Alternative Rock

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Best Alternative Rock Songs of the 1990's

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Boston
Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ or locally /ˈbɔstən/ ( listen)) is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper, covering only 48.43 square miles, had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now helps attract many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone attracting over 20 million every year. The city was the site of several firsts, including America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and the first subway system in the United States (1897).

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Liverpool
Liverpool ( /ˈlɪvəpuːl/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Liverpool was 445,200 and was part of a larger urban area of 816,216.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were both largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. The city is also home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.

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Los Angeles
Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km²), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".

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Manchester
Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233
Manchester ⁱ/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and the local authority is Manchester City Council.
Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established in c. 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but it began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. An early 19th-century factory building boom transformed Manchester from a township into a major mill town and borough that was granted city status in 1853. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was built, creating the Port of Manchester.

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Minneapolis
Minneapolis (pronunciation: ⁱ/ˌmɪniːˈæpəlɪs/), nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City", is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States. Its name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the city of Minneapolis is 382,578. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with approximately 3.3 million residents. The city is abundantly rich in water, with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway. Among cities of similar densities, Minneapolis has the most dedicated parkland. It was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing the fifth highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. It has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and VOLAGs, as well as private and corporate philanthropy.

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Seattle
Seattle (pronounced /siːˈætɫ̩/ ( listen) see-AT-əl or /siːˈæɾɫ̩/) is the county seat of King County, in the U.S. state of Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country. The city is a major coastal seaport situated on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 114 miles (183 km) south of the Canada–United States border. In 2010, Seattle was the sixth busiest port in the United States, serving as a major gateway for trade with Asia.
The Seattle area had been inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent white settlers.Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to its current site and renamed "Seattle" in 1853, after Chief Seattle of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

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The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda (better known simply as The Haçienda) was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s; during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine. The Haçienda opened in 1982, and despite considerable and persistent financial troubles survived until 1997 – during much of this time the club was mainly supported by record sales from New Order. The Haçienda is associated with the rise of acid house and rave music.
The former warehouse occupied by the club was at 11-13, Whitworth Street West on the southside of the Rochdale Canal: the frontage was curved and built of red brick. Before it was turned into a club, the Haçienda was a yacht builder's shop and warehouse before becoming a Bollywood cinema in the 1970s, showing films to the local Asian community.^{[citation needed]}
Originally conceived by Rob Gretton, it was largely financed by the record label Factory Records and the band New Order along with label boss Tony Wilson. It was located on the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street, close to Castlefield, in the centre of the city. FAC 51 was its official designation in the Factory catalogue. New Order and Tony Wilson were directors of the club.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records Canada.
Her first international album was the rock-influenced Jagged Little Pill, released in 1995. Jagged has sold more than 33 million units globally. Her following album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998 and was a success as well. Morissette took up producing duties for her subsequent albums, which include Under Rug Swept, So-Called Chaos and Flavors of Entanglement. Morissette has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. Morissette is also known for her powerful and emotive mezzo-soprano voice.
Morissette acquired United States citizenship in 2005.
Morissette was born June 1, 1974 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Georgia Mary Ann (née Feuerstein), a teacher of Hungarian descent, and Alan Richard Morissette, a French-Canadian high school principal. She has a twin brother, Wade Morissette, (also a musician) who was born 12 minutes after her. Morissette was raised Catholic. She attended Glebe Collegiate Institute (Ottawa, Canada) for high school.

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Alex Kapranos
Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley (born 20 March 1972 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire), commonly known as Alex Kapranos, is a United Kingdom-based musician who is the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand.
Alex Kapranos was born in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England to an English mother and Greek father. He moved to the North East of England when he was three months old, spending his early childhood in Washington, Tyne and Wear and South Shields,^{[citation needed]} his mother's home town, and spent many summer holidays in his father's native Greece. Huntley is the name his father adopted from his father's aunt. He gets his middle name from Paul McCartney on whom his mother had a crush.
In 1980, he moved with his family to Edinburgh then to Glasgow in 1984 where he attended Bearsden Academy. At the age of seventeen, Kapranos attended the University of Aberdeen to study Theology. After dropping out, he continued his studies at the University of Strathclyde, eventually gaining a BA. He worked as a chef, barman, music promoter, driver, welder and lecturer prior to finding fame with Franz Ferdinand.

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Annie Nightingale
Anne "Annie" Avril Nightingale MBE (born 1 April 1940) is an English radio broadcaster. She is most commonly known by the more informal name of Annie. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 and, since the death of John Peel in October 2004, is its longest-serving presenter.
After attending Lady Eleanor Holles School, Hampton, London and the Polytechnic of Central London School of Journalism Nightingale began her career as a journalist in Brighton. In the 1960s she wrote columns for the Daily Express, the Daily Sketch and Cosmopolitan magazine.
She started at Radio 1 on 1 January 1970 with a Sunday evening show. Later she then hosted the singles review show What's New in the early 1970s before graduating to a late-night progressive rock show, which was simulcast on the Radio 2 FM frequency.
In the late 1970s she presented a Sunday afternoon request show and by 1980 was presenting a Friday night show and the non-music-based Radio 1 Mailbag. In 1978 Nightingale began presenting the The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2; during her tenure the show moved away from its progressive rock bias and embraced more modern, popular styles such as punk rock and new wave.

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Beck
Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck.
The four-time platinum artist rose to underground popularity with his early works, which combined social criticism (as in "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and "Deep Fried Love") with musical and lyrical experimentation. He first earned wider public attention for his breakthrough single "Loser", a 1994 hit. Beck is known for creating musical collages of different styles.
Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay (1996) and Sea Change (2002).Odelay was awarded Album of the Year by the American magazine Rolling Stone and by UK publications NME and Mojo. Odelay also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Both Odelay and Sea Change appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Beck was born in Los Angeles, California, to David Campbell, a Canadian musician, and Bibbe Hansen, a visual artist and former Warhol "star". His father is of Scottish heritage and his mother is half Norwegian, a quarter Jewish and a quarter Swedish. His maternal grandfather is Al Hansen, a visual collage artist of the Fluxus school of art. Beck's paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. When his parents separated, Beck stayed with his mother and brother in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his recorded and published work.

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Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), Robin Guthrie (guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde (also bass guitar) early in the band's career.
While the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."
Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie (bass guitar), both from Grangemouth, Scotland, formed the band in 1979. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who would eventually provide vocals. The band's influences at the time included Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols, Kate Bush, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band was named after the song "The Cocteau Twins" by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, Garlands (released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. Around that time, NME's Don Watson compared the style of the band to goth bands like Gene Loves Jezebel and Xmal Deutschland.

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Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Known for his powerful vocals, he is widely considered an icon of alternative rock.
He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums by other artists. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild (2007). His second album, Ukulele Songs, along with a live DVD titled Water on the Road, was released on 31 May 2011.
Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one year old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. His adopted name became Edward Mueller. While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.

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John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style.
He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres, including pop, reggae, indie rock, alternative rock, punk, hardcore punk, breakcore, grindcore, death metal, British hip hop, and dance music.
Peel's Radio 1 shows were notable for the regular 'Peel sessions', which usually consisted of four songs recorded by an artist live in the BBC's studios, and which often provided the first major national coverage to bands that later would achieve great fame. (These 'sessions' are similar to 'Live Lounge' sessions recorded today for the station.) Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty countdown of his listeners' favourite records of the year.

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Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher; 31 October 1963) is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse. In 2008, he joined The Cribs after touring with them on 2008's NME Awards Tour, a group in which he would remain until 2011.
Marr's jangly Rickenbacker guitar-playing in The Smiths proved to be popular among other musicians and has influenced many guitarists that followed particularly in the Britpop era.
Marr was voted the fourth best guitarist of the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2010.
Marr was born in Ardwick, Manchester, the son of Irish immigrants. His parents came from Athy in County Kildare. In 1975 he attended the Roman Catholic St Augustine's Grammar School, which in 1977 merged with other schools to form a comprehensive school, St John Plessington High School. Marr had aspirations to be a professional football player, and was approached by Nottingham Forest and had trials with Manchester City (which he supports). In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Marr said "I was good enough for City, but they didn't follow up because I was probably the only player out there wearing eyeliner."^{[citation needed]} He currently resides in Manchester with his wife Angie and their children, daughter Sonny and son Nile. Johnny is an honorary board member of Rock For Kids. He is also teetotal and vegan, and runs regularly.

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Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953, Rochester, New York) is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz (of Pussy Galore). Gordon has collaborated with a number of musicians, including Ikue Mori, DJ Olive, William Winant, Lydia Lunch, Courtney Love, Alan Licht, Mike Watt, and Chris Corsano.
The daughter of a seamstress and a high school guidance counselor who worked in Ferguson, Missouri, Gordon and her family moved to Rochester, New York in 1958. The next year, Gordon's family relocated to Los Angeles so that her father could take a job with the UCLA sociology department. After her high school years, Gordon attended the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles County and York University in Toronto where she played in an experimental heavy metal art group.^{[citation needed]}
After graduating, she moved to New York City and joined the short-lived band CKM with Christine Hahn and Stanton Miranda. Through Miranda, Gordon met her future Sonic Youth bandmates Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore. When she began dating Moore, the three formed Sonic Youth in 1981.

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Krist Novoselic
Krist Anthony Novoselic II ( /ˌnoʊvəˈsɛlɪtʃ/; Croatian: Novoselić; born May 16, 1965) is an American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band. From 2006 to 2009 he played in punk band Flipper, also recording an album, and in 2011 contributed bass and accordion to the song "I Should Have Known", from the Foo Fighters' record Wasting Light.
Apart from his musical endeavors, Novoselic has been active politically, including the creation of the political action committee JAMPAC. From November 2007 until September 2010, Novoselic wrote a weekly column on music and politics for Seattle Weekly's website. Since 2008 he has been board chair of the electoral reform organization FairVote.
Novoselic was born to Croatian immigrants Kristo and Marija Novoselić in Compton, California. He lived there for one year before his parents relocated to the Los Angeles Croatian neighborhood of San Pedro, where he remained for most of his childhood. He has two brothers, Robert Alan Novoselic and Dillon Malloy Novoselic, and in 1973, Novoselic's sister Diana was born. The Novoselic family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1979, due to rising property prices in California. In 1980, his parents sent him to live with relatives in Zadar, Croatia, then part of SFR Yugoslavia. There, Novoselic attended the gymnasium. Novoselic was already interested in bands like Led Zeppelin, Devo, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and Aerosmith. He also enjoyed rock bands like Zabranjeno Pusenje, Prljavo Kazaliste and Azra. While in Yugoslavia, he picked up an interest in punk rock, and discovered bands like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. He has cited Paul McCartney, Geezer Butler, John Entwistle, and Gene Simmons as the fundamental influences of his bass playing.

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Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989.
After signing with major label DGC Records, the band found breakthrough success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from its second album Nevermind (1991). Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled "the flagship band" of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as "the spokesman of a generation". Cobain, however, was often uncomfortable and frustrated, believing his message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal issues often subject to media attention. He challenged Nirvana's audience with its final studio album In Utero (1993).
During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression. He also had difficulty coping with his fame and public image, and the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death at age 27 have become a topic of public fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S. alone, and over 50 million worldwide.

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Liam Gallagher
William John Paul "Liam" Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the frontman of rock band Oasis and currently of the band Beady Eye. Gallagher's erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press. He remains one of the most recognisable figures in modern British music.
Although his elder brother Noel Gallagher wrote the majority of Oasis's songs, Liam has penned the singles "Songbird" and "I'm Outta Time", along with a string of album tracks and B-sides. Since Noel's departure from Oasis in August 2009, Liam has said he will continue making music with ex-Oasis members Gem Archer, Andy Bell, drummer Chris Sharrock and keyboard player Jay Darlington, recording under the bandname Beady Eye.
Gallagher was born in Burnage, Manchester, and is the third and youngest child of Irish parents Thomas and Peggy Gallagher. Thomas was often violently abusive to his family and although his older brothers Noel and Paul took the most abuse, Liam has said that the abuse affected him deeply and inspired him to become an artist. When Liam was 10, Peggy took the boys and moved away from Tommy. Although Liam maintained sporadic contact with his father throughout his teens, he has said that their issues remain unresolved.

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Liz Phair
Elizabeth Clark "Liz" Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing audio cassettes under the moniker Girly Sound, before signing with the independent record label Matador Records. Her 1993 debut studio album Exile in Guyville was released to acclaim: by the turn of the 21st century, it had been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair, was released on Capitol Records and her music began to move in a more pop rock-oriented approach. Phair has sold nearly three million records worldwide. Her latest album, Funstyle, was released on July 3, 2010.
Phair was born in New Haven, Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois, by wealthy adoptive parents. She graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. During high school, Phair was involved in student government, yearbook, and the cross country team, and took AP Studio Art her senior year, among many other advanced-level classes. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and majored in art history.

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Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed, born March 2, 1942, is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his solo career, which has spanned several decades. Though the Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era. As the Velvet Underground's principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including sexuality and drug culture.
After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although he subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate. Reed's work as a solo artist frustrated critics wishing for a return of the Velvet Underground. In 1975, Reed released a double album of feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which he later commented, "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive."

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Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad is an American author, journalist and musician. He grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983. During his college years, he was both a roommate and a bandmate of keyboard virtuoso Marc Capelle (who later went on to become a member of American Music Club.)
After college, Azerrad played drums in various small bands while pursuing a career in music journalism. Besides writing features for Spin, Musician and Details, and a stint at MTV News from 1987 through 1992, Azerrad wrote several hundred pieces for Rolling Stone magazine from 1987 through 1993, including cover stories on the B-52's and Nirvana, and was eventually named contributing editor. He has since written major features for The New Yorker, Mojo, Italian GQ and the New York Times, as well as cover stories for Spin and Revolver.
In 1993, Doubleday Books published Azerrad's definitive, best-selling biography of Nirvana, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, which appeared six months before bandleader Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Azerrad spent many months interviewing the band members and their friends, relatives and associates, and Cobain and the other members of the band shared a wide variety of archival materials with him, many of which are reproduced in the book. In 2000, Q magazine named Come as You Are one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written.

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Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band based in Portland, Oregon. They were formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, their lineup has centered around Brock, Green and Judy. Guitarist Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths) joined the band in May 2006, along with percussionist Joe Plummer (formerly of the Black Heart Procession) and multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, to work on the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Guitarist Jim Fairchild joined the band in February 2009. Their name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall" which reads, "I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."

wn.com/Modest_Mouse
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career, making the top ten of the UK Singles Chart on ten occasions. Widely regarded as an important innovator in indie music, Morrissey has been described by music magazine NME as "one of the most influential artists ever," and The Independent has stated "most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status he has reached in his lifetime."Pitchfork Media has called him "one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last twenty years."
Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home." He is also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto), his quiff haircut and his dynamic live performances. His forthright and often contrarian opinions have led to a number of media controversies, and he has also attracted media attention for his advocacy of vegetarianism and animal rights. Morrissey moved to Los Angeles, California in the early 1990s.

wn.com/Morrissey
Neil Strauss
Neil Darrow Strauss (born October 13, 1973), also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter, with both American and Kittitian citizenship.. He is best known for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, where he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to become a "pick-up artist." He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York Times.
After graduating from high school at the Latin School of Chicago, Strauss attended Vassar College. While in school he began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, and editing his first book, Radiotext(e), an anthology of radio-related writings for the postmodern publisher Semiotext(e). He moved on to the Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking before becoming a regular reporter and critic. He was invited by Jon Pareles to become a music critic at The New York Times where he wrote the Pop Life column and front-page stories on Wal-Mart’s CD-editing policies, music censorship, radio payola, and the lost wax figures of country-music stars.

wn.com/Neil_Strauss
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, occasional lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Raised in Burnage, Manchester with Liam, Noel began learning guitar at the age of thirteen. After a series of odd jobs in construction, he worked for local Manchester band Inspiral Carpets as a roadie and technician in 1988. Whilst touring with them, he learned that Liam had formed a band of his own, known as The Rain, which eventually took on the name Oasis. After Gallagher returned to England, he was invited by his brother to join Oasis as songwriter and guitarist.
Oasis' debut album, Definitely Maybe (1994), marked the beginning of the band's rise to fame as head of the Britpop movement. Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, reached the top of the album charts in many countries and their third studio album, Be Here Now, became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history. Britpop eventually declined in popularity and Oasis' next two albums failed to revive it. However, the band's final two albums, Don't Believe the Truth (2005) and Dig Out Your Soul (2008), were hailed as its best efforts in over a decade and found renewed success. On 28 August 2009, following an altercation with Liam prior to a gig in Paris, Gallagher announced his departure from Oasis and on 23 October 2009, he confirmed he would embark on a solo career.

wn.com/Noel_Gallagher
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

wn.com/Patti_Smith
Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein on March 29, 1959) is the frontman for the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Farrell created the touring festival Lollapalooza as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction in 1991; it has since evolved into an annual destination festival. Farrell continues to produce Lollapalooza with partners William Morris Agency and C3. Farrell has led the alternative rock groups Porno For Pyros and Satellite Party. He is also a DJ.
Farrell was born in Queens, New York. He spent his grade-school years in Woodmere, Long Island, and moved to Miami during his teens. His father was a jeweler; his mother was an artist who committed suicide when Farrell was three, an event later noted in the Jane's Addiction songs "Then She Did" and "Twisted Tales".
His early musical influences included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Sly Stone and James Brown. Soon after, he discovered David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Following graduation from high school, Farrell moved to California in the early 1980s to live as a surfer, lived in his car and made money working construction and waiting tables. Farrell has been sighted at premier surfing destinations throughout the world, most notably Bali, in 2001.

wn.com/Perry_Farrell
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector (born Harvey Phillip Spector on December 26, 1939) is an American record producer and songwriter.
The originator of the "Wall of Sound" production technique, Spector was a pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound and produced over 25 Top 40 hits in 1960–1965. Some of his famous girl groups are The Ronettes and The Crystals. After this initial success, Spector later worked with artists including Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Ramones with similar acclaim. He produced The Beatles' Academy Award winning album Let It Be, and the Grammy Award–winning Concert for Bangladesh by former Beatle George Harrison. In 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. The 1965 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced and co-written by Spector for The Righteous Brothers, is listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. airplay in the 20th century.
In 2009 Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home. He is serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life.

wn.com/Phil_Spector
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, harmonica, and most recently, the autoharp.
Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automatic Dlamini, whose vocalist and saxophone player, John Parish, would become her long-term collaborator. In 1991, she formed an eponymous trio and subsequently began her professional career. The trio released two studio albums, Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993) before disbanding, after which Harvey continued as a solo artist. Since 1995, she has released a further six studio albums with collaborations from various musicians including John Parish, former bandmate Rob Ellis, Mick Harvey, and Eric Drew Feldman and has also worked extensively with record producer Flood.
Among the accolades she has received are the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Prize for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake (2011) respectively—the only artist to have been awarded the prize twice—eight BRIT Award nominations, six Grammy Award nominations and two further Mercury Prize nominations. Rolling Stone awarded her 1992's Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter and 1995's Artist of the Year, and listed Rid of Me and To Bring You My Love (1995) on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. In 2011, she was awarded for Outstanding Contribution To Music at the NME Awards.

wn.com/PJ_Harvey
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds (born June 19, 1963 in London, England; raised in Hertfordshire) is an English music critic who is well known for his writings on electronic dance music. Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock. He has contributed to Melody Maker (where he first made his name), The New York Times, Village Voice, Spin, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Observer, Artforum, New Statesman, The Wire, Mojo, Uncut, and others. He currently resides in the East Village in New York City, USA with his wife, Joy Press, and their children, Kieran and Tasmine.
Reynolds' first experience writing about music was with Monitor, a fanzine he helped to found in 1984 while he was studying history at Oxford. The publication only lasted for six issues.^{[citation needed]} When it was discontinued in 1986, Reynolds was already making his name writing for Melody Maker, one of the three major British music magazines of the time (the other two being the New Musical Express and Sounds). His early Melody Maker writings often contained strong criticisms of the concept of "soul" (then being heavily promoted by the NME), and of the somewhat earnest politicisation associated with the Red Wedge movement. He has since stated^{[citation needed]} that his apparent de-politicisation at the time was mainly a result of his sheer despair at Thatcherism and desire to escape - into a parallel world which was, as in the title of his first book, "blissed out". He also wrote a number of articles analysing what has since become known as twee pop from a somewhat sociological perspective, seeing in it a desire to escape the dominant 1980s values of commercialism and Americanisation and to return to a perceived innocent past.

wn.com/Simon_Reynolds
Terry Tolkin
Terry Tolkin was the Vice President of A&R at Elektra Records from 1992 to 1996. He signed a number of critically acclaimed alternative rock bands, including Luna, Stereolab, Afghan Whigs, Scrawl, Jennyanykind and Nada Surf. In addition to his work at Elektra, Terry ran the independent label No.6 Records, which released singles and albums by acts such as The Tindersticks, Charles Douglas, Unrest, Vegetarian Meat, Jule Brown and Dean Wareham. In the early 1980s he worked for Touch & Go Records where he signed the Butthole Surfers and the Virgin Prunes among other bands. Terry was also known for his work as a DJ and booker at popular New York clubs such as Danceteria, CBGBs, and Limelight. He also worked at the seminal 99 Records store in Greenwich Village, the birthplace of Liquid Liquid and ESG.
In 1979, while writing and charting records for the music industry publication Rockpool Newsletter, Terry coined the term "Alternative Music" to raise awareness of the US and UK post-punk groups he was reviewing. In 1988, Terry conceived and produced the alternative rock tribute album The Bridge: A Tribute To Neil Young," which featured many new and upcoming bands who would later achieve great commercial and critical success, such as the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Soul Asylum, Nick Cave and Psychic TV. Over 80% percent of the profits from The Bridge went directly to The Bridge School, an organization for children suffering from Cerebral Palsy run by Neil Young and his wife Peggi. Young once said of the project, "I love it! We played it on the tour bus all year long!" while Rolling Stone Magazine called The Bridge "one of the best conceived and executed" tribute albums of all time. Terry Tolkin currently lives in New Orleans and is writing a book about his experiences in the music industry.

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The Cure
The Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.
After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.

wn.com/The_Cure
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."
Moore was born in Coral Gables, Florida, but was raised in Bethel, Connecticut. Although he enrolled at Western Connecticut State University, he instead moved to New York City to join the burgeoning post-punk/no wave music scenes. At the beginning of his time in New York, he lived in an apartment below artist Dan Graham, eventually befriending him, sometimes using records from Graham's collection for mix tapes.
Once in the city, Moore was briefly a member of the hardcore punk band Even Worse, featuring future The Big Takeover editor (and future Springhouse drummer) Jack Rabid. After exiting the band, Moore and Lee Ranaldo learned experimental guitar techniques in Glenn Branca's "guitar orchestras."

wn.com/Thurston_Moore
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009. The band performed as a trio, including: singer, guitarist and songwriter Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and two drummers, Victor DeLorenzo (1980–1993 and 2002–2009) and Guy Hoffman (1993–2002).
The Violent Femmes released eight studio albums and fifteen singles during the course of their career. The band found immediate success with the release of their self-titled debut album in early 1983. Featuring many of their well-known songs, including "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add It Up" and "Gone Daddy Gone", Violent Femmes became the band's biggest-selling album and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA. Violent Femmes went on to become one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s, selling over 9 million albums by 2005. After the release of their third album The Blind Leading the Naked (1986), the band's future was uncertain and they split up in 1987, when Gano and Ritchie went solo. However, they regrouped a year later, releasing the album 3 (1989). Since then, Violent Femmes' popularity continued to grow, especially in the United States where the songs "Nightmares" and "American Music" cracked the top five on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

wn.com/Violent_Femmes
Wendy Fonarow
Wendy Fonarow aka "the indie professor" is an anthropology instructor at Glendale Community College, writer and music industry professional. She is best known for the book Empire of Dirt, and for her column Ask the Indie Professor in The Guardian.
Wendy Fonarow was born in Los Angeles. As a child she did not have much access to music, but as a teenager she discovered the underground LA nightclubs where she danced to post-punk, goth music and gay anthems.
While studying at University of California in San Diego, she worked at the campus radio station. There she was exposed to bands like The Fall, Pink Industry, Wire, Magazine, and the magazine NME. After graduating, back in LA, she started to go to concerts of similar bands.
In 1989, the Reading Festival was for the first time booked by Mean Fiddler, changing from metal to indie. She wanted to attend but discovered that she could not buy tickets from he USA. Instead she asked Something Happens (an Irish band she had met when they had played the Whiskey-a-Go-Go) for help. They put her in the guest list, which gave her backstage access. There a significant incident happened: an annoyed bartender (because he was a heavy metal fan and didn't like the bands playing) told her: "You don't belong here." But Terry Bickers from The House of Love defended her, telling the bartender that she did belong there. So she found a home in indie music.

wn.com/Wendy_Fonarow

30 Best Alternative rock bands/songs

Some of the best alternative rock bands/songs that I listen to. Alternative Rock, Alternat...

published: 12 Sep 2009

author: Billabongs122988

Best Alternative Rock Songs of the 1990's

Top 200 songs in alternative rock of the 90's Criteria: - only 4 songs per artist...

published: 07 Jun 2011

author: Beckonor

The White Stripes - 'Seven Nation Army'

Directed by Alex & Martin whitestripess.com xlrecordings.com...

published: 21 Oct 2008

author: XLRecordings

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: NirvanaVEVO

Muse - Plug In Baby

published: 08 Feb 2010

author: muse

Coldplay - Paradise

Click here to buy Mylo Xyloto links.emi.com This video was directed by Mat Whitecross in 2...

published: 19 Oct 2011

author: ColdplayVEVO

Top 20 - Alternative Rock Songs

song list: white stripes - fell in love with a girl the strokes - heart in a cage the shin...

published: 25 Mar 2008

author: assemblage23

The All-American Rejects - Swing, Swing

published: 05 Oct 2009

author: AllAmericanRjctsVEVO

The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

Official video for Smashing Pumpkins song "1979" from the album Mellon Collie and the Infi...

published: 03 Aug 2011

author: SmashingPumpkinsVEVO

The Cure - Friday Im In Love

Memorable single from The Cure...

published: 14 Apr 2008

author: polydorclassics

new rock/ alternative song January 2013

Download from soundcloud: soundcloud.com Song: heavy water by Chamber of Noize productions...

published: 07 Mar 2012

author: chamberofnoize

My Top Ten Alternative Rock Songs

the songs are: 1.Breaking Benjamin - Diary of Jane 2.Skillet - Comatose 3.Takida - Ashamed...

published: 01 May 2009

author: peralni4ka

Mountain Sound - Of Monsters & Men

Mountain Sound from Of Monsters & Men's newest album: My Head is an Animal. Check out the ...

published: 03 Apr 2012

author: Ryan Meyer

Radiohead - Creep

Music video by Radiohead performing Creep....

published: 18 Jul 2008

author: parlophone

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photo: AP / Ugarit News via AP video

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show Syrian soldiers dancing to Usher's hit song "Yeah!"

Amid a Bloody War, Syrian Videos Show a Glimpse of Fun

The New York Times

09 Feb 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The video has gone viral in recent days. Syrian government soldiers, in camouflage gear, carrying rocket-propelled grenades and brandishing rifles, mugging for the camera while dancing in a circle to Usher’s hit song “Yeah!”. Enlarge This Image. Ugarit News, via Associated Press ... Related. U.N ... Connect With Us on Twitter ... Twitter List ... But the pro-Assad soldiers are not the only ones rocking out ... Raw ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)

photo: WN / Imran Nissar

Activists of the Jammu and Kashmir Mass Movement (JKMM) shouting anti-India slogans during a protest in support of clemency for Mohammad Afzal Guru in Srinagar on December 13, 2012. Indian police detained some half a dozen activists during the protest. Fellow Kashmiri, Mohammad Afzal Guru was sentenced to death by an Indian court after being found guilty of being involved in the 13 September 2001 attack on India's Parliament House in New Delhi. The protestors appealed to the President to commute the death sentence of Guru and reinvestigate the case.

India hangs man for 2001 attack on Parliament

The Guardian

09 Feb 2013

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian news channels are reporting that a Kashmiri man convicted in the 2001 attack on India's Parliament has been hanged ... World news. Last 24 hours....(size: 5.9Kb)

photo: WN / Janice Sabnal

US north-east battered by 'historic' snowstorm

BBC News

09 Feb 2013

Thick snow is blanketing the north-eastern US as a major storm cuts power to thousands of homes and plays havoc with transport schedules. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and Maine are all on an emergency footing, with millions of residents being warned to stay indoors. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has temporarily banned all non-essential traffic on the state's roads ... Worse to come? ... Stay home." ... Light....(size: 5.7Kb)

photo: AP / Elaine Thompson

A Boeing 777-367 (ER) Cathay Pacific jet is guided to a parking spot by a marshaller at Paine Field Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in Everett, Wash.

Boeing 787 on test flight, 1st since grounding

Jakarta Post

10 Feb 2013

Boeing sent a 787 up on a test flight Saturday, the first since the new airliner was grounded three weeks ago because of a battery fire ... The plan was to spend two and a half hours in the air ... ....(size: 1.0Kb)

photo: White House / Pete Souza

President Barack Obama signs an accompanying letter to Congressional leaders after signing H.R. 152, which provides fiscal year 2013 supplemental appropriations to respond to and recover from the severe damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Jan. 29, 2013.

Liberal in domestic issues, Obama a hawk on war

Dayton Daily News

09 Feb 2013

For all of his liberal positions on the environment, taxes and health care, President Barack Obama is a hawk when it comes to the war on terror. From deadly drones to secret interrogations to withholding evidence in terror lawsuits, Obama's Democratic White House has followed the path of his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush. The U.S ... 11, 2001 ... His confirmation was delayed for three weeks and nearly derailed ... soil ... security....(size: 9.1Kb)

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Remake Remodel

Skiddle

10 Feb 2013

South , Manchester Mon 11th February 2013. The Nation's Saving Grace of Alternative, Rock 'n' Roll ..... Date. Monday 11th February 2013. Venue. South ». Location. Manchester ». Doors. 11.00pm til 3.00am (last entry 1.00am). Short url. http.//www.skiddle.com/events/11775140/.   event info venue news Remake Remodel details ... REMAKE REMODEL / MONDAYS AT SOUTH / ... Come get it on.... Alternative, Rock ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)

Eric Church - Rockin’ in the country

The News & Observer

10 Feb 2013

His most recent release, 2011’s “Chief,” won the coveted Album-of-the-Year award from the Country Music Association in November – after turning up on year-end best-lists from the alternative-rock magazine Spin and National Public Radio ... But if you listen to Church’s music, his cross-genre appeal to rock fans isn’t hard to fathom....(size: 3.3Kb)

Liberal radio host so turned off by listeners’ gun views he quits own show

The Examiner

10 Feb 2013

Suppose you’re a libtalker with your own call-in radio show. You have your own bully pulpit, but yours callers simply won’t listen to reason. Do you cut their mikes? Nope, you cut your own. That’s what Tim Benz, co-host of the “Morning Show” on Pittsburgh alternative rock station 105.9 The X, did Friday morning ... Benz is quoted as saying. ... I wasn't able to walk away from the fight ... P ... The 55th annual Grammys are set to rock the nation ... ....(size: 7.5Kb)

Neighborhood Theatre gets renovations, new management

The Charlotte Observer

09 Feb 2013

Under JEM Entertainment it expanded its scope to include hip-hop (Jurassic 5, the X-Ecutioners), indie-rock (Built to Spill) and alternative rock (Metric) with a large focus on jam bands and, more recently, electronic dance music. It still maintained a foothold in the country and bluegrass market, and hosted such diverse events as a Latin rock festival and professional wrestling....(size: 3.5Kb)

Nominations for top alt-rock band

Independent online (SA)

09 Feb 2013

The Durban-based rock outfit has been nominated for Best Live Act as well as Best Newcomer. The alternative rock band, made up of brothers Brad and Josh Klynsmith, Jonathan Rich and Hardus de Beer, will come up against popular bands like Bittereinder, Fokofpolisiekar, Jeremy Loops, The Black Cat Bones and Van Coke Kartel for the Best Live Act award....(size: 3.1Kb)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release free stream of new album 'Push the Sky Away'

The Examiner

09 Feb 2013

On Feb. 8 the Australian alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released a free advance stream of their upcoming album, "Push the Sky Away" on NPR's website. The album is set to be released on Feb. 18 via Bad Seed Ltd ... Suggested by the author. ... Tweet. 0 Email ... She has interviewed and reviewed artists from every genre including, hip-hop, rock, punk, country, R&B;, and metal ... The 55th annual Grammys are set to rock the nation ... ....(size: 6.5Kb)

Reality radio: CD102.5 hopes to land TV deal

The Columbus Dispatch

09 Feb 2013

Connect With Us. The Bottom Line. The downtown Columbus version of  The Hills Market in Worthington is starting to interview workers for its grand opening this spring ... “But that’s part of rock ’n’ roll, man ... Malloy and a local video producer hope the goings-on at the local alternative-rock radio station will make good television ... There are moments of drama — more so because we’r e dealing with rock stars, egos, clients, listeners ... ......(size: 9.6Kb)

Tegan and Sara's "Heartthrob" Debuts at #3; announce Summer Tour with FUN

The Examiner

09 Feb 2013

Nominated For First Ever GRAMMY Award * Headlining Beacon Theatre in NYC Feb 19th & 20th ... More than doubling their previous high for Sainthood's first week back in 2009, Heartthrob sold over 49,000 copies this week, debuting at #3 on Billboard Top 200 and #1 on both the Billboard Alternative and Rock charts ... Says Jack Antonoff of FUN ... 08/22 Red Rocks Amphitheatre - Denver, CO ... Tweet ... The 55th annual Grammys are set to rock the nation....(size: 10.7Kb)

Live Entertainment 0208

Hernando Today

08 Feb 2013

Bar Envy. 11060 Spring Hill Drive. (352) 686-5171. Tonight – DJ. Saturday – Karaoke. Genre. Classic rock, alternative rock, hip hop, modern Top 40 hits. Bayport Inn Restaurant & Lounge. 4835 Cortez Blvd. (352) 596-1088. Tonight from 6 to 10 p.m. – Peter Canon*. Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. – Wendy and the Soul Shakers* ... – Rebound Band* ... Genre ... Classic Rock ... Classic/Southern Rock ... Rock and Roll; Country Rock ... ....(size: 1.9Kb)

Brimstone Blondes drop new EP

Buffalo News

08 Feb 2013

Citing as primary influences edgy ’80s alternative rock of artists like Talking Heads and the Clash, Brimstone Blondes also boast a raunchy, psychobilly-esque edge....(size: 0.9Kb)

Successful festival debuts last year bring return dates in 2013 (Photos)

The Examiner

08 Feb 2013

A busy music festival season now includes the debut of another multi-day event. The Shaky Knees Music Festival takes place May 4 and 5 at Atlanta’s Historic Fourth Ward Park and Masquerade Music Park. The lineup includes Grammy-nominated the Lumineers, Band of Horses, Jim James, Drive By Truckers, Gary Clark Jr., Dr ... Music Festivals 2013 ... 7 ... Its alternative rock lineup plays July 12-14 at Cincinnati’s Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove ... ....(size: 6.9Kb)

Yahoo Daily News

07 Feb 2013

Alternative rock artist Dom Liberati is making a special pre-Valentine’s Day concert appearance at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 ... Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 07, 2013 Alternative rock artist Dom Liberati is making a special pre-Valentine’s Day concert appearance at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on Tuesday, February 12, 2013....(size: 3.4Kb)

A woman of a certain rage

Sydney Morning Herald

07 Feb 2013

... national music festival, makes clear that this is nirvana for hard-rock fans, heavy-metal devotees and pop-punk acolytes ... ''I personally find that being part of that line-up a big compliment,'' declares the vocalist of recently reformed alternative-rock noisemakers Garbage....(size: 1.4Kb)

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For other uses of the term "Alternative", see Alternative. For the radio format associated with this genre, see Modern rock.

Alternative rock
Stylistic origins	Punk rock – post-punk – hardcore punk – New Wave
Cultural origins	Late 1970s–early 1980s, United Kingdom and United States
Typical instruments	Vocals – electric guitar – bass – drums – keyboards
Mainstream popularity	Limited before the success of grunge and Britpop in the 1990s. Widespread since then.
Subgenres
Britpop – College rock – Dream pop – Grunge – Indie rock – Indie pop – Jangle pop – Math rock – Noise pop – Noise rock – Post-Britpop – Post-grunge – Post-rock – Paisley Underground – Shoegazing
Fusion genres
Alternative dance – Alternative metal – Industrial rock – Madchester – Post-punk revival – Psychobilly – Riot Grrrl
Regional scenes
Athens, Georgia – Illinois – Los Angeles – Manchester, England – Massachusetts – Seattle, Washington
Other topics
Bands – History – Independent music – Indie music scenes – College radio – Lollapalooza - New Prog

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 and 2000s. Although the term was most commonly associated in its commercial heyday with a loud, distorted guitar sound, its 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.^[1] At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock (including some examples of punk itself, as well as New Wave, and post-punk).

Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. By the end of the 1980s magazines and zines, college radio airplay and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock, helping to define a number of distinct scenes such as gothic rock, jangle pop, noise pop, C86, Madchester, industrial music, and shoegazing. Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü and R.E.M., had even signed to major labels. But most alternative bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, and most acts 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 commercially successful.

1 The term alternative rock
2 Characteristics
3 History
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links

[edit] The term alternative rock

Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms.^[2] In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about.^[3] 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 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.^[4] By 1985, it had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status.^[5] . The use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s;^[6] at the time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were new music and post modern, respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past.^[1]^[7] Individuals who worked as DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of 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".^[8] 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".^[9] Usage of 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. The use of alternative gained further exposure due to the success of Lollapalooza, for which festival founder and Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell coined the term Alternative Nation. In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific.^[1] 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".^[9]

Defining music as alternative 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", but 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."^[10] 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.^[11] Until recent years when Indie Rock became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock,^[12] the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably; whilst there are aspects which both genres have in common, indie rock was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American alternative rock.^[13]

Characteristics [link]

The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s.^[14] 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 ever since some of the major alternative artists have achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onwards (especially since the new millennium and beyond). Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth.^[15] As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although The New York Times in 1989 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."^[16] Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the jangling guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the '60s/'70s revivalism of Britpop. More often than in other rock-styles since the mainstreaming of rock music during the 1970s, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, and environmentalism.^[15] 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.^[17]

History [link]

Alternative rock in the 1980s [link]

Male singer in white shirtsleeves and trousers, with a band behind him on a small stage.

One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. relied on college radio airplay, constant touring, and a grassroots fanbase to break into the musical mainstream.

By 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels were mining from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years.^[18]

"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 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"

—Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar speaking in 1988 ^[19]

Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock was 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 the 1980s was primarily relegated to independent record labels, fanzines, and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the case of the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit in America, filled with different scenes in various parts of the country.^[14] 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.^[20] By 1989 the genre had become popular enough that a package tour featuring New Order, Public Image Limited and The Sugarcubes toured the United States arena circuit.^[21]

In contrast, British alternative rock was distinguished from that of the United States early on 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.^[22] 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 that had cult followings in the United States received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly music press, and many alternative bands had chart success there.^[23]

The American underground in the 1980s [link]

A woman and a man playing guitar in performance. The woman on the left is dressed in a short dress and the man on the right is in jeans and a shirt.

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

Early American alternative bands such as 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; its debut album, Murmur (1983), entered 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.^[14]

American indie record labels SST Records, Twin/Tone Records, Touch and Go Records, and Dischord Records presided over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging.^[24] 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.^[14] Michael Azerrad asserted that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and 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."^[25] By focusing on heartfelt songwriting and wordplay instead of political concerns, The Replacements upended a number of underground scene conventions; Azerrad noted that "along with R.E.M. [The Replacements] were one of the few underground bands that mainstream people liked."^[26]

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^[27]) and industrial rock (Ministry, Nine Inch Nails). These sounds were in turn followed by the advent of Boston's the Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction.^[14] Around the same time, the grunge subgenre emerged in Seattle, Washington. Grunge was based around a sludgy, murky guitar sound that synthesized heavy metal and punk rock.^[28] Largely based around the Seattle indie label Sub Pop, grunge bands were noted for their thrift store fashion which favored flannel shirts and combat boots suited to the local weather.^[29] Early grunge bands Soundgarden and Mudhoney found critical acclaim in the U.S. and UK, respectively.^[14]

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 the stage for alternative's later breakthrough.^[30]^[31] Some bands such as the Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically.^[14]

British genres and trends of the 1980s [link]

Head and shoulders shot of man, with wild, tangled hair and lipstick on, playing in a stage spotlight.

Robert Smith of The Cure rejects the genre labels like alternative, gothic rock, and college rock applied to his band. He has said, "Every time we went to America we had a different tag ... I can't remember when we officially became 'alt-rock'".^[32]

Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk. With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock", gothic rock utilizes a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes", and the genre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism.^[33] This genre among bands that took inspiration from late-1970s British post-punk groups, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.^[34] Bauhaus' debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released in 1979, is considered to be the proper beginning of the gothic rock genre.^[35] The Cure's "oppressively dispirited" albums Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981), and Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in that style and laid the foundation its large cult following.^[36]

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". Reynolds noted that The Smiths' "whole stance was predicated on their British audience being a lost generation, exiles in their own land".^[37] The Smiths' embrace of the guitar in an era of synthesizer-dominated music is viewed as signaling the end of the New Wave era and the advent of alternative rock in Britain. Despite the band's limited chart success and short career, The Smiths exerted an influence over 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.^[22] 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.^[38]^[39]

Other forms of alternative rock developed in 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,^[40]^[41] while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with techno and house music.^[22] The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr., C86 and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins, were 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^[42]^[43] 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.^[44] Shoegazing bands dominated the British music press at the end of the decade along with the Madchester scene. Based around 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.^[45]

Popularization in the 1990s [link]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

noicon

Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind (1991). The sample illustrates the change in dynamics from verse to pre-chorus and chorus. This structure of "quiet verses with wobbly, chorused guitar, followed by big, loud hardcore-inspired choruses" became a much-emulated template in alternative rock because of "Teen Spirit."^[1]

Problems listening to this file? See media help.

By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was enticed by alternative rock's commercial possibilities and major labels actively courted bands including Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, Firehose, and Nirvana.^[30] In particular, R.E.M.'s success had become a blueprint for many alternative bands in the late 1980s and 1990s to follow; the group had outlasted many of its contemporaries and by the 1990s had become one of the most popular bands in the world.^[14]

The breakthrough success of the band Nirvana led to the widespread popularization of alternative rock in the 1990s. The release of the band's single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from its second album Nevermind (1991) "marked the instigation of the grunge music phenomenon". Due to constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991.^[46] The success of Nevermind surprised the music industry. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general."^[47] Michael Azerrad asserted that Nevermind symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which the glam metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant.^[48]

Nirvana's surprise success with Nevermind heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular.^[49] In the wake of Nevermind, alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming ... into the mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands.^[50] 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."^[51] However, many alternative rock artists rejected success, for it conflicted with the rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity.^[52]

The grunge explosion [link]

Main article: Grunge

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam

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 the Billboard 200 album chart.^[53] Soundgarden's album Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains' Dirt, 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.^[54] The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool."^[29] Major record labels signed most of the prominent grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success.^[55]

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."^[56] The New York Times compared 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.^[29] 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."^[57] Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 In Utero topped the Billboard charts.^[58] 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.^[59]

Britpop [link]

Main article: Britpop

Two-thirds body shot of a singer wearing a coat with wide lapels; a guitar player is in the background. Both have short, blond hair.

Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis

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.^[22] 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.^[60] Dubbed "Britpop" by the media, this movement represented by Pulp, Oasis, Suede, and Blur 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.^[22] 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.^[61] In 1995 the Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles on the same day. Blur won "The Battle of Britpop", but Oasis soon eclipsed the other band in popularity with its second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995),^[62] which went on to become the third best-selling album in Britain's history.^[63]

Other trends [link]

Long synonymous with alternative rock as a whole, indie rock became a distinct form following the popular breakthrough of Nirvana. Indie rock was formulated as a rejection of both 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 commercialized music, 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".^[64] 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 the 1990s.^[65] 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.^[66] The period also saw alternative confessional female singer-songwriters. Besides the previously mentioned Liz Phair, PJ Harvey and the massively successful Alanis Morissette fit into this sub group.^[67]^[68]

During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge. Post-grunge bands such as Candlebox and Bush emerged soon after grunge's breakthrough. These artists 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." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production.^[69]

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 the name of the genre was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in 1994, the sound of the genre was solidified by the release of Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) by the Chicago group Tortoise. Post-rock became the dominant form of experimental rock music in the 1990s and bands from the genre centered around the Thrill Jockey, Kranky, Drag City, and Too Pure record labels.^[70] A related genre, math rock, peaked in the mid-1990s. In comparison to post-rock, math rock is more "rockist" and relies on complex time signatures and intertwining phrases.^[71] While by the end of the decade a backlash had emerged against post-rock due to its "dispassionate intellectuality" and its perceived increasing predictability, a new wave of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós emerged who further expanded the genre.^[70]

After almost a decade in the underground, ska acts became popular in the United States in 1996 with Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake and Save Ferris charting or getting radio exposure.^[72]

Mid to late 1990s: decline of popularity [link]

By the end of the decade, alternative rock's mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events, notably the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in 1994 and Pearl Jam's lawsuit against concert venue promoter Ticketmaster, which in effect barred the group from playing many major venues around the United States.^[52] In addition to the decline of grunge bands, Britpop faded as Oasis's third album, Be Here Now (1997), received lackluster reviews and Blur began to incorporate influences from American alternative rock.^[73] A signifier of alternative rock's declining popularity 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 is as comatose as alternative rock right now".^[74]

Despite alternative rock's declining popularity, some artists retained mainstream relevance. Post-grunge remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century, when bands like Creed and Matchbox Twenty became among the most popular rock bands in the United States.^[69] 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 and Coldplay, were major forces in British rock in subsequent years.^[75]

Alternative rock in the 21st century: further refinement, exiting the mainstream [link]

Two thirds body shot of singer with short brown hair, wearing a black shirt and jeans, performing on stage. A band is partially visible in the background.

Alex Kapranos of post-punk revival group Franz Ferdinand

During 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.^[76] 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 Modest Mouse, The Killers, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, found commercial success in the early 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."^[77] Despite the resurgence, changes in the industry, declining sales, and advertising/media focus on R&B and pop music have effectively removed alternative rock from any mainstream consideration with few albums from primarily headlining acts such as Radiohead, Muse, and The Killers charting in the Top 10 during 2005-2010.^[78]

By 2010, in the United States the term alternative rock fell out of common usage. Most references to rock music today are to the indie rock genre, a term that had previously limited usage on alternative rock channels and media.^[12] Alternative rock radio stations still in operation today involve music from that period with singles from other complementary genres and artists. Stations have also made quiet format changes to modern rock or adult album alternative to broaden their appeal to the older 18-49 demographic, while others have undergone format changes away from the rock genre altogether.^[79]

Bibliography [link]

Azerrad, Michael. Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47199-8
Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991. Little Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "American Alternative Rock/Post-Punk". Allmusic. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "British Alternative Rock". Allmusic. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
Harris, John. Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock. Da Capo Press, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X
Lyons, James. Selling Seattle: Representing Contemporary Urban America. Wallflower, 2004. ISBN 1-903364-96-5
Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-303672-6
Fonarow, Wendy. Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music. Wesleyan, 2006. ISBN 0-8195-6811-2
Noise From The Underground : A History Of Alternative Rock, by Michael Lavine and Pat Blashill. ISBN 0-684-81513-3. Simon And Schuster Publishing, 1996

References [link]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d di Perna, Alan. "Brave Noise—The History of Alternative Rock Guitar". Guitar World. December 1995.
^ Azerrad (2001), p. 446
^ Azerrad (2001)
^ Will the indie chart rise again? The Guardian 31 July 2009
^ Reynolds, p. 391
^ Thompson, Dave. "Introduction". Third Ear: Alternative Rock. San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 2000. P. viii
^ Reynolds, p. 338
^ Mullen, Brendan. Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2005. P. 19. ISBN 0-306-81347-5
^ ^a ^b Forget Pearl Jam. Alternative Rock Lives by Neil Strauss for The New York Times March 2, 1997
^ Starr, Larry; Waterman, Christopher. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. P. 430. ISBN 0-19-510854-X
^ Alternative Rock by Dave Thompson reprinted by Google Books
^ ^a ^b Ask the indie professor: why do Americans think they invented indie? For years, Americans never used the term 'indie', preferring to label the likes of Bush 'alternative'. But things changed. The Guardian. July 28, 2011. Wendy Fonarow. Wendy Fonarow is a professor of anthropology in Los Angeles and the author of Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie.
^ http://altmusic.about.com/od/historyofaltindiemusic/a/alternavsindie.htm
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "American Alternative Rock/Post-Punk". Allmusic. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
^ ^a ^b "Rock Music." Microsoft Encarta 2006 [CD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.
^ Pareles, Jon. (March 5, 1989). "A New Kind of Rock". NYTimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/05/arts/home-entertainment-recordings-soundings-a-new-kind-of-rock.html. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
^ Charlton, Katherine. Rock Music Styles: A History. McGraw Hill, 2003. P. 346–47. ISBN 0-07-249555-3
^ Reynolds, p. 392–93.
^ POP/JAZZ; Rock by Any Other Name Is 'Alternative' The New York Times July 15, 1988
^ Azerrad (2001), p. 3–5.
^ Review/Rock; Arena-Size Bill of Alternative Rock The New York Times July 21, 1989 "It was the final show on a package tour that brought what used to be post-punk alternative rock, the province of clubs and cult audiences, to the arena circuit across the United States."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "British Alternative Rock". Allmusic. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
^ Charlton, p. 349
^ Reynolds, p. 390
^ Azerrad (2001), p. 159
^ Azerrad (2001), p. 196
^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Jesus Lizard bio, Allmusic. [1] Access date: August 25, 2008.
^ "Genre – Grunge". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2679. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c Marin, Rick. "Grunge: A Success Story." The New York Times. November 15, 1992.
^ ^a ^b Azerrad (1994), p. 160
^ Azerrad (1994), p. 4
^ Spitz, Marc. "Robert Smith." Spin. November 2005.
^ "Genre – Goth Rock". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d387. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
^ Reynolds, p. 352
^ Reynolds, p. 359
^ Reynolds, p. 357-58
^ Reynolds, p. 392
^ Hann, Michael (October 13, 2004). "Fey City Rollers". London: guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/oct/13/popandrock. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
^ Hasted, Nick (October 27, 2006). "How an NME cassette launched indie music". London: Independent.co.uk. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/how-an-nme-cassette-launched-indie-music-421802.html. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
^ "The Jesus and Mary Chain Biography". http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/the-jesus-and-mary-chain/biography.
^ "Encyclopædia Britannica: the Jesus and Mary Chain". http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303087/the-Jesus-and-Mary-Chain?anchor=ref666600.
^ "Shoegaze". http://www.soundunwound.com/genre/shoegaze/8782150.
^ Rogers, Jude (July 27, 2007). "Diamond gazers". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/jul/27/popandrock.
^ "Genre – Shoegaze". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2680. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
^ "Genre – Manchester". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d4391. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
^ Lyons, p. 120
^ Olsen, Eric (April 9, 2004). "10 years later, Cobain lives on in his music". MSNBC.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4652653/. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
^ Azerrad (1994), p. 229–30
^ Rosen, Craig. "Some See 'New Openness' Following Nirvana Success." Billboard. January 25, 1992.
^ Browne, David (August 21, 1992). "Turn That @#!% Down!". EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311492,00.html. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
^ Pareles, Jon (February 28, 1993). "Great Riffs. Big Bucks. New Hopes?". NYTimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/28/arts/pop-view-great-riffs-big-bucks-new-hopes.html. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
^ ^a ^b Considine, J.D. "The Decade of Living Dangerously." Guitar World. March 1999.
^ Pearlman, Nina. "Black Days." Guitar World. December 2002.
^ Lyons, p. 136
^ Azerrad (2001), p. 452–53
^ Kobel, Peter (April 2, 1993). "Smells Like Big Bucks". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,306055,00.html. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
^ DeRogatis, Jim. Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90s. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81271-1, p. 18
^ "In Numero Uno". Entertainment Weekly. October 8, 1993. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308282,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
^ Hajari, Nisid (November 19, 1993). "Pearl's Jam". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308749,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
^ Youngs, Ian. "Looking back at the birth of Britpop". BBC News. August 14, 2005. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
^ Harris, p. 202
^ Harris, p. xvii
^ "Queen head all-time sales chart". BBC.co.uk. November 16, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6151050.stm. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
^ "Indie Rock". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2687. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
^ Azerrad (2001), pg. 495–497.
^ "Lo-Fi". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2678. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
^ Billboard Alanis Morissette Artist biography
^ Billboard Artist biography PJ Harvey
^ ^a ^b "Post-Grunge". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2771. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
^ ^a ^b "Post-Rock/Experimental". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d2682. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
^ "Math Rock". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d4560. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
^ Alternative Rock by Dave Thompson P112 published by Google books
^ Harris, p. xix
^ Weisbard, Eric. "This Monkey's Gone to Heaven." Spin. July 1998.
^ Harris, p. 369–70
^ "New Wave/Post-Punk Revival". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:13761. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
^ Hiatt, Brian; Bonin, Lian; Volby, Karen (July 9, 2004). "The Return Of (Good) Alt-Rock". EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,659881,00.html. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
^ http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/01/business/fi-music1
^ The Sad Unwarranted Decline of FM Rock Stations. Slate. May 17, 2012.

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This article is about the band. For the band's self-titled album, see The Cure (The Cure album). For other uses, see Cure (disambiguation).

The Cure
The Cure performing in Singapore in 2007. Left to right: Porl Thompson, Jason Cooper (back), Robert Smith, Simon Gallup.
Background information
Origin	Crawley, England
Genres	Gothic rock,^[1]^[2] alternative rock, New Wave, post-punk
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Fiction, Suretone, Geffen, Polydor, Elektra, Asylum, Sire
Associated acts	Malice, Easy Cure, The Glove, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Website	www.thecure.com
Members
Robert Smith Simon Gallup Roger O'Donnell Jason Cooper Reeves Gabrels
Past members
Lol Tolhurst Michael Dempsey Matthieu Hartley Andy Anderson Phil Thornalley Boris Williams Porl Thompson Perry Bamonte

The Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.^[1]^[2]^[3]

After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004.^[4] The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.^[5]

1 History
2 Musical style
3 Music videos
4 Legacy
5 Discography
6 Members
7 See also
8 References
9 Sources
10 Further reading
11 External links

History [link]

Formation and early years (1973–1979)[link]

The first incarnation of what became The Cure was The Obelisk, a band formed by students at Notre Dame Middle School in Crawley, Sussex. The band made their public debut in a one-off performance in April 1973, and featured Robert Smith (piano), Michael "Mick" Dempsey (guitar), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion), Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar) and Alan Hill (bass guitar).^[6] In January 1976 the band took a more substantial form of what would be when Ceccagno formed Malice with Smith and Dempsey along with two other classmates from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, with Ceccagno on lead, Smith on guitar, and Dempsey switching to bass. Ceccagno soon left, however, to form a jazz-rock fusion band called Amulet. Increasingly influenced by the emergence of punk rock, Malice's remaining members became known as Easy Cure in January 1977.^[7] By this time, Smith and Dempsey had been joined by Lol Tolhurst from The Obelisk on drums, and new lead guitarist Porl Thompson. Both Malice and Easy Cure auditioned several vocalists before Smith finally assumed the role of Easy Cure's frontman in September 1977.^[8]

That year, Easy Cure won a talent competition with German label Hansa Records, and received a recording contract. Although the band recorded tracks for the company, none were ever released.^[9] Following disagreements in March 1978 over the direction the band should take, the contract with Hansa was dissolved. Smith later recalled, "We were very young. They just thought they could turn us into a teen group. They actually wanted us to do cover versions and we always refused."^[9] Thompson was dropped from the band in May, and the remaining trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) were soon renamed The Cure by Smith.^[10] Later that month the band recorded their first sessions as a trio at Chestnut Studios in Sussex, which were distributed as a demo tape to a dozen major record labels.^[11] The demo found its way to Polydor Records scout Chris Parry, who signed The Cure to his newly formed Fiction label—distributed by Polydor—in September 1978.^[12] The Cure released their debut single "Killing an Arab" in December 1978 on the Small Wonder label as a stopgap until Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor. "Killing an Arab" garnered both acclaim and controversy: while the single's provocative title led to accusations of racism, the song is actually based on French existentialist Albert Camus's novel The Stranger.^[13] The band placed a sticker label that denied the racist connotations on the single's 1979 reissue on Fiction. An early NME article on the band wrote that The Cure "are like a breath of fresh suburban air on the capital's smog-ridden pub-and-club circuit" and noted "With a John Peel session and more extensive London gigging on their immediate agenda, it remains to be seen whether or not The Cure can retain their refreshing joie de vivre."^[14]

The Cure released their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in May 1979. Because of the band's inexperience in the studio, Parry and engineer Mike Hedges took control of the recording.^[15] The band, particularly Smith, were unhappy with their debut; in a 1987 interview, he admitted, "a lot of it was very superficial – I didn't even like it at the time. There were criticisms made that it was very lightweight, and I thought they were justified. Even when we'd made it, I wanted to do something that I thought had more substance to it".^[16] The band's second single "Boys Don't Cry" was released in June. The Cure then embarked as the support band for Siouxsie and the Banshees' Join Hands promotional tour of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales between August and October. The tour saw Smith pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist with The Banshees when John McKay quit the group.^[17] That musical experience had a strong impact on him: "On stage that first night with the Banshees, I was blown away by how powerful I felt playing that kind of music. It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I'd wanted us to be like The Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing."^[18]

The Cure's third single "Jumping Someone Else's Train" was released in early October 1979. Soon afterwards, Dempsey was dropped from the band because of his cold reception to material Smith had written for the upcoming album.^[19] Dempsey joined the Associates, while Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) from The Magspies joined The Cure. The Associates toured as support band for The Cure and The Passions on the Future Pastimes Tour of England between November and December—all three bands were on the Fiction Records roster—with the new Cure line-up already performing a number of new songs for the projected second album.^[20] Meanwhile, a spin-off band comprising Smith, Tolhurst, Dempsey, Gallup, Hartley and Thompson, with backing vocals from assorted family and friends, and lead vocals provided by their local postman Frankie Bell released a 7-inch single in December under the assumed name of Cult Hero.^[21]

Early Gothic Phase (1980–1982)[link]

	"One Hundred Years" (1982) noicon Sample of "One Hundred Years" from Pornography.
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Due to the band's lack of creative control on the first album, Smith exerted a greater influence on the recording of The Cure's second album Seventeen Seconds, which he co-produced with Mike Hedges.^[22] The album was released in 1980 and reached number 20 on the UK charts. A single from the album, "A Forest", became the band's first UK hit single, reaching number 31 on the singles chart.^[23] The album was a departure from The Cure's sound up to that point, with Hedges describing it as "morose, atmospheric, very different to Three Imaginary Boys."^[24] In its review of Seventeen Seconds the NME said, "For a group as young as The Cure, it seems amazing that they have covered so much territory in such a brief time."^[25] At the same time, Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image".^[26] Smith told the press he was fed up with the anti-image association that some considered to be "elaborately disguising their plainness", stating, "We had to get away from that anti-image thing, which we didn't even create in the first place. And it seemed like we were trying to be more obscure. We just didn't like the standard rock thing. The whole thing really got out of hand."^[27] That same year Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged for the American market as Boys Don't Cry, with new artwork and a modified tracklist. The Cure set out on their first world tour to promote both releases. At the end of the tour, Matthieu Hartley left the band. Hartley said, "I realised that the group was heading towards suicidal, sombre music—the sort of thing that didn't interest me at all."^[28]

The band reconvened with Hedges to produce their third album Faith (1981), which furthered the mood of misery present on Seventeen Seconds.^[29] The album peaked at number 14 on the UK charts.^[23] Included with cassette copies of Faith was an instrumental soundtrack for Carnage Visors, an animated film shown in place of an opening act for the band's 1981 Picture Tour.^[30] In late 1981, The Cure released the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". By this point, the sombre mood of the music had a profound effect on the attitude of the band. The band would refuse requests for older songs in concert, and sometimes Smith would be so absorbed by the persona he projected onstage he would leave at the end in tears.^[31]

In 1982, The Cure recorded and released Pornography, the third and final album of an "oppressively dispirited" trio that cemented the Cure's stature as purveyors of the emerging gothic rock genre.^[32] Smith has said that during the recording of Pornography he was "undergoing a lot of mental stress. But it had nothing to do with the group, it just had to do with what I was like, my age and things. I think I got to my worst round about Pornography. Looking back and getting other people's opinions of what went on, I was a pretty monstrous sort of person at that time".^[16] Gallup described the album by saying, "Nihilism took over [. . .] We sang 'It doesn't matter if we all die' and that is exactly what we thought at the time."^[33] Parry was concerned that the album did not have a hit song for radio play and instructed Smith and producer Phil Thornalley to polish the track "The Hanging Garden" for release as a single.^[34] Despite the concerns about the album's uncommercial sound, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, charting at number eight.^[23] The release of Pornography was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, where the band finally dropped the anti-image angle and first adopted their signature look of big, towering hair and smeared lipstick on their faces.^[35] The tour also saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to leave The Cure at the tour's conclusion. Gallup and Smith did not talk to each other for eighteen months following his departure.^[36]

Increasing commercial success (1983–1986)[link]

	"Just Like Heaven" (1987) noicon Sample of "Just like Heaven" from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
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With Gallup's departure from The Cure and with Smith's work with Siouxsie and the Banshees, rumours spread that The Cure had broken up. In December 1982, Smith remarked to Melody Maker, "Do The Cure really exist any more? I've been pondering that question myself [. . .] it has got to a point where I don't fancy working in that format again." He added, "Whatever happens, it won't be me, Laurence, and Simon together any more. I know that."^[37]

Parry was concerned at the state of his label's top band, and became convinced that the solution was for The Cure to reinvent its musical style. Parry managed to convince Smith and Tolhurst of the idea; Parry said, "It appealed to Robert because he wanted to destroy The Cure anyway."^[38] With Tolhurst now playing keyboards instead of drums, the duo released the single "Let's Go to Bed" in late 1982. While Smith wrote the single from as a throwaway, "stupid" pop song to the press,^[39] it became a minor hit in the UK, reaching number 44 on the singles chart.^[23] It was followed in 1983 by two more successful songs: the synthesiser-based "The Walk" (number 12), and "The Love Cats", which became the band's first British Top 10 hit, reaching number seven.^[23] The group released these studio singles and their B-sides as the compilation album Japanese Whispers, designed by Smith for the Japanese market only, but released worldwide on the decision of the record company. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees, contributing as guitarist on their Nocturne live video and their Hyaena studio album. Meanwhile, he recorded the Blue Sunshine album with Banshees bassist Steven Severin as The Glove, while Lol Tolhurst produced the first two singles and debut album of the English band And Also The Trees.

In 1984, The Cure released The Top, a generally psychedelic album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums—played by Andy Anderson—and the saxophone—played by returnee Porl Thompson. The album was a Top 10 hit in the UK, and was their first studio album to break the Billboard 200 in the U.S., reaching number 180.^[23]^[40] Melody Maker praised the album as "psychedelia that can't be dated", while pondering, "I've yet to meet anyone who can tell me why The Cure are having hits now of all times."^[41] The Cure then embarked on their worldwide "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and producer-turned-bassist Phil Thornalley on board. Released in late 1984, The Cure's first live album, Concert consisted of performances from this tour. Near the tour's end, Anderson was fired for destroying a hotel room and was replaced by Boris Williams.^[42] Thornalley also left because of the stress of touring.^[43] However, the bassist slot was not vacant long, for a Cure roadie named Gary Biddles had brokered a reunion between Smith and former bassist Simon Gallup, who had been playing in the band Fools Dance. Soon after reconciling, Smith asked Gallup to rejoin the band.^[44] Smith was ecstatic about Gallup's return and declared to Melody Maker, "It's a group again."^[45]

In 1985, the new line-up of Smith, Tolhurst, Gallup, Thompson, and Williams released The Head on the Door, an album that managed to bind together the optimistic and pessimistic aspects of the band's music between which they had previously shifted.^[46] The Head on the Door reached number seven in the UK and was the band's first entry into American Top 75 at number 59,^[23]^[40] a success partly due to the international impact of the LP's two singles, "In Between Days" and "Close to Me". Following the album and world tour, the band released the singles compilation Standing on a Beach in three formats (each with a different track listing and a specific name) in 1986. This compilation made the US Top 50,^[40] and saw the re-issue of three previous singles: "Boys Don't Cry" (in a new form), "Let's Go To Bed" and later "Charlotte Sometimes". This release was accompanied by a VHS or LaserDisc called Staring at the Sea, which featured videos for each track on the compilation. The Cure toured to support the compilation and released a live concert VHS of the show, filmed in the south of France called The Cure in Orange. During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and the Benelux countries) and increasingly popular in the U.S.^[47]

[edit] Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and worldwide success (1987–1993)

In 1987, The Cure released the double LP Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, which reached number six in the UK, the Top 10 in several countries^[48] and was the band's first entry into the U.S. Top 40 at number 35 (where it was certified platinum),^[23]^[40]^[49] due to the combination of the band's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?".^[50] The album's third single, "Just Like Heaven" was the band's most successful single to date in the US, being their first to enter the Billboard Top 40.^[51] After the album's release, the band embarked on the successful Kissing Tour. During the European leg of the tour, Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform so The Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him.^[52]

	"Lovesong" (1989) noicon Sample of "Lovesong" from Disintegration. "Lullaby" (1989) noicon Sample of "Lullaby" from Disintegration.
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In 1989, The Cure released the album Disintegration, which saw a return to the gothic atmospheres of earlier releases like Faith and Pornography.^[53] It became their highest charting album in the UK to date, entering at number three and featuring three Top 30 singles in the UK and Germany ("Lullaby", "Lovesong" and "Pictures of You").^[23]^[54] Disintegration also reached number twelve on the US charts.^[40] The first single stateside, "Fascination Street", reached number one on the American Modern Rock chart, but was quickly overshadowed when its third US single, "Lovesong", reached number two on the American pop charts (the only Cure single to reach the US Top 10).^[51] By 1992, Disintegration had sold over three million copies worldwide.^[55]

During the Disintegration sessions, the band gave Smith an ultimatum that either Tolhurst would have to leave the band or they would.^[56] In February 1989, Tolhurst's exit was made official and announced to the press;^[57] this resulted in Roger O'Donnell becoming a full-fledged member of the band and left Smith as The Cure's only remaining founder member. Smith attributed Tolhurst's dismissal to an inability to exert himself and issues with alcohol, concluding, "He was out of step with everything. It had just become detrimental to everything we'd do."^[58] Because Tolhurst was still on the payroll during the recording of Disintegration, he was credited in the album's liner notes as playing "other instruments", however it has since been revealed that he contributed nothing to the album in either performance or song writing. The Cure then embarked on the Prayer Tour, which saw the band playing stadiums in the US. On 6 September 1989, The Cure performed "Just Like Heaven" at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.^[59] In February 1990, the song won the Brit Award for Best British Video.^[60]

In May 1990, Roger O'Donnell quit and was replaced with the band's guitar technician Perry Bamonte. That November, The Cure released a collection of remixes called Mixed Up. The album was not well received and quickly slid down the charts.^[61] The one new song on the collection, "Never Enough", was released as a single. In 1991 The Cure were awarded the Brit Award for Best British Group.^[62] That same year Tolhurst filed a lawsuit against Smith and Fiction Records in 1991 over royalties payments, and claimed joint ownership of the name "The Cure" with Smith; the verdict was handed out in September 1994 in favour of Smith. In respite from the lawsuit, the band returned to the studio to record their next album.^[63] Wish reached number one in the UK and number two in the US and yielded the international hits "High" and "Friday I'm in Love".^[23]^[40] The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" with Cranes, and released the live albums Show (September 1993) and Paris (October 1993). As a promotional exercise with the Our Price music chain in the UK, a limited edition EP was released consisting of instrumental outtakes from the Wish sessions. Entitled Lost Wishes, the proceeds from the four-track cassette tape went to charity. In 1993, the band were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for Wish.^[64]

In the years between the release of Wish and the start of sessions for The Cure's next album, the band's line-up shifted again. Thompson left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Bamonte took over as lead guitarist. Boris Williams also left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly of My Life Story).

Period of transition (1994–1998)[link]

The album sessions began in 1994 with only Smith and Bamonte present; the pair were later joined by Gallup (who was recovering from physical problems) and Roger O'Donnell, who had been asked to rejoin the band at the end of 1994.^[65] The Cure performed "Burn" in the movie The Crow and "Dredd Song", the theme song of the 1995 movie Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone (The former song despite never being released as a single nor ever played live, is regarded a fan favourite of Cure fans and fans of 'The Crow'). It was not released on a Cure album until 2004 on Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978–2001 (The Fiction Years).

Wild Mood Swings, finally released in 1996, was poorly received compared with previous albums and marked the end of the band's commercial peak.^[66] Early in 1996, the Cure played festivals in South America, followed by a world tour in support of the album Galore. Galore contained all of the Cure's singles released between 1987 and 1997, as well as the new single "Wrong Number", which featured longtime David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels also accompanied The Cure on a brief American radio festival tour as an onstage guest guitarist for "Wrong Number". In 1998 The Cure contributed to the soundtrack album for The X Files feature film as well as the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, with their cover of "World in My Eyes".

	"Out of This World" (2000) noicon Sample of "Out of This World" from Bloodflowers.
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Later years (1999–2009)[link]

With only one album left in their record contract and with commercial response to Wild Mood Swings and the Galore compilation lacklustre, Smith once again considered that the end of The Cure might be near and thus wanted to make an album that reflected the more serious side of the band.^[67] The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000 after being delayed since 1998.^[68] According to Smith, the album was the third of a trilogy along with Pornography and Disintegration.^[69] The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. In 2001, The Cure left Fiction and released their Greatest Hits album and DVD, which featured the music videos for a number of classic Cure songs. In 2002, the band headlined twelve major summer music festivals, and played three extended concerts (one in Brussels, two in Berlin) in which they performed the albums Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers in their respective entireties each night. The Berlin performances were released on DVD as The Cure: Trilogy in 2003.

In 2003, The Cure signed with Geffen Records. In 2004, they released a new four-disc boxed set on Fiction Records titled Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001 (The Fiction Years). The compilation includes seventy Cure songs, some previously unreleased, and a 76-page full-colour book of photographs, history and quotes, packaged in a hard cover. The album peaked at number 106 on the Billboard 200 album charts.^[40] The band released their twelfth album The Cure on Geffen in 2004, which was produced by Ross Robinson. It made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004.^[23]^[40] To promote the album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that May. From 24 July to 29 August, The Cure headlined the Curiosa concert tour of North America. While attendances were lower than expected, Curiosa was still one of the more successful American summer festivals of 2004.^[70] The same year the band was honoured with an MTV Icon award in a television special presented by Marilyn Manson.^[71]

The Cure in concert in 2004. From left to right: Robert Smith, Jason Cooper, and Simon Gallup

In May 2005, Roger O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte were fired from the band. O'Donnell claims Smith informed him he was reducing the band to a three-piece. Previously O'Donnell said he had only found out about the band's upcoming tour dates via a fan site and added, "It was sad to find out after nearly 20 years the way I did but then I should have expected no less or more."^[72] The remaining members of the band—Smith, Gallup and Cooper—made several appearances as a trio before it was announced in June that Porl Thompson would be returning for the band's 2005 Festival summer shows, as well as their set at Live 8 in Paris on 2 July. Later that year, the band recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Love" for Amnesty International's charity album Make Some Noise. It is available for download on the Amnesty website, while the album was released on CD in 2006. On 1 April 2006, The Cure appeared at the Royal Albert Hall on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It was their only show through to the end the year. In December a live DVD, entitled The Cure: Festival 2005 including 30 songs of their 2005 Festival tour was released.

The Cure began writing and recording material for their thirteenth album in 2006. Smith initially stated it would be a double album.^[73] The Cure announced a last-minute postponement of their autumn 2007 North American 4Tour in August in order to continue working on the album, rescheduling the dates for spring 2008.^[74] Titled 4:13 Dream, the album was released in October 2008. The group released four singles and an EP—"The Only One", "Freakshow", "Sleep When I'm Dead", "The Perfect Boy" and Hypnagogic States respectively—on or near to the 13th of each month, in the months leading up to the album's release. In February 2009, The Cure received the 2009 Shockwaves NME Award for Godlike Genius.^[75]

Reunion with former members and next album (2010–present)[link]

On January 13, 2010, Smith announced on The Cure's website that they were working on the follow-up to 4:13 Dream and an iTunes exclusive release. He explained, "There is an 'exclusive' iTunes Cure album still in the works... and part two of the Dream sessions is slowly taking shape."^[5] In August 2011, Smith told Hot Press that The Cure may not be interested in wrapping up the leftover material that was recorded during the 4:13 Dream sessions. He explained, "It's one of those things that it's been left so long now I expect it will come out as a half-finished sort of thing. I'm not sure if the band wants to complete it, which is sort of the elephant in the room. What happened to the second half of the album? No one mentions it! We're aware that it's there. Nobody really wants to talk about it. Maybe it will come up after a few post-festival beers!". Smith later added, "I think between now and this time next year, The Cure will take precedence over anything else. Until I get the second half of this album out, I won't do another collaboration."^[76]

In 2011, the band played their first three studio albums in their entirety during two shows in Sydney, Australia. These "Reflections" shows notably featured Roger O'Donnell and Laurence Tolhurst, both in a keyboard and percussion role. Porl Thompson was absent from the performances. The shows are due to be released on DVD in 2012.^[77] The band later headlined Bestival. Roger O'Donnell again joined the band on stage. On 11 September 2011, Roger O'Donnell announced on his Facebook page that he had officially rejoined the band. The band announced seven more Reflections shows, one in London, three in New York City and three in Los Angeles.^[78] On Tuesday 27 September, The Cure was announced as a nominee for 2012 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[79] The Cure have been announced as one of the three headliners of the 2012 Reading and Leeds Festivals.

Musical style [link]

The Cure are often identified with the gothic rock subgenre of alternative rock, and are viewed as one of the form's definitive bands. However, the band has routinely rejected classification, particularly as a gothic rock band. Robert Smith said in 2006, "It's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure", and added, "We're not categorisable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out, but in total it's impossible [...] I just play Cure music, whatever that is."^[80] Smith has also expressed his distaste for gothic rock, describing it as "incredibly dull and monotonous. A dirge really."^[81] While typically viewed as producers of dark and gloomy music, The Cure have also yielded a number of upbeat songs. Spin has said "The Cure have always been an either/or sort of band: either [...] Robert Smith is wallowing in gothic sadness or he's licking sticky-sweet cotton-candy pop off his lipstick-stained fingers."^[82]

The Cure's primary musical traits have been listed as "dominant, melodic bass lines; whiny, strangulated vocals; and a lyric obsession with existential, almost literary despair."^[83] Most Cure songs start with Smith and Gallup writing the drum parts and bass lines. Both record demos at home and then bring them into the studio for fine-tuning.^[84] Smith said in 1992, "I think when people talk about the 'Cure sound,' they mean songs based on 6-string bass, acoustic guitar, and my voice, plus the string sound from the Solina."^[84] On top of this foundation is laid "towering layers of guitars and synthesisers".^[85] Keyboards have been a component of the band's sound since Seventeen Seconds, and their importance increased with the instrument's extensive use on Disintegration.^[86] With the Departure of Roger O'Donnell in 2005, keyboards have not been as prominent in the band's album 4:13 Dream and their live shows.

Music videos [link]

The band's early music videos have been described as "dreadful affairs" and have been maligned for their poor quality, particularly by the band itself. Lol Tolhurst said, "Those videos were unmitigated disasters; we weren't actors and our personalities weren't coming across."^[87] It was with the video for "Let's Go to Bed", their first collaboration with director Tim Pope, that The Cure would become noted for their videos. Pope added a playful element to the band's videos; the director insisted in a 1987 Spin interview, "I think that side of them was always there, but was never brought out."^[16] Pope would go on to direct the majority of The Cure's videos, and his videos, which became synonymous with the band, helped expand The Cure's audience during the 1980s.^[88] Pope explained the appeal of working with The Cure by saying, "The Cure is the ultimate band for a filmmaker to work with because Robert Smith really understands the camera. His songs are so cinematic. I mean on one level there's this stupidity and humour, right, but beneath that there are all [Smith's] psychological obsessions and claustrophobia."^[81]

Legacy [link]

The Cure were one of the first alternative bands to have chart and commercial success in an era before alternative rock had broken into the mainstream. In 1992 the NME declared The Cure had during the 1980s become "a goth hit machine (19 to date), an international phenomenon and, yep, the most successful alternative band that ever shuffled disconsolately about the earth".^[55] Smith has noted he looks at Cure-influenced bands like Interpol and My Chemical Romance with affection, adding, "I also think [Interpol bassist] Carlos D.'s obsession with Simon Gallup is sweet."^[89] Interpol lead singer, Paul Banks was quoted as saying "The Cure is the band that all of us in Interpol can say influenced us. When I was younger I listened to them a lot. Carlos as well. Actually, he took a straight influence from this band on the way he played the bass and the keys. To me, Robert Smith is also one of these examples: you can't be Robert Smith if you're not Robert Smith. It's one of the bands with the deepest influence on Interpol, because we all like them. They're legendary."^[90]

Several references to The Cure and their music have been made in popular culture. A number of films have used the title of a Cure song as the film's title, including Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Just Like Heaven (2005). The Cure's gloomy image has been the subject of parody at times. In series two of The Mighty Boosh, The Moon sings 'The Love Cats' over the credits. In the same episode, a powerful gothic hairspray, Goth Juice, is said to be "The most powerful hairspray known to man. Made from the tears of Robert Smith." The Mary Whitehouse Experience often featured brief clips of the stars of the show performing comical songs and nursery rhymes as The Cure in a morose style. Robert Smith appeared in the final episode of the first series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience singing "The sun has got his hat on" before punching the character Ray (played by Robert Newman) whilst uttering Ray's catchphrase "Oh no what a personal disaster". Robert Smith was also portrayed on an episode of South Park (Season 1, Episode 12) where he transforms into the form of Mothra and battles Mecha-Streisand to save the day and Kyle shouts "Disintegration is the best album ever!" In Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets the chapter seven is called "Just Like Heaven". The same chapter shows Raina singing some lyrics from this song to Craig.

Discography [link]

Main article: The Cure discography

Three Imaginary Boys (1979)
Boys Don't Cry (1980)
Seventeen Seconds (1980)
Faith (1981)
Pornography (1982)
Japanese Whispers (1983)
The Top (1984)
The Head on the Door (1985)
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)
Disintegration (1989)
Wish (1992)
Wild Mood Swings (1996)
Bloodflowers (2000)
The Cure (2004)
4:13 Dream (2008)

Members [link]

Main article: The Cure personnel

Current line-up

Robert Smith – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1976–present)
Simon Gallup – bass guitar, keyboards (1979–1982, 1985–present)
Roger O'Donnell – keyboards (1987–1990, 1995–2005, 2011–present)
Jason Cooper – drums, percussion (1995–present)
Reeves Gabrels – guitars (2012–present)

References [link]

^ ^a ^b John Doran, John (27 October 2008). "The Cure: Selecting The Best For One Side Of A C90". thequietus. http://thequietus.com/articles/00620-the-cure-selecting-the-best-for-one-side-of-a-c90. Retrieved 2-2-2012. "It doesn’t matter if we all die” begins Pornography, The Cure’s gothic piece de resistance - a laudably existential opening salvo on this acid fuelled, sensuous and senseless gape into the void."
^ ^a ^b Mason, Stewart. "Pornography Review". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r4928/review. Retrieved 1-2-2012. "one of the key goth rock albums of the '80s"
^ McNulty, Bernadette (24 March 2008). "The Cure: Godfather of goth relishes his power". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3672066/The-Cure-Godfather-of-goth-relishes-his-power.html. Retrieved 5-2-2012.
^ Lee, Steve (8 July 2004). "Move Day 2: The Cure interview". ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/s/123/123396_move_day_2_the_cure_interview.html. Retrieved 31 March 2007.
^ ^a ^b "I GIVE MYSELF VERY GOOD ADVICE.". thecure.com. http://www.thecure.com/blog/default.aspx?nid=24247. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
^ Apter, pg. 26
^ Apter, pg. 38
^ Apter, pg. 46
^ ^a ^b Frost, Deborah. "Taking The Cure With Robert". Creem. 1 October 1987.
^ Apter, pg. 56–57
^ Apter, pg. 62
^ Apter, pg. 68
^ Hull, Robot A. "The Cure: ...Happily Ever After". Creem. January 1982.
^ Thrills, Adrian. "Ain't No Blues for the Summertime Cure". NME. 16 December 1978.
^ Apter, pg. 84
^ ^a ^b ^c Sweeting, Adam. "The Cure – Curiouser and Curiouser". Spin. July 1987.
^ Apter, pg. 105
^ Interview of Robert Smith made by Alexis Petridis in 2003. The Siouxsie & The Banshees authorised biography, Mark Paytress, Sanctuary 2003, page 96
^ Apter, pg. 106
^ Apter, pg. 112
^ Apter, pg. 100–101
^ Apter, pg. 114
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Roberts, David (ed.). British Hit Singles & Albums. Nineteenth edition. HIT Entertainment, date=2006. Pg. 130. ISBN 1-904994-10-5
^ Apter, pg. 117
^ Kent, Nick. Seventeen Seconds review. NME. 26 April 1980.
^ Gosse, Van. "The Cure Play It Pure". The Village Voice. 21 April 1980.
^ Morley, Paul. "Days of Wine and Poses". NME. 12 July 1980.
^ Apter, pg. 126
^ Apter, pg. 132
^ Apter, pg. 136
^ Apter, pg. 141
^ Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. Penguin, 2005. Pg. 358. ISBN 0-14-303672-6
^ Apter, pg. 161
^ Apter, pg. 158–59
^ Apter, pg. 166–67
^ Apter, pg. 171
^ Sutherland, Steve. "The Incurables". Melody Maker. 18 December 1982.
^ Apter, pg. 174
^ Apter, pg. 176
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Artist Chart History – The Cure: Albums". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/the-cure/chart-history/4388. Retrieved 19 September 2008.
^ Kent, Nick. The Top review. Melody Maker. 5 May 1984.
^ Apter, pg. 205
^ Apter, pg. 207
^ Apter, pg. 208
^ Sutherland, Steve. "A Suitable Case for Treatment". Melody Maker. 17 August 1985.
^ Apter, pg. 209-10
^ Apter, pg. xii–xiii
^ Lescharts.com.
^ "Gold & Platinum: Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH. Retrieved 19 September 2008. Note: User needs to enter "The Cure" as a search term for the Artist.
^ Lescharts.com.
^ ^a ^b "The Cure > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=THE. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
^ Apter, pg. 229
^ Witter, Simon. "The Cure: The Art of Falling Apart". Sky. June 1989.
^ "Chartverfolgung / CURE,THE / Single" (in German). musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/CURE%2CTHE/single. Retrieved 19 September 2008.
^ ^a ^b Collins, Andrew. "The Mansion Family". NME. 18 April 1992.
^ Apter, pg. 238
^ Apter, pg. 240
^ Brown, James. "Ten Years in Lipstick and Powder". NME. 8 April 1989
^ Luke Crampton (1999). "Rock stars encyclopedia". p.268. Retrieved 4 December 2011
^ The Brits: The Cure. Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2012
^ Apter, pg. 252
^ "Smith: in his own words". Music Week. 20 November 2004. ISSN 0265-1548. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-125568562/smith-his-own-words.html. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
^ Apter, pg. 255
^ The Cure Rock on the Net. Retrieved 11 February 2012
^ Apter, pg. 270
^ Apter, pg. 275
^ Apter, pg. 281, 284
^ Apter, pg. 284
^ Hodgkinson, Will (30 May 2003). "Timeless tunesmith". The Guardian (Manchester). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2003/may/30/homeentertainment.features. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
^ Apter, pg. 295
^ The Cure take the icon test BBC. Retrieved 24 December 2011
^ MacNeil, Jason (27 May 2005). "Update: Two Members Exit The Cure". Billboard. Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071231194706/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000938147. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
^ "The Cure Announce Return". MTV.co.uk. 13 May 2009. http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/the-cure/news/41675-the-cure-announce-return. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
^ Lindsay, Cam (24 August 2008). "The Cure Postpone Fall Tour". Exclaim.ca. http://exclaim.ca/articles/generalarticlesynopsfullart.aspx?csid1=0&csid2=844&fid1=27383. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
^ "Shockwaves NME Awards 2009: The Winners". NME. Retrieved on 14 April 2009.
^ "With goth on his side". Hot Press. 2011-08-30. http://www.hotpress.com/music/interviews/8208790.html?new_layout=1&page_no=5&show_comments=1. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
^ "Reflections DVD will be released later this year". Scoop.it. http://www.scoop.it/t/vivid-live-the-cure/p/123175546/reflections-dvd-will-be-released-later-this-year. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
^ The Cure to perform first three albums live at Royal Albert Hall – ticket details NME. Retrieved 15 November 2011
^ The Cure, Guns N' Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers shortlisted for Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame NME. Retrieved 15 November 2011
^ "Smith seeks cure for writers' block". Yahoo.com. 6 December 2006. http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/06122006/325/smith-seeks-cure-writers-block.html&e=l_news_dm. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
^ ^a ^b Sandall, Robert. "The Cure: Caught In The Act". Q. May 1989.
^ Greenwald, Andy. "The Cure – The Head on the Door". Spin. July 2005.
^ Blackwell, Mark; Greer, Jim. "Taking the Cure". Spin. June 1992.
^ ^a ^b Gore, Joe. "The Cure: Confessions of a Pop Mastermind". Guitar Player. September 1992.
^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Cure". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifpxqe5ld6e~T1. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
^ Apter, pg. 241
^ Apter, pg. 177–78
^ Raggett, Ned. "Staring at the Sea: The Images (review)". Allmusic (AllMusic.com). http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:5zh9kextsq70. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
^ Spitz, Marc. "Robert Smith". Spin. November 2005.
^ "Paul Banks (Interpol) on The Cure". Blitz Magazine. October 2010.

Sources [link]

Apter, Jeff. (2006). Never Enough: The Story of the Cure. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-827-1

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Cure

Official website
The Cure Records – the most complete discography on the Internet
The Cure discography at Discogs

The Cure

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

Boys Don't Cry
Happily Ever After
Japanese Whispers
Standing on a Beach/Staring at the Sea
Mixed Up
Assemblage CD Collection
Galore
Greatest Hits
Join the Dots
4play

EPs

Videos

Staring at the Sea: The Images
The Cure Live in Japan
The Cure in Orange
Picture Show
Play Out
Show
Galore: The Videos 1987–1997
Greatest Hits
Trilogy
Festival 2005

Articles	Discography Personnel

Labels	Fiction Suretone Geffen Polydor Elektra Asylum Sire Warner

Bands	Associates Babacar COGASM Cult Hero Easy Cure Fools Dance The Glove Levinhurst Lockjaw The Magazine Spies Malice Presence Shelleyan Orphan Siouxsie and the Banshees

Albums	Nocturne Hyæna Essential Glastonbury

Songs	"I'm a Cult Hero"

Book
Category

The Cure singles discography

1970's

1978: "Killing an Arab"
1979: "Boys Don't Cry"; "Jumping Someone Else's Train"

1980's

1980: "A Forest"
1981: "Primary"; "Charlotte Sometimes"
1982: "A Single"; "Let's Go to Bed"
1983: "The Walk"; "The Love Cats"
1984: "The Caterpillar"
1985: "In Between Days"; "Close to Me"
1986: "Boys Don't Cry (New Voice – New Mix)"
1987: "Why Can't I Be You?"; "Catch"; "Just Like Heaven"
1988: "Hot Hot Hot!!!"
1989: "Lullaby"; "Fascination Street"; "Lovesong"

1990's

1990: "Pictures of You"; "Never Enough"; "Close to Me (Remix)"
1992: "High"; "Friday I'm in Love"; "A Letter to Elise"
1996: "The 13th"; "Mint Car"; "Gone!"
1997: "Strange Attraction"; "Wrong Number"

2000's

2001: "Cut Here"; "Just Say Yes"
2004: "The End of the World"; "Taking Off" ("alt.end")
2008: "The Only One"; "Freakshow"; "Sleep When I'm Dead"; "The Perfect Boy"

Other songs	1979 "10:15 Saturday Night"

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	Book: Alternative rock
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Died: 2001-09-01

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[edit] The term alternative rock

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[edit] Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and worldwide success (1987–1993)

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