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Essentially, college rock is the (largely) alternative music that dominated college radio playlists from the rise of alternative rock (circa 1983-84) through the '80s. Most college rock was born in the confluence of new wave, post-punk, and early alternative rock. College rock's poppiest bands didn't fit into the mainstream the way new wave did; although it could be arty, it wasn't quite as experimental or detached as much post-punk; and where much early alternative/American underground rock was rooted in punk and hardcore, not all college rock necessarily was (though many of those early alternative bands fit the definition nicely). Early college rock's two most influential groups were R.E.M. and the Smiths, who paved the way for countless practitioners of jangly guitar-pop from the U.S.
