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Alternative rock
Stylistic origins:
Punk
Post-punk
Hardcore
Cultural origins:
early
1980s
United Kingdom
and
United States
Typical
instruments:
Guitar -
Bass -
Drums
Mainstream popularity:
Limited prior to the success of grunge and Britpop in the 1990s. Widespread since then, although many artists remain underground.
Subgenres
Britpop -
College rock -
Dream pop -
Gothic rock -
Grunge -
Indie pop -
Indie rock -
Noise pop -
Paisley Underground -
Post-rock -
Shoegazing -
Twee pop
Fusion genres
Alternative metal -
Gothabilly -
Industrial rock -
Madchester -
Post-punk revival -
Riot Grrrl
Regional scenes
Massachusetts -
Seattle, Washington -
Illinois -
Maryland -
Manchester, England
Other topics
Bands -
College radio -
History -
Indie music -
Lollapalooza
table end
Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of
rock music
that emerged from the
underground music
scene of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. The term "alternative" was coined in the 1980s to describe
punk rock
-inspired bands on
independent record labels
that did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time.
[1]
As a musical genre, alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the
independent music
scene since the 1980s, such as
grunge,
Britpop,
gothic rock
, and
indie pop
. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.
[2]
Though the genre is considered to be rock, some of its subgenres are influenced by
folk music,
reggae,
electronic music
and
jazz
among other genres. At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from
underground
artists in the 1980s, all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself,
New Wave
, and
post-punk
), and, ironically, for rock music in general in the 1990s and 2000s.
While a few artists like
R.E.M.
and
The Cure
achieved commercial success and mainstream critical recognition, many alternative rock artists during the 1980s were cult acts that recorded on independent
labels and received their exposure through college radio airplay and word-of-mouth. With the breakthrough of
Nirvana
and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the early 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became
commercially successful.
3 Alternative rock in the United States
3.1 The 1980s underground
3.2 Grunge and the "Alternative Nation"
list end nesting level 1
4 Alternative rock in the United Kingdom
list of 2 items nesting level 1
4.1 Genres and trends of the 1980s
4.2 Britpop and post-Britpop trends
list end nesting level 1
5 Alternative rock in other countries
6 Styles
The term "alternative rock"
The music now known as alternative rock was known by a variety of terms before "alternative" came into common use. "
College rock
" was used in the
United States
to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the
college radio
circuit and the tastes of college students. In the
United Kingdom
the term "indie" was (and still is) preferred; by 1985 the term "indie" had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than a simple
demarcation of status.
[3]
"Indie rock"
[4]
was also largely synonymous with the genre in the United States up until the genre's commercial breakthrough in the early 1990s due to the majority of
the bands belonging to independent labels.
By 1990 the genre was called "alternative rock".
[5]
The term "alternative" had originated sometime around the mid-1980s;
[6]
it was an extension of the phrases "new music" and "post modern", both for the freshness of the music and its tendency to recontextualize the sounds of
the past, which were commonly used by music industry of the time to denote cutting edge music.
[2]
[7]
Individuals who worked as DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American
FM radio
of the 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to
top 40
rock radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving the DJs more freedom in their song selections. One former DJ and promoter has said, "Somehow this
term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever
music . . ."
[8]
Thus the original use of the term was often broader than it has come to be understood, encompassing punk rock, New Wave, post-punk, and even
pop music
, along with the occasional "college"/"indie" rock, all music found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as
Los Angeles' KROQ-FM.
[2]
The use of the term "alternative" gained popular exposure during 1991 with the implementation of alternative music categories in the
Grammy Awards
and the
MTV Video Music Awards
, as well as the success of
Lollapalooza
, where festival founder and
Jane's Addiction
frontman
Perry Farrell
coined the term "Alternative Nation".
[2]
Defining music as "alternative" is often difficult because of two and often conflicting applications of the word. "Alternative" can describe music that
challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream," but the term is also used in the music industry to denote
"the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet."
[9]
One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. relied on college radio airplay, constant touring, and a grassroots fanbase to break into the musical
mainstream.
One of the first popular alternative rock bands,
R.E.M.
relied on
college radio
airplay, constant touring, and a grassroots fanbase to break into the musical mainstream.
"Alternative rock" is essentially an
umbrella term
for underground music that has emerged in the wake of the punk rock movement since the mid-1980s.
[10]
Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture. Alternative bands
during the 1980s generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth.
[11]
As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although
The New York Times
in 1989 asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and
squeal in feedback."
[12]
Sounds range from the dirty guitars of grunge to the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitar pop revivalism of Britpop to the shambling innocence
of
twee pop
. More often than in other rock styles, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, and environmentalism.
[11]
This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s.
[13]
Although alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians
and laid the groundwork for their success.
[14]
The popular and commercial success of
Nirvana
's 1991 album
Nevermind
took alternative rock into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability.
[15]
As a result, alternative rock became the most popular form of rock music of the decade and many alternative bands garnered commercial and critical success.
However, many of these artists rejected success, for it conflicted with the rebellious,
DIY
ethic the genre had espoused prior to mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity.
[16]
As many of the genre's key groups broke up or retreated from the limelight, alternative rock declined from mainstream prominence.
In the first decade of the 21st century, mainstream rock has largely moved beyond alternative's 1980s roots and low-fidelity ethos. Today's most popular
rock music acts, typified by youth-oriented modern rock groups such as
Linkin Park
that owe a debt to both
metal
and grunge, incorporate complex electronic beats and a sophisticated production style. Many alternative rock fans do not see these bands—despite their
debt to the genre—as alternative, but rather as
nu metal
acts. In 2004, alternative rock received renewed mainstream attention with the popularity of indie rock and post-punk revival artists such as
Modest Mouse
and
Franz Ferdinand
, respectively.
[17]
In the 1980s, alternative rock in the United States was primarily the domain of
college radio
stations. Most commercial stations ignored the genre. On television,
MTV
would occasionally show alternative videos late at night. In 1986, the network began airing the late-night alternative music program
120 Minutes
, which would serve as a major outlet for the genre prior to its commercial breakthrough in the following decade. Ultimately, in the late 1980s, commercial
stations such as
Boston
's
WFNX
and Los Angeles' KROQ began playing alternative rock, pioneering the
modern rock
radio format.
Early American alternative bands such as
R.E.M.,
The Feelies
, and
Violent Femmes
combined punk influences with
folk music
and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; its debut album,
Murmur
(1983), entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of
jangle pop
followers.
[10]
One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 1980s, Los Angeles'
Paisley Underground
was a 1960s revival, incorporating psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock as well as punk and underground influences such
as
The Velvet Underground.
[10]
American indie labels
SST Records,
Twin/Tone Records,
Touch & Go Records
, and
Dischord Records
presided over the shift from the
hardcore punk
that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging.
[18]
Minneapolis
bands
Hüsker Dü
and
The Replacements
were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic,
[10]
culminating in Hüsker Dü's
Zen Arcade
and The Replacements'
Let It Be
(both 1984). They were critically acclaimed and drew attention to the burgeoning alternative genre. That year, SST Records also released landmark alternative
albums by the
Minutemen
and the
Meat Puppets
, who mixed punk with funk and country, respectively.
Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
Kim Gordon
and
Thurston Moore
of
Sonic Youth
R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü set the blueprint for much of the decade's alternative, both sonically and in how they approached their careers.
[10]
In the late 1980s, the U.S. underground scene and college radio were dominated by college rock bands like the
Pixies,
They Might Be Giants,
Camper Van Beethoven,
Dinosaur Jr
, and
Throwing Muses
as well as post-punk survivors from Britain. Another major force was the
noise rock
of
Sonic Youth,
Big Black,
Butthole Surfers
, and others. By the end of the decade, a number of alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major label signings Hüsker Dü and the
Replacements had little success, acts who signed with majors in their wake such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and platinum records, setting
the stage for alternative's later breakthrough.
[19]
[20]
Some bands such as the Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically.
[10]
By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was abuzz about alternative rock's commercial possibilities and actively courted alternative bands including
Dinosaur Jr,
fIREHOSE
, and Nirvana.
[19]
Grunge
was a subgenre of alternative rock created in
Seattle, Washington
, in the mid-1980s. Grunge was based around a sludgy, murky guitar sound that synthesized
heavy metal
and punk rock.
[21]
In the early 1990s, it launched a large movement in mainstream music. The year 1991 was very significant for alternative rock, especially grunge, with
the release of Nirvana's second and most successful album, Nevermind;
Pearl Jam
's breakthrough debut,
Ten
;
Soundgarden's
Badmotorfinger
; and
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik
. Nirvana's surprise success with Nevermind heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative
bands in particular.
[22]
In the wake of Nevermind, alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming [. . .] into the mainstream" and record companies, confused by the
genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands.
[23]
The explosion of alternative rock was aided by MTV and Lollapalooza, a touring festival of diverse bands that helped expose and popularize alternative groups
such as
Nine Inch Nails,
The Smashing Pumpkins
, and
Hole
. By the mid-1990s, alternative was synonymous with grunge in the eyes of the mass media and the general public, and a supposed "
alternative culture
" was being marketed to the mainstream in much the same way as the
hippie
counterculture
had in the 1960s (the existence of any such culture is debatable, and is often seen by some fans of the music to have been a creation of the media). During
the 1990s, various pop artists who were hardly "alternative", such as
Alanis Morissette
and
Hootie & the Blowfish
, were nonetheless branded as such by mainstream record labels in the hopes of capitalizing on the concept's popularity. Many
pop punk
bands such as
Green Day
and
The Offspring
were also labeled "alternative". The most drastic mislabeling was given to African-American artists whose music did not fall into the genres of R&B, hip-hop,
or pop, such as folk musician
Tracy Chapman
and heavy metal band
Living Colour
, despite the fact that their music did not derive from punk or post-punk influences.
[24]
At the same time,
post-grunge
bands such as
Third Eye Blind,
The Goo Goo Dolls
and
Matchbox Twenty
took the tropes of alternative rock and commercialized them. The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore.
Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the
oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance."
[25]
Nevertheless, alternative bands who were leery of broad commercial success and stayed underground were termed "indie rock"
[4]
and developed movements such as
lo-fi
, a genre that espoused a return to the original ethos of alternative music. Labels such as
Matador Records,
Merge Records
, and Dischord, and indie rockers like
Pavement,
Liz Phair,
Superchunk,
Fugazi
, and
Sleater-Kinney
dominated the American indie scene for most of the 1990s.
[26]
Alternative's mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events, notably the death of Nirvana's
Kurt Cobain
in 1994 and Pearl Jam's lawsuit against concert venue promoter
Ticketmaster
, which in effect barred them from playing many major venues around the country.
[16]
A signifier of alternative rock's declining popularity was the hiatus of the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find a headliner in
1998. In light of the festival's troubles that year,
Spin
said, "Lollapalooza is as comatose as alternative rock right now".
[27]
By the start of the 21st century, many major alternative bands, including Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden,
Alice in Chains,
Rage Against the Machine
, and Hole had broken up or were on hiatus. Meanwhile indie rock diversified; along with the more conventional indie rock sounds of
Modest Mouse,
Bright Eyes
, and
Death Cab for Cutie
, the
garage rock
revival of
The White Stripes
and
The Strokes
and the neo-post-punk sounds of
Interpol
and
The Killers
achieved mainstream success. Due to the success of these bands,
Entertainment Weekly
declared in 2004, "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again."
[28]
British alternative rock is distinguished from that of the United States by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles,
as well as greater openess to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few
British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US.
[29]
Since the 1980s alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by
DJs
such as
John Peel
(who championed alternative music on
BBC Radio 1
), Richard Skinner, and
Annie Nightingale
. Artists that had cult followings in the United States received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly press, and many alternative
bands had chart success there.
[30]
Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk. Most of the first goth bands, including
Bauhaus,
Siouxsie & the Banshees
, and
The Cure
, are labeled as both post-punk and gothic rock. With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock," gothic rock utilizes a synthesizer-and-guitar
based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes," and the genre's lyrics often address literary romanticism,
morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism."
[31]
Gothic rock began to develop into its own in the early 1980s with the opening of
The Batcave
nightclub and the emergence of a
goth subculture
. By the mid-1980s, goth bands such as
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Mission
, and
Fields of the Nephilim
achieved success on the UK pop charts. Meanwhile Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure moved away from goth, broadening their sound and becoming internationally
successful by the start of the 1990s.
Robert Smith of The Cure rejects the genre labels like alternative, gothic rock, and college rock applied to his band. He has said, "Every time we went
to America we had a different tag [. . .] I can't remember when we officially became 'alt-rock'".
Robert Smith
of
The Cure
rejects the genre labels like alternative,
gothic rock
, and
college rock
applied to his band. He has said, "Every time we went to America we had a different tag [. . .] I can't remember when we officially became 'alt-rock'".
[32]
British indie rock and indie pop drew from the tradition of
Scottish
post-punk bands such as
Orange Juice
and
Aztec Camera
, utilizing jangly, shambling guitars and clever wordplay. The most popular and influential band to emerge from this lineage was
Manchester's
The Smiths
. The band managed to score a number of hits and influence a generation of bands while signed to an independent label,
Rough Trade Records
. Their embrace of the guitar in an era of synthesizers is viewed as signaling the end of the New Wave era in Britain.
[29]
After The Smiths broke up in 1987, singer
Morrissey
embarked on a successful solo career. Indie rock bands such as
The Housemartins
and
James
emerged in their wake. The
C86
cassette, a 1986
NME
premium featuring such bands as
The Wedding Present,
Primal Scream,
The Pastels
, and the
Soup Dragons
, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole.
[33]
[34]
Other forms of alternative rock developed in the UK during the 1980s.
The Jesus and Mary Chain
wrapped their pop melodies in walls of guitar noise, while
New Order
emerged from the demise of post-punk band
Joy Division
and experimented with
techno
and
house music
, forging the
alternative dance
style. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr and the
dream pop
of
Cocteau Twins
, were the influences for the
shoegazing
movement of the late 1980s. Named for the bandmembers' tendency to stare at their feet onstage, shoegazing acts like
My Bloody Valentine,
Slowdive,
Ride
, and
Lush
created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback.
[35]
Shoegazing bands dominated the British music press at the end of the decade along with the drug-fueled
Madchester
scene. Based around
The Haçienda
, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and
Factory Records
, Madchester bands such as
The Stone Roses
and the
Happy Mondays
mixed
acid house
dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop.
[36]
With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene
and music press in the early 1990s.
[29]
In contrast, only a few British alternative bands, most notably
Radiohead
and
Bush
, were able to make any sort of impression back in the States. As a reaction, a flurry of defiantly British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of grunge"
and "declare war on America", taking the public and native music press by storm.
[37]
Dubbed "Britpop" by the media, this movement represented by
Oasis,
Blur,
Suede
, and
Pulp
was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion.
[29]
Centered on a revitalization of British youth culture celebrated as "
Cool Britannia
," it propelled alternative rock to the top of the charts in its home country. In 1995 the Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief
groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles on the same day. Blur won "
The Battle of Britpop
", but Oasis's second album,
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
, went on to become the third best-selling album in Britain's history.
[38]
Oasis also had major commercial success overseas.
Britpop faded as Oasis's third album,
Be Here Now
, received lackluster reviews and Blur began to incorporate influence from American alternative rock.
[39]
At the same time Radiohead achieved critical acclaim with its 1997 album
OK Computer
, which was a marked contrast with the traditionalism of Britpop. Radiohead, along with post-Britpop groups like
Travis
and
Coldplay
, were major forces in British rock in the subsequent years.
[40]
Recently British indie rock has experienced a resurgence, spurred in part by the success the Strokes achieved in the UK prior to their domestic breakthrough.
Like modern American indie rock, many British indie bands such as
Franz Ferdinand,
The Libertines,
Bloc Party
, and
Arctic Monkeys
draw influence from post-punk groups such as Joy Division,
Wire
, and
Gang of Four.
Canadian
band
Arcade Fire
Australia
has produced a number of notable alternative bands, including
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,
The Go-Betweens,
Dead Can Dance,
Silverchair,
The Vines
, and
Eskimo Joe
. Double J, a government-funded radio station in
Sydney
and the Melbourne-based independent radio station
3RRR
broadcast alternative rock throughout the 1980s. In 1990, Double J, now known as
Triple J
, began broadcasting nationally. Much like America's Lollapalooza festival, Australia's
Big Day Out
festival serves as a touring showcase for domestic and foreign alternative artists. To the east, New Zealand's
Dunedin Sound
was based around the university city of
Dunedin
and the
Flying Nun Records
label. The genre, whose heyday was the mid-1980s, produced bands such as
The Bats,
The Clean,
Straightjacket Fits
and
The Chills.
Mainstream alternative rock in
Canada
ranges from the humorous pop of
Barenaked Ladies
and
Crash Test Dummies
to the post-grunge of
Our Lady Peace,
Matthew Good Band
, and
I Mother Earth
. In
Montreal
, an indie infrastructure developed in the aftermath of economic and social trouble during the 1990s. The city is now home to many indie rock bands such
as the
Arcade Fire,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
, and
The Dears.
[41]
The Sugarcubes
were the most successful band to emerge from
Iceland.
[42]
After the band's breakup in the early 1990s, vocalist
Björk
embarked on a solo career that incorporated influences including
trip hop
, jazz, and
electronica
in addition to alternative rock. Icelandic indie rock bands include
Múm
and
Sigur Rós
. Continental Europe has produced numerous alternative styles and bands, from
Germany
's
industrial rock
and
industrial metal
acts such as
KMFDM
or
Rammstein
to more idiosyncratic bands like the
Netherlands' The Gathering
and
Italy
's
Bluvertigo.
Japan
has an active noise rock scene characterized by groups such as
Boredoms
and
Melt-Banana
. Indie pop band
Shonen Knife
have been frequently cited as an influence by American alternative artists including Nirvana and Sonic Youth.
Many bands active in
Mexico
in the early 1990s can be considered alternative rock, though they are generally grouped in the
Rock en español
genre.
Fobia
and
Café Tacvba
are two of the most popular bands.
Argentina
has many alternative rock bands. Groups such as
El Otro Yo
, Jaime sin Tierra, Bicicletas,
Babasónicos
, Peligrosos Gorriones, and Los Brujos emerged in the 1990s as part of the so-called Nuevo Rock Argentino (New Argentine Rock) movement. While alternative
rock has not broken into the Argentine mainstream in a broad way, Babasónicos has became one of the most popular bands in the country.
Underground pop-influenced alternative rock went mainstream in the
Philippines
during the 1990s. Alternative
Philippine rock
bands include
Eraserheads,
Yano,
Parokya ni Edgar
, and
Rivermaya.
An audiobook is a recording that is primarily of the spoken word as opposed to music. While it is often based on a recording of commercially available printed
material, this is not always the case; nor is this required to fit the definition of an audiobook, which is why "audiobook" is one word rather than two.
It was not intended to be descriptive of the word "book" but is rather a recorded spoken program in its own right and not necessarily an audio version
of a book.
Spoken audio was originally primarily available in school and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops. It was not until the 1980's that there
began a concerted effort to attract book retailers. As book publishers entered the field of spoken-word publishing, the transition to book retailers carrying
audiobooks became commonplace on bookshelves rather than in separate displays.
Audiobooks are usually distributed on
CDs,
cassette tapes
, downloadable digital formats (e.g.,
MP3
and
Windows Media Audio
) and, most recently, some preloaded digital formats (e.g.,
Playaway).
The term "books on tape" was frequently and erroneously used as a synonym for audiobooks when the majority of audiobooks (then called "spoken word audio")
were available on cassette, but BOT was a company that actively attempted (often failing) to protect its company name from generic use. With cassette tapes
no longer the dominant medium for audiobooks, this has become a non-issue.
In 2005 cassette-tape sales made up roughly 16% of the audiobook market,
[1]
with CD sales accounting for 74% of the market and downloadable audio books accounting for approximately 9%. In the
United States
, the most recent sales survey (performed by the Audio Publishers' Association in the summer of 2006 for the year 2005) estimated the industry to be worth
871 million
US dollars
. Current industry estimates are around two billion US dollars at retail value per year.
Most new popular titles put out by the audiobook publishers are available in audiobook format simultaneously with publication of the hardcover edition.
The first example of this simultaneous publication was when Caedmon published the spoken recording of
Norman Mailer
's Ancient Evenings. There are more than 50,000 current titles on cassette, CD or digital format.
Unabridged audiobooks are word for word readings of a book, while abridged audiobooks have text edited out by the abridger. Abridgements were initially
necessary to keep down the running time, and therefore the cost and corresponding retail price, as the general consumer was getting introduced to audiobooks.
With greater consumer acceptance, less consumer price resistance and higher per title sales for some pricing economy, more of the audiobook titles are
now being released only as unabridged recordings. Audiobooks also come as fully dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes calling upon a complete
cast, music, and sound effects, though many consumers have indicated a preference for less music, multiple voices and sound effects. Each spring, the
Audie Awards
are given to the top nominees for performance and production in several genre categories.
There are quite a few
radio programs serializing books
, sometimes read by the author or sometimes by an actor, with most of them on the
BBC.
In 1931 the Congress established the talking-book program, which was intended to help blind adults who couldn’t read print. This program was called "Books
for the Adult Blind Project." The American Foundation for the Blind developed the first talking books in 1932. One year later the first reproduction machine
began the process of mass publishing. In
1933
anthropologist
J.P. Harrington
drove the length of North America to record
oral histories
of Native American tribes on aluminum discs using a car battery-powered
turntable
. Audiobooks preserve the oral tradition of
storytelling
that J.P. Harrington pursued many years ago.
[2]
By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio books to blind citizens, the Books for the Adult Blind Project was in full operation. In 1992 the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
(NLS) network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 handicapped listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals.
Though spoken recordings were already popular in 33-1/3 vinyl record format for schools and libraries into the early 1970's, the beginning of the trade
acceptance of this medium can be traced to the introduction of the audio cassette and, most importantly, to the prevalence of these cassette players as
standard equipment (rather than as options which older drivers did not choose) in imported (Japanese) automobiles, which became very popular during the
oil crisis of 1979. Thereafter it was slow and steady going as consumers latched onto the experience and authors slowly accepted the medium. Into the early
1980's there were still many authors who refused to have their books created as audiobooks, so a good many of the audiobooks were original productions
not based upon printed books.
With the development of portable cassette recorders, audiotapes had become very popular and by the late 1960s libraries became a source of free audiobooks,
primarily on vinyl records but also on cassettes. Instructional and educational recordings came first, followed by self-help tapes and then by literature.
In 1970 Books on Tape Corporation started rental plans for audio books distribution. The company expanded their services selling their products to libraries
and audiobooks gained popularity. By the middle of 1980s the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year in retail value. The new
companies, Recorded Books and Chivers Audio Books, were not the first to develop integrated production teams and to work with professional actors. Caedmon
was the first to have done this, while Nightingale Conant featured business and self-help authors reading their own works first on vinyl records and then
on cassettes.
[3]
The Audio Publishers Association was established in 1986 by six competitive companies who joined together to promote the consumer awareness of spoken word
audio. In 1996 the Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audio books, which is equivalent to the Oscar for the talking books industry.
The nominees are announced each year in January. The winners are announced at a gala banquet in the spring, usually in conjunction with BookExpo America.
[4]
Invention of CDs added to the convenience and flexibility of listening. While music fans were quick to latch onto this new format, audiobook listeners were
much slower, presumably caring less about technology and more about ease of use and bookmarking capability. Also, it was not until cassette players were
replaced by CD players in most automobiles that this format eventually took hold.
With the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable MP3 players, the popularity of audio books has increased
significantly. This growth was reflected with the advent of Audio book download subscription services. Meanwhile, the introduction of easy-to-use preloaded
digital audio formats have kept audiobooks accessible to technophobes and the visually impaired, although the majority of consumers are neither: rather,
they tend to be regular readers who desire to emulate reading when driving or otherwise occupied.
The popularity of portable music players such as the
iPod
has made audiobooks more accessible to people for portable listening. This has led to an availability in the creation of free audiobooks from
Librivox
and similar projects that take works from the
public domain
and enlist volunteers to read them. Audiobooks also can be created with
text to speech
software, although the quality of synthesised speech may suffer by comparison to voice talent recordings. Audiobooks in the private domain are also distributed
online by for-profit companies such as Media Bay (which has since ceased operations), the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Simply Audiobooks, Spoken
Network, Naxos, Audioville, Bookstolistento and
Audible.com
, which in 2006 generated $82.2 million USD in revenue through sales of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content.
[5]
Audiobooks on CD or cassette are typically more expensive than their hardback equivalents due to the added expense of recording and the lack of the economy
of scale in high "print" runs that are available in the publishing of printed books. Preloaded digital formats are similar in price to their CD counterparts.
The audio content is preloaded on a small and simple player, which removes the need for a separate piece of technology such as a CD player or an MP3 player.
Additionally, the content is static-state so it is protected from damage. Downloadable audiobooks tend to cost slightly less than hardbacks but more than
their paperback equivalents. For this reason, market penetration of audiobooks is substantially lower than for their printed counterparts despite the high
market penetration of the hardware (MP3 and WMA players) and despite the massive market penetration achieved by audio music products. Given the elasticity
of demand for audiobooks and the availability of cheaper alternatives, slow and steady growth in sales seems more likely than a mass market explosion.
However, economics are on the side of downloadable audiobooks in the long run. They do not carry mass production costs, do not require storage of a large
inventory, do not require physical packaging or transportation and do not face the problem of returns that add to the cost of printed books. It is possible
that significant price reductions to customers, while cutting into cost of goods and perhaps somewhat eating into per unit profit margins, will be offset
by increased volumes of sales. This will increase absolute profits to the industry while bringing audiobooks to a wider public.
Many people erroneously believe that one of the factors holding back price competition is the fear that low-price audiobooks might simply take business
away from more traditional forms of publishing. They believe that this is especially significant in the case of publishers who have interests in both print
and audiobook publishing. This has not been the case. Most major book publishers now actively participate in audiobook publishing and see it as a complement
to their publishing operations.
Resellers of audiobooks, such as Audible and Simply Audiobooks, who acquire their much of their content from major publishers, must price their content
at such a level as to take account of their cost of goods as well as operating costs. On the other hand, audiobook sellers who publish their own content
(like the BBC), those who publish solely in audiobook format (such as Blackstone Audio) and "Long Tail" type audiobook publishers who publish lesser known
authors (such as bookstolistento) have lesser costs to authors and therefore can sell at lower prices using a "lower-margin-higher-sales" business model.
The fact that there are only modest signs of this happening so far may be a testament to immaturity of the audiobook industry in comparison with its printed
book cousin; or it might simply be an acknowledgment of the overall costs of author, performer, production and distribution that is required of the audiobook
publisher's creation.
Audiobooks have been used to teach children to read and to increase reading comprehension. They are also useful for the
blind
. The National
Library of Congress
in the U.S. and the
CNIB Library
in
Canada
provide free audiobook library services to the visually impaired; requested books are mailed out (at no cost) to clients.
About forty percent of all audiobook consumption occurs through public libraries, with the remainder served primarily through retail book stores. Library
download programs are currently experiencing rapid growth (more than 5,000 public libraries offer free downloadable audio books). According to the
National Endowment for the Arts
' recent study, "Reading at Risk", audio book listening is one of very few "types" of reading that is increasing general literacy.
Political satire is usually distinguished from political
protest
or
political dissent
, as it does not necessarily carry an agenda nor seek to influence the political process. While occasionally it can, it more commonly aims simply to provide
entertainment. By its very nature, it rarely offers a constructive view in itself; when it is used as part of protest or dissent, it tends to simply establish
the error of matters rather than provide solutions.
Satire can be traced back throughout history; wherever organized
government
has existed, so has satire. The oldest example that has survived till today is
Aristophanes
. The Roman period, for example, gives us the satirical poems and epigrams of
Martial
while some social satire exists in the writings of
Paul of Tarsus
in the
New Testament
of
the Bible
. During the
20th century
, satire moved from print media (in
cartoons
as
political cartoons
with heavy
caricature
and exaggeration, and in
political magazines
) and the parallel exposure of
political scandals
to performances (including
television
shows). Examples include musicians such as
Tom Lehrer
, live performance groups like the
Capitol Steps
, and public television and live performer
Mark Russell
. Additional subgenres include such literary classics as
Gulliver's Travels
and
Animal Farm
, and more recently, internet
Ezine
and website sources such as
The Onion,
ArnoldSpeaks.com
, and the
Happening Happy Hippy Party
. Some websites exist solely to poke fun at politicians, per the examples below.
• Example of Political satire on the web:
The People's Cube
Funniest Video Satire
and
Sloppy Campaign Work
and
Ugly Democrats
and
Ugly Republicans
and
An example of Australian Political Satire
and
The Republic Newswire
list end
Categories:
Political satire |
Satire