OFF: GARRRUNNNGGGG!!!

[Stephen Swann]

Keith Henderson writes:
>
> I always thought the alternative movement (not necessarily grunge per se)
> began well before 'Seattle' days, originally in Minneapolis with the
> Replacements, Husker Du, and Soul Asylum.  And also in LA.  Jane's Addiction
> eventually, but also the Minutemen/fIREHOSE and X (I guess..dunno much about
> 'em)...and anyone on SST.  The Seattle/Portland bands just dumbed it down
> until it was consumable by the masses.  The final result:  Matchbox 20!!

The alternative movement is a myth invented by the music marketing and
sales industry, because they need a "category" to tell record stores
to file the albums under.  I'll bet that BOC's first album would have
been classified as "alternative", if the marketroids had thought of
that term in 1972.

But the musical lineage that you're talking about goes back through
the punk movement and the Stooges, and probably back to bizzarro
proto-punk like Hasil Adkins, at which point I lose the thread
of it.  ;-)

Steve
swann at plutonia.com