An Infusion of Alt-Rock and Punk Quiz

Answer: Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedys formed in the late 1970s, politically unrepentant, and taking San Francisco, California, by storm. The band's name, as the question suggests, was an homage to what they considered the no-longer sustainable idea of the American Dream, and the artists have insisted that their brand of music holds the Kennedy family in high regard. The formation of the group took place only fifteen years after the death of JFK, and only ten after RFK, with these events still somewhat fresh on the minds of the artists.

The inclusion of profanity and other so-called objectionable material led to the band's music being censored or left off of store shelves. Their lyrics are decidedly left-wing politically and are particularly biting. It was one of the first hardcore punk bands, influencing later artists such as the politically-minded alt-rock bands System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine.

Answer: Seattle, Washington

Grunge is sometimes referred to as the "Seattle sound" due to the city spawning so many of its artists. The underground music scene was strong in the city, and a new label, Sub Pop, took advantage of the scene to sell this new style of music to Americans. Encouraging music outlets and periodicals to describe the music as "grunge", the label harnessed the emotions of the downtrodden and the misunderstood to create a new rock behemoth.

Perhaps the most famous grunge singer of all time was Kurt Cobain, who died of drug overdose at the age of 27. After his death, the popularity of grunge slowly declined until the late 1990s, when new artists began to take the genre into new directions with the post-grunge sound.

Answer: a really messed-up situation

Though the musician uses much more stronger and colorful language to describe the meaning of "fugazi", the idea is that it represents a messed-up, crazy situation, similar in meaning to the acronym of "FUBAR". The book MacKaye read was called "Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There", and it included page upon page of shocking stories from the soldiers who'd served at that time.

Fugazi has been described as an experimental punk band, often playing with funk and reggae aspects. This was not necessarily popular in the punk scene, which could be more characterized by its use of harder guitar riffs and power chords. Nonetheless, there was room for such experimentation, and the band was an influence to later artists such as The White Stripes and Arcade Fire.

Answer: Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)

Interestingly, Def Leppard's song "Rock of Ages" also starts with the phrase "Gunter glieben glauchen globen", which is gobbledygook meant to take the place of the typical 1-2-3-4 count off of a song. The Offspring has said that they weren't really intentionally making a reference to the other band in using it in their own introduction. The song soon after uses Spanish numbers as filler ("Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seís").

The song "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" is meant to criticize the use of certain aspects of minority cultures to make oneself popular just because some things are trendy. The satire is clear in the song's lyrics, such as "Our subject isn't cool but he fakes it anyway / He may not have a clue and he may not have style / But everything he lacks well he makes up in denial".

Answer: The Pixies

Playing over the final scene of "Fight Club" in which charges are set off and several tall buildings collapse, "Where Is My Mind?" has become a favorite of film buffs and rock fans around the world.

Strangely, frontman Black Francis admitted the song was written after he had gone snorkeling in the Caribbean and a small fish was chasing him.

Answer: C.S. Lewis

"The Silver Chair" is a novel in the Chronicles of Narnia series of books by C.S. Lewis. In it, one of the characters is bound to a silver chair during nightly psychotic episodes. The chair is eventually destroyed after the protagonists set the man free.

Another origin story exists about how the name came about combining songs by Nirvana and You Am I, though the band later admitted the link to C.S. Lewis. The band's previous name had been Innocent Criminals.

Answer: Kasabian

The British band Kasabian took their name from Linda Kasabian, who testified against Charles Manson at his trial. They chose the name (a common Armenian surname) simply after seeing it in the news and thinking it sounded good. They released their debut album "Kasabian" (2004) with hits such as "Reason is Treason" and "Club Foot".

Answer: industrial rock

The genre of industrial rock comes from the fusion of regular rock music and industrial, a kind of music that embraces the use of synthetic or outside sounds. It is a kind of experimental music that is inspired by the humdrum noise of a life of industrial work and may even use the sounds produced by industry itself.

Use of synthesizers is common in this genre as the synthetic "noise" they produce are seen as material to the kind of music these artists play. Industrial rock bands may also experiment with sounds taken from other areas, synth-pop or disco, anywhere that embraces technological noise as a means to entertain.

Answer: Queens of the Stone Age - 1996

Bikini Kill was formed in 1990 in Olympia, Washington. Its lead singer, Kathleen Hanna, is also a feminist activist and and punk zine writer who advocates for women's rights. They encouraged women to have a strong presence at their shows, and Hanna was even known to jump into the audience to remove male hecklers.

Veruca Salt was formed in 1992 in Chicago, Illinois. The band is led by two vocalists, Nina Gordon and Louise Post, who also play the guitar. The band is named after the character of the same name from Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were formed in New York City in 2000. Lead singer Karen O (Karen Lee Orzolek) has a distinctive voice, and the band can be described as "garage punk". They have been nominated at the Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album multiple times. They are personally one of my favorite indie artists.

The Queens of the Stone Age were formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The lead vocalist and guitarist is Josh Homme, who is the only continuous member of the group. The name of the group came as a rejection of the name "Kings of the Stone Age", as the group didn't believe their music matched the macho nature of such a name. This band is also another personal favorite of mine!

Answer: cowpunk

Cowpunk is a portmanteau of "cowboy" and "punk". It melds country/folk music and punk rock. As can be seen, alternative rock is very much interested in experimenting and combining different types of music into something new and exciting. There are no genres that can't be taken from.

Steampunk, atompunk, and cyberpunk are literary genres that describe books set with technology from different time periods: steam technology, atomic-age technology, and futuristic/Internet-age technology.