Lollapalooza and The Alternative Music Culture

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There have been many events in the course of music history that has shaped how what becomes popular and what is deemed “proper” in terms of music we should be consuming. In 1991, Lollapalooza, a multi city touring festival in the United States, highlighting alternative culture changed how music was consumed from there on forward. With the popularity of the festival and the highlighting of the alternative culture it represented the music industry took note, not long after the festival and explosion of alternative music hit mainstream music culture. New bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and bands who had been around awhile but had a smaller marginalized audiences such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers found mainstream success in a post Lollapalooza music environment. The affects of these bands are still resonating through the music that is listened to today, and without Lollapalooza there would have not been the event that signalled to the decision makers in the music industry that this kind of music could be popular to the masses.

This paper will discuss alternative music culture and Lollapalooza in a context of cultural analysis, drawing on the works of Raymond Williams, and Martha Gever . This paper will first explore what alternative music culture is, secondly this paper will discuss the importance of Lollapalooza to the alternative music culture movement, the second half of the paper will apply the concepts of the aforementioned authors to alternative music culture and Lollapalooza. Though this analysis this paper will unpack how alterative music culture can be used to illustrate how previously marginalized groups of people, such as those who were in the alternative music culture, can...

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