Alternative

I was a musician for a long time and I always liked to play original music. I've always had musical tastes that differ from most of my friends and society in general. That doesn't mean I just like weird stuff, on the contrary, I mainly like very melodic music. 

My main instrument is bass but I can play a few others too. 

For a long while now I've seen the phrase; "Alternative Music." I see or hear it often. When this phrase was first bandied about it did mean something alternative to the mainstream but it's become very dull. To me Alternative means; "The same as everything else."

It also usually means dull. When everything is Alternative then nothing is Alternative.

Having said that, I don't necessarily mean that music that is truly alternative is dull. Far from it. To my mind Captain Beefheart is alternative in that there isn't really anyone else that sounds like him (other than impostors) and he certainly isn't dull. At the same time he's not exactly easy to listen to. Syd Barrett is alternative because he just played the way he played and no one else sounded like him (again: other than impostors). There are many more examples.

What, I think, it really comes down to is that those who say they are alternative are not. Those who just create music the the way they do just because that's the way they do it; are.