ALTERNATIVE SPACES

In the introduction to the book Alt. Culture, a dictionary of contemporary youth terminology, Matthew De Abaitua describes how the term ‘alternative’ came into common usage in the music industry:

Current use of ‘alternative’ in the music/youth culture world originated in the late seventies/early eighties when it was used to describe a strain of post punk music cultivated by a growing informal network of college radio stations but ignored by mainstream programmers. The word ‘alternative’ already had a cultural meaning; commonly associated with the independent oppositional press of the late hippie era this counterculture label also came to denote any lifestyle outside the mainstream.[1]

These ‘alternative’ stations played ‘alternative’ music.
A similar linkage exists between alternative art forms and alternative spaces, in that an alternative space is formed out of the critical need to construct a venue, a site for the alternative practice to be expressed. Though an alternative space is not an absolute necessity, its development can be seen as an expression of the same spirit as that of alternative practices.