The Alternative Number Ones: Matchbox 20’s “Push”

July 26, 1997STAYED AT #1:1 WeekIn The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones. The column is now biweekly, alternating with The Number Ones on Mondays. This was the end. The keg kicked, and the party was over. If you missed it, you missed it.In summer 1997, the terms "modern rock" and "alternative music" simply ceased to mean anything. Those two terms were always pretty meaningless, but they functioned well enough as a loose and interesting radio format. In the early days of this column, we covered the time that the Billboard Modern Rock chart was mostly focused on college radio stations and on the few commercial stations that adapted what LA's KROQ was doing. Thanks to a series of cataclysmic cultural events — Lollapalooza, Nirvana, the general grunge earthquake and its many aftershocks — "alternative music" became big business, and more and more stations switched to the format. Then they lost all their grasp on whatever "alternative music" was even supposed to be.I say that the stations ...