Where’d All The Garage Bands Go: The Importance of Alternative Music
Some of my earliest, most formative childhood memories were that of listening to music on my sleek, silver iPod touch, the envy of my peers and the pinnacle of early 2000s tech. Specifically, I remember listening to songs on my dad’s Apple Music account and being introduced to the world of alternative music, including one of my longtime favorite bands. “21 Guns” was my first delicious taste of the pop punk phenomenon that is Green Day. After that, I was hooked. Green Day was the first band I fell in love with and my first concert experience. Billie Joe Armstrong was, embarrassingly, one of my middle school crushes.
Most of my friends were into Justin Bieber and One Direction at the time, but I, for better or worse, had fully inherited my father’s music taste. My dad had lived his young adult years in mid 90s Seattle, the Mecca of alternative and grunge music. Alternative and grunge wasn’t just on the radio, though. Grunge bands like Nirvana and pop punk bands like Blink-182 dominated pop culture in the late nineties and early 2000s. It emerged largely in the SoCal skateboarding scene, the Pacific Northwest, and eventually, in midwest suburbia, but it spread pretty much worldwide.
Despite the differing locations and music styles, many of these bands had something important in common. Some of the biggest alternative bands in the world simply began in a garage. The White Stripes, Weezer, Sum 41 and even the Ramones all started in a garage. Weezer even references the band’s garage rock origins in their song “The Garage,” which explores the comfort and creative inspiration that lead singer Rivers Cuomo felt during the band’s formative era. There is something special and romantic about the garage band, and about alternative music in general. It unapologetically represents a sort of loser, outcast identity while still being effortlessly cool. It offers social commentary while not being overly navel-gazey. It is a collaborative effort made with real instruments and vocals, not AI or music apps. Garage bands specifically represent accessibility to music. Anyone could start a garage band.
Garage bands emerged in an era where technology and politics were changing and the means of music production was becoming more and more accessible. All it really took was a garage, some instruments, and somebody saying “dude, we should start a band.”
Alternative garage rock focused on things like relationships, immaturity and adolescent anxiety. Alternative music served as an outlet for teenage angst in a time when many young people felt distrustful of the “establishment.” This was the era of the Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine, and 9/11. This was also the era of the War on Terror, government survailance, and rapid technological advancements. Young adults growing up in this social and political climate used music as a form of self expression and even protest.
Green Day’s 2004 album, “American Idiot”, was an overt response to the post-9/11 era, a critique on the Bush administration. The country’s political anxiety of the post-9/11 era was directly reflected in the album’s success as it topped the charts and won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Similarly, Gerard Way created the band My Chemical Romance after witnessing 9/11 as a way to fight for social change, and also as a form of therapy after the traumatic event.
Alternative music was also a way that many artists expressed more personal anxieties and struggles. Artists like Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 came from families with divorced parents, both going on to produce hit songs about their experiences. Other common themes among this genre are suicide and substance abuse. Alternative music has never been a genre to avoid difficult and controversial topics, rather, it is one of the few genres that openly embraces it.
Unfortunately, most of these once iconic bands no longer make music, and there certainly aren’t many new alternative artists coming to replace them. The emotional and controversial nature that is inherent to the genre is likely a reason for its decline in the late 2010s and early 2020s. In an age of AI slop and endless doomscrolling, mass produced corporate pop satiates listeners just enough for it to go viral on TikTok and be a part of everyone’s Spotify wrapped come November. This particular brand of music says a lot without saying very much at all.
After all, something like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is much more easily digestible for the average audience than Green Day’s “Holiday,” a staunch anti-war protest song that they sometimes use to call out politicians by name at live performances. Alternative music can make people uncomfortable, and it’s meant to, just like how much of the popular music from this decade is purposefully familiar and unprofound.
Another reason for the decline in new alternative bands over the past decade is that young adults, specifically white teenage boys, have vastly different hobbies than they did in the 90s and early aughts. Back then, the outlet for social ostracization, family problems, or political frustrations was beating on drums or shredding on a bass in your mom’s garage. There was creative freedom and emotional expression within getting together with your closest friends and writing songs about how you felt. Now, many teens and young adults engage in more solitary, online hobbies like content creation, podcasting, gaming, and streaming. Quite frankly, these things are popular because they are convenient and you dont have to be particularly good at them to gain internet fame. You don’t have to deal with creative disagreements, booking gigs or learning new guitar riffs like you would if your hobby of choice was being in a band.
The downfall of the alternative garage band culture has a lot of social implications. Alternative, garage band music combines individual expression with the collaborative and communal aspect of being a band member. Meanwhile, modern mainstream pop combines the vague mass appeal with a likeable solo artist figure that has their own Dunkin’ drink or Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor. We are missing out on music that makes us uncomfortable, challenges our belief systems, and tackles controversial topics. Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy,” a song about teenage suicide, was a massive MTV hit in 1992, but would it reach the same success if it was released today?
Garage band representation in teen media is gone, there’s no new Rodrick Heffleys or Anna Colemans, other than just sad remakes. There are plenty of teen Twitch streamers and content creators though. Teens and young adults need emotional and artistic expression. They need in person socialization with their peers. They need analog experiences. Teens need a comeback of the garage band.
