The History of Alt-Rock: Chapter 8
When punk rock first appeared in the middle 1970s, the major record companies in north America really didn\u2019t care...they were happily making millions and millions of dollars from big rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.....\nAnd there was millions more coming in from disco...which was sweeping the world....it was like a plague\u2013but a profitable one...so why\xa0would\xa0they bother with this weird stuff bubbling up from tiny, scary clubs on both sides of the Atlantic?...they were too busy going to big stadium shows and getting down at Studio 54...\nBut this new music wouldn\u2019t go away...so when Led Zeppelin broke up and the Stones and The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac disappeared up their own buts and the disco bubble finally burst\xa0the record execs tried to tame it......marketing the gentler and less intense bands under the umbrella of something they called \u201cNew Wave\u201d.\nOh, they\xa0tried\xa0with punk, but they got it really, really wrong...you gotta wonder what was going through that executive\u2019s head when The Ramones were picked to open shows for toto....\nNo, seriously...The Ramones were the opening act for Toto on one tour...I swear I didn\u2019t make that up...it happened in Lake Charles, Louisiana...January 26, 1979...they were also paired up with Foreigner and Blue Oyster Cult...\nBut we have to be fair....the general public just didn\u2019t\xa0get\xa0punk....when The Sex pistols appeared on the cover of\xa0Rolling Stone\xa0magazine in the fall of 1977, it was one of their poorest-selling issues, ever....mind you, the headline read \u201crock is sick and living in London\u201d...the story began with a quote from Isaiah 3:24: \u201cinstead of perfume, there will be rottenness\u201d....\nAfter that, most\xa0Rolling Stone\xa0writers were instructed to stop writing about this music...it was bad for business...really bad...\nBut there were people who got it....and frankly, fans of non-mainstream music were quite happy to be left alone...they were into this new music precisely because they hated the mainstream...and over the next dozen years, the musical underground was allowed left to gestate undisturbed......it slowly mutated and evolved into something very unique---very powerful...this is the complete history of alt-rock, chapter 8...\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices