Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music: Original Writing on Rock, Hip-Hop, Techno, and Beyond

Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music: Original Writing on Rock, Hip-Hop, Techno, and Beyond

Twenty years ago, SPIN magazine began with the promise to feature uncompromising writing about the music that was turning on/freaking out the Reagan generation. Through the introduction of MTV and the alternative rock revolution, it’s been many things. Rude. Brilliant. Soulful. Snotty. Angry. Delirious.

In the past two decades, genres have spawned like mad, from goth, indie rock, and gangsta rap to emo and the garage rock revival. This twentieth-anniversary tribute celebrates the passion and fury of the music, with original essays, quotes, and photographs by contributors who are as hopelessly obsessed with it as you are.

SPIN: 20 Years of Alternative Music features: Alan Light on Beastie Boys, Ann Powers on U2, Charles Aaron on R.E.M., Dave Eggers on The Smiths + Morrissey, Marc Spitz on Goth, Simon Reynolds on Depeche Mode + Synth-pop, Dave Itzkoff on '80s Teen Movies, Chuck Klosterman on Weezer, Will Hermes on Radiohead, Neil Strauss on Nine Inch Nails + Industrial,

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What is a good alternative/folk rock song for an alto?

I’m auditioning for Spring Awakening and I am having a wicked hard time choosing a song. It needs to be in the alternative rock or folk rock genre.

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REM-The One I Love

.EM is an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in early 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and vocalist Michael Stipe. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Throughout the 1980s, the band released an album per year for seven consecutive years, from their debut EP in 1982 (Chronic Town) through 1988′s Green. They also toured constantly, playing a variety of venues, from theaters to backwoods dives. Along the way, their sound influenced many bands, from jangle pop groups of the mid-’80s to alternative rock bands of the ’90s. The band became admired for its slow, steady rise to stardom. REM found itself established as a key element of the burgeoning alternative rock scene of the 1980s. Upon attaining major-label success at dawn of the ’90s, the band was able to put forth broader political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide, and retaining most of its ar tistic credibility. In 1997, Bill Berry amicably left the band, leaving the band as a three-piece. Through some reinvention REM continued their career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. The band expects to release a new album with producer.