The 'adult alternative' pop music and radio format of the 1990's
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Date: March 9th, 2026 9:09 PM Author: Vivacious ocher house
i feel like it represented the post-cold war totalization of pop culture into a specific set of products. 'adult alternative' wasn't really a single coherent sound or category; it was a kind of catch-basin for different marketing goals. 'grunge' was too harsh for a lot of consumers, so they got grunge-'adjacent' acts like counting crows and collective soul instead.
'jam bands' were too diffuse and difficult to edit for radio, so the AA format developed DMB and blues traveler and so on.
the riot girl stuff was too unpolished, but AA could take some of those notions and fold them into sheryl crow and melissa etheridge and so forth.
'roots rock' was too niche. bring in hootie. and on and on.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49730641) |
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Date: March 9th, 2026 9:30 PM Author: Vivacious ocher house
there were also bands in other genres which saw the rise of AA and said "give me some of that." goo goo dolls, for example. they started back in the 80's as a metal-adjacent rock band. they decided at some point around 1992 that they did not want to compete with the grunge acts, and they polished their sound into smoother rock-based power-pop, eg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRbWasL1kac
this did okay for them, but they knew they could go further. and that's what they did by 1995, with their first AA mega-hit ('Name').
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49730705) |
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Date: March 9th, 2026 9:24 PM Author: laughsome pit
good call. that song came out in 1989 and sort of presages the format OP talks about by 5 or 6 years.
i love 'What I Am', though. it's of a higher quality than 'Dishwalla' and the AC stuff that came in the 90s.
one of the few guitar-based top-40 songs of the era that was not a 'hard rock'/Alt rock crossover, just straight pop rock. it gives you a sense of what 80s/90s top 40 would have sounded like if it had never been 'Urbanized.' if the cultural currents that produced 70s 'soft rock' had persisted.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49730693) |
Date: March 10th, 2026 2:23 PM Author: Contagious newt orchestra pit
180 thread
in movie terms, this era probably
Beginning - Singles / Slackers
Zenith- Reality Bites / Kicking and Screaming
End - High Fidelity or Garden State?
maybe I'm just describing Gen X generally
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49732117) |
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Date: March 10th, 2026 6:11 PM Author: Vivacious ocher house
i'm not sure how well the adult alternative format 'maps' to films, since movies were sort of the last 90's stronghold of the big 80's adult contemporary power ballad (the bodyguard, titanic, armageddon, etc.).
aesthetically, it reminds me of early-90's films which were set almost inexplicably in seattle (since it had become trendy by then) but made no reference to grunge or music which had given the city its trendy reputation. sleepless in seattle and disclosure in particular.
disclosure was marketed as a 'techno-thriller' to help ride the cyberpunk trend, but the tech elements were muted, and it was actually a romantic drama. not exactly a bait-and-switch, but you can see the marketing goals.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49732779) |
Date: March 10th, 2026 7:56 PM Author: underhanded soul-stirring sandwich
I view this as an MTV vs VH1 war, where MTV was for kids looking for the latest cutting edge music (whether that be Nirvana or Britney Spears or KORN) vs VH1 which was for music someone over the age of 16 could listen to.
The VH1 market no longer exists because adults can instantly stream any music from the youth at any time - so you don't need bands like Matchbox 20 / Train / Third Eye Blind who appeal to 25-50 year olds.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5843757&forum_id=2,5#49733172) |
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