Albums of Alternative music

Alternative

Nowadays, people tend to say that they listen to and download alternative music from different sites not even knowing what this genre rally means.

Complexity of definition

This is the collective name for all groups and directions that were formed and created after 1983-1984, including:

grunge,
industrial,
Britpop,
psychobilly,
various kinds of stylistic synthesis.

The term does not carry a specific meaning or specify particular musical features. In general, it means all music that is not the mainstream. However, to make the concept clear, it seems necessary to determine some patterns that differentiate these performers.

Differences

The mainstream, in general, is approved by society, while the underground is not.
Mainstream music is popular (it is admired by the majority), while alternative music is not for everyone.
The mainstream in the course of time acquires its own traditions, which severely restrict the freedom of popular creative teams and performers. Alternative direction welcomes experiments and creative search, unbalanced or simply broken "song structures" and traditions.
Mainstream groups are recorded on major studios, which severely limit their freedom of creativity, while alternative music MP3s are usually released by independent studios.
Mainstream bands mainly pursue monetary success. They try to employ all the same successful techniques using templates to make people buy their product, while self-expression is more important for alternative groups.

As a result of all this, it turns out that the mainstream is often characterized by a commercial success, and underground is not. Admit it, not everyone will buy tracks of a band, which experiments a lot, just as Sonic Youth or Shoegazing, whose tracks start feeling right just since the 5^th (or even the 30^th) listening. Therefore, according to general idea, it is impossible to speak about high rating of alternative music downloads.

It is necessary to mention that since 1995, the two opposite directions interpenetrated, and this gave rise to adverse trends that can be observed: the sound of bands becomes too polished, harmonious and sweet. Today, people download alternative music from various sites and in various formats (MP3, M4A or lossless FLAC) much more often.

It is believed that Nirvana has become the turning point in the history of underground rock, making it one of commercially attractive genres. In spite of the fact that other groups had a temporary local success (such as REM and Jane's Addiction), it was Nirvana that forever destroyed the wall of undergroundness with its punk-pop and made alternative music downloadable.

The success of Nirvana greatly helped many teams, beginning with Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, and ending with Green Day and Offspring, to reach the top of the charts and become leaders of alternative music download.