'80s Alternative

The term "alternative" was coined in the late '80s to describe American and British underground music. Its roots were based in punk and post-punk, and its instrumentation was aggressively guitar-based. The sounds varied: the jangle-pop of R.E.M. and the Smiths, the noise-rock of Sonic Youth and the Pixies, the indie rock of the Replacements and U2 (at the time), and the experimentalism of the Talking Heads and Butthole Surfers. Independent record labels, including SST, Touch and Go, Homestead and Dischord, would prove important in fostering the various movements in alternative music. While near-exclusive airplay on college radio was key in developing local audiences (thus the synonymous earlier term of "college rock"), MTV's 120 Minutes, a program airing all alt videos, became a national platform for many of these bands. All of these elements would pave the way for bands such Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers to enter the mainstream in the early '90s.