Squeeze

A friend had some Squeeze music in his car when we were on a trip. It seems like that was 100 years ago. I liked it. That was the only time I had heard of them and had forgotten about them. Are they still around?

Squeeze is very much associated with high school for me, lots of nostalgia value. I don't really consider them "alternative," but then I don't consider most of what's labelled "alternative" to be in any way associated with that adjective as it is used by most native English speakers. That said, I do listen to a fair number of groups with that marketing label.

i'd like someone to try to explain to me exactly what constitutes "alternative" music. please. i need a good laugh.

pookster: so mariah carey is alternative?

I have one tape of theirs I sometimes listen to when exercising (which I do rarely these days), but I don't think much of it musically.

(psst. I think it's afficionado, but the spellchecker disagrees with me oh well quelle triste)

I think they're OK - my CD collection spans all sorts of music types.

Aficionado.

I've heard of them, but I have no idea if I've heard them. Anything but Muzak, though my appreciation of rap is pretty limited.

**lisashea....thanks! :)

Most of what I listen to is, in fact, alternative music or "alternative" music (or, occasionally, both, but that's rare). I saw Squeeze open for someone once; they were OK. ***It's much easier to answer reality's question than actually to offer a decent definition of "alternative" music; it's alternative to what was Top 40 in about 1991. ***The followup answer would be, because people are stupid and words get frozen that way into uses that I find inappropriate, in view of their original meanings. The classic example being Modernism, a perfectly fine word that came to mean something other than modernism, giving us the obnoxious oxymoron of Postmodernism. (Great concept, terrible name.)

I saw a Squeeze show at the Orpheum once - it was cool, "Coffee in bed" was fun (they used the audience to sing it). Still, that was over 10 years ago, I don't really follow them anymore.
jjg, I associate Progressive with 70's synthesizer music, pretty different from Nirvana and Allanis Morisette (who I think are/were "alternative" bands). Is Grunge a subset of alternative?

never heard of them. I have always wondered what 'alternative' was an alternative to. otherwise I don't care, tell me about them or point me to them, I'd want to hear something before I bought it.
*steve: thank you, that is the best explanation that I have heard yet.
a followup question would be, why is it still alternative since it is so mainstream now?
*steve/jjg: so what it boils down to (as usual) is that people are stupid...

I have their collection of singles album, "45s and Under." They are very alternative once you hear more songs than "Tempted." They're okay. I've heard better, and I've heard considerably worse. ***A much better word than alternative is progressive. Alternative rock was suppossed to be new, and different. Progressive rock has that edge and always have. For some reason college kids preferred to say Alternative, maybe because Yes was a Progressive rock band. ***Bill: Using Progressive only as seventies bands is a case of a word getting stuck. Progressive can never be something old, just by the definition of the word. There will always be something Progressive. Yes, Grunge is a subset of Alternative. ***Reality: yup.

lara: if it isn't classic, hard, or retro rock...it's alternative :)

yay Squeeze!

"alternative" is now a Big Music marketing label. squeeze is tight, well-put together music.

"Singles - 45's and Under" was on my personal playlist in college. . .
I once worked with someone who claimed that Genesis was alternative. Perhaps true in the 70's, but this was in the late 80's!