"Let’s All Obsess Over This Intricate Map of Alt Music History"

[Zeuhlmate]

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/lets-o...music-history/

Feel free to waste some time...

[rcarlberg]

Not as clever as Pete Frame's charts -- the lines here denote nothing -- and how can one state "It all began with the Sex Pistols in 1976" and then include the MC5 on the chart?

To say nothing of the laughable illogic of calling Joy Division and Nirvana "alternative" -- those were as mainstream as you can get.

[Sunlight Caller]

I think that's an interesting and eye-catching chart, and I can marry the concept of it starting with the Pistols Manchester gig, with the earlier antecedent names (Velvets / MC5).

I take issue with including bands like The Exploited and Cock Sparrer between personal favourites Crass, Gang Of Four and The Pop Group, as this rather diminishes the strand of revolutionary politics of the latter groups.

I don't think Joy Division were mainstream at all, sure they were hugely influential and indeed after the passing of Ian Curtis they became mainstream as New Order, but they were underground and alternative before tragic events catapulted them into the spotlight.

I too adore Pete Frames works of art though, there's nothing to match them.

[KGHofSF]

Interesting. . .

I'd never heard of Thee Oh See's or Thee Headcoats. Off hand I could place about 2/3 to 3/4 of the entries. I was pleased to see a reasonably complete listing of the 80s LA Paisley Underground bands (True West / The Rain Parade) that were personal faves. Eno was BIGTIME dissed as a small little dot near a prominent David Bowie (not the way it really was at ALL). And No Tame Impala ?? (did I miss them)?

I'll need to check out Pete Frame's work

regards
KGH

[davis]

Not as clever as Pete Frame's charts -- the lines here denote nothing -- and how can one state "It all began with the Sex Pistols in 1976" and then include the MC5 on the chart?

To say nothing of the laughable illogic of calling Joy Division and Nirvana "alternative" -- those were as mainstream as you can get.

'Alternative' in that sense doesn't mean another option or different. it's just a genre. that's how I see it anyway.

[Taped Rugs]

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/lets-o...music-history/

Feel free to waste some time...

You said it.

[Trane]

Not as clever as Pete Frame's charts -- the lines here denote nothing -- and how can one state "It all began with the Sex Pistols in 1976" and then include the MC5 on the chart?

To say nothing of the laughable illogic of calling Joy Division and Nirvana "alternative" -- those were as mainstream as you can get.

What shocks me is that this is fairly amateurish for a mag that's supposedly one of the most informed and best regarded in the business...

The names are just splattered with no connections at all (beit line-up or influence/inspiration-wise)...
This was done over one evening, whereas Frame took years (even without the small comments), Frame did this 1000X more intelligently

The only sense I see is that the US is on the left quarter of the chart and the UK on the other three quarters to the right side, with a skinny line for German groups oddly melting into This Heat, then into post-rock

[Jandyce]

A downer: on reading the thread title I expected .alt history

[klothos]

"REM going to ground" is a polite metaphor.......I beg to differ that their influence was much greater than the schematic portrays

[JKL2000]

Wow, that's pretty much impossible to view on an iPhone.

[klothos]

Depeche Mode as a resistor is another polite metaphor.........but this guy needs an education in underground electronic music: No mention of Front 242, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, KMFDM, Ministry, or other highly influential industrial acts that led-to/participated-in the 90s industrial explosion (any one would have been fine to represent the Wax Trax era)....he just has a culmination to NIN, which is far from the truth

[rcarlberg]

"REM going to ground" is a polite metaphor.

With all due respect I don't think the author thought that deeply -- the chart is a simple 4-transistor audio amplifier circuit diagram, with the bands assigned randomly to the components and points along the lines. No thought was given to correspondences between the bands, or historical precedence, or musical influence. There is SOME logic going left to right, but even that is not very strict. It appears to me that the creator, James Quail, just wanted to impress everyone with a list of bands he'd heard of.