The Day Alternative Music Died

In this insightful book, music writer Caress writes that he was struck by the “blatant commercialization and homogenization of alternative music” in the 1990s. Caress believes that popular rock music from the mid-1960s to now has been a constant battle between artistic and commercial aspirations, and that rock music’s current absorption into the corporate mainstream has “stripped it of the artistic credibility which had given rock its unique gravitas among the competing styles of popular music.” He begins his survey in 1965, provocatively arguing that before Bob Dylan’s arrival on the rock scene, “there was no tension between aspirations to substantive artistry and commercial success”—everyone wanted to be commercially popular entertainers. With the death of the 1960s counterculture, Caress views rock history as a constant pendulum swinging between movements focused on message and technique, such as the rise of punk rock, and more commercial movements, such as the popularity of glam metal bands. He identifies the rise of Nirvana as the peak of an “alternative” music scene. (BookLife)