Alternative Grab Bag VI – Part 2

Alternative is a marketing term American corporations coined in the ‘90s during the grunge explosion but there have always been alternatives to mainstream music depending on where and when you were living. As a kid growing up on Long Island in the ‘80s, radio and MTV were pushing Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, and Madonna, but the alternatives I discovered and preferred were the Monkees, heavy metal, and finally the punk and hardcore music that inspired my friends and me to start our own local music scene in which we couldn’t care less about what was happening on the radio or MTV. 

     

Minor Threat

Following the crowd has never appealed to me- which may explain my attraction to so-called alternative forms of music- and looking back on those times I did follow the crowd usually fills me with shame. I’ll never forget what an old Irish priest told us during Mass one Sunday in Falls Church about why he disliked the euphemism “go with the flow”. “Garbage goes with the flow, my dears,” he warned us. What is the alternative music for today’s youth? When will this global pandemic end? And will our kids ever experience the world the same ways we did? Too many questions. For now, here are more of my favorite alternative songs including punk pioneers, power pop, alt dance, new wave, post-punk, hardcore, pop punk, skate punk, Britpop, and grunge. Enjoy the alternative!     

01. 39 Steps – “Slip into the Crowd” (1985)
02. Garbage – “Thirteen” (1998)
03. Frank Black and the Catholics – “Black Letter Day” (2002)
04. NOFX – “Please Play This Song on the Radio” (1992)
05. Big Star – “Nightime” (1975)
06. Teenage Fanclub – “Ain’t That Enough” (1997)
07. Hole – “Celebrity Skin” (1998)
08. Lou Reed – “Satellite of Love” (1972)
09. James – “Laid” (1993)
10. Morrissey – “Irish Blood, English Heart” (2004)
11. Raspberries – “I Don’t Know What I Want” (1974)
12. Minor Threat – “Seeing Red” (1981)
13. Fountains of Wayne – “Mexican Wine” (2003)
14. Shoes – “The Summer Rain” (1982)
15. The Living End – “Who’s Gonna Save Us?” (2003)
16. Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers – “That Summer Feeling” (1983)
17. Big Star – “Thirteen” (1972)
18. The B-52’s – “Mesopotamia” (1981)
19. The Barracudas – “Campus Tramp” (1980)
20. The Dictators – “Who Will Save Rock and Roll?” (2001)
21. The Mr. T Experience – “Alternative Is Here to Stay” (1995)
22. The Mr. T Experience – “You Today” (1995)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links:

Ian MacKaye on the Power of Punk