alternative rock, pop music, built on distorted guitars and rooted in generational discontent, that dominated and changed rock between 1991 and 1996. It burst into the mainstream when “Smells Like Teen Spirit”—the first major-label single from Nirvana, a trio based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.—became a national hit. Suddenly, older, difficult, and even anarchic movements, as well as a previous decade of do-it-yourself college rock, acquired a flashy beachhead on pop radio.
Most alternative rockers were born between the late 1950s and late ’60s and grew up during the ’70s amid the head-spinning studio refinement and growing social acceptance of the earliest rock music. Whether the richly accessible melodies of the Beatles or the free jams of Led Zeppelin, all music seemed conventiona
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