Rock, Alternative, Indie, What's The Difference?

Have you ever wondered what the exact definitions for Rock, Alternative Rock and Indie Rock types are? I have always heard these different types of groups and songs all throughout my life but never stopped to think about the true definitions. Our minds have always been able to separate the differences and categorize these songs into the different genres we thought they belonged to but in the end it didn’t matter. If you loved it you listened more to it, if not you didn’t….simple.

DEFINITIONS

Listed below are the three types of rock music, Rock, Alternative and Indie. I have broken down the three types so you can quickly reference the month and year I introduced them in this website. These three explanations come from the Oxford Dictionary, Free Dictionary, A History of Rock Music: 1951–2000 (2003), Guitar World, (Dec of 1995) and All Music (13 Feb, 2011).

ROCK

Rock music is a genre of popular music originating as rock and roll in the 1950s which developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s’ and 1950s’ rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.

Musically, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. One of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music has been a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music.

ALTERNATIVE

Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. It burst into the mainstream when “Smells Like Teen Spirit”—the first major-label single from Nirvana, a trio based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.—became a national hit.

The ‘alternative’ definition refers to the genre’s distinction from mainstream rock music, expressed primarily in a distorted guitar sound, transgressive lyrics and generally a nonchalant, defiant attitude. The term’s original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style, or simply the independent, D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music.

Ironically, most alternative rockers were born between the late 1950s and late ’60s and grew up during the ’70s amid the head-spinning studio refinement and growing social acceptance of the earliest rock music. Whether the richly accessible melodies of the Beatles or the free jams of Led Zeppelin, all music seemed conventional to alternative rockers. They yearned for something different, something apart from what was too accurately called, by the mid-1980s, classic rock. They therefore believed that their interest in such departures would be, by definition, unpopular.

INDIE

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, and lo-fi, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.

As grunge and punk revival bands in the US, and then Britpop bands in the UK, broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective.

In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

The term indie rock, derived from “independent,” describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies, these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences.

Now that you have a better understanding of the definitions of three types of rock music, it’s time to sit back, relax and ENJOY THE MUSIC that has been giving to us from all these creative bands all over the world! Would you add your own definitive comments to these definitions or keep them the same?

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/music/rock-alternative-indie-whats-the-difference