock & roll movement. But what really distinguishes alternative pop/rock is how it reprocesses and reworks rock history, bringing together diverse strands into a whole. Alternative followed somewhat different paths in America and Britain; although the two countries have had bands that were big on both continents, like R.E.M. , certain phenomena like Pearl Jam or the Stone Roses haven't translated particularly well. In addition, entire subgenres are isolated to either the U.S. or the U.K. (funk-metal, for instance, has never been very popular in Britain.)
Bernard Poupon
Tout l'oeuvre peint de Giorgione
(Flammarion, 1988)
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