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108-526: Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California , from remnants of the group Opal . Founding member David Roback 's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal. The band's current lineup consists of Sandoval (lead vocals, guitars, percussion), Colm Ó Cíosóig (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums), Suki Ewers (keyboards), and Josh Yenne (pedal steel guitars, guitars, drums). Mazzy Star
216-629: A career-high peak of No. 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. On April 19, 1995, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments in excess of 1 million units. The album also peaked at No. 68 in the UK, and was certified silver by the BPI in 2021, for sales of over 100,000 copies. Following the success of "Fade into You", She Hangs Brightly album opener "Halah" began to receive heavy airplay in
324-484: A confessional tone. Rites of Spring has been described as the first "emo" band. Former Minor Threat singer Ian MacKaye founded Dischord Records which became the center for the city's emo scene. Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk . With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock", gothic rock uses a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes", and
432-523: A cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement. Bush , Candlebox and Collective Soul were labelled almost pejoratively as post-grunge which, according to Tim Grierson of About.com , is "suggesting that rather than being a musical movement in their own right, they were just a calculated, cynical response to a legitimate stylistic shift in rock music." Post-grunge morphed during the late 1990s and 2000s as newer bands such as Foo Fighters , Matchbox Twenty , Creed and Nickelback emerged, becoming among
540-521: A decade in the underground, ska punk , a mixture of earlier British ska and punk acts, became popular in the United States. Rancid was the first of the "third-wave ska revival" acts to break. From the mid-1990s to early 2000s, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones , No Doubt , Sublime , Goldfinger , Reel Big Fish , Less Than Jake and Save Ferris charted or received radio exposure. During
648-454: A formula. And suddenly all these people wanted to come to the studio to keep track of what we were doing and make sure we were following that formula. So we got out." In the immediate aftermath of Mazzy Star's dissolution, Sandoval, who had appeared on the Jesus and Mary Chain's 1994 release Stoned & Dethroned , made another guest appearance on their album Munki , and also collaborated with
756-636: A late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". " College rock " was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture . According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red , NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called
864-420: A majority of groups that were signed to indie labels drew from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years. "Alternative music is music that hasn't yet achieved a mainstream audience, Alternative isn't new wave any more, it's a disposition of mind. Alternative music is any kind of music that has the potential to reach
972-403: A record label. Within weeks, the duo's contract was picked up by Capitol , who re-released She Hangs Brightly on November 4, 1990, and released their follow-up, So Tonight That I Might See on September 27, 1993. A year after its release, the album yielded an unexpected hit single. " Fade into You " peaked at No. 44 to become their first Billboard Hot 100 single, while also reaching
1080-414: A wider audience. It also has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum." Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock remained mainly an underground phenomenon. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit, or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone , alternative rock in
1188-464: Is a shot of the interior of Hôtel Tassel in Brussels . It showcases the band's trademark effect with haunting guitar work and lyrics, and Hope Sandoval 's detached vocals. David Roback 's Robby Krieger -inspired psychedelic blues slide guitar style can be heard on the song "Free". "Ghost Highway" is another psychedelic rock track, with a fast rhythm. This song dates from the band's days as Opal and
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#17330853101791296-474: Is as comatose as alternative rock right now". Despite these changes in style however, alternative rock remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge . Many post-grunge bands lacked the underground roots of grunge and were largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock."; many post-grunge bands emulated
1404-625: Is best known for the song " Fade into You ", which brought the band some success in the mid-1990s and was the group's biggest mainstream hit, earning extensive exposure on MTV , VH1 , and radio airplay. Roback and Sandoval were the creative center of the band, with Sandoval as lyricist and Roback as composer of the majority of the band's material until his death in Los Angeles on February 24, 2020, from cancer. Mazzy Star's founding drummer Keith Mitchell, originally part of Opal, died on May 14, 2017, also from cancer. The EP Still released on June 1, 2018,
1512-505: Is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word. Alternative can describe music that challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream", and the term is also used in the music industry to denote "the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet." However alternative music has paradoxically become just as commercial and marketable as
1620-491: Is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star . It was released on May 21, 1990, by Rough Trade Records and re-released by Capitol Records later in the year. "Blue Flower" was released as a single and reached number 29 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Four years later, "Halah" reached number 19 on the same chart after the success of " Fade into You ". The album cover
1728-644: The Billboard 200 album chart. Soundgarden 's album Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core along with the Temple of the Dog album collaboration featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were also among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992. The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool ". Major record labels signed most of
1836-559: The Billboard charts. Pearl Jam also continued to perform well commercially with its second album, Vs. (1993), which topped the Billboard charts by selling a record 950,378 copies in its first week of release. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins released their major breakthrough album, Siamese Dream —which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 4 million copies by 1996, receiving multi-platinum certification by
1944-520: The Indie Chart was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels. At the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status. The use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s; at
2052-471: The RIAA . The strong influence of heavy metal and progressive rock on the album helped to legitimize alternative rock to mainstream radio programmers and close the gap between alternative rock and the type of rock played on American 1970s Album Oriented Rock radio. In 1995, the band released their double album, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness — which went on to sell 10 million copies in
2160-527: The Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid Live . That same month, they released the EP Still . David Roback died on February 24, 2020, of cancer . Since 2020, the band has largely been on hiatus, with each member pursuing solo pursuits. Alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music , alt-rock or simply alternative ) is a category of rock music that evolved from
2268-495: The hair metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant. The breakthrough success of Nirvana led to the widespread popularization of alternative rock in the 1990s. It heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. In the wake of Nevermind , alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming ... into
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#17330853101792376-489: The independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock , hard rock , and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout
2484-502: The music industry . The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock . Traditionally, alternative rock varied in terms of its sound, social context, and regional roots. Throughout
2592-551: The "grunging of America" to the mass-marketing of punk rock, disco , and hip hop in previous years. As a result of the genre's popularity, a backlash against grunge developed in Seattle. Nirvana's follow-up album In Utero (1993) was an intentionally abrasive album that Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic described as a "wild aggressive sound, a true alternative record." Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 In Utero topped
2700-553: The 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music." At first the term referred to intentionally non-mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems". Usage of
2808-479: The 1980s was primarily featured on independent record labels, fanzines and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and by regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. College radio formed an essential part of breaking new alternative music. In
2916-463: The 1980s, alternative bands generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth . As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although in 1989 The New York Times asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback." More often than in other rock styles since
3024-402: The 1980s, magazines and zines , college radio airplay , and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock's distinct styles (and music scenes), such as noise pop , indie rock , grunge , and shoegaze . In September 1988, Billboard introduced "alternative" into their charting system to reflect the rise of the format across radio stations in
3132-498: The 1990s. One of the main indie rock movements of the 1990s was lo-fi . The movement, which focused on the recording and distribution of music on low-quality cassette tapes , initially emerged in the 1980s. By 1992, Pavement, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh became popular lo-fi cult acts in the United States, while subsequently artists like Beck and Liz Phair brought the aesthetic to mainstream audiences. The period also saw alternative confessional female singer-songwriters. Besides
3240-736: The 2000s with multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy , My Chemical Romance , Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . Bands such as the White Stripes and the Strokes found commercial success in the early 2000s, influencing an influx of new alternative rock bands that drew inspiration from garage rock , post-punk and new wave , establishing a revival of the genres. In the past, popular music tastes were largely dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become
3348-605: The 8-year gap between Bavarian Fruit Bread and Through the Devil Softly , "That seems like a long time until you consider that Mazzy Star, Sandoval's partnership with guitarist David Roback, hasn't put an album out since 1996. Sandoval promises that will change; she and Roback have their very own Chinese Democracy in the works, but it won't see the light of day until the Warm Inventions have wrapped up their tour." On October 12, 2011, Hope Sandoval's official website confirmed
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3456-555: The British indie scene through the end of the decade, as various bands drew from singer Morrissey 's English-centered lyrical topics and guitarist Johnny Marr 's jangly guitar-playing style. The C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring Primal Scream , the Wedding Present and others, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole. Other forms of alternative rock developed in
3564-700: The British music press at the end of the decade along with the Madchester scene. Performing for the most part in the Haçienda , a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records , Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop. The Amerindie of the early '80s became known as alternative or alt-rock, ascendant from Nirvana until 1996 or so but currently very unfashionable, never mind that
3672-532: The Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles " Roll With It " and " Country House " on the same day on 14 August 1995. Blur won " The Battle of Britpop ", but they were soon eclipsed in popularity by Oasis whose second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), went on to become the third best-selling album in
3780-617: The Brook Lee Catastrophe also served as the opening act of select shows. Pedal steel guitar was performed by Josh Yenne. After the final date of the tour in August 2012, David Roback stated that production on the album had completed and that it would see release "soon". In late 2012, several unreleased song titles composed by Hope Sandoval and David Roback were registered with the band's long-time publisher BMI , including "Flying Low" and "Spoon", both of which were performed multiple times on
3888-491: The Chemical Brothers , while Roback produced and mixed two songs found on Beth Orton 's 1999 album Central Reservation . In June 2000, the band reunited for a mini-tour of Europe. Performing up to seven new songs at each of these concerts, Sandoval revealed in interviews around this time that these new songs were written and recorded for Mazzy Star's fourth studio album, which was to be released independently sometime in
3996-561: The Killers , and Yeah Yeah Yeahs , found commercial success in the early and mid 2000s. Owing to the success of these bands, Entertainment Weekly declared in 2004, "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again." Arctic Monkeys were a prominent act to owe their initial commercial success to the use of Internet social networking , with two UK No. 1 singles and Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), which became
4104-597: The Opal alias for the next two years, during which time they completed production on Opal's planned second album, titled Ghost Highway . Composed mainly of songs written by Roback and Smith, Sandoval stated that she was unhappy with the material, and expressed an interest in wanting to "start something completely new". The pair quickly composed and recorded seven new tracks in Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, and renamed
4212-664: The Replacements upended a number of underground scene conventions; Azerrad noted that "along with R.E.M., they were one of the few underground bands that mainstream people liked." By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop ( They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven ), to noise rock ( Sonic Youth , Big Black , the Jesus Lizard ) and industrial rock ( Ministry , Nine Inch Nails). These sounds were in turn followed by
4320-580: The Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers. One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 1980s, Los Angeles' Paisley Underground revived the sounds of the 1960s, incorporating psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock as well as punk and underground influences such as the Velvet Underground . American indie record labels SST Records , Twin/Tone Records , Touch and Go Records , and Dischord Records presided over
4428-499: The U.K. singles chart at No. 117. The first substantive confirmation that the duo would reconvene to complete work on their fourth studio album came from Sandoval herself in a July 2009 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, where she was quoted as saying, "It's true we're still together. We're almost finished [with the record]. But I have no idea what that means." Later, in a September 2009 interview with Vancouver-based music website Straight.com , interviewer John Lucas wrote of
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4536-411: The UK during the 1980s. the Jesus and Mary Chain 's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector 's " Wall of Sound " production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with disco and dance music . The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr. , C86 and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins , were
4644-424: The UK's history. Long synonymous with alternative rock as a whole in the U.S., indie rock became a distinct form following the popular breakthrough of Nirvana. Indie rock was formulated as a rejection of alternative rock's absorption into the mainstream by artists who could not or refused to cross over, and a wariness of its "macho" aesthetic. While indie rock artists share the punk rock distrust of commercialism,
4752-526: The US alone, certifying it as a Diamond record. With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene and music press in the early 1990s. As a reaction, a flurry of British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of grunge" and "declare war on America", taking the public and native music press by storm. Dubbed " Britpop " by
4860-429: The US and peaked at No. 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, a chart based solely on airplay. Their final album for Capitol, Among My Swan , was released on October 29, 1996. Entering the Billboard 200 at No. 68 and, as of September 2001, selling 214,000 copies in the United States, the album was less commercially successful than its predecessors, although it produced their highest-peaking single in
4968-577: The US by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles, as well as greater openness to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US. Since the 1980s, alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by disc jockeys such as John Peel (who championed alternative music on BBC Radio 1 ), Richard Skinner , and Annie Nightingale . Artists with cult followings in
5076-610: The US received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly music press, and many alternative bands had chart success there. Early American alternative bands such as the Dream Syndicate , the Bongos , 10,000 Maniacs , R.E.M. , the Feelies and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; their debut album, Murmur (1983), entered
5184-703: The United Kingdom, when " Flowers in December " entered at No. 40 to become their only top forty entry on the chart . The band promoted the album with a five-month tour of the US and Europe, after which Sandoval and Roback began work on new material. Over the course of these sessions, Sandoval reportedly "begged" Capitol to be released from her contract, later elaborating, "It seemed record companies wanted bands to be creative because they didn't know how to manufacture underground music. We could do our own thing and go at our own pace. But that changed when major labels started wanting bands that would sell 7 million records. They had
5292-508: The United States by stations like KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and WDRE-FM in New York, which were playing music from more underground , independent, and non-commercial rock artists. Initially, several alternative styles achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands, such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction , were signed to major labels . Most alternative bands at the time, like the Smiths , one of
5400-473: The Velvet Underground , which influenced many alternative rock bands that would come after it. Eccentric and quirky figures of the 1960s, such as Syd Barrett have influence on alternative rock in general. The Dead Kennedys formed the independent record label Alternative Tentacles in 1979, releasing influential underground music such as the 1983 self-titled EP from the Butthole Surfers . By 1984,
5508-553: The advent of Boston 's Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction. Around the same time, the grunge subgenre emerged in Seattle , Washington, initially referred to as "The Seattle Sound" until its rise to popularity in the early 1990s. Grunge featured a sludgy, murky guitar sound that syncretized heavy metal and punk rock. Promoted largely by Seattle indie label Sub Pop , grunge bands were noted for their thrift store fashion which favored flannel shirts and combat boots suited to
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#17330853101795616-526: The aforementioned Liz Phair, PJ Harvey fit into this sub group. In the mid-1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate defined the emo genre. Weezer 's album Pinkerton (1996) was also influential. Post-rock was established by Talk Talk 's Laughing Stock and Slint 's Spiderland albums, both released in 1991. Post-rock draws influence from a number of genres, including Krautrock , progressive rock , and jazz . The genre subverts or rejects rock conventions, and often incorporates electronic music. While
5724-403: The album. On April 19, the band released two new songs as part of Record Store Day 2014. " I'm Less Here " and "Things" were released on 7-inch vinyl, with the run limited to 3,000 copies worldwide. Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions released a 7-inch vinyl single titled " Isn't It True " for Record Store Day 2016. The track also features Jim Putnam of Radar Bros. A music video for the song
5832-576: The alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins , Butthole Surfers , Ice-T , Nine Inch Nails , Siouxsie and the Banshees (as second headliners) and Jane's Addiction (as the headlining act). Covering for MTV the opening date of Lollapalooza in Phoenix in July 1991, Dave Kendall introduced the report saying the festival presented the "most diverse lineups of alternative rock". That summer, Farrell had coined
5940-437: The alternative/independent scene and dryly tore it apart." David Lowery , then frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, later recalled: "I remember first seeing that word applied to us... The nearest I could figure is that we seemed like a punk band, but we were playing pop music, so they made up this word alternative for those of us who do that." DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of
6048-457: The band Mazzy Star. Written over a year before Mazzy Star's inception, the track "Ghost Highway" is the band's only original song to not feature a writing credit from Sandoval, while another song, "Give You My Lovin ' ", was written by Going Home guitarist Sylvia Gomez and first recorded by Sandoval and Gomez in the mid-1980s. She Hangs Brightly was released in May 1990 on Rough Trade and, although it
6156-528: The band's first song to ever place on the Irish Singles Chart , where it peaked at No. 40. Sandoval's second album with the Warm Inventions, Through the Devil Softly , was released via Nettwerk on September 29, 2009, and was followed on August 10, 2010, by a non-album single, a cover of Syd Barrett 's "Golden Hair". Also released in 2010 was her vocal contribution to Massive Attack 's Heligoland , " Paradise Circus ". The song spent one week on
6264-459: The decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, and those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were then excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sorts of music to which it refers were known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had
6372-520: The disbanding of both the Cranberries and Stone Temple Pilots in 2003. Britpop also began fading after Oasis ' third album, Be Here Now (1997), was met with lackluster reviews. A signifier of alternative rock's changes was the hiatus of the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find a headliner in 1998. In light of the festival's troubles that year, Spin said, "Lollapalooza
6480-429: The duo would release their first new material in 15 years later that same month. The double a-sided single "Common Burn"/"Lay Myself Down" was released digitally on October 31, 2011. A limited edition blue-coloured 7-inch vinyl was also announced for release on November 8, though a manufacturing delay resulted in its release being pushed back to January 24, 2012. Their fourth studio album was expected to be released in
6588-453: The early 2000s, when indie rock became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock, the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably; while there are aspects which both genres have in common, "indie rock" was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American "alternative rock". The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in
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#17330853101796696-499: The early 21st century, many alternative rock bands that experienced mainstream success struggled following the suicide of Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Pearl Jam 's failed lawsuit against concert venue promoter Ticketmaster , Soundgarden 's break-up in 1997, the Smashing Pumpkins losing its original members in 2000, L7 's hiatus in 2001, the death of Layne Staley and the subsequent disbanding of Alice in Chains in 2002, and
6804-512: The fastest-selling debut album in British chart history. By 2000 and on into the new decade, emo was one of the most popular rock music genres. Popular acts included the sales success of Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World (2001) and Dashboard Confessional 's The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2003). The new emo had a much more mainstream sound than in the 1990s and a far greater appeal among adolescents than its earlier incarnations. At
6912-461: The film by actress Maggie Cheung . In 2009, So Tonight That I Might See album track " Into Dust " debuted at No. 71 and stayed one week on the U.K. singles chart when it featured on a commercial for Virgin Media . Two years later, the song appeared on the "Dust to Dust" trailer for Gears of War 3 and spent a further four weeks on the chart, reaching a new peak of No. 47; while it also became
7020-429: The formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated
7128-430: The foundation for its large cult following. The key British alternative rock band to emerge during the 1980s was Manchester 's the Smiths . Music journalist Simon Reynolds singled out the Smiths and their American contemporaries R.E.M. as "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day", commenting that they "were eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". The Smiths exerted an influence over
7236-892: The future. This did not materialize, however, as later that year, Sandoval joined with Colm Ó Cíosóig (formerly of My Bloody Valentine ) to form Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions . In October 2000, Sandoval issued her first EP with the Warm Inventions, At the Doorway Again , and followed it up with her debut full-length album, Bavarian Fruit Bread , a year later. Around this time, Sandoval also contributed vocals to several songs by other artists, notably Air and Death in Vegas . William Cooper, Mazzy Star's violinist and keyboardist, died of neuroendocrine cancer on March 16, 2001. Sandoval performed as part of Bert Jansch 's 60th birthday celebration at Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 3, 2003. As well as Ó Cíosóig, Jansch and his son Adam, she
7344-418: The genre does not entirely define itself against that, as "the general assumption is that it's virtually impossible to make indie rock's varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes in the first place". Labels such as Matador Records , Merge Records , and Dischord , and indie rockers like Pavement , Superchunk , Fugazi , and Sleater-Kinney dominated the American indie scene for most of
7452-457: The instigation of the grunge music phenomenon". Helped by constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, their album Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991. Its success surprised the music industry. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general." Michael Azerrad asserted that Nevermind symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which
7560-422: The key British alternative rock bands during the 1980s, remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream, and many alternative bands became successful. Emo found mainstream success in
7668-506: The late 1990s and early 2000s, several alternative rock bands emerged, including the Strokes , Franz Ferdinand , Interpol , and the Rapture that drew primary inspiration from post-punk and new wave, establishing the post-punk revival movement. Preceded by the success of bands such as the Strokes and the White Stripes earlier in the decade, an influx of new alternative rock bands, including several post-punk revival artists and others such as
7776-409: The latter half of 2012, following completion of a tour earlier in the year. The band completed an 18-date Californian and European tour in 2012, their first since 2000. Performing at several major European festivals, the band consisted of original members Suki Ewers and Keith Mitchell, and were also joined by Sandoval's Warm Inventions band-mate Colm Ó Cíosóig and Keith Mitchell's son Paul, whose band
7884-420: The local weather. Early grunge bands Soundgarden and Mudhoney found critical acclaim in the U.S. and UK, respectively. By the end of the decade, a number of alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major label signings Hüsker Dü and the Replacements had little success, acts who signed with majors in their wake such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and platinum records, setting
7992-489: The mainstream rock, with record companies using the term "alternative" to market music to an audience that mainstream rock does not reach. Using a broad definition of the genre, Dave Thompson in his book Alternative Rock cites the formation of the Sex Pistols as well as the release of the albums Horses by Patti Smith and Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed as three key events that gave birth to alternative rock. Until
8100-559: The mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands. The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance." However, many alternative rock artists rejected success, for it conflicted with
8208-494: The mainstreaming of rock music, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, suicide, and environmentalism . This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s. Precursors to alternative rock existed in the 1960s with proto-punk . The origins of alternative rock can be traced back to The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) by
8316-490: The media, and represented by Pulp , Blur , Suede , and Oasis , this movement was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion, in that the artists propelled alternative rock to the top of the charts in their home country. Britpop bands were influenced by and displayed reverence for British guitar music of the past, particularly movements and genres such as the British Invasion , glam rock , and punk rock . In 1995,
8424-502: The mid-1980s, college station KCPR in San Luis Obispo, California , described in a DJ handbook the tension between popular and "cutting edge" songs as played on "alternative radio". Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success. On September 10, 1988, an Alternative Songs chart
8532-408: The mid-1990s. In comparison to post-rock, math rock relies on more complex time signatures and intertwining phrases. By the end of the decade a backlash had emerged against post-rock due to its "dispassionate intellectuality" and its perceived increasing predictability, but a new wave of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós emerged who further expanded the genre. In
8640-460: The more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical." The band also set an example by being the first group from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as "a viable commercial enterprise". By focusing on heartfelt songwriting and wordplay instead of political concerns,
8748-468: The most popular rock bands in the United States. At the same time Britpop began to decline, Radiohead achieved critical acclaim with its third album OK Computer (1997), and its follow-ups Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), which were in marked contrast with the traditionalism of Britpop. Radiohead, along with post-Britpop groups like Travis , Stereophonics and Coldplay , were major forces in British rock in subsequent years. After almost
8856-448: The most popular, and therefore who could generate the most sales. These bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, and their works were then offered for sale through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations, along with eventually selling the merchandise into big box retailers . Record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making
8964-720: The most successful tour in North America in July and August 1991. For Dave Grohl of Nirvana who attended the festival at an open-air amphitheater in Southern California , "it felt like something was happening, that was the beginning of it all". The tour helped change the mentalities in the music industry: "by that fall, radio and MTV and music had changed. I really think that if it weren't for Perry [Farrell], if it weren't for Lollapalooza , you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now". The release of Nirvana's single " Smells Like Teen Spirit " in September 1991 "marked
9072-409: The music is still there. By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was enticed by alternative rock's commercial possibilities and major labels had already signed Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dinosaur Jr. In early 1991, R.E.M. went mainstream worldwide with Out of Time while becoming a blueprint for many alternative bands. The first edition of the Lollapalooza festival became
9180-591: The name of the genre was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in 1994 referring to Hex by the London group Bark Psychosis , the style of the genre was solidified by the release of Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) by the Chicago group Tortoise . Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock music in the 1990s and bands from the genre signed to such labels as Thrill Jockey , Kranky , Drag City , and Too Pure . A related genre, math rock , peaked in
9288-418: The prominent grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success. At the same time, critics asserted that advertising was co-opting elements of grunge and turning it into a fad. Entertainment Weekly commented in a 1993 article, "There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s." The New York Times compared
9396-586: The publication of their sole release, the 1983 double A-sided single "Fell From the Sun"/"All Souls", Clay Allison renamed themselves Opal and released the LP Happy Nightmare Baby on SST on December 14, 1987. With Roback as its musical catalyst, Opal were a direct precursor to Mazzy Star musically—often featuring the same psychedelic guitar drones and similar hints of blues and folk that would later appear on Mazzy Star recordings. Meanwhile, Sandoval—who
9504-427: The rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity. Other grunge bands subsequently replicated Nirvana's success. Pearl Jam had released its debut album Ten a month before Nevermind in 1991, but album sales only picked up a year later. By the second half of 1992 Ten became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on
9612-434: The same time, the use of the term "emo" expanded beyond the musical genre, becoming associated with fashion, a hairstyle and any music that expressed emotion. Emo's mainstream success continued with bands emerging in the 2000s, including multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and mainstream groups such as Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . She Hangs Brightly She Hangs Brightly
9720-421: The shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minneapolis bands Hüsker Dü and the Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic. Michael Azerrad asserted that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and
9828-478: The sound and style of grunge, "but not necessarily the individual idiosyncracies of its original artists." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production. Originally, post-grunge was a label used almost pejoratively on bands that emerged when grunge was mainstream and emulated the grunge sound. The label suggested that bands labelled as post-grunge were simply musically derivative, or
9936-514: The stage for alternative's later breakthrough. Some bands such as Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically. In the middle of the decade, Hüsker Dü's album Zen Arcade influenced other hardcore acts by tackling personal issues. Out of Washington, D.C.'s hardcore scene what was called "emocore" or, later, " emo " emerged and was noted for its lyrics which delved into emotional, very personal subject matter (vocalists sometimes cried) and added free association poetry and
10044-513: The subgenre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism. Bands of this subgenre took inspiration from two British post-punk groups, Siouxsie and the Banshees , and Joy Division . Bauhaus ' debut single " Bela Lugosi's Dead ", released in 1979, is considered to be the proper beginning of the gothic rock subgenre. The Cure 's "oppressively dispirited" albums including Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in that style and laid
10152-437: The tape, Roback offered to produce a still-unreleased album by the pair. When Smith left Opal under cloudy circumstances in the middle of a tour supporting the Jesus & Mary Chain , Sandoval was chosen as her replacement. Despite Smith's departure, Rough Trade retained Roback's original record deal, contractually obligating him to supply a follow-up to Opal's debut LP. As a result, Roback and Sandoval continued to tour under
10260-644: The term Alternative Nation . In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has formerly been considered alternative rock —a college-centered marketing group with fairly lucrative, if limited, potential—has in fact moved into the mainstream." In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle, '70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions." Defining music as alternative
10368-514: The term would broaden to include new wave , pop, punk rock , post-punk , and occasionally " college "/" indie " rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM . Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative also encompassed variants such as "rap, trash, metal and industrial". The bill of the first Lollapalooza , an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell , reunited "disparate elements of
10476-522: The time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were new music and postmodern , respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past. A similar term, alternative pop , emerged around 1985. In 1987, Spin magazine categorized college rock band Camper Van Beethoven as "alternative/indie", saying that their 1985 song "Where the Hell Is Bill" (from Telephone Free Landslide Victory ) "called out
10584-401: The tour. The band also launched an official merchandise store. On July 13, 2013, the band announced details of their fourth studio album, Seasons of Your Day , which was released on September 23, 2013, in the UK, followed a day later on September 24 in the US. The album reached a career-high No. 24 on the UK albums chart. The band began a North American tour on November 3, 2013, in support of
10692-405: The wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture, although this could be contested since some of the major alternative artists have eventually achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onward (especially into the 2000s, and beyond). In
10800-482: Was also joined on stage by David Roback for renditions of "Suzanne" and "All This Remains", a song Sandoval had contributed lead vocals and wrote lyrics to for Jansch's 2002 album Edge of a Dream . This would remain Sandoval and Roback's final appearance together on-stage until 2012. David Roback made his debut appearance as an actor in the 2004 film Clean . He also wrote and produced three songs that were performed in
10908-520: Was created by Billboard , listing the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations in the US: the first number one was " Peek-a-Boo " by Siouxsie and the Banshees . By 1989, the genre had become popular enough that a package tour featuring New Order , Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes toured the US arena circuit. Early on, British alternative rock was distinguished from that of
11016-425: Was dedicated to Keith Mitchell and stage manager Tom Cashen who also died in 2017. Following Roback's death in 2020, Sandoval and Ewers are the last surviving members of the band's original lineup. The band released the album She Hangs Brightly in 1990, So Tonight That I Might See in 1993 (the album went platinum in 1995), and Among My Swan in 1996. The band's fourth studio album, Seasons of Your Day ,
11124-495: Was in high school at the time—formed the folk music duo Going Home in the early 1980s with fellow student Sylvia Gomez, and played gigs with Sonic Youth and Minutemen . Both were devoted followers of the Rain Parade, and after a 1983 concert by the band in the Los Angeles area, Gomez entered the backstage area of the venue and gave Roback a copy of Going Home's demo tape, featuring Sandoval on vocals and Gomez on guitar. Upon hearing
11232-521: Was initially slated to be the title track of Opal's second album. While not a commercial success, this album did establish Mazzy Star as a unique band with a unique sound. "Blue Flower" is a Slapp Happy cover from the 1972 album Sort Of . In a review for Rolling Stone , Gina Arnold praised She Hangs Brightly as being "coldly beautiful". AllMusic 's Jason Ankeny described Hope Sandoval's vocals as "more sultry" than those of Opal's Kendra Smith and praised "Halah" and "Blue Flower" but criticized
11340-464: Was not an immediate commercial success, the album established the duo as a recurrent fixture on alternative rock radio, with lead single "Blue Flower" – a cover of the Slapp Happy track – peaking at No. 29 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album would go on to sell over 70,000 copies in the UK. The American branch of Rough Trade folded in late 1990, briefly leaving Mazzy Star without
11448-639: Was released in 2013, followed by the EP Still in 2018. Mazzy Star has deep roots within the Californian Paisley Underground movement of the early 1980s. David Roback, along with his brother Steven, was one of the main architects of leading Los Angeles psychedelic revival band the Rain Parade . Leaving that band after their first LP , he founded Clay Allison in 1983 with then-girlfriend, ex- Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith . Soon after
11556-550: Was released on April 19, and is dedicated to Richie Lee of Acetone . The Warm Inventions' third studio album, Until the Hunter , was released on November 4 through the band's own independent record label, Tendril Tales. A second single from the album, " Let Me Get There " featuring Kurt Vile , was released on September 23. A new four-song EP from the Warm Inventions, Son of a Lady , was released on September 15, 2017. Sandoval contributed vocals to "I Don't Mind" by Psychic Ills , which
11664-467: Was released on March 29, 2016. Four months later, Massive Attack released " The Spoils ", which was her third collaboration with the band, following "Paradise Circus" and " Four Walls ". A music video starring actress Cate Blanchett was released on August 9. Keith Mitchell, who played drums on all four Mazzy Star albums, died on May 14, 2017. In June 2018, the band reunited for their first concerts in five years, performing on three consecutive nights at
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