{"id":952664,"date":"2026-07-22T21:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/952664\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T21:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:42:23","slug":"3-rock-songs-from-the-1960s-that-predicted-alternative-rock-with-scary-accuracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/952664\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Rock Songs From the 1960s That Predicted Alternative Rock With Scary Accuracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alternative rock as we know it wouldn\u2019t really emerge until the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the 1990s, alt-rock would evolve into <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/tag\/grunge\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">grunge<\/a> 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\u2019s look at a few examples.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cH*roin\u201d by The Velvet Underground from \u2018The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico\u2019 (1967)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784756542_695_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There really isn\u2019t a song out there better suited for a list of proto-alternative rock songs from the 1960s than \u201cH*roin\u201d 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\u2019ll hear the influence of this very song.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n<p>This controversial experimental rock track from The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico was not released as a single and thus didn\u2019t chart. Billy Idol would bring a cover of the song to No. 16 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1993.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c1969\u201d by The Stooges from \u2018The Stooges\u2019 (1969)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784756543_341_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>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 \u201c1969\u201d by The Stooges. The band\u2019s 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\u2019s no surprise that bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney were so influenced by Iggy Pop\u2019s iconic band.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShangri-La\u201d by The Kinks from \u2018Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)\u2019 (1969)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784756543_637_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cShangri-La\u201d, specifically, it\u2019s 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\u2019 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\u2019s a little bit of this song\u2019s influence in much of their earlier works.<\/p>\n<p>(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alternative rock as we know it wouldn\u2019t really emerge until the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":952665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[20560,12010,171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-952664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-alternative-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116965813151435523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}