Talk:Modern rock

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Regarding #1 song on modern rock radio: What if this can be updated weekly? There exists already a similar contribution on the 'Billboard Hot 100' page.

It'd probably be better to just link to a web site that gives the modern rock tracks instead. Wikipedia should be working towards permanently useful info that will have a reason to stay in the article over time. Logging the weekly changes to the charts is only going to clutter the article with marginally important details that it would be better to leave to an off-site listing. And don't get me wrong, if there are extremely significant entries in the charts that should be mentioned, then they might belong here, but it'd be unneeded to give every single #1. -- LGagnon 23:55, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC)

In the 1990's and to the present, what other styles of rock could have been used?

I'm trying to decipher the words "Indie rock remains the main equivalent" at the end of this article. I cannot parse that. What does it mean?Ramseyman (talk) 18:58, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think we need some sort of history of the term "modern rock". Certainly it was used back in the eighties to describe stations that played cutting-edge-yet-not-quite-underground "modern" artists like U2, The Cure, Depeche Mode, INXS, and so forth (ie. the sort of artists the Billboard Modern Rock chart was made for in the late 80's).

Perhaps this article should be merged in some way with alternative rock. It's the same thing, really. Besides, this article is not very accurate. --Fightingirish 19:52, 21 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I oppose this suggestion. "Modern rock" is not a genre, and is not a synonym of alternative rock. It is a radio format that came about at the same time as alt rock, but has moved on to include more genres (even when it was mostly about alt, it still featured other genres such as the little metal that was still popular at the time). Merging this with alt rock would be like merging 2 similar religions into one article; the differences still matter. -- LGagnon 21:21, 21 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose as well. It's a radio format, while alternative rock is a genre. WesleyDodds 10:50, 22 August 2006 (

As a radio professional of many years, I can state with certainty that "Modern Rock" is a synonym of "Alternative Rock", and in fact, is a fairly outdated term, as its use was almost entirely in the '80s and '90s. The only term used in the industry these days is "Alternative" or "Alternative Rock". --Spam (talk) 21:59, 29 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh really? http://area93.com/main.html "Channel 93.3, Modern Rock." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.8.239.223 (talk) 01:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, really. http://www.allaccess.com/alternative "All Access - Alternative." What format do you think Channel 93 reports to? What do you think the radio stations involved in the format were called, before Billboard decided to acknowledge what other trade magazines (FMQB, Hard Report, Hits, Album Network) were already reporting? What do you think people who worked at these radio stations called it, and their listeners in Boston, Long Island, San Francisco, LA, DC, Albany, etc., prior to the commercialization and hype that came in with Nirvana? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaryBNash (talk • contribs) 20:41, 23 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, what it is, is simply an opinion. I, among many others, use it to describe any form of alternative rock (the current popular music). However, this article is not very well written, and I agree with Fightingirish's suggestion. --Ryouga 21:14, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's quite definitely an American commercial radio format, which primarily plays alternative rock. The term's been used that way since the 1980s. WesleyDodds 18:55, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, I remember hearing on the street that the stuff being played on the radio at the time was modern rock, not true alternative, which was supposed to be something totally underground and non-commercial, probably close to or mostly the same as college rock, indie rock, and garage rock. The term "modern rock" was used to dis hugely popular "conformist" (commercial) music of the time, especially "Smashing Pumpkins", "Nine Inch Nails", "Pearl Jam", and perhaps even more so for "Creed" and "Kid Rock". So I think they were trying to say that "modern rock" was only pop music based loosely on actual alternative rock. But maybe this was just a local or regional misconception peculiar to the places I was at, and/or maybe I just happened to hang around some exceptionally rigid & purist idiosyncratic eccentrics. Shanoman (talk) 21:42, 28 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't say you're incorrect about many people using modern rock pejoratively, but the term is mostly a radio format and less a genre. The radio format, to me, mixes both alternative rock and rock that is created today. I think the real problem is that rock made post 1980 is too often called alternative rock...which is supposed to be a distinct genre. marnues (talk) 00:58, 5 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]