Most hated word: "Alternative"

[eldan]

When I was about 14, I started getting into "alternative" music, but within a couple of years I hated the label and started avoiding its use. The trigger was a conversation with a friend of my dad's, who shared my obsessive love of music but whose taste was dramatically different (barbershop and 1950s film soundtracks, I think). He was interested

Comments

[worst_witch]

There were two things that sprung to mind when I read this.

Firstly that the problem is one of normalising, fifty years ago it was normal to walk or cycle, now it is normal to drive. If you can normalise something then generally people are willing to accept as most will follow the norm. As you said if you make something alternative then psychologically you are requiring a change. People en masse don't go for change unless they have to, but choosing between two things, both of which are normal, requires far less of a mental leap.

The second thing that sprung to mind was the problem of people who live alternative lifestyles, or rather the stereotype that that presents to the unititiated. There is still a perception that doing anything 'alternative' requires a person to take retrograde steps in their level of comfort and quality of life or to wear odd clothes. The word alternative is loaded with negative connotations, possibly time to do away with it. The UK doesn't have alternative transport, it is termed sutainable transport (which as you know isn't sustainable in the slightest but is relatively less unsustainable than private cars), a term that while still inaccruate is less challenging to people.

[eldan]

Yes, to both of those. The first is really the thing I have in mind, and it frustrates me all the more because locally we have some good people working on framing but a failure to apply their lessons in a more general sense.