Today, sure. It wasn't always. Alternative in the 80s was pretty much "rock, but too weird and smart to be played on the AOR/classic rock stations, and not on a major label". That might sound like "dumping ground" as you described, but it wasn't really -- it was a fairly coherent genre for a while, until everything started being called alternative if it wasn't pop or mainstream hard rock, etc.
Classic rock stations would play Guns 'n Roses, Def Leppard, but not R.E.M. or Concrete Blonde, and certainly not Rollins Band, for instance. There were no alternative rock stations, at least in/around St. Louis, excepting the college station (KDHX, 88.1).
Legit alternative: R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, The Replacements, The Smithereens, The Smiths, B52s, XTC, Concrete Blonde, Echo & The Bunnymen, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, plenty of others. In the late 80s and early 90s, after R.E.M. and others had commercial breakouts, the genre was muddied beyond recognition. Especially with the advent of grunge and more accessible industrial music like NIN.
Pixies, Dino Jr., and the Replacements have very little in common with the rest of the ‘legit alternative’ bands you listed. For one, they’re actually worth listening to, and I’d say they’re indie rock instead of alternative rock.
I mean, Ben Folds Five and Jamiroquai are hard to stick up for, but they're "legit" in the sense that neither would have fit on AOR radio or on the AOR charts.
BFF's first album was in 1993, and Jamiroquai was formed in 1992, I think. Both of those were well after the term was muddied beyond recognition. I'm skeptical of the claim that Jamiroquai was being tagged "alternative", same with Cherry Poppin' Daddies (also 90s, IIRC).
Note that by the mid-90s, if not sooner, a lot of 80s alt-rock was seeping into AOR / classic rock / hard rock playlists. (Source: was a DJ on a classic rock station from 1995 through 1998. Played R.E.M., Pearl Jam, bunch of other alternative/grunge stuff alongside 60s/70s/80s classic rock. And a little bit that wasn't technically on the approved list since I was usually working midnight to 6 a.m., but that's another story.)
Right, I'm just saying that "alternative" never had a pure meaning to begin with. Punk had a DIY ethos. Art rock had formal experimentation and also lyrics that don't mean anything. Hard rock had codpieces. Alternative was just a relabeling of a "misc" category, and genre rock was so stultified by the time the label happened that anything good was naturally going to sprout inside that "misc".
Today, sure. It wasn't always. Alternative in the 80s was pretty much "rock, but too weird and smart to be played on the AOR/classic rock stations, and not on a major label". That might sound like "dumping ground" as you described, but it wasn't really -- it was a fairly coherent genre for a while, until everything started being called alternative if it wasn't pop or mainstream hard rock, etc.
Classic rock stations would play Guns 'n Roses, Def Leppard, but not R.E.M. or Concrete Blonde, and certainly not Rollins Band, for instance. There were no alternative rock stations, at least in/around St. Louis, excepting the college station (KDHX, 88.1).
Legit alternative: R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, The Replacements, The Smithereens, The Smiths, B52s, XTC, Concrete Blonde, Echo & The Bunnymen, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, plenty of others. In the late 80s and early 90s, after R.E.M. and others had commercial breakouts, the genre was muddied beyond recognition. Especially with the advent of grunge and more accessible industrial music like NIN.