What Does Alt Rock Look Like?

The genre of alternative rock portrays a vast range of style, as many want to look unique but also follow the genre it certain aspects. For example the image here shows a small number of alternative rock styles, the similarity is seen through the trousers as they are all slim fitting. The type may vary with some opting for jeans and some for chinos, the colour is mainly blues and black. The other colours such as red and purples which are seen are more in the indie scene, as they prefer the brighter colours to stand out, where as those in the Alt Rock group like to look more subtle. From this research I believe our artist should wear some dark coloured jeans or chinos, with the style being either slim fit or skinny fit, this should therefore evoke an image of a typical Alt Rock artist.

The Alt Rock music group also wear a range of t-shirts which are usually of basic design, with some being stripey and others plain colours. Retailers such as Topman may acquire for the Alt Rock group as they provide a range of t-shirts which show a simple design, for example here, here and finally here. At this time I believe a simple plain coloured t-shirt will fit in with the Alt Rock style, the colour could ideally be dark in colour or white. As an idea for our artist is a busker he cannot have a suave and lavish style, as typically buskers wear simple clothing.

Typically the Alt Rock fashion uses some sort of plimsol for footwear. These can range from items from River Island and Topman, or a more designer brand which is Vans. In more recent times the footwear has expanded which includes desert boots, boat shoes and some formal styled shoes. These style of shoe can be seen easily in the streets today as they are growing in popularity, personally I like the style of using a smart style shoe (bottom left in the image) as they will go well with the slim fitting jeans. This would therefore connote a typical Alt Rock artist such as Noel Gallagher.

Here are some of the styles Noel Gallagher uses, for our video to look more professional and more importantly convincing, I believe the artist we choose must have one of these styles incorporated in his clothing. As you can see Noel uses a range of styles to promote his Alt Rock image, as he wears mainly dark jeans and simple styled t-shirts and jackets.

Audience Brands

I visited the website UK Tribes to research what kind of brands the Alternative Rock audience like to use and wear. The website portrays an image of originality within the Alt Rock genre group, with it saying "While open-minded about music and fashion they are wary of the Mainstream tribes and determined to be different – together". The image on the left hand side shows a number of brands such as Quicksilver and Topman which are commonly seen in the Alt Rock scene. The brand Vans is also seen in this genre as the retro style of Vans shoes is popular in modern fashion. Other styles in the Alt Rock genre can range from board-shorts to skinny jeans, and plain t-shirts to check flannel shirts. This may help us dress our artist as the typical style of Alt Rock varies, this therefore allows us some freedom but at the same time means we do need to follow certain stereotypes such as medium to long hair, and an acoustic guitar.

The website also shows media brands the Alt Rock genre fans enjoy using in their leisure. The likes of XFM and NME are well known to play the type of music we are aiming to make the video for. The social networking site Facebook is universally used by many different types of social group, therefore this is not a surprise as the website is used by so many people to communicate with friends. The TV channel four shows many programmes such as: The Inbetweeners, Fresh Meat, 8 Out of 10 Cats, One Tree Hill and finally Misfits. I believe these TV shows relate to the Alt Rock genre as they often play songs in the shows that are in this genre. The people within the shows also relate to the target audience as they are teenagers and young adults, the shows may relate to this audience as they show teenage characters and often re-enact typical teenage situations.

The image above shows the amount of different media consumption within the Alternative/Young Alt group. The usage of internet is heavy which may be due to the teenage section downloading most of their music and visiting their favourite band's website or social network page. Other high media consumption is via television, magazines and radio. The high use of television can be due to music channels such as Kerrang, MTV Rocks or Q, these music channels often play rock music which will appeal to the Alternative Rock tribe thus causing the high consumption in TV. Magazines also have high consumption which can be down to Alt Rock people often reading magazines such as Kerrang or NME, the magazines often show tour dates which will prove popular with the Alt Rock tribe as they enjoy watching live music.

The low consumption levels of newspapers and cinema may be down to newspapers often focusing on mainstream artists such as Tinie Tempah, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Example in their music or show-biz sections. The newspapers do this as they will attract a wider audience if they show mainstream artists as Alternative Rock is more of a niche market audience wise, so Alt Rock people tend to not read newspapers as much as magazines as they do not show their favourite artists. Cinema may also have low consumption as many Alt Rock listeners are teenagers or young adults who use the internet heavily, this may mean that they watch most films online rather than going to the cinema.

Alternative Rock

The song 'What a life' by Noel Gallagher is classed as Alternative Rock which emerged in the 1980's. The genre itself is made up of sub-genres such as Grunge, Brit-Pop, Indie-Pop, Rock-Pop and Gothic Rock, these sub-genres were influenced by the ethos of Punk Rock back from the 1970's and 1980's.

Other examples of Alternative Rock artists can be seen in a short video I created:

In the early 1990's the form of Brit-Pop was introduced by the media, this classed bands such Oasis, Blur and Pulp. The formation of these bands were to compete with the American Grunge scene, and they showed similarities to other genres such as Punk Rock and Glam Rock. Oasis was the most popular Alternative Rock band of the 1990's, with their album (What's The Story) Morning Glory being the third best selling British album in history.

More recent Alternative Rock bands such as The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers found commercial success in the 2000's. The magazine Entertainment Weekly said in 2004 "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again."