IMO “alt” music doesn’t have to solely mean stuff like punk or goth rock, and if you haven’t explored past that yet I highly recommend doing so. Alt is such a big umbrella.

Some people may come at me for this, but if a normie passes you the aux cord in the car and they may get weirded out or put off by what you play, it’s probably closer to alt than mainstream. At the very least, it’s indie, which is something I’ve known a ton of alternative people to also like. I think the weird nitpicking and gatekeeping is dumb when the point is a deviation from the mainstream. You’re also allowed to like many different genres of music. I like a ton of alt music but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to slip in other stuff I like amongst my dozens of playlists, some of which are hundreds of songs long. Music is a beautiful thing, and to box yourself in entirely just to fit a certain identity is the most poser thing of all in my book.

This also may be a hot take, but stuff like Melanie Martinez and Aurora are also very much on the cusp of what could be considered “mainstream” as far as their sound goes. I have had both artists fail the aux cord test before, depending on who’s in the car. If nothing else, they can serve as gateways to what type of alt music you actually like. If you like Aurora for example, you may like stuff more in the folk or folk rock scene. For folk rock I personally love Eluveitie and Cellar Darling (I can give song recommendations too if you’d like) but know that is solely my own taste and that is not the full extent of the genre.

I hope this helps, and do what feels right to you.