10 Best Alternative Rock Bands Of The 1980s
1. R.E.M.
One of the biggest detractors for alternative acts in the '80s was that they were not really considered the music of the people. More often than not, these were the kind of bands that were left of the dial and saved for music nerds who liked to listen to college radio every now and again. There are no rules in pop music though, and sometimes the two opposite genres will intersect anyway.
Around the time that R.E.M. were cutting their first record, things went supernova off the back of songs like Radio Free Europe, earning them one of the top spots on MTV just below Michael Jackson's reign of the charts at the same time. It's not like they weren't deserved either, with Murmur and Reckoning still holding up as phenomenal records despite Michael Stipe being borderline inarticulate in some spots.
As time went on though, R.E.M. may have shown the most growth out of any of their contemporaries. Being more in the soft rock genre, their streak of albums at the end of the '80s starting with Green up until Monster in '94 gave us some of the most thoughtful alternative music known to man, as the band matured from the rough around the edges rock act to seasoned musicians who were contemplating their own mortality. In the beginning, it almost felt like R.E.M. didn't really have a core audience of fans, but this was the kind of music that touched rock fans right on the nerve.