My dad has this attachment to 50s rock and roll and he rightly believes everything in pop music was invented in the 50s and possibly the 60s.

I remember most of these songs (the british ones) coming out and me being fascinated by what could be done differently to what was then the mainstream. However pop quickly devolved through the 80s and I found myself meandering back in time, from late to early Talking Heads, from late to early Genesis and Floyd and Yes and Jethro Tull and Mike Oldfield and Fleetwood Mac, discovering the Beatles and the Beach Boys were actually good at some point, finding out Frank Zappa was a thing and discovering that yes, the guy who made late 20th century pop music up in his garage, with his searches for new sounds and writing his own music and lyrics was indeed one Buddy Holly in the 50s.

Anyway I found myself listening to a rather childish track by Basement Jaxx years later and could not quite put my finger on what made that one track work for me. All these bands that only have one really good track... Anyway what was going on was a Gary Numan sample.

So I went back and listened to some of this old stuff and I was really surpised that some of it still works.

But back in 1980 if you heard Numan, early Midge Ure Ultravox minus the ubiquitous title track of the album, Visage, or a couple of years later the Eurythmics you would hear a sound that was strikingly new and different.

Thinking back Peter Gabriels 3rd solo album (although itself very electronic) took me out of the electronic pop bandcamp and more into alternative rock. That and lucking into a friend who had an older brother who had all the old Genesis records also as sheet music including lyrics. That or David Byrne.

The main point is the music you like is the music you liked when you were 13.

Man. I've had this song forever, labelled as a They Might Be Giants song. I got it from the age of mistitled Napster mp3's.

Edit: Oops -
"On the tribute album A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC, American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants contributed a cover version of "25 O'Clock"."

WELL THEN

One album I can listen to all the way through is Anberlin's album "Cities". It has a good mix of harder (for this kind of alternative rock) and softer songs, the instrumentation is interesting and the lyrics are pretty mature.

Alexithymia is my favorite song, but they are all good.


No. Title
1. "(Début)"
2. "Godspeed"

3. "Adelaide"
4. "A Whisper & a Clamor"
5. "The Unwinding Cable Car"

6. "There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss"
7. "Hello Alone"
8. "Alexithymia"

9. "Reclusion"
10. "Inevitable"
11. "Dismantle.Repair."
12. "(*Fin)"

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Autumn, The Netherlands, Alternative, rock, gothic metal' to 'Autumn, The Netherlands, Alternative, rock, gothic metal, dutch' - edited by kronosposeidon

Tags for this video have been changed from 'alternative, rock, beautiful, i love you, rock band' to 'alternative, rock, beautiful, i love you, rock band, oh say say say' - edited by calvados

Weezer should really stick to their alternative rock/power pop formula, they can't to this many genres.
Listening to their new stuff just makes me want to listen to Pinkerton again...

who on earth came up with something like that???if i ever become a mother i will certainly use these alternative rock songs!!!!!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'alternative, rock, beautiful, i love you' to 'alternative, rock, beautiful, i love you, rock band' - edited by calvados

Tags for this video have been changed from 'rock band' to 'rock band, american, alternative rock, los vegas, 2006' - edited by JAPR

A cover of Bruce Cockburn's track. This was their first song to hit the top 40s in Canada - back in 1991.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barenaked_Ladies
"Barenaked Ladies (often abbreviated BNL or occasionally BnL) is a Canadian alternative rock band currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan. It formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto. It is best known for its hit singles, "One Week", "Pinch Me", "If I Had $1000000", and "Brian Wilson", and for its light-hearted, comedic performance style. The band's trademark at live shows is humorous banter between songs, and improvised raps/songs, both of which are staples at almost every concert"

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Farhad - feel better now?
(He posted this - http://www.videosift.com/video/When-I-was-young-I-thought-this-was-so-cool )

The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986.[1] The band disbanded in 1993 in acrimonious circumstances but reunited in 2004. Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and Dave Lovering have been the band's continual members.

The Pixies found only modest success in their home country, but were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, although never achieving mainstream success with their studio albums. Gigantic is from the <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfer_Rosa">Surfer Rosa album.

Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, and is considered one of the most influential bands of the 1990s. Founded in 1990, Pearl Jam was one of the "Big Four" bands of the grunge movement, alongside Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and sold, as of December 2006, over 31 million records in the U.S. alone. They are one of the few bands to lead the breakthrough of alternative rock in the early 1990s that remain active today.

- More @ Wikipedia

Björk is a Brit Award-winning Icelandic singer/songwriter and composer (formerly the lead singer of alternative rock band The Sugarcubes), with an expressive range and an interest in many kinds of music including pop, alternative rock, jazz, ambient music, electronica, folk, and classical music. She is known for her innovative music videos and individualistic music. Her record label, One Little Indian, reported in 2003 that she has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.

- More @ Wikipedia

The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986.[1] The band disbanded in 1993 in acrimonious circumstances but reunited in 2004. Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and Dave Lovering have been the band's continual members.

The Pixies found only modest success in their home country, but were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, although never achieving mainstream success with their studio albums. Wave of mutilation is from the Doolittle album.

As the true brains behind the Sex Pistols, John Lydon -- formerly Johnny Rotten -- is easily one of the most influential and revered figures in rock & roll. The godfather of British punk, a leader in the arty post-punk movement with Public Image Ltd., and a participant in the alternative rock scene his earlier work helped inspire, Lydon has forged a stubbornly idiosyncratic body of work that reflects both his love of challenging his audience and his snarling contempt for shallowness and conformity.

John Joseph Lydon was born in Finsbury Park, London, England, on January 31, 1956, into a poor, working-class family of Irish descent. At age seven, Lydon contracted spinal meningitis and spent half a year slipping in and out of comas...

Read more? http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:9i6xlfjegcqo~T1