The first alternative chart, called Modern Rock Tracks, appeared in the September 10, 1988, edition of
Billboard magazine. The first number-one song of the chart was
Siouxsie and the Banshees' "
Peek-a-Boo", which topped the charts for two weeks. In the chart's early years, the chart was closely associated with
college rock,
new wave,
post-punk and
electronic genres with a large presence of British, Irish and Australian artists, as only 24 of the chart's first 82 number-one hits were by American acts. Bands such as
Depeche Mode,
R.E.M.,
the Cure,
the B-52's,
the Replacements, and
Midnight Oil scored multiple number one hits on the chart in the late 1980s and early 1990s. grunge became a new form of alternative rock to chart. However, grunge did not have a dominating presence on the chart in its heyday; over time, grunge would grow into popularity as a representation of alternative rock in the mainstream. Iconic grunge songs fared decently on the Alternative Songs chart but better on the Mainstream Rock Songs. This was because the college rock and new wave of the 1980s remained the dominant styles of the format, while grunge became an alternative rock style that was popular on the Mainstream Rock format. In the mid-1990s, alternative rock songs began to crossover to
Pop radio, with acts such as
Green Day,
the Offspring and
Alanis Morissette being played on Pop stations after establishing hits on the Alternative chart. At the turn of the century, alternative radio embraced
nu-metal/
rap rock with bands including
Korn,
Limp Bizkit and most famously,
Linkin Park. Chris Molanphy of
Pitchfork stated that "possibly the most loathed period for music of the last half-century, the rap-rock years—when looked through the prism of the Modern Rock chart's evolution—are a logical endpoint to a decade when alt-culture steadily de-wussified itself."
Rise Against's "
Savior" later broke the record by spending 65 weeks, followed around the same time by "
1901" from
Phoenix at 57. In 2009,
Billboard renamed the chart to "Alternative Songs". For the chart's 25th anniversary in 2013,
Billboard published a list of the 100 biggest hits in the history of the Alternative chart. "
Uprising" by
Muse was listed at No. 1, having spent 17 weeks on the top of the chart and 53 weeks in total. "Savior" by Rise Against was listed at No. 2, peaking at #3 but staying on the chart for a record-breaking 65 weeks. On October 11, 2018,
Billboard released its Greatest of All Time Alternative Songs 30th-anniversary recap.
Foo Fighters continued its reign as the chart's No. 1 act over the list's first 30 years, after leading the 25th-anniversary recap.
Muse's "
Uprising" retained its standing as the all-time No. 1 song.
Rise Against's "
Savior" again ranked at No. 2, while
Portugal. The Man's "
Feel It Still" entered at No. 3, the highest debut on the 30th anniversary songs list, following its record 20-week reign in 2017. Four artists have charted at least once in the all five decades (1980s through 2020s) of the chart's existence:
Nine Inch Nails,
Depeche Mode,
Red Hot Chili Peppers, and
U2. Although the Alternative Songs chart "tends to be heavily male-dominated",
Billboard released a list of the top-performing women in the chart's archives as part of the 30th anniversary of the Alternative Songs chart, with
Dolores O'Riordan of
the Cranberries taking the lead spot. The current number-one song on the chart is "
Drag Path" by
Twenty One Pilots. ==Chart achievements==