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Alternative Song Meanings

The genre with the confrontational name - alternative to what? Alternative music first rose in the 1990s and 2000s, with the advent of the Internet and subsequent breakdown of the traditional music industry. For the first time, listeners were no longer at the mercy of traditional radio stations and studios; they could download and surf, visiting anything from Napster to college radio websites to YouTube to discover quirky, fringe, cult genres that would never have made it in the Top-40 world.

What defines 'alt' music more than anything is the cult nature. You might like geek rock, shoegazing, art pop, slow-core, jangle, post-grunge, or nu-metal, and the digital world was waiting to indulge your unique, picky tastes. Never mind that your fan-base will only ever number to the low 10,000s; you're the little group who knows where it's really at! Welcome to the long-tail.

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