Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?

Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?

"The idea behind Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation? is to look back at an era thatâ€™s both incredibly important and yet mysteriously absent from my life as a music fan. Iâ€™ve gone back and repurchased a lot of the CDs I sold offâ€”which, thanks to the bargain bin at Half-Price Books, has actually been a fairly inexpensive propositionâ€”and reacquainted myself with groups that I once adored before they died off, broke up, or settled into respectable but uninspired careers. My goal is to rediscover what I saw in these bands when I was a teenager, and figure out why the music went from enlightening to deadening so rapidly, from the bucolic early years of Lollapalooza to the apocalyptic assault of Woodstock â€™99. Because as easy as it is now to take potshots at the mumbly, histrionic sounds of the â€™90s, this is music that meant a great deal to me and many others at the time. Out of respect for my teenaged self, Iâ€™m giving it an honest re-examination.

Each installment of Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation? will be tied to a year, starting with 1990â€”which Iâ€™m packaging with this introduction, since itâ€™s really a prologue yearâ€”and proceed chronologically up through 1999. However, this isnâ€™t intended to be a definitive history of grunge; I wonâ€™t be writing about every single Seattle band, or even most Seattle bands. A lot of it wonâ€™t even be about grunge; I also plan on looking at the feel-good bro tunes of Sublime, and the ironic arena-rock posturing of Urge Overkill, among other groups, and how they fit in with the overall narrative of â€™90s alt-rockâ€™s rise and fall. I promise Iâ€™ll completely overlook at least one of your favorite bands; please donâ€™t take it personally.

As a general rule, Iâ€™m interested in discussing â€™90s bands that were played regularly on MTV and on the radio, even in a small city like my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, because this was the last time (as of now, anyway) that rock music acted as the engine under the hood of American pop culture. Inevitably, this series will reflect what I liked and cared about back then, which fortunately matches up with what millions of other teenaged residents of Alternative Nation liked and cared about. More than an exercise in nostalgiaâ€”or, worse, an excuse to pick on bands that havenâ€™t aged all that wellâ€”I hope to give those who deserve it their due, and maybe figure out how something that seemed so promising at the time went so wrong." - excerpt from Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?
Country USA
Manufacturer The A.V. Club
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2011-09-29
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	The A.V. Club
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2011-09-29
Format	Kindle eBook

Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?

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