CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT”: HIP-HOP, “ALTERNATIVE” MUSIC,
AND THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
Key Terms and Definitions
alternative music:
The term “alternative”—like the broadly equivalent terms
“underground” and “independent”—is used across a wide
range of popular genres, including rock, rap, adult
contemporary, dance, folk, and country music. It is used
to describe music that challenges the status quo;
anticommercial, and antimainstream, it is thought by its
supporters to be local as opposed to corporate,
homemade as opposed to mass-produced, and genuine as
opposed to artificial. The music industry’s use of
“alternative” is bound up with the need of the music
business to identify and exploit new trends, styles, and
audiences.
alternative rock:
Marketing category that emerged around 1990; it is most
often used to describe bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth,
the Dead Kennedys, and Nirvana.
bluegrass:
Style modeled on that of the early acoustic string bands;
probably the original “alternative country” music.
gangsta rap:
Variant of hip-hop music; its emergence was heralded
nationwide by the release of the album Straight Outta
Compton by N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitude). It included
artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2Pac Shakur, and the
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT”: HIP-HOP, “ALTERNATIVE” MUSIC,
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Notorious B.I.G.
grunge rock:
Regional style of alternative rock from Seattle that
blended heavy metal guitar textures with hardcore punk.
Bands from Seattle included Green River, Mudhoney,
Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden.
hard core:
Extreme variation of punk, pioneered during the early
1980s by bands in San Francisco (the Dead Kennedys)
and Los Angeles (the Germs, Black Flag, X, and the
Circle Jerks).
house music:
Named after the Warehouse, a popular gay dance club in
Chicago, it was a style of techno dance music. Many
house recordings were purely instrumental, with elements
of European synth-pop, Latin soul, reggae, rap, and jazz
grafted over an insistent dance beat. By the mid-1980s,
house music scenes had emerged in New York and
London, and in the late 1980s, the genre made its first
appearances on the pop charts, under the guise of artists
such as M/A/R/R/S and Madonna.
old school New York hip-
Describes the earliest styles of hip-hop that came out of
hop:
New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.
qawwali:
Genre of mystical singing practiced by Sufi Muslims in
Pakistan and India. In traditional settings, the lead singer
(or qawwal) alternates stanzas of traditional poetic texts
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(sung in unison with a choir) with spectacular and
elaborate melodic improvisations, in an attempt to
spiritually arouse his listeners and move them into
emotional proximity with the Divine.
rave:
One of the main venues for techno. Semipublic event
modeled partly on the be-ins of the 1960s counterculture.
techno:
Style of electronic dance music that originated in the
Detroit area during the 1980s.
thrash:
Style that blended the fast tempos and rebellious attitude
of hardcore with the technical virtuosity of heavy metal
guitar playing.
West Coast rap:
Style of rap that originated in California; it differed from
“old school” New York hip-hop in a number of regards.
The edgy, rapid-fire delivery of Melle Mel and RunD.M.C. remained influential but was augmented by a
smoother, more laid-back style of rapping. The dialects
of southern California rappers also contributed to the
distinctive flavor of West Coast rap. And if the verbal
delivery of West Coast rap was sometimes cooler, the
content of the MCs’ recitations themselves became
angrier, darker, and more menacing.
world music or world beat:
Heterogeneous category that includes artists from Africa,
the Near East, and Asia—the ultimate margins of the
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT”: HIP-HOP, “ALTERNATIVE” MUSIC,
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American music industry.