I think it's a four-way tie between R.E.M, The Replacements, Husker Du, and Sonic Youth.

R.E.M.

R.E.M. was probably the first popular one, but there were others before them.

I think it's a four-way tie between R.E.M, The Replacements, Husker Du, and Sonic Youth.


Yeah, I'd say circa late 1986 was the very beginning of Alt rock's mainstream entrance (although I guess the Talking Heads sort of were too, so that could go all the way back to '80!). Jane's Addiction is probably the first "harder" alt rock band to kinda break through, though.

Yeah, I'd say circa late 1986 was the very beginning of Alt rock's mainstream entrance (although I guess the Talking Heads sort of were too, so that could go all the way back to '80!). Jane's Addiction is probably the first "harder" alt rock band to kinda break through, though.


Yeah, that was the beginning of it, with Sonic Youth, Husker Du, R.E.M, The Replacements, etc. getting some mainstream airplay. At that point I think it was sort of starting to be a subculture, though it didn't get big until 1988.

Actually Id say Alt-Rock actually had its start in the mid 70s with the MC5.

I think of alt rock as having started in NYC, with the Velvet Underground, in the late '60s. It then branched off to some of the CBGB type stuff like The Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, Wire, Patti Smith, etc., and to the "British dark-wave" like Joy Division, The Smiths, and The Cure, and stuff like Elvis Costello. Alt rock as we know it, IMO, started c. 1983 or 1984, with the Replacements breaking out, and R.E.M. breaking out with Murmur. The root of it is a combination of folk, post-punk, and various other influences from '60s and '70s rock, with alot of guitar distortion reminiscent of the '60s. Both of those became "college rock", and then noise rock like Sonic Youth also became considered "alternative." I think Sonic Youth were the first band that's sort of Nirvana-like.