Your way in
Alternative rock 1985
An umbrella for everything that grew outside commercial radio and then conquered it. Defined originally by the college-radio network, not by any one sound.
- Heaviness
- 4
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 8
- Where from
- USA / United Kingdom
- Tempo
- 100-150 bpm
- Song length
- 3-5 min
- Written about
- Alienation, Irony as self-defence, Suburbia, The refusal to explain yourself
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Alternative rock | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1985 | 80% | ×1 |
| The inside of a head What should the words be about? | Alienation, Irony as self-defence, Suburbia, The refusal to explain yourself | 100% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 95% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 3 answers you gave, weighted pace 2, era 1, about 1 out of 4. Alternative rock ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1The one to put on first
Pixies, Doolittle 1989
Pixies - Doolittle. Cobain admitted he was simply trying to write a Pixies song.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5One step further in
Pulp, Different Class 1995
Pulp - Different Class. The decade's best lyrics, and it isn't close.
The first is Alternative rock's own entry point. After it come Alternative rock's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Emo 95%
Hardcore in which the lyrics turn confessional and the voice cracks. The term started as an insult and became an entire decade of fashion.
5 steps from Alternative rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Emo -
DSBM 95%
Depressive suicidal black metal: slower tempos, wailing guitars and desperate vocals. The subject matter is heavy, and the genre is debated inside the scene itself.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Alternative rock.
The way into DSBM
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 4.
- The inside of a head put 88 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Black metal. Worth 1 of 4.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.