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111-661: The Phantasy Entertainment Complex, consisting of the Phantasy Nite Club, The Chamber, Symposium, and Phantasy Theater, first opened in 1918 when it was known as the Homestead Theater. The theater played movies until 1979 and at one point was referred to as the Detroit Theater. Between the years 1976-1977 it was called The Last Picture Show. In the eighties, the theater was renamed the Phantasy, with

222-543: A Down , Korn , Jane's Addiction , the Beastie Boys , Sublime , Bad Religion , Stone Temple Pilots , Incubus , Nine Inch Nails , Social Distortion and Cypress Hill . In 2004, KROQ began broadcasting in HD Radio . On February 20, 2006, KROQ added streaming music from the radio station to its website. On June 9, 2006, KROQ launched an HD sub-carrier, KROQ HD-2, which airs new wave and alternative tracks from

333-484: A confessional tone. Rites of Spring has been described as the first "emo" band. Former Minor Threat singer Ian MacKaye founded Dischord Records which became the center for the city's emo scene. Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk . With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock", gothic rock uses a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes", and

444-523: A cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement. Bush , Candlebox and Collective Soul were labelled almost pejoratively as post-grunge which, according to Tim Grierson of About.com , is "suggesting that rather than being a musical movement in their own right, they were just a calculated, cynical response to a legitimate stylistic shift in rock music." Post-grunge morphed during the late 1990s and 2000s as newer bands such as Foo Fighters , Matchbox Twenty , Creed and Nickelback emerged, becoming among

555-565: A few others on the US West Coast in the 1980s. In 1986, KROQ was purchased at a then-record $ 45 million by Infinity Broadcasting . By the late 1980s, the station had started dipping in the ratings. New wave had declined in popularity and electronic dance bands, such as Depeche Mode and New Order , started getting more airplay on the station. Also during this period, KROQ began focusing on college rock (or so-called alternative rock ) by adding bands into their playlist such as R.E.M. ,

666-545: A flurry of British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of grunge" and "declare war on America", taking the public and native music press by storm. Dubbed " Britpop " by the media, and represented by Pulp , Blur , Suede , and Oasis , this movement was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion, in that the artists propelled alternative rock to the top of the charts in their home country. Britpop bands were influenced by and displayed reverence for British guitar music of

777-472: A focus on alternative , goth and industrial rock groups. John De Frasia purchased the complex in 1965 when he opened a restaurant inside called Piccadilly Square. After seeing the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty , De Frasia built a pirate ship inside the restaurant, which was converted to a music club in 1973. One side of the ship is used as a DJ booth, while the second half is a sound stage. The walls of

888-601: A friend to pretend to confess to killing his girlfriend during their "Confess Your Crime" segment. The hoax resulted in investigations by the Sheriff's Department, the FCC , NBC's " Unsolved Mysteries " and other news media. The hoax was exposed 10 months later after KROQ had unknowingly hired the caller, Doug "the Slug" Roberts, as a DJ and the three were heard talking about the hoax on a monitored phone line at KROQ. Kevin and Bean paid

999-571: A headliner in 1998. In light of the festival's troubles that year, Spin said, "Lollapalooza is as comatose as alternative rock right now". Despite these changes in style however, alternative rock remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge . Many post-grunge bands lacked the underground roots of grunge and were largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock."; many post-grunge bands emulated

1110-706: A late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". " College rock " was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture . According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red , NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called

1221-420: A majority of groups that were signed to indie labels drew from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years. "Alternative music is music that hasn't yet achieved a mainstream audience, Alternative isn't new wave any more, it's a disposition of mind. Alternative music is any kind of music that has the potential to reach

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1332-491: A new chapter for KROQ under the leadership of brand manager Mike Kaplan. Kaplan previously served as program director of iHeartMedia 's KYSR from 2013 to 2018. By the end of the Weatherly era, KROQ had essentially shifted to a classic alternative format that leaned heavily on heritage acts. Weatherly added new titles to the playlist very conservatively. Kaplan's strategy differed from Weatherly's; he immediately shifted

1443-469: A new wave of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós emerged who further expanded the genre. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins' album Siamese Dream was a major commercial success. The strong influence of heavy metal and progressive rock on the album helped to legitimize alternative rock to mainstream radio programmers and close the gap between alternative rock and

1554-464: A number of genres, including Krautrock , progressive rock , and jazz . The genre subverts or rejects rock conventions, and often incorporates electronic music. While the name of the genre was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in 1994 referring to Hex by the London group Bark Psychosis , the style of the genre was solidified by the release of Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) by

1665-496: A steep ratings decline. Weatherly would return to KROQ as Senior Vice President of Programming in May 2022. Since then, the station has greatly reduced its focus on alternative pop and has increased airplay of classic alternative tracks from the 1990s and 2000s. On October 5, 2024, KROQ introduced a new electronic dance music show, KROQ EQ , on Saturday nights, with Justice performing a guest DJ set for its premiere edition. KROQ

1776-488: A wariness of its "macho" aesthetic. While indie rock artists share the punk rock distrust of commercialism, the genre does not entirely define itself against that, as "the general assumption is that it's virtually impossible to make indie rock's varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes in the first place". Labels such as Matador Records , Merge Records , and Dischord , and indie rockers like Pavement , Superchunk , Fugazi , and Sleater-Kinney dominated

1887-568: A wider audience. It also has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum." —Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar speaking in 1988 Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock remained mainly an underground phenomenon. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit, or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone , alternative rock in

1998-592: Is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California , serving the Greater Los Angeles . Owned by Audacy, Inc. , it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The station has studios at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the Crestview neighborhood in West Los Angeles . The transmitter is based in

2109-454: Is an accepted version of this page Alternative rock (also known as alternative music , alt-rock or simply alternative ) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in

2220-600: Is located on Tongva Peak in Glendale at an altitude of 2,650 ft., which results in somewhat weaker signal coverage. KROQ's format had varied throughout the 2000s and 2010s. The radio station's format had repeated much of the same formula as the 1990s, mixing heavier acts like Linkin Park , Staind , P.O.D. , Seether , Velvet Revolver , Cold and Saliva , with punk rock like Rise Against , Sum 41 , AFI , Fall Out Boy , My Chemical Romance , Jimmy Eat World , Panic! at

2331-510: Is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word. Alternative can describe music that challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream", and the term is also used in the music industry to denote "the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet." However alternative music has paradoxically become just as commercial and marketable as

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2442-660: The Billboard 200 album chart. Soundgarden 's album Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core along with the Temple of the Dog album collaboration featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were also among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992. The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool ". Major record labels signed most of

2553-504: The Billboard charts. Pearl Jam also continued to perform well commercially with its second album, Vs. (1993), which topped the Billboard charts by selling a record 950,378 copies in its first week of release. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins released their major breakthrough album, Siamese Dream —which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 4 million copies by 1996, receiving multi-platinum certification by

2664-531: The Indie Chart was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels. At the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status. The use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s; at

2775-631: The RIAA . In 1995, the band released their double album, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness — which went on to sell 10 million copies in the US alone, certifying it as a Diamond record. With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene and music press in the early 1990s. As a reaction,

2886-595: The Red Hot Chili Peppers , The Psychedelic Furs , Echo & the Bunnymen , The Replacements , Camper Van Beethoven , Jane's Addiction , the Pixies , The Alarm , The Cult , Violent Femmes , Love and Rockets , Dramarama and Social Distortion , as well as heavier acts like Faith No More and Living Colour and guitar-oriented hip-hop groups like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys . Throughout

2997-529: The Verdugo Mountains . It was the flagship station of Kevin and Bean (revamped as Kevin in the Morning in 2019) and former show Loveline , hosted originally by Jim "The Poorman" Trenton with Dr. Drew Pinsky , and later by Adam Carolla as well as "Psycho" Mike Catherwood with Pinsky, and The Young Marquis and Stanley Show. On April 23, 1962, KPPC-FM signed on at 106.7 MHz. It

3108-495: The hair metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant. The breakthrough success of Nirvana led to the widespread popularization of alternative rock in the 1990s. It heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. In the wake of Nevermind , alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming ... into

3219-531: The "Rock of the 80s" evolved. During that decade, the station mixed punk rock, such as The Ramones , The Clash , The Weirdos , Fear , The Pandoras and X , with new wave , such as U2 , Oingo Boingo , Talking Heads , The Police , The Cars , Devo , Sparks , Berlin , Duran Duran , Pet Shop Boys , Blondie , ska and similar genres with artists such as English Beat , Fine Young Cannibals and 1960s underground rocker Iggy Pop , and huge mainstream artists such as The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones . It

3330-561: The "grunging of America" to the mass-marketing of punk rock, disco , and hip hop in previous years. As a result of the genre's popularity, a backlash against grunge developed in Seattle. Nirvana's follow-up album In Utero (1993) was an intentionally abrasive album that Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic described as a "wild aggressive sound, a true alternative record." Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 In Utero topped

3441-553: The 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music." At first the term referred to intentionally non-mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems". Usage of

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3552-479: The 1980s was primarily featured on independent record labels, fanzines and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and by regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. College radio formed an essential part of breaking new alternative music. In

3663-442: The 1980s which were popular during KROQ's heyday (and is also branded "KROQ 2: Roq of the 80s"). In February 2010, CBS Radio, which controlled the live stream, blocked access for listeners outside of the United States. Steve Jones came to KROQ from Indie 103.1 with a Sunday night show called "Jonesy's Jukebox", which ran from 7 to 9PM during 2010–2013 before moving to KLOS. In February 2015, KROQ severed ties with Boyd "Doc on

3774-463: The 1980s, alternative bands generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth . As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although in 1989 The New York Times asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback." More often than in other rock styles since

3885-509: The 1990s, KROQ's format focused on mainly alternative rock (or alternative metal ), grunge , punk pop , Britpop , industrial music and nu metal , giving up-and-coming bands their first exposure on the station or in Southern California, including Nirvana , Red Hot Chili Peppers , The Smashing Pumpkins , Pearl Jam , Nine Inch Nails , Oasis , Foo Fighters , Green Day , The Offspring , Sublime , No Doubt , Rage Against

3996-752: The 2000s with multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy , My Chemical Romance , Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . Bands such as the White Stripes and the Strokes found commercial success in the early 2000s, influencing an influx of new alternative rock bands that drew inspiration from garage rock , post-punk and new wave , establishing a revival of the genres. In the past, popular music tastes were largely dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become

4107-473: The American indie scene for most of the 1990s. One of the main indie rock movements of the 1990s was lo-fi . The movement, which focused on the recording and distribution of music on low-quality cassette tapes , initially emerged in the 1980s. By 1992, Pavement, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh became popular lo-fi cult acts in the United States, while subsequently artists like Beck and Liz Phair brought

4218-512: The British indie scene through the end of the decade, as various bands drew from singer Morrissey 's English-centered lyrical topics and guitarist Johnny Marr 's jangly guitar-playing style. The C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring Primal Scream , the Wedding Present and others, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole. Other forms of alternative rock developed in

4329-723: The British music press at the end of the decade along with the Madchester scene. Performing for the most part in the Haçienda , a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records , Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop. The Amerindie of the early '80s became known as alternative or alt-rock, ascendant from Nirvana until 1996 or so but currently very unfashionable, never mind that

4440-586: The Chicago group Tortoise . Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock music in the 1990s and bands from the genre signed to such labels as Thrill Jockey , Kranky , Drag City , and Too Pure . A related genre, math rock , peaked in the mid-1990s. In comparison to post-rock, math rock relies on more complex time signatures and intertwining phrases. By the end of the decade a backlash had emerged against post-rock due to its "dispassionate intellectuality" and its perceived increasing predictability, but

4551-597: The De Frasia family announced that the Phantasy Nite Club complex was for sale. A deal to sell the venue fell through at the last minute in 2018. As of June 2020, plans for the Phantasy to become an LGBTQ community hub and entertainment complex were nearing completion. On July 8, 2020 ownership was transferred to the West 117 Development Phantasy LLC as part of the Studio West 117 complex. Alternative rock This

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4662-508: The Disco and Thrice , and with alternative/indie/garage rock acts such as Muse , Queens of the Stone Age , The Strokes , The Bravery , Arcade Fire and The Killers . This new crop of rock acts found considerable popularity on the radio station while sharing airspace with many KROQ veterans such as Nirvana , Red Hot Chili Peppers , Metallica , Foo Fighters , Weezer , Green Day , The Offspring , Blink-182 , No Doubt , System of

4773-572: The Family Stone and Sha Na Na for one KROQ-sponsored show at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the station found itself unable to cover expenses, Roberts agreed to pay for the band to play the show in exchange for a small ownership stake in the station. Roberts joined a sprawling ownership group which included a doctor, two dairymen, a political lobbyist, a secretary, and several other minor investors. Roberts, with his background in

4884-542: The Hilton (117 S. Los Robles). Ken Roberts returned to the reborn station in a more forceful ownership role, buying out his partners one by one until he remained the sole owner of the station. KROQ's rebirth was simultaneous with the emergence of punk rock in the late 1970s and new wave , and KROQ quickly became the voice of the burgeoning Los Angeles punk and new wave scene. Disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer introduced many new bands on his show. As punk expanded its hold on

4995-881: The Lollapalooza festival became the most successful tour in North America in July and August 1991. For Dave Grohl of Nirvana who attended the festival at an open-air amphitheater in Southern California , "it felt like something was happening, that was the beginning of it all". The tour helped change the mentalities in the music industry: "by that fall, radio and MTV and music had changed. I really think that if it weren't for Perry [Farrell], if it weren't for Lollapalooza , you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now". The release of Nirvana's single " Smells Like Teen Spirit " in September 1991 "marked

5106-513: The Machine , Korn , Bad Religion , Weezer , Blink-182 , Jimmy Eat World , Hole , Garbage , Lenny Kravitz and System of a Down . They also began adding heavier acts to their playlists such as Metallica , who were staples on the Long Beach heavy metal radio station KNAC , formerly an alternative/new wave/punk rock radio station. These helped the station surge back to number one in

5217-592: The National Science Network for $ 1.2 million. Crosby used the funds to buy a then-silent San Francisco television station, KEMO-TV . National Science Network's management of the KPPC stations was turbulent, capped by an October 1971 mass firing of the air staff, but the period also included technical upgrades. NSN moved the studios out of the church basement and to 99 Chester Street in Pasadena and

5328-536: The ROQ of Los Angeles". In 1973, with National Science Network's estate selling off its assets, KROQ's owners bought KPPC-AM-FM (immediately divesting the AM station to meet then-current ownership limits), changed the calls to KROQ-FM and hired Shadoe Stevens to create a new rock format described as high-energy "all-cutting-edge-rock-all-the-time" and began simulcasting as "The ROQs of L.A.: Mother Rock!" Meanwhile, KPPC on 1240 AM

5439-625: The Replacements upended a number of underground scene conventions; Azerrad noted that "along with R.E.M., they were one of the few underground bands that mainstream people liked." By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop ( They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven ), to noise rock ( Sonic Youth , Big Black , the Jesus Lizard ) and industrial rock ( Ministry , Nine Inch Nails). These sounds were in turn followed by

5550-470: The Roq" Britton and Lisa May after deciding to drop news and traffic. The news came as a shock for longtime listeners as Doc on the Roq had been reporting news for the station for 27 years while Lisa May had been reporting traffic for the past 24 years. Fans took to Facebook to boycott the station for not renewing their contracts. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom . The merger

5661-495: The Sheriff's Department $ 12,170 for the cost of the investigation, and performed 149 hours of community service to compensate for the 149 hours the homicide detective spent on the case. KROQ received a letter of reprimand from the FCC for the incident; the lightest punishment the FCC could give. In 1997, KROQ/Infinity merged with CBS , later changing its name to CBS Radio . Originally located at 117 S. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena,

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5772-522: The Story) Morning Glory? (1995), went on to become the third best-selling album in the UK's history. Long synonymous with alternative rock as a whole in the U.S., indie rock became a distinct form following the popular breakthrough of Nirvana. Indie rock was formulated as a rejection of alternative rock's absorption into the mainstream by artists who could not or refused to cross over, and

5883-591: The Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers. One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 1980s, Los Angeles' Paisley Underground revived the sounds of the 1960s, incorporating psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock as well as punk and underground influences such as the Velvet Underground . American indie record labels SST Records , Twin/Tone Records , Touch and Go Records , and Dischord Records presided over

5994-463: The UK during the 1980s. the Jesus and Mary Chain 's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector 's " Wall of Sound " production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with disco and dance music . The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr. , C86 and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins , were

6105-577: The US by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles, as well as greater openness to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US. Since the 1980s, alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by disc jockeys such as John Peel (who championed alternative music on BBC Radio 1 ), Richard Skinner , and Annie Nightingale . Artists with cult followings in

6216-626: The US received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly music press, and many alternative bands had chart success there. Early American alternative bands such as the Dream Syndicate , the Bongos , 10,000 Maniacs , R.E.M. , the Feelies and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; their debut album, Murmur (1983), entered

6327-490: The United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock , hard rock , and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry . The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop. The term's original meaning

6438-481: The Velvet Underground , which influenced many alternative rock bands that would come after it. Eccentric and quirky figures of the 1960s, such as Syd Barrett have influence on alternative rock in general. The Dead Kennedys formed the independent record label Alternative Tentacles in 1979, releasing influential underground music such as the 1983 self-titled EP from the Butthole Surfers . By 1984,

6549-558: The advent of Boston 's Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction. Around the same time, the grunge subgenre emerged in Seattle , Washington, initially referred to as "The Seattle Sound" until its rise to popularity in the early 1990s. Grunge featured a sludgy, murky guitar sound that syncretized heavy metal and punk rock. Promoted largely by Seattle indie label Sub Pop , grunge bands were noted for their thrift store fashion which favored flannel shirts and combat boots suited to

6660-475: The aesthetic to mainstream audiences. The period also saw alternative confessional female singer-songwriters. Besides the aforementioned Liz Phair, PJ Harvey fit into this sub group. In the mid-1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate defined the emo genre. Weezer 's album Pinkerton (1996) was also influential. Post-rock was established by Talk Talk 's Laughing Stock and Slint 's Spiderland albums, both released in 1991. Post-rock draws influence from

6771-539: The alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins , Butthole Surfers , Ice-T , Nine Inch Nails , Siouxsie and the Banshees (as second headliners) and Jane's Addiction (as the headlining act). Covering for MTV the opening date of Lollapalooza in Phoenix in July 1991, Dave Kendall introduced the report saying the festival presented the "most diverse lineups of alternative rock". That summer, Farrell had coined

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6882-437: The alternative/independent scene and dryly tore it apart." David Lowery , then frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, later recalled: "I remember first seeing that word applied to us... The nearest I could figure is that we seemed like a punk band, but we were playing pop music, so they made up this word alternative for those of us who do that." DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of

6993-487: The bulk of the staff walked out, shutting the stations down. The closure would last for nearly two years. In late 1975, the FCC ordered KROQ to return to the airwaves or surrender the stations' licenses. With barebones equipment, KROQ returned to the airwaves, broadcasting initially from the transmitter location, followed by a penthouse suite in the Pasadena Hilton Hotel , then again across the street from

7104-468: The complex contains early new wave posters and stickers from most bands that have appeared at the complex since its opening. Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett performed at the Phantasy Theater in 1987 a day before their film premiere of Light of Day . Within the same complex The Chamber dance club began in 1996 under the joint management of DJ Cable and Michele De Frasia and had since been

7215-467: The death of Layne Staley and the subsequent disbanding of Alice in Chains in 2002, and the disbanding of both the Cranberries and Stone Temple Pilots in 2003. Britpop also began fading after Oasis ' third album, Be Here Now (1997), was met with lackluster reviews. A signifier of alternative rock's changes was the hiatus of the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find

7326-459: The decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, and those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were then excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sorts of music to which it refers were known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had

7437-453: The early 2000s, when indie rock became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock, the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably; while there are aspects which both genres have in common, "indie rock" was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American "alternative rock". The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in

7548-429: The formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated

7659-483: The foundation for its large cult following. The key British alternative rock band to emerge during the 1980s was Manchester 's the Smiths . Music journalist Simon Reynolds singled out the Smiths and their American contemporaries R.E.M. as "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day", commenting that they "were eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". The Smiths exerted an influence over

7770-457: The instigation of the grunge music phenomenon". Helped by constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, their album Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991. Its success surprised the music industry. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general." Michael Azerrad asserted that Nevermind symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which

7881-537: The local haven for Alternative, Goth and Industrial subcultures. Notable artists that frequented The Chamber and are from the area included Andy Kubiszewski , Marilyn Manson , Kevin McMahon , Lorin Morgan-Richards , Larry Szyms and Textbeak . In 2009, the complex was investigated by paranormal researchers who claimed to have captured audio of spirits. In 2010, a fire swept through the complex. In 2015,

7992-420: The local weather. Early grunge bands Soundgarden and Mudhoney found critical acclaim in the U.S. and UK, respectively. By the end of the decade, a number of alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major label signings Hüsker Dü and the Replacements had little success, acts who signed with majors in their wake such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and platinum records, setting

8103-495: The mainstream rock, with record companies using the term "alternative" to market music to an audience that mainstream rock does not reach. Using a broad definition of the genre, Dave Thompson in his book Alternative Rock cites the formation of the Sex Pistols as well as the release of the albums Horses by Patti Smith and Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed as three key events that gave birth to alternative rock. Until

8214-559: The mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands. The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance." However, many alternative rock artists rejected success, for it conflicted with

8325-494: The mainstreaming of rock music, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, suicide, and environmentalism . This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s. Precursors to alternative rock existed in the 1960s with proto-punk . The origins of alternative rock can be traced back to The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) by

8436-509: The mid-1980s, college station KCPR in San Luis Obispo, California , described in a DJ handbook the tension between popular and "cutting edge" songs as played on "alternative radio". Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success. On September 10, 1988, an Alternative Songs chart

8547-460: The more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical." The band also set an example by being the first group from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as "a viable commercial enterprise". By focusing on heartfelt songwriting and wordplay instead of political concerns,

8658-662: The morning show. The show would be replaced by afternoon hosts Ted Stryker and Kevin Klein. In September 2020, the show would be added on sister stations KVIL in Dallas, KITS in San Francisco, and KRBZ in Kansas City via syndication as part of a company initiative to expand networked programming among the company's alternative stations due to COVID-19 pandemic -related cutbacks and layoffs. The firing of Ryder marked

8769-495: The most popular rock bands in the United States. At the same time Britpop began to decline, Radiohead achieved critical acclaim with its third album OK Computer (1997), and its follow-ups Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), which were in marked contrast with the traditionalism of Britpop. Radiohead, along with post-Britpop groups like Travis , Stereophonics and Coldplay , were major forces in British rock in subsequent years. KROQ-FM KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz )

8880-448: The most popular, and therefore who could generate the most sales. These bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, and their works were then offered for sale through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations, along with eventually selling the merchandise into big box retailers . Record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making

8991-449: The music industry, made him a logical choice for president of the struggling company in the minds of the other shareholders, and he was elected such at the first meeting he attended in 1974. By 1974, the station's finances were already untenable following a year of commercial-free programming — a stunt implemented in an effort to gain market share. The stations' debt load reached $ 7 million; paychecks began to bounce and Shadoe Stevens and

9102-443: The music is still there. — Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000) By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was enticed by alternative rock's commercial possibilities and major labels had already signed Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dinosaur Jr. In early 1991, R.E.M. went mainstream worldwide with Out of Time while becoming a blueprint for many alternative bands. The first edition of

9213-534: The music scene during the mid to late 1970s, and KROQ steadily adding more of it to their freeform format, this cemented their place in the Los Angeles market. In 1979, Shadoe Stevens once again left the station, with Rick Carroll taking over as program director, and took all of the new music and combined it in a Top 40 formatic structure. By 1980, the station had fully committed to a post-new wave modern rock orientation. KROQ became an even greater success as

9324-823: The noncommercial nature of its other efforts. Crosby-Avery was owned by Leon Crosby, a general manager of San Francisco's KMPX , a station that had just gone to a full-time freeform progressive rock format, and Lewis Avery, former partner in a national ad sales firm. With KMPX soaring to success but KPPC, with its middle-of-the-road format, ailing, Crosby and Avery brought in the architects of KMPX, Tom and Raechel Donahue , to turn around their new station in Southern California. Hosts during KPPC's "underground" format included B. Mitchel Reed , Tom Donahue , Les Carter, Ed Mitchell, Steven Clean, Outrageous Nevada, novelty music historian Dr. Demento , Charles Laquidara , Elliot Mintz , blues archivist Johnny Otis , Barbara Birdfeather, and more. In 1969, Crosby sold KPPC-AM-FM and KMPX to

9435-569: The past, particularly movements and genres such as the British Invasion , glam rock , and punk rock . In 1995, the Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles “ Roll With It ” and “ Country House ” on the same day on 14 August 1995. Blur won " The Battle of Britpop ", but they were soon eclipsed in popularity by Oasis whose second album, (What's

9546-452: The playlist to focus on alternative pop , with heavy airplay of artists including Billie Eilish , Machine Gun Kelly , Post Malone , Powfu , 24kGoldn , Beabadoobee and Dominic Fike . The station also decreased airplay of most 1990s and 2000s alternative titles and artists that defined the station during its heyday, including System of a Down and Muse . The changes drew ire from cultural critics and former KROQ on-air talent, followed by

9657-418: The prominent grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success. At the same time, critics asserted that advertising was co-opting elements of grunge and turning it into a fad. Entertainment Weekly commented in a 1993 article, "There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s." The New York Times compared

9768-445: The ratings, for which it remained until the mid-2000s, when it slipped to the middle-of-the-pack, ratings-wise, for Los Angeles area radio stations. The 1990s also saw a continuation of the weekday morning Kevin & Bean Show, as well as "Rodney on the Roq," hosted by Rodney Bingenheimer , on Sunday nights. In late nights, the station aired Loveline , hosted by " The Poorman " Jim Trenton and Dr. Drew Pinsky . The show's purpose

9879-427: The rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity. Other grunge bands subsequently replicated Nirvana's success. Pearl Jam had released its debut album Ten a month before Nevermind in 1991, but album sales only picked up a year later. By the second half of 1992 Ten became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on

9990-476: The rise of the format across radio stations in the United States by stations like KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and WDRE-FM in New York, which were playing music from more underground , independent, and non-commercial rock artists. Initially, several alternative styles achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands, such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction , were signed to major labels . Most alternative bands at

10101-421: The shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minneapolis bands Hüsker Dü and the Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic. Michael Azerrad asserted that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and

10212-479: The sound and style of grunge, "but not necessarily the individual idiosyncracies of its original artists." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production. Originally, post-grunge was a label used almost pejoratively on bands that emerged when grunge was mainstream and emulated the grunge sound. The label suggested that bands labelled as post-grunge were simply musically derivative, or

10323-514: The stage for alternative's later breakthrough. Some bands such as Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically. In the middle of the decade, Hüsker Dü's album Zen Arcade influenced other hardcore acts by tackling personal issues. Out of Washington, D.C.'s hardcore scene what was called "emocore" or, later, " emo " emerged and was noted for its lyrics which delved into emotional, very personal subject matter (vocalists sometimes cried) and added free association poetry and

10434-497: The station moved to 3500 W. Olive Avenue in Burbank in 1987 as part of the purchase agreement and to be closer to the music industry. In 2002, the station was moved to a facility at 5901 Venice Boulevard in the Crestview neighborhood in West Los Angeles . Unlike most other (Class B, but with grandfathered greater than B facilities) FM stations in Los Angeles whose transmitters are atop Mount Wilson , KROQ's (Class B) transmitter

10545-513: The subgenre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism. Bands of this subgenre took inspiration from two British post-punk groups, Siouxsie and the Banshees , and Joy Division . Bauhaus ' debut single " Bela Lugosi's Dead ", released in 1979, is considered to be the proper beginning of the gothic rock subgenre. The Cure 's "oppressively dispirited" albums including Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in that style and laid

10656-644: The term Alternative Nation . In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has formerly been considered alternative rock —a college-centered marketing group with fairly lucrative, if limited, potential—has in fact moved into the mainstream." In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle, '70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions." Defining music as alternative

10767-514: The term would broaden to include new wave , pop, punk rock , post-punk , and occasionally " college "/" indie " rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM . Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative also encompassed variants such as "rap, trash, metal and industrial". The bill of the first Lollapalooza , an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell , reunited "disparate elements of

10878-458: The time, like the Smiths , one of the key British alternative rock bands during the 1980s, remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream, and many alternative bands became successful. Emo found mainstream success in

10989-528: The time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were new music and postmodern , respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past. A similar term, alternative pop , emerged around 1985. In 1987, Spin magazine categorized college rock band Camper Van Beethoven as "alternative/indie", saying that their 1985 song "Where the Hell Is Bill" (from Telephone Free Landslide Victory ) "called out

11100-554: The transmitter to Flint Peak, with a slight power increase to 25,700 watts. In 1971, Ludwig Wolfgang Frohlich, founder of the National Science Network and previous owner of an ad agency, died. Upon his death, control of the estate was transferred to Ingrid and Thomas Burns. Country music station KBBQ (1500 AM ) in Burbank became KROQ in September 1972, changing its format to Top 40 and hiring established disc jockeys from other stations. The new KROQ called itself "K-ROCK,

11211-488: The type of rock played on American 1970s Album Oriented Rock radio. In the early 21st century, many alternative rock bands that experienced mainstream success struggled following the suicide of Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Pearl Jam 's failed lawsuit against concert venue promoter Ticketmaster , Soundgarden 's break-up in 1997, the Smashing Pumpkins losing its original members in 2000, L7 's hiatus in 2001,

11322-405: The wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture, although this could be contested since some of the major alternative artists have eventually achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onward (especially into the 2000s, and beyond). In

11433-851: Was also not uncommon for certain KROQ dee-jays to play then-current hip hop and soul / funk artists such as Arrested Development , Prince and Parliament/Funkadelic . By 1982, Billboard Magazine reported that KROQ Arbitron numbers of 3.7 were closing in on AOR leaders KMET at 4.0 and KLOS at 3.9. Carroll, as a consultant, took the "Rock of the 80s" format to other stations, including 91X in San Diego , KOEU in Palm Springs, California , KMGN FM in Bakersfield, California , The Quake in San Francisco and KYYX in Seattle , among

11544-584: Was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. After a 28-year run at the station, Senior VP of Programming Kevin Weatherly exited the station to start a new role as Spotify 's new Head of North American Programming. Mike Kaplan replaced Weatherly at KROQ in February 2020. On March 18, 2020, Kevin Ryder announced on Twitter that he, Allie MacKay, Jensen Karp, producer Dave Sanchez and contributor Jonathan Kantrowe, had all been let go from

11655-650: Was awarded Radio Station of the Year in 1992 and 1993 by Rolling Stone magazine readers poll issues. In 2007, the station was nominated for the top 25 markets Alternative station of the year award by Radio & Records magazine. Other nominees included WBCN in Boston, Massachusetts; KTBZ-FM in Houston, Texas; KITS in San Francisco, California; KNDD in Seattle, Washington; and WWDC in Washington, DC. KROQ

11766-587: Was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock . Traditionally, alternative rock varied in terms of its sound, social context, and regional roots. Throughout the 1980s, magazines and zines , college radio airplay , and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock's distinct styles (and music scenes), such as noise pop , indie rock , grunge , and shoegaze . In September 1988, Billboard introduced "alternative" into their charting system to reflect

11877-529: Was created by Billboard , listing the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations in the US: the first number one was " Peek-a-Boo " by Siouxsie and the Banshees . By 1989, the genre had become popular enough that a package tour featuring New Order , Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes toured the US arena circuit. Early on, British alternative rock was distinguished from that of

11988-565: Was owned by the Pasadena Presbyterian Church as a companion to its KPPC , a limited-hours AM radio station that had broadcast since 1924. In 1967, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church sold KPPC-AM-FM to Crosby-Avery Broadcasting for $ 310,000. The church had been attempting to sell the radio stations for a year; station manager Edgar Pierce said the church found commercial radio incompatible with

12099-414: Was sold to Universal Broadcasting, a religious broadcaster, and remained on the air with its limited-schedule of Wednesday evening and Sunday operation until subsequent owners took the station off the air permanently in 1996. The two stations (KROQ-AM/FM) were wildly successful initially with the new format, but poor money management plagued the enterprise. When concert promoter Ken Roberts booked Sly and

12210-585: Was the recipient of an Alternate Contraband Award for Major Market Radio Alternative Radio Station of the Year 2012. KROQ was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in 2014. KROQ broadcasts a second HD Radio subchannel, with KROQ-HD2 airing The ROQ of the 80's , which features classic rock from the 1980s. In August 2018, Entercom announced it would re-launch the subchannel, adding former KROQ personalities Freddy Snakeskin and Tami Heide as DJs. In 2020, KROQ activated an HD3 subchannel, which aired

12321-595: Was to bring correct information regarding human sexuality and relationships to those 13 to 25 years of age. KROQ also began its own festivals Almost Acoustic Christmas and Weenie Roast , which had taken place every year since 1990 and 1993 respectively; due to the COVID-19 pandemic , there were no lineups for Almost Acoustic Christmas in 2020 and 2021, while there have been no editions of the Weenie Roast since 2019. In June 1990, Kevin and Bean secretly arranged for

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