Top Five Best Alternative-Rock Music Bands: These Bands Still Stand the Test of Time
Alternative-Rock Music Has Always Been My Favorite, and These Five Bands Are Truly Amazing
5. Barenaked Ladies - This Canadian alternative rock band has been in existence for more than 20 years. With such hits as 'Brian Wilson' and 'The Old Apartment', and for their funny lines and silly chat when they're up on stage, Barenaked Ladies are one of my top ten bests. Looks like they're not going to be for much longer though. Steven Page, the lead singer, just announced he's leaving the band so even though the band says they'll play on, it's never quite the same when the lead singer leaves now, is it?
4. Bauhaus - British band Bauhaus was one of my top five alternative rock bands when I started out as a radio D.J. and they've never left the list. 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' holds up as well today as it did almost 30 years ago. Peter Murphy, the lead singer, left to pursue a solo career and the band broke up. They've gotten back together a couple of times but broke up pretty much permanently around four years ago. After Murphy left, the remaining band members of Bauhaus formed two other groups - Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets, and they actually did better than Bauhaus did when it came to popularity. But, you can't beat Bauhaus' 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' and 'Telegram Sam', if you love the depressing stuff.
3. XTC - Oh I just loved XTC. From 'Senses Working Overtime' to 'Dear God' and 'Making Plans for Nigel', their brand of pop music with a bit of funk and reggae thrown in always made me happy. Over the years, they released 14 albums, but the best one by far is 'The Big Express'. XTC, another British alternative rock band, unfortunately, broke up permanently a couple of years ago.
2. The Cure - Probably one of the most famous alternative rock bands, and another British one, The Cure are still together and recording. For 30 years, they've been on the cutting edge of alternative rock music with such hits as 'Friday I'm in Love' and 'Pictures of You', and singer Robert Smith is still one of the sexiest men in alternative rock, if you ask me.
1. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - I couldn't get enough of British alternative rock artist Robyn Hitchcock with his funky lyrics and bizarre brain. I even met him once backstage at a concert I was master of ceremonies at in Cincinnati, Ohio. We had a weird conversation about lobsters but every second was so worth it. A lot of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians music is about food, and death or sometimes a combination of both. Robyn is mostly a solo man nowadays, his partnership with the Egyptians being pretty short lived but he's done some work with Andy Partridge from XTC and even recorded a cool Bryan Ferry cover 'More Than This'. For quintessential Robyn Hitchcock, check out 'I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl', 'I Often Dream of Trains' or 'Balloon Man'.
What's surprising, when I look back on my favorite alternative rock bands and, especially on these top five, none of them are American. There's something about the British, with a Canadian or two thrown in, that just seem to produce better alternative rock than most American alternative rock bands. I do like Green Day, Dinosaur Jr., and The Posies but, for me, they just don't quite stack up against the British bands - somewhat sad, but true.
Published by Cassandra James
I'm a British-American writer currently living in Bangkok, Thailand. I've been writing for Associated Content since 2007 and was named one of AC's Top 100 Writers for 2008, 2009 and 2010. I primarily write a... View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentBarenaked Ladies are not really a band inasmuch as that is not music just masturbation!
Christopher, I'm not a huge Pixie's fan, although I did play them a lot on my radio show as my listeners loved them. So much of that music from the 80s and early 90s though was much better than much of the garbage today. Today's singers just don't have the style of the alternative rock bands in the 80s and 90s, IMO.
I agree with you about REM, but I (heart) the Pixies! The Cure are amazing, especially their visual, moody live shows, and Peter was singing Bela with Trent and TV on The Radio in LA last year. It never gets old! ;-)
Dude that stuff is old as shit
REM? Over-rated and I never did like TMBG or The Pixies :-)
How about the overlooked and always mighty Clutch? If you ever want to kill all the musicians in your town just drive a truck bomb into any venue Clutch is playing cause they will be there.
Great list!! I just recently got into XTC!!!
Marie, hope you're correct :-)
Ok, so I know of #2 and #5 which is my all time favorite band! Have some faith that the band will go on without Steven Page. He was/is not the only lead singer of the group. He and Ed shared the spotlight for all those years and the other three are also singers in their own right. The first show they did as a foursome was awesome. There are a couple songs to work on, but overall, they will prevail and be the great band they have always been... don't think they are gonna fall off your list just yet! :D
You'll get a kick out of this. VH-1 just did a special on the 100 greatest one-hit wonders of the 1980s. XTC was on the list due to Dear God. I wonder what VH-1 considers a hit. Of course, they also think Nena and Midnight Oil were one-hit wonders. Hey, VH-1, there's the little area of geography outside of the United States you might want to learn about. It's called the rest of the World and most of the people live there.