It’s a Grammy category that has historically been bad for diversity, and hit-and-miss for choosing the most worthy of its nominees.
When the Recording Academy launched the Best Alternative Music Performance Grammys category in 1991, it was a case of perfect timing. Not only was Nevermind on deck to detonate existing rock trends — and drag underground sounds into the mainstream — but the vast and varied college rock system (and its descendent, “modern rock”) were on the precipice of a breakthrough. Billboard had launched its modern rock singles chart in late 1988, in response to the genre’s burgeoning popularity, and bands such as R. E. M., Depeche Mode, and The Cure had been drawing increasingly larger crowds in the US as the ’80s progressed.
The first alternative Grammy nomination class was suitably, well, alternative: Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, World Party, The Replacements, and eventual winner Sinead O’Connor.
