I am in complete agreement with the other reviewers. What is so alternative about this collection? The thing is, I am not totally surprised. the Electronic 80's Anthems have equally curious songs that come under the 'electronic' banner. It appears that anything goes, and if the band uses synthesizers then it somehow qualifies them as being 'electronic'. I mean, Human League, Ultravox, Visage etc..yes, certainly! But Simple Minds, Billy Idol and Blondie, as great as they are, do not in my reckoning qualify as 'electronic'.
On this collection, maybe they are talking about alternative as a music genre, but what does that actually mean? It was supposed to be a type of alternative rock that originated from punk according to wikipedia. On the likes of iTunes it appears to apply to anything that's not pop, rock or R&B!(Loosely!) The eighties, however, were alternative by their very nature. The richness of the charts was that it was packed full of rock, pop, metal, rap, hip-hop, ska, reggae, synth-pop, electro, mod, rock 'n' roll, soul, new romantic...I could go on. This is where this collection doesn't make sense, as many of the hits on this album were mainstream hits, and the musical style was not necessarily 'alternative' as a genre. You could call Simple Minds' 'Theme for Great Cities' alternative, but I'm not sure I would refer to Duran Duran as alternative? Hmm...confusing...