10 Best Alternative Rock Bands Of The 1980s

It's easier to think that the entire alternative music scene was birthed the minute that Nirvana launched themselves onto MTV in 1991. Up until that point, we had been living in the neon bubble of the '80s and Kurt Cobain was about to wake us all up and let us know what music was about again.

If you look in the rearview a little while longer, the alternative scene was more than capable of holding its own back in the day as well. Around the time that the hair metal scene was reeking havoc across the world, you also had bands that were getting only picked up on college radio stations or stuff that was a bit more left of the dial.

Although you could easy have called this new wave back in the '70s, there was something a lot different about what was going on here, from indie artists that were inching their way towards the top to bands that were bound to blow the doors off the hinges once they made their way into the next decade. If you look back on some of those '80s playlists now, you'd be hardpressed to find anything that was considered alt rock. Then again, if you knew where to look, alternative rock didn't have a damn thing to worry about when it came to the MTV generation.

As the '80s wore on, the alternative scene was starting to spread out a bit more. Since college rock stations were still going strong, there were tons of bands that were a bit left of the dial that somehow managed to get exposure across MTV every now and again. Although acts like Motley Crue may have had the big guitars for the mainstream fans, Sonic Youth seemed almost anti commercial in the way they promoted themselves.

Being more of a descendent of the final wave of punk music, these scruffy musicians out of New York had a much more art rock approach to what they did. Off of records like Goo and Daydream Nation, the goal was almost about using their instruments as means to make strange sounds instead of actual songs, with Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo almost being at war with each other in a barrage of noise. Combined with the smoky vocals of Kim Gordon, these were albums that set the stage for the post punk leaning music that would become a bigger deal once the '90s rolled around.

If there's one thing we have to thank the band for, it's discovering a little band called Nirvana, with Gordon in particular pushing Geffen Records to get them signed after their album Bleach started to take off. Though they may not have lit up the charts in the '80s or anything, the '90s would have looked entirely different without their music to start everything off.