The Quallifications for a music to be considered "Alternative"

[CjClement1]

Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music) that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_music) scene since the 1980s, such as grunge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge_music), Britpop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britpop), gothic rock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_rock), and indie pop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_pop). These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk rock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock), which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_rock#cite_note-altguitar-0) At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from underground (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_music) artists in the 1980s, and all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself, New Wave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_music), and post-punk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-punk)).
While a few artists like R.E.M. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.E.M.) and The Cure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure) achieved commercial success and mainstream critical recognition, many alternative rock artists during the 1980s were cult acts that recorded on independent labels and received their exposure through college radio airplay and word-of-mouth. With the breakthrough of Nirvana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)) and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became commercially successful.

-Wikipedia

Examples:
Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPQR-OsH0RQ

Alice In Chains - Man in the Box
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFWkPVHKwCY

Panic! At the Disco - Lying is the most fun a girl can have
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXbE0M4aO3I

Coldplay - Viva La Vida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5TNK-TvIcI

Ladyhawke- My Delirium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKrBlIXzI5I

The Killers- When you were young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVCkSMwaGGc

Arctic Monkeys- Teddy Picker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2XBoxtcUA

Franz Ferdinand- Take me Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_9GR9kdZ3o

Modest Mouse-Float On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Vzrfkg-HY

Billy Talent - Fallen Leaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sl1LeWn2ic

[4evatillnoen]

Bullet for my Valentine is suggested to be Alternitave Music in iTunes Store.
Bullet for my Valentine is Metal Music isn't it?

[CjClement1]

Uhm, Yes.
A couple of their songs could be considered Alternative, but the vast majority is Hard Rock/Metal, more towards the hard rock.

[Marisa]

Thanks for posting this. My itunes keeps telling me that my songs are alternative but I was never really sure if that's really what the music I was listening to was classified as. Now I know. :)

By the way, the Panic! at the Disco song that you posted is AMAZING!

[Qrat]

nice, i quite like alternative :]

[Clu7ch]

Nice CJ
The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, and Modest Mouse from the list you posted are ftw.

Also here are some other examples of Indie-Rock:

MGMT - Electric Feel (All of there songs are amazing :o )
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UtUI5MC9tVM

Of Montreal - Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7PoJv4N1Too

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ

Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8rfDvpfC2bw

The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
http://youtube.com/watch?v=clhOnZRrmXc

And just some alternative/rock songs...

Velvet Revolver - She Builds Quick Machines
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YwJhQnt34m0

Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VGDa39ic7jQ

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name Of
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY

Hope you enjoy :)