alternative
Alternative music from the underground, straight to your listening device.
How Punk Rock Changed My Life
I grew up listening to music. My Dad was a child of the 60s and enjoyed bands such as The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles. My Mom on the other hand was a child of the 70s, and love the music of Edward Bear, Dr. Hook, and Sweeney Todd. I grew up with this music. I am forever grateful to my parents for introducing me to such great music. Bands like The Guess Who, BTO, and Trooper were a big part of my childhood. Although I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. As a kid I didn't really have an interest in music. As I grew older a lot of different bands entered my life. Let's start with the first album I ever bought with my own money. "Weird Al" Yankovic's Bad Hair Day. I was so in love with this album, and now as an adult, I appreciate it on a higher level. Let's fast forward to 1999. I was at school in the gym for something, and someone played Green Day's Nimrod album. I had never heard of this band, but was intrigued by their music. So on one family vacation, I was able to go to a record store, and buy the album. And it changed me. I listened to the song The Grouch for hours on end. I had never heard music like this before. So fast paced and fun. It wasn't until a few years later that I really became a fan of punk. At that time I was a subscriber to Rolling Stone Magazine, and every year they would chronicle who was going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The year was 2003, and that was the year The Clash were inducted. I had never heard them before, but below their picture on suggested listening was the song "London Calling," I listened to it and I was hooked. I soon heard "Rock The Casbah," and I wanted to find everything out I could about this band. So on a trip to Winnipeg I had $20 in my pocket, and I bought The Essential Clash. One of the best albums I have ever bought. This band was my introduction to punk rock; songs like "Tommy Gun," "London Calling," and "Complete Control," just blew me away. I loved how fast paced and fun they were.
By Terry Koss6 years ago in Beat
Popular Shoegaze/Dreampop Groups
Dreampop AKA Shoegaze has been around since the early 1980s with origins in the United Kingdom, but eventually reaching cultural popularity within the states thanks to groups like My Bloody Valentine and Lush solidifying this sub-genre’s social impact on the youth of the early 90s
By Jayla McKiver7 years ago in Beat
Tribute to Kurt D. Cobain
I've always been a music lover. What oxygen is to common people, music is to my brain. I just cannot function without it. It feels as if I get teleported to some other parallel universe, and since music became my passion, my first ever gift as a child was a toy guitar, and second, a piano. Later on, my grandmother, who enjoyed music equally, decided to lend me her radio since she saw I just couldn't live without music. I loved listening to the Radio everyday, and the more I listened to it, the more my thirst for music increased, and I couldn't constraint myself by listening just to the local media and songs available. I decided to listen to all sorts of the world's music that I got exposed too without judgment. Slowly and gradually, I started to fall in love with sweet boy bands with all the romantic love songs on my playlist.
By Maliha Anwer7 years ago in Beat
Your New Favorite Band—April 2019
When I first heard the name, “Rainbow Girls,” all I could think of was some “pop” genre girl band, or a weird k-pop group coming up from the underground. However, I was shocked to find that the self proclaimed, “Rainbow Girls” were a trio of “eclectic folk singers” (as stated on their website). I immediately fell in love with their raspy sound that I, personally, can appreciate no matter who you are.
By Evie Gricoski7 years ago in Beat
Forever to the Moon
Hi, first things first, my name's Violet. I started releasing music by the age of 15, by the name of Forever to the Moon. The reason behind the project name is because I've always had such huge dreams, and it's like they say, "The sky is the limit."
By Violet Moreno7 years ago in Beat
Twenty Years Young: 'Whatever and Ever, Amen'
The year is 1998. I have just come back from New York visiting my brother, and am so incredibly proud of scoring an autograph from two of the Spice Girls and am spending sunny and hazy days listening to cassettes of "Spice Up Your Life", shouting “GIRL POWER” at every boy who passed me and kicking them with my Doc Martins on the football pitch. But incidentally, this was also the very year I started to take piano lessons.
By Jessica Bailey7 years ago in Beat
An Idiot's Guide to Emo
The messages society is giving us are changing. We're told to open up and talk about our feelings now, as opposed to the stiff upper lip mentality of before. We're told to break out of the man box, that it's okay for boys to cry now. In a time where everyone will probably know someone affected by mental illness (one in four of us will, to be precise), this change in tune is vital. But when you think about it, the mainstream is only just catching up with what alternative culture has known for decades.
By E.W Hemmings7 years ago in Beat
