‘Alternative Rock’: It’s Not That Alternative Anymore

Like so many mainstream rock stations around the country, L.A.’s KLOS-FM (95.5) rejected many of the most groundbreaking changes in pop music for years--from punk to industrial to grunge.

So should we celebrate the station’s recent announcement that it now considers itself an “alternative rock” radio station?

Not really.

Instead, maybe we should mourn the fact that bands that label themselves “alternative” in 1995 play music so safe and familiar that even KLOS--haven of Queensryche and Van Halen, the Doors and Hendrix--will now play them.

Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Live and Counting Crows are a few of the “postmodern” bands (that’s radio lingo) with which the station now peppers its traditional rock lineup. KLOS program director Carey Curelop feels that these bands have helped complete the station’s “musical evolution,” according to the announcement.

But KLOS didn’t really have to climb the evolutionary ladder very high to see that much of the music now referred to as alternative was coming back around to its camp. Bands such as Live and Stone Temple Pilots sound so much like the stadium rock of yesteryear that it’s no stretch to put them alongside the traditional rock titans on the station’s playlist.

Stone Temple Pilot’s songs segue seamlessly into Ted Nugent numbers, and Live sounds like close kin to REO Speedwagon. Without the help of a video to image these bands (i.e., they must be alternative because they sport boots and buzz-cuts), the groups carry on in the tradition of their hair-flipping forerunners.

Curelop disagrees. “I think those bands, unlike many of the bands in the previous 10 years, have something to say. I think they write good music, and the fact that it has garnered massive appeal is an accident.”

It’s not an accident. Alternative , as a marketing term, sells--just like new wave or disco before it. But, more to the point, listeners are requesting the proven and familiar sounds of Bush. That demand--and radio’s willingness to respond--marks the slide of rock back into the dreary mediocrity of yesteryear.

“ Alternative is just a misnomer,” says Curelop. “I don’t consider Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, or many other bands that have gained success in the ‘90s, alternative. It’s still guitars and drums.”

And, for the most part, still unadventurous.

Lolla ‘95: Four reasons why Lollapalooza’s main stage, whose lineup was announced this week, will be even better than last year’s:

1. Hole. The festival has never featured an artist who could tell an audience to “Shut the (expletive) up” as effectively as Courtney Love.

2. The Jesus Lizard. The Chicago quartet, infamous for its riotous shows and possessed singer David Yow, is more confrontational and combustible than any band that’s graced the Lollapalooza main stage--even Ministry and Jane’s Addiction.

3. It features none of the bands that played Lollapalooza ’93. Primus ? Come on.

4. Cypress Hill and Sinead O’Connor on the same bill.

Pixielated: The Pixies spawned some volatile artists. Former frontman Frank Black recently parted ways with his band and his record label, and now bassist Kim Deal has just scrapped the third album by her band the Breeders halfway through the recording. She will redo some of the songs for a solo album, due out in the fall, and plans to start working on a new Breeders album about the same time.