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?

In: 1778

Answer 1

It was a marketing term for college radio. It was what the young people wanted, to be separate from the previous generation that like Loverboy and Poison.