Alternative rock as we know it wouldn’t really emerge until the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the 1990s, alt-rock would evolve into grunge and then subsequently take over the airwaves for years. But way back in the 1960s, some musicians dished out what I would consider proto-alternative rock tracks, each of which influenced the genre before it was even a genre. Let’s look at a few examples.
“H*roin” by The Velvet Underground from ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ (1967)
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There really isn’t a song out there better suited for a list of proto-alternative rock songs from the 1960s than “H*roin” by The Velvet Underground. In many ways, this song was really the blueprint for what the genre would become. All that noise, the particularly vulgar subject matter, that two-chord structure. Listen to bands like Sonic Youth decades later, and you’ll hear the influence of this very song.
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This controversial experimental rock track from The Velvet Underground & Nico was not released as a single and thus didn’t chart. Billy Idol would bring a cover of the song to No. 16 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1993.
“1969” by The Stooges from ‘The Stooges’ (1969)
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When I think of an older song that has the same kind of guitar work one would hear on an alternative rock tune from the later 20th century, I think of “1969” by The Stooges. The band’s self-titled debut album is basically proto-punk from start to finish. But this particular song, in my opinion, leans toward grunge in terms of its repetitive riff. Those smearing, volatile vocals are also very alt-rock. It’s no surprise that bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney were so influenced by Iggy Pop’s iconic band.
“Shangri-La” by The Kinks from ‘Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)’ (1969)
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This song, and the whole of its album, is your standard top-notch folky-sounding rock record from the late 1960s. But when you really listen to “Shangri-La”, specifically, it’s obvious that this very song influenced quite a few alt-rock songwriters in the 1990s. This alternative rock-inspiring song from the 1960s boasts Ray Davies’ unique and observational storytelling, complete with somewhat depressing irony, that many alt-rock bands decades later would adopt. Think R.E.M. and The Smiths. There’s a little bit of this song’s influence in much of their earlier works.
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