The Ultimate College Rock Band

Remember that underachieving genre known as college rock? The bands themselves weren't slackers -- a musical term that didn't even exist back then -- but as a genre it felt painted into a corner, never to reach an audience beyond viewers of MTV's 120 Minutes, fanzine readers and CMJ aficionados.

A conversation I recently had at a barbecue revolved around who was the first college-rock band. We settled on R.E.M. The Smiths, I would argue, were the other pillar of the genre, while The Replacements and Husker Du were other college-rock staples.

Oddly -- as if nerdy music lovers needed to emulate the jocularity and competitive nature of their sports-enthusiast counterparts -- fans set up a rivalry between various college-rock bands. Did you like The Smiths or R.E.M., The 'Mats or Husker Du? Only in the privacy of one's bedroom did you break down and adore both bands equally. Perhaps, then, the college-rock bands were also our college sports teams. We chose sides; we rooted for one or the other.

Though The Smiths and R.E.M. would move on to worldwide fame (particularly the latter), many of the college-rock bands seemed to disappear after 1991, a.k.a. the year punk broke, a.k.a. with the release of Nirvana's Nevermind. Some bands, like Pavement and Blur, were able to transition out of the college-rock genre and adopt the new monikers ascribed to them -- namely "alternative" or "indie" rock.

But groups like Buffalo Tom, Dead Milkmen, XTC, The Lemonheads and Blake Babies all but fell off the map. Either they broke up or gave up or lost the audience and community needed to propel them into the mainstream.

So, who were your favorite college-rock bands? And who would you consider the quintessential college-rock band?

1:33 PM ET | 07-29-2009 | permalink

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