'00s Alternative Rock

As familiar as some bands (Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, for starters) were in the '00s, the decade was dominated by many new shades of alternative rock, starting with the swift turntable stabs and throat-scorching screams of Linkin Park, and the sensitive side of their nü-metal comrades, Staind ("It's Been Awhile") and Incubus ("Drive"). Meanwhile, the other side of the alt-rock coin was defined by a pair of Detroit Rock City natives with a battering-ram approach to garage rock (the White Stripes), a band of Lower East Side outsiders with a serious thrift-shop collection (the Strokes), and the hard-partying sons of a preacher man (Kings of Leon) . . .

. . . not to mention some of the standouts from our Next Steps, including the Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

You know what notion’s been obliterated throughout the ’00s? That today’s download-today/ditch-tomorrow culture leaves little room for bands with actual careers. Aside from spotlighting such usual suspects as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead, the post-grunge era has also featured a parade of new guitar-toting superstars, including Interpol (the dashing post-punk chords of “PDA”), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (the tear-streaked melodies and feedback flare-ups of “Maps”), and Damon Albarn’s post-Blur “band” Gorillaz (the post-everything pop hooks of “Feel Good Inc”).

And what’s that in our Deep Cuts? Why, it's the welcome return of Nirvana alongside the many groups that grew up listening to Nevermind.

When a new Nirvana song (“You Know You’re Right”) suddenly stormed alternative rock stations in 2002, it didn’t just remind us why Kurt Cobain’s one of history’s greatest rock stars; it also connected the dots between the past two decades, reminding us how we ended up with such post-grunge acts as Godsmack (the bleak sludge backing of “I Stand Alone”) and the Vines (the dagger-like soft/loud dynamics of “Get Free”). The hit single also highlighted the differences between Nirvana’s countless followers and alt-rock’s new school, from the half-pipe hooks of Good Charlotte and Sum 41 to the hip-hop-infused heaviness of Crazy Town and Limp Bizkit.

If there’s one thing we’ll always love about alternative rock, it’s how open-ended the alt part of the equation is. Especially in the new millennium, as songs are served with decadent dashes of disco-punk and buffered beats (Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, She Wants Revenge), guillotine-like guitars and tremor-triggering basslines (System of a Down, Disturbed, Papa Roach), and thoroughly scuffed rock references that sound the way hipsters look when they roll out of bed in the afternoon (the Strokes, the Hives, the White Stripes). Come to think of it, even pop-punk’s rules were rewritten in the ’00s, from the Broadway-bound turns of Green Day and Panic! At the Disco to the ridiculously catchy skate-park choruses of Yellowcard and Blink-182.