We turn now to a consideration of the rise of alternative rock in the 1990s. this entire movement of alternative rock was really sparked by the commercial success of Nirvana's Nevermind In 1991. It's kind of of a breakthrough album that kind of opens the doors to alternative rock. In many ways parallel to for example The Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan in February of 1964. All over a sudden, there's a flood of British Invasion groups. And so this is really what happens after the success of Nirvana's Nevermind from 1991. it didn't all happen at once though. It see, it seems like an important sort of watershed event as we look back on it the, the, the commercial release of Nevermind. But actually this, the whole thing had been building for some time. The alternative scene arises out of the Indie rock scene of the 1980s that we've, we've talked about. And the hardcore punk scene that wa, which we spent some time talking about. There were, as you'll recall groups that, that did sign major label contracts. Moving away from their indie labels as we got to the second half of the 1980s. And really the, the best representative of that is R.E.M coming out of Athens, Georgia with their album Document. Which is their first major label recording. Goes to number ten in 1987, they have a number nine hit with The One I Love. And that, that, the success of R.E.M really becomes the kind of blueprint for a lot of what's going to happen with alternative. A lot of major labels start thinking, well we should get, we should get an indie band. And maybe we can have the same kind of success that with, with one of our groups that R.E.M has had. And so you, you, you begin to see groups toward the end of the 80s start to get signed by major labels. Of course this is something of of an integrity check for a lot of indie groups. Because part of their, the pride of who they were, as it they were an alternative to major label kinds of groups. The kinds of groups that we're appearing on MTV and on FM radio. They were, they were a different kind of thing. and so when, when, when they begin to, to sign with major labels there's a question of whether they're sort of selling out. And we'll come back to this topic again in our next section when we talk about how the indie scene continues. Even after a lot of these indie bands start to sign with major labels and become the alternative scene. Of course, alternative has its roots in 70s punk. As we talked about 70s punk sort of developing into 80s hardcore and college rock during the 19 80s. They're the DIY or do it yourself attitude. The idea that these guys got away from the big money corporations and, and recorded their music on indie labels. Got their music played in college radio. There was a whole series of venues again. So this whole scene that's developing through the 80s. really starts to gather some, some serious momentum towards the end of the 80s then the major labels get involved. And what happens is that what was in many ways indie in the 80s become alternative in the 90s. Although maybe with a slightly more commercial bent fans can argue about that. we talked about Nirvana, they are really seen as the not only this sort of the, the, the important band for launching alternative. But the most important representatives, something that came to be called the Seattle Grunge Sound Group. Coming out of Aberdeen, Washington, originally led by Kurt Cobain also with Dave Grohl. on the drums, he will become increasingly important as the 90s unfold. Their first album was on an indie label called Sub Pop. it was called Bleach from 1989. The total recording costs of that first Nirvana album were $606.17. So you talk about DIY, doing things on a shoestring. That's what it cost to record that album. Of course more to press the [INAUDIBLE] and distribute them and that kind of thing, but we're talking about pennies here. They probably spent $606.17 just on coffee for the crew alone on a Michael Jackson lunch break or something, probably even more. So we're talking about very smalls numbers here. The big album of course, as I mentioned before, their second album, Nevermind, number one in this country. Number seven in the UK in 1991 and the, the, the sort of emblematic song and video that went with that was Smells Like Teen Spirit. Although lots of great tunes on that album. They followed up with In Utero in 1993 and then Unplugged in New York, 1994, a number one album. Unfortunately, Kurt Cobain, unfortunately and really quite famously committing suicide in 1994. And that kind of being the end of Nirvana. They weren't the only Seattle band. Once the door was opened we begin to see a whole series of Seattle bands come through the co, co, come into the business. Pearl Jam led by vocalist Eddie Vetter 1992, their album Ten went to number two in the pop charts, number 18 in the U.K charts. in many ways people will, fans can argue about this. But maybe Nirvana was more the pop band, more, more of a pop band of the two. Although not taking anything away from the rough edge sound of what, what Nirvana did. There was sort of a, maybe a kind of pop sensibility to a lot of Kurt Cobain's song writing which. Even though he imaged himself as a kind of you know, armature musician and all that king of thing was a very, very skilled songwriter. And knew exactly how to put an arrangement together to make it work. Again Smells Like Teen Spirit is a real masterpiece from that point of view. Maybe Pearl Jam was a little bit more metal influenced. A lot of these groups, Seattle groups had come out of not only the hard core punk scene but also the metal scene. and so you can see maybe more of that in Pearl Jam's music. They also became important representatives of the alt-rock lifestyle and the anti-commercial aesthetic fighting with the, the company Ticketmaster. Because Ticketmaster started to offer tickets for Pearl Jam concerts that were more than $20. And they said look this, this is not good because some of our fans won't be able to pay this much for a ticket. So they were seen as heroes from this point of view as a, of, of fighting not only a big sort of giant Ticketmaster. But also fighting on behalf of their fans to sort of keep it real. And to keep the prices down so that they didn't end up with these expensive exorbitant concert tickets. other Seattle band Soundgarden led by vocalist Chris Cornell and guitarist Kim Thayil their Superunknown album number one. In this country, number four in the UK in 1994. They were actually the first of the Seattle groups to sign with a major label. They signed with A&M records in 1988. Although they didn't really have their first big success until after Nirvana opened the door with with Nevermind. And we should also mention Alice in Chains led by vocalist Layne Staley, whose second album Dirt a number six album in 1992. Along the west coast, there were other interesting things going on that weren't strictly speaking part of the Grunge scene. but as when, when the alternative door opened, a lot of these groups started to have some pretty good success. in California and San Francisco, we've got Faith No More, led by Mike Patton on vocals. Their album The Real Thing had actually gone to number 11 in 1989 on the strength of the hit Epic which was a number nine hit. but it was, it was really the album Angel Dust that really became part of the alternative scene tor them, another ten album in 1992. We can also talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers out of Hollywood, California featuring Flea on the bass. fantastic bassist in that group. their 1991 album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik was produced by Rick Reuben who we've talked about before. Rick Reuben of course the important producer for Def Jam had produced Run DMC, a number of those groups. And of course was behind the whole idea of getting Aerosmith together with Run DMC to do Walk This Way. So he's producing the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They have a number three album with Blood Sugar Sex Magik. number five in the U.K in 1991 the big song off there, Under the Bridge and of course, the song Give it Away. The video for Give it Away, extremely innovative by MTV standards for the day. and was in, sort of, constant rotation. check it out on the internet. It's a, it's a fantastic video. Even if it turns out you don't like the song very much, some of the visual effects are, are really stunning for their day. of these Southern California groups or California groups that is to say. probably Stone Temple Pilots are the, are the only one that could be thought of as, as kind of a grunge band coming out of San Diego, California. 1992 their album Core goes to number three on the Pop charts, Number 27 in the U.K Charts. Other alternative bands we should talk about that that rise to fame in the period of after 1991 heading towards the end of the decade. Smashing Pumpkins coming out of Chicago led by Billy Corgan. here's a group that kind of, kind of tried to deny their, their, their, their affini, their affiliation with the punk seen. and really brought in a lot other kinds of influences that maybe some the other groups didn't. Including a little bit of sort of progressive rock kind of influence a lot of melatron and stuff like that going on in some of those tracks. the first big album Siamese Dream from 1993 produced by Butch Vig who had also produced the Nirvana Nevermind album. and then Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness from 1995, a number one album for them here and number four in the U.K. which is often seen as the sort of the big Smashing Pumpkins album if you, if you want if you're going to have one that might be the one to have. Other alternative groups you might talk about Live coming out of York, Pennsylvania, their album from 1994, Throwing Copper. Creed coming out of Tallahassee, Florida. their song wi, with With Arms Open Wide from number one from 2000. both of those those groups Live and Creed some sort of Christian bent to what they do. So that makes them sort of distinctive from that point. [INAUDIBLE] also talk about Lifehouse from Los Angeles, California, and their track Hanging by the Moment. Which is maybe their most well known tune, a number two hit from 2001. after Nirvana broke up, Dave Grohl formed a group really around himself called Foo Fighters. And and, we, we can also talk about Rivers Cuomo, and his Los Angeles-based band, Weezer. sort of a comic or comedic self conscious presentation by both of those groups, Foo Fighters, and Weezer, at least in the videos that go with it. for Weezer, check out Buddy Holly a 1995 hit for them off their debut LP. Other groups from the alternative scene were more interested in or developed a more sort of pop oriented sound. Green Day out of Berkeley, California led by Billie Joe Armstrong. very kind of punk looking, punk acting, but when it really comes down to the song writing. Really finely crafted songs from Billy Joe Armstrong. They did one LP and two EPs for an independent label called Lookout. And then the big album comes in 1994, or the first big breakthrough album on Reprise Records. It's called Dookie, goes to number two in the pop charts, number 13 in the U.K. And the song, When I Come Around, a number two hit, it goes into constant rotation on radio and on MTV. it's interesting that their 2004 album, American Idiot was a rock opera that was subsequently turned into a Broadway musical. Other groups we can talk about with regard to the pop-punk kind of thing. The Offspring, out of Orange County California and Blink-182 coming out of San Diego. So also maybe worth mentioning with regard to this, this kind of approach a kind of a ska revival that starts to happen in the mid 1990s. Which kind of combines reggae music going all the way back to Bob Marley and, and I Shot the Sheriff. And some of the things we talked about in part one. It's sort of combines that with punk, at least rhythmically speaking. and so important groups in that movement are, are Sublime from Long Beach, California. And the Mighty Mighty Bosstones from Cambridge, Massachusetts. But maybe the most commercially successful of the ska revival groups comes from Anaheim, California. Led by Gwen Stefani, No Doubt really hits the charts with their album Tragic Kingdom from 1995. Number one here, number one in the UK, the songs, Just a Girl and Don't Speak become pretty big hits for them. So that's a bit of a survey of what was happening with alternative in the 1990s launched really by the success of Nirvana. Most of these groups appearing on major labels and, and having their success fueled by the kind of resources that come from major labels. Big recording studios, promotional budgets, MTV videos, this kind of thing. So throughout the 90s, we to the point by the mid-90s where Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day is saying they call it alternative. But alternative to what? How you can get any more mainstream? In fact, in many ways, indie rock, which was so underground in the 80s has now hit the big time in the 90s. It's alternative but then it becomes ironically one of the sort of mainstream kinds of styles. So the question we want to ask ourselves is, after indie goes alternative and becomes mainstream, what happens to indie? That's what we'll talk about in the next video.
