Most definately, alternative meant edgy non nickelback type music in the 80's , I think Jackie has it bang on Brian......I think that coincides with when cfny started calling themselves the edge.....then, somewhere in the early 90's the term became irrelevant.....I remember seeing REM in the alternative music area of HMV sometime in the early ninetys and by then they were as main stream as you could get ( but still a damn great band) .... (they lost their college radio stance with Lifes Rich pagent to me) Alternative rock has been interchangable with mainstream rock to me for about 15 years....Indy rock, however, is a relatively new term which still has some validity , I thought it originally meant "indy"pendant artist without a major lable contract like Julie Doiron. Indy now seams to mean what alternative rock used to mean in the 80's...see my above definition...I think everyone is jumping on this lable like they did the alternative lable to get some critical support where it often doesnt or should exist....in short these terms become marketing tools over time... PS I passed my stone finally and am 100% better....How was the battles last night??