Time to get into the "
big pretentious dictionary tone"
My definition of Alternative Rock is just another way of saying "Contemporary Post-Punk"...speaking of bands that took rock music in a new direction following the rise and fall of punk, but not necessarily experimental, but simply following a gradual/logical evolution from the initial influence of '70s Punk music's simplicity and edge. The first step were the Post-Punk bands of the late '70s and early '80s that eventually influenced a ton of underground bands who followed a similar musical ideology and sometimes shared the same aesthetics as punk, but were very different in overall sound...this eventually mutated into underground rock and today's indie-rock as well as the Alternative Pop and Grunge sound that became the '90s "Modern Rock"...thus, we can call everything from Joy Division to U2 to Nirvana to Pavement to Mogwai "alternative" if need be...they aren't directly linked to the Punk sound, but they're part of a long musical lineage. I wouldn't say that alternative died, or that it has no more relevance as a term, it just happened to be a very popular style of music, and as such, many bands w/ commercial aspirations became inspired by the sound of early alternative and took in in even more accessible directions, but it's still very much based in alternative music...
...I think that covered it.
