Knowra Sonic Youth Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Its use of unconventional guitar tunings and noise helped shape alternative rock.
Alternate guitar tuning : A guitar tuning that differs from the standard E–A–D–G–B–E arrangement. Sonic Youth used many nonstandard tunings to create resonances and chord shapes unavailable in standard tuning.
No Wave : A late-1970s New York music and art movement marked by abrasive sounds and rejection of conventional rock forms. Sonic Youth emerged in a city whose No Wave scene had made noise and formal disruption viable.
Daydream Nation : Sonic Youth's 1988 double album, widely regarded as a landmark of American alternative rock. Its extended songs and layered tunings brought the band's experimental methods into a defining album.
Nirvana : An American rock band that brought grunge and alternative rock to a mass audience in the early 1990s. Sonic Youth helped connect Nirvana with the wider independent-rock network before its breakthrough.
The Velvet Underground : An American rock band formed in New York City in 1964, known for experimental music and association with Andy Warhol. Both bands joined avant-garde methods to rock songs, though they arose from different New York eras.
Prepared guitar : A guitar altered with objects or other interventions to produce unconventional sounds. The band modified guitars with tools such as screwdrivers to expand their palette of timbres.
Glenn Branca : An American composer and guitarist associated with New York's experimental music scene and large guitar ensembles. Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo played in Branca's guitar ensembles before Sonic Youth formed.
Goo : Sonic Youth's 1990 album, their first released by a major label, Geffen Records. It shows how the group carried its underground sound into a major-label setting.
Kurt Cobain : An American musician best known as the singer and guitarist of Nirvana. Cobain admired Sonic Youth, and the bands toured together in 1991.
R.E.M. : An American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980, known for melodic songs and an independent early career. R.E.M. offers a contrasting route from independent rock toward mainstream success, with less emphasis on guitar noise.
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