The popular musical genre called "alternative rock," immensely popular during the 1980s and 1990s, drew upon the conventions of rock music even while it attempted to distance itself from traditional or "classic" rock. Alternative rockers differentiated themselves from their traditional rock predecessors in part with their call for greater diversity and experimentation in music, and in part with their critique of mainstream society and of major record labels in favor of small independent companies. While alternative rockers produced catchy music geared for mass consumption, their music—with its emphasis on distorted guitars and ambiguous lyrics—wasn't suited to conventional tastes. Furthermore, alternative rock lyrics were often critical or skeptical of mainstream values.

Alternative rock—which is also referred to as "indie rock," "college rock," "post-punk," "new music," "power-pop," and more recently, "grunge"—traces its roots to the 1970s, when new wave and early punk bands experimented...