Eli5 why rock n’ roll music in the 90s was called alternative? What was it alternative to? What defined it as a separate genre?

Question

Eli5 why rock n’ roll music in the 90s was called alternative? What was it alternative to? What defined it as a separate genre?

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Answer 1

The style of 90’s rock actually began in the 80’s but was not very popular in the culture at large during that decade, which is why it was called alternative. In the 90’s that style finally went mainstream with artists like Nirvana topping the charts, and the term of ‘alternative’ stuck even though it had become somewhat of a misnomer by that point.