"Alternative". To what exactly?
Posted by Richard Lowe on 29 April 2008 - 10:02pm.
Just downloaded a couple of songs off i-tunes for my daughter that she's heard on Gavin & Stacey and really liked: Gravity by Embrace and You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol. Both of these acts are described by i-tunes as "alternative". Alternative to what exactly? These sort of records get played on Radio 2 by Ken Bruce and Terry Wogan. They're both gentle, plodding, achingly conventional, rock ballads that are pretty easy on the air. You could play them in the sitting room at an old folks home during afternoon Scrabble and light nap sessions. In what sense are they "alternative"?
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I think that's an American description...
...which applies to any band that isn't Bon Jovi
I think it's code
Just as "urban" is supposed to make you think "black", this is supposed to make you think "white".
At least
that split gets you roughly 50 percent of the way to finding what you're after.
I spent half an hour in "Zavvi" (pfft! bloody stupid name) looking for Lizz Wright's "The Orchard" at the weekend. With no shelves marked "Soul", I spent 5 minutes looking in "R'n'B", then 10 minutes trying "Rock and Pop", then 10 minutes more checking "Urban", thinking, as you suggest, that she might be in there because she's black, but to no avail. Eventually I queued to ask someone at a till to check the computer.
She was in "Jazz". ????????
My Opinion
Punk became new wave and indie has become alternative. A watered down version of what made it more exciting initially or a more commercially viable version, if you know what I mean?
I blame the i-tunes categorisations
...tho that was probably merely addressing a perceived level of wish for spoonfeeding.
I used to like the helpful "File under" printed on the back of LP covers, presumably for the benefit of record shops, as they became quite amusing as artists deliberately baulked against lumpen categorisation on the basis of pre-conceived perception. Which is roughly where we are now.
E music seem to have a few problems, routinely categorising much Irish Folk as reggae.....
I've never used catergorisations
other than artist on any mp3 player I've had. It seems daft.
It used to drive me mad going from one section to another in a record shop having to guess which section a particular artist would be in. I'm sure it was just some snotty record shop aparthied keeping those lovely grebo lads away from everybody else.
In Snow Patrols case
Its alternative to anything good in your collection.
An alternative to...
...this perhaps.
I'll take your prescription
thanks Doctor. If I listen to too much of that kind of music to get me off to sleep I might start wetting the bed (see also Keane for similar side effects of excessive exposure to their music).
You said it
Dr.Robert !