Punk took nearly two decades to hit the mainstream. When it finally did, the bands that popularized it were not playing alternative-country; they were playing grunge.
This happened for one specific reason.
"There was a real indie ethic in the '80s that you weren't supposed to be proud of having hit records or being a hit machine," Bruce Pavitt said in the grunge documentary "Hype!" Pavitt and his friend Jonathan Ponemant changed all that when they founded Sub Pop records, a label based in Seattle whose primary goal was to spread the grunge sound to more people.
They never felt bound to the 1980s indie ethic - they wanted everyone to hear how great Seattle's music was.
"John and I, as fans of the history of pop music in this country, really admired labels like Motown and their hit factory," Pavitt said.
So why did alternative-country fail to find a mainstream audience amid all this grunge rock hype? Alt-country's best bet for hitting the mainstream lay in Uncle Tupelo. After all, their first album, "No Depression," did provide one of alt-country's many nicknames, as well as the name for an alt-country magazine. However, Uncle Tupelo was never signed to a label as ambitious or nurturing as Sub Pop.
The band found a home on Rockville Records. While the label promoted the band feverishly, it never managed to pay Uncle Tupelo royalties. Even in March 1991, when the band was growing in popularity and beginning to headline thousand-seat venues, the band members had not seen any money from their record sales - despite "No Depression" selling at least 15,000 copies, according to Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot's book "Wilco: Learning How To Die."
The following year, however, Uncle Tupelo had the chance to escape their tiny label and move onto the mainstream. All they needed to do was record another drunken, punk fuzz-guitar brawl, and they would turn a few major label scouts their way. What Uncle Tupelo ended up recording was just the opposite: an entirely acoustic album on which old country and folk standards shared space with Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy's original compositions.
"[Producer and R.E.M. guitarist Peter] Buck knew the time couldn't have been worse for a band supposedly on the verge of bigger things," Kot wrote. "An acoustic record at a time when Nirvana's era-defining 'Nevermind' was riding high on the charts, when the sound of overdriven guitars and Seattle grunge was all the rage, when indie rock had gone mainstream, when anything seemed possible."
Uncle Tupelo did, however, catch the eye of Sire Records talent scout Joe McEwen, who had previously signed underground bands like Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream to the major label. After sitting down to chat with McEwen, the band signed with Sire in 1992. Tupelo released their fourth studio album, "Anodyne," in 1993. The record was a logical combination of the band's early punk-influenced country rock and its later experiments with older folk and country. "Anodyne" received plenty of glowing reviews and sold more than 150,000 copies. Despite its growing popularity, the band decided to call it quits in 1994.
Conflicts within the band, primarily those between Farrar and Tweedy, had made touring and practices difficult. Farrar formed Son Volt with former Tupelo drummer Heidorn, while Tweedy formed Wilco with the remaining Tupelo lineup, which now included John Stirratt on bass, Ken Coomer on drums and Max Johnston on mandolin and banjo.
McEwen broke the tragedy to Sire with a positive flair.
"He said we're losing a great band, but we're gaining two great songwriters and two great bands," said Gary Briggs, who was at the time in radio promotion for Warner Bros., told Kot. "And everybody just nodded and said, 'Great!'"
It took the two camps several years to reclaim their Tupelo-era popularity.
Though alternative-country never really saw the same level of popularity that grunge rock did, many bands still consider themselves a part of the genre or, at the very least, one of its followers. Wilco still remains the most popular band of the genre, though according to an article published in the magazine Country Standard Time, Tweedy cringes at the thought that his group might still fall under that category.
Of course, the number of post-grunge bands never seems to dwindle. Simply flip to the generic alt-rock radio station to hear dozens of Nirvana and Pearl Jam followers, who all seem to lionize the still active post-grungers Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins.
One cannot underestimate the influence of 1990s alt-rock, particularly its punk-inflected elements. Its sound continues to inspire much of what is played on mainstream rock radio, as well as what is emerging from the indie-rock scene, and will likely inspire the next generation of rock musicians to come.
