What do you think of when someone says alternative rock music? Or just alternative? If you are like me, you think of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, or Smashing Pumpkins. But think about alternative with me. Alternative to what?

Here is what Laura Ohls, a senior music editor at Spotify, says about alternative music:

I’ve always thought of “alternative” as referring to any artist creating music that challenges what’s being popularized in the mainstream, across all genres."

Here is the core of her definition that I want to focus on: alternative “challenges what’s being popularized in the mainstream.” For Ohls, that’s the essence of being alternative. Nirvana and Pearl Jam did this at the end of the 20th century. These flannel-wearing rockers took the stage with a different sound, a different vibe, and a different way of doing things. They challenged the popular, usual, accepted way of amplified guitars.

And didn’t Jesus do this in the first century? Minus the guitars.

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