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'Grunge' (sometimes referred to as the 'Seattle Sound') is a subgenre of alternative rock that was created in the mid-1980s by bands from the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, the early grunge movement coalesced around Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. Grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal, and is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song dynamics, and apathetic or angst-filled lyrics. The grunge aesthetic is stripped-down compared to other forms of rock music, and many grunge musicians were noted for their unkempt appearances and rejection of theatrics.
Grunge became commercially successful in the first half of the 1990s, due mainly to the release of Nirvana's ''Nevermind'' and Pearl Jam's ''Ten''. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of hard rock music at the time.^[1] The genre became closely associated with Generation X in the US, since the awareness of each rose simultaneously. However, many grunge bands were uncomfortable with this popularity. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, their influence continues to impact modern rock music.

Contents

Origin of the term

Characteristics

Themes

Presentation and fashion

History

Roots and influences

Early development

Mainstream success

Decline of mainstream popularity

Prominent bands

Seattle area

Outside the Seattle area

Notes and references

External links

Origin of the term

The word ''grunge'' originated as a slang term for "dirt" or "filth". Mark Arm, the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River—and later Mudhoney—is generally credited as being the first to use the term ''grunge'' to describe the movement. Arm first used the term in 1981, when he wrote a letter under his given name Mark McLaughlin to the Seattle zine, ''Desperate Times'', criticizing his band Mr. Epp and the Calculations as "Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!" Clark Humphrey, editor of ''Desperate Times'', cites this as the earliest use of the term to refer to a Seattle band, and mentions that Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop popularized the term as a musical label in 1987–88, using it on several occasions to describe Green River.^[2]

Characteristics

Grunge is generally characterized by a sludgy guitar sound that uses a high level of distortion, fuzz and feedback effects. Grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Grunge bands were noted for their punk / indie attitudes; and the music shares with punk a raw sound and similar lyrical concerns.¹ However, grunge also involves slower tempos, dissonant harmonies, and more complex instrumentation, often reminiscent of heavy metal. Some individuals associated with the development of grunge, including Sub Pop producer Jack Endino and The Melvins, explained grunge's incorportation of heavy rock influences such as Kiss as "musical provocation".^[3] In the early 1990s, Nirvana introduced stop-start dynamics into grunge song structures, which became a genre convention.¹

Themes

Lyrics are typically angst-filled, often addressing themes such as social alienation, apathy, confinement, and a desire for freedom. A number of factors influenced the focus on such subject matter. Many grunge musicians displayed a general disenchantment with the state of society, as well as a discomfort with social prejudices. Such themes bear similarities to those addressed by punk rock musicians and the perceptions of Generation X. Music critic Simon Reynolds said in 1992 that "there's a feeling of burnout in the culture at large. Kids are depressed about the future."^[4] However, not all grunge songs dealt with these issues. Nirvana's satirical "In Bloom" is a notable example of more humorous writing. Several other grunge songs are filled with either a dark or fun sense of humor—Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" or Tad's "Stumblin' Man"—though this often went unnoticed by the general public at the time. Humor in grunge often satirized glam metal—for example, Soundgarden's "Big Dumb Sex"—and other forms of popular rock music during the 1980s.^[5]

Presentation and fashion

Grunge concerts were known for being straightforward, high-energy performances. Grunge bands rejected the complex and high budget presentations of many musical genres, including the use of complex light arrays, pyrotechnics, and other visual effects unrelated to playing the music. Stage acting was generally avoided. Instead the bands presented themselves as no different from a minor local band. Jack Endino said in the 1996 documentary ''Hype!'' that Seattle bands were inconsistent live performers, since their primary objective was not to be entertainers, but simply to "rock out."³ However, concerts did involve a level of interactivity; fans and musicians alike would participate in stage diving, crowd surfing, headbanging, pogoing, and moshing.
Clothing commonly worn by grunge musicians in Washington consisted of thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing (most notably flannel shirts) of the region, as well as a general unkempt appearance. The style did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion; music journalist Charles R. Cross said, "Kurt Cobain was just too lazy to shampoo," and Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman said, "This [clothing] is cheap, it's durable, and it's kind of timeless. It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80's."⁴

History

Roots and influences

Grunge's sound partly results from Seattle's isolation from other music scenes. As Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman noted, "Seattle was a perfect example of a secondary city with an active music scene that was completely ignored by an American media fixated on Los Angeles and New York."^[6] Mark Arm claimed that the isolation meant, "this one corner of the map was being really inbred and ripping off each other's ideas."^[7] Grunge evolved from the local punk rock scene, and was inspired by bands such as The Fartz, The U-Men, 10 Minute Warning, The Accused and The Fastbacks.³ Additionally, the slow, heavy, and sludgy style of The Melvins was a significant influence on the grunge sound.^[8]
Outside the Pacific Northwest, a number of artists and music scenes influenced grunge. Alternative rock bands from the Northeastern United States, including Sonic Youth, Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., are important influences on the genre. Through their patronage of Seattle bands, Sonic Youth "inadvertently nurtured" the grunge scene, and reinforced the fiercely independent attitudes of its musicians.^[9] The influence of the Pixies on Nirvana was noted by Kurt Cobain, who commented in a ''Rolling Stone'' interview that he "connected with the band so heavily that I should be in that band."^[10] Nirvana's use of the Pixies' "soft verse, hard chorus" popularized this stylistic approach in both grunge and other alternative rock subgenres.
Aside from the genre's punk and alternative rock roots, many grunge bands were equally influenced by heavy metal of the early 1970s. Black Sabbath undeniably played a role in shaping the grunge sound, whether with their own records or the records they inspired.^[11] The influence of Led Zeppelin is also evident, particularly in the work of Soundgarden, whom ''Q'' magazine noted were "in thrall to '70s rock, but contemptuous of the genre's overt sexism and machismo".^[12] The Los Angeles hardcore punk band Black Flag's 1984 record ''My War'', where the band combined heavy metal with their traditional sound, made a strong impact in Seattle. Mudhoney's Steve Turner commented, "A lot of other people around the country hated the fact that Black Flag slowed down ... but up here it was really great ... we were like 'Yay!' They were weird and fucked-up sounding."^[13] Turner explained grunge's integration of metal influences, noting, "Hard rock and metal was never that much of an enemy of punk like it was for other scenes. Here, it was like, 'There's only twenty people here, you can't really find a group to hate.'" Bands began to mix metal and punk in the Seattle music scene around 1984, with much of the credit for this fusion going to The U-Men.^[14]
The raw, distorted and feedback-intensive sound of some noise rock bands had an influence on grunge. Among them are Wisconsin's Killdozer, and most notably San Francisco's Flipper, a band known for its slowed-down and murky "noise punk". The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was a major influence, particularly on the early work of Soundgarden.^[15] After Neil Young played a few concerts with Pearl Jam and recorded the album ''Mirror Ball'' with them, some members of the media gave Young the title "Godfather of Grunge." This was grounded on his work with his band Crazy Horse and his regular use of distorted guitar, most notably on the album ''Rust Never Sleeps''.^[16] A similarly influential, yet often overlooked, album is ''Neurotica'' by Redd Kross, about which the co-founder of Sub Pop said, "''Neurotica'' was a life changer for me and for a lot of people in the Seattle music community." This is the most important band in America?

Early development

A seminal release in the development of grunge was 1986's ''Deep Six'' compilation, released by C/Z Records (later reissued on A&M). The record featured multiple tracks by six bands: Green River, Soundgarden, the Melvins, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, and The U-Men; for many of them it was their first appearance on record. The artists had "a mostly heavy, aggressive sound that melded the slower tempos of heavy metal with the intensity of hardcore." As Jack Endino recalled, "People just said, 'Well, what kind of music is this? This isn't metal, it's not punk, What is it?' [...] People went 'Eureka! These bands all have something in common.'"
Later that year Bruce Pavitt released the ''Sub Pop 100'' compilation and Green River's ''Dry As a Bone'' EP as part of his new label, Sub Pop. An early Sub Pop catalog described the Green River EP as "ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation."^[17] Sub Pop's Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, inspired by other regional music scenes in music history, worked to ensure that their label projected a "Seattle sound," reinforced by a similar style of production and album packaging. While music writer Michael Azerrad acknowledged that early grunge bands like Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Tad had disparate sounds, he noted "to the objective observer, there were some distinct similarities."^[18] Early grunge concerts were sparsely attended (many by fewer than a dozen people) but Sub Pop photographer Charles Peterson's pictures helped create the impression that such concerts were major events.^[19] Mudhoney, which was formed by former members of Green River, served as the flagship band of Sub Pop during their entire time with the label and spearheaded the Seattle grunge movement.^[20] Other record labels in the Pacific Northwest that helped promote grunge included C/Z Records, Estrus Records, EMpTy Records and PopLlama Records.
Grunge attracted media attention in the United Kingdom after Pavitt and Poneman asked journalist Everett True from the British magazine ''Melody Maker'' to write an article on the local music scene. This exposure helped to make grunge known outside of the local area during the late 1980s and drew more people to local shows.³ The appeal of grunge to the music press was that it "promised the return to a notion of a regional, authorial vision for American rock."^[21] Grunge's popularity in the underground music scene was such that bands began to move to Seattle and approximate the look and sound of the original grunge bands. Mudhoney's Steve Turner said, "It was really bad. Pretend bands were popping up here, things weren't coming from where we were coming from."^[22] As a reaction, many grunge bands diversified their sound, with Nirvana and Tad in particular creating more melodic songs.^[23] By 1990 many locals had tired of the hype surrounding the Seattle scene and hoped that media exposure was dissipating.³

Mainstream success

Nirvana performing at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.

Grunge bands had made inroads to the musical mainstream in the late 1980s. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label when they joined the roster of A&M Records in 1989. Soundgarden, along with other major label signings Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees, did moderately well.³ Nirvana, originally from Aberdeen, Washington, was also courted by major labels, finally signing with Geffen Records in 1990. In September 1991, the band released its major label debut, ''Nevermind''. The album was at best hoped to be a minor success on par with Sonic Youth's ''Goo'', which Geffen had released a year previous.^[24] It was the release of the album's first single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that "marked the instigation of the grunge music phenomenon." Due to constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, ''Nevermind'' was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991.^[25] In January 1992, ''Nevermind'' replaced pop superstar Michael Jackson's ''Dangerous'' at number one on the ''Billboard'' album charts.^[26]
The success of ''Nevermind'' surprised the music industry. ''Nevermind'' not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general."^[27] Michael Azerrad asserted that ''Nevermind'' symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which the glam metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant.^[28] Other grunge bands subsequently replicated Nirvana's success. Pearl Jam, which featured former Mother Love Bone members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, had released their debut album ''Ten'' in August 1991, a month before ''Nevermind'', but album sales only picked up a year later. By the second half of 1992 ''Ten'' became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on the ''Billboard'' charts.^[29] Soundgarden's album ''Badmotorfinger'' and Alice in Chains' ''Dirt'', along with the ''Temple of the Dog'' album collaboration featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were also among the 100 top selling albums of 1992.^[30] The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted ''Rolling Stone'' to dub Seattle "the new Liverpool."⁴ Major record labels signed most of the remaining major grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success.^[31]

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder on the cover of the October 25, 1993 issue of the popular magazine ''Time'', as part of the feature article discussing the rising popularity of grunge.

The popularity of grunge resulted in a large interest in the Seattle music scene's perceived cultural traits. While the Seattle music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s in actuality consisted of various styles and genres of music, its representation in the media "served to depict Seattle as a music 'community' in which the focus was upon the ongoing exploration of one musical idiom, namely grunge."^[32] The fashion industry marketed "grunge fashion" to consumers, charging premium prices for items such as knit ski hats. Critics asserted that advertising was co-opting elements of grunge and turning it into a fad. ''Entertainment Weekly'' commented in a 1993 article, "There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s"^[33] ''The New York Times'' compared the "grunging of America" to the mass-marketing of punk rock, disco, and hip hop in previous years.⁴ Ironically the ''New York Times'' was tricked into printing a fake list of slang terms that were supposedly used in the grunge scene; often referred to as the grunge speak hoax. This media hype surrounding grunge was documented in the 1996 documentary ''Hype!''.
A backlash against grunge began to develop in Seattle; in 1993 Bruce Pavitt said that in the city, "All things grunge are treated with the utmost cyncism and amusement [. . .] Because the whole thing is a fabricated movement and always has been."⁴ Many grunge artists were uncomfortable with their success and the resulting attention it brought. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain told Michael Azerrad, "Famous is the last thing I wanted to be."^[34] Pearl Jam also felt the burden of success, with much of the attention falling on frontman Eddie Vedder.^[35] Nirvana's follow-up album, 1993's ''In Utero'' was an intentionally abrasive album that Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic described as a "wild aggressive sound, a true alternative record."^[36] Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 ''In Utero'' topped the ''Billboard'' charts.^[37] Pearl Jam also continued to perform well commercially with their second album, 1993's ''Vs.'' The album sold a record 950,378 copies in its first week of release, topped the ''Billboard'' charts and outperformed all other entries in the top ten that week combined.^[38]

Decline of mainstream popularity

A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the latter half of the 1990, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge, which remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. Post-grunge bands such as Candlebox and Bush emerged soon after grunge's breakthrough. Post-grunge artists lacked the underground roots of grunge and was largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production.^[39]
Conversely, another alternative rock genre, Britpop, emerged in part as a reaction against the dominance of grunge in the United Kingdom. In contrast to the dourness of grunge, Britpop was defined by "youthful exuberance and desire for recognition."^[40] Britpop artists were vocal about their disdain for grunge. In a 1993 ''NME'' interview, Damon Albarn of Britpop band Blur agreed with interviewer John Harris' assertion that Blur was an "anti-grunge band," and said, "Well, that's good. If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge."^[41] Noel Gallagher of Oasis, while a fan of Nirvana, wrote music that refuted the pessimistic nature of grunge. Gallagher noted in 2006 that the 1994 Oasis hit single "Live Forever" "was written in the middle of grunge and all that, and I remember Nirvana had a tune called 'I Hate Myself and I Want to Die,' and I was like . . . 'Well, I'm not fucking having that.' As much as I fucking like him [Cobain] and all that shit, I'm not having that. I can't have people like that coming over here, on smack, fucking saying that they hate themselves and they wanna die. That's fucking rubbish."^[42] British critics credited Oasis with filling the void left in music by the demise of Nirvana, and by 1996 the band was considered one of the biggest in the world.^[43]
During the mid-1990s many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Kurt Cobain, labeled by ''Time'' as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest," appeared "unusually tortured by success" and struggled with an addiction to heroin. Rumors surfaced in early 1994 that Cobain suffered a drug overdose and that Nirvana was breaking up. ^[44] On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; Nirvana summarily disbanded. That same year Pearl Jam canceled its summer tour in protest of what it charged as ticket vendor Ticketmaster's unfair business practices.^[45] Pearl Jam then began a boycott of the company; however, Pearl Jam's initiative to play only at non-Ticketmaster venues effectively, with a few exceptions, prevented the band from playing shows in the United States for the next three years.^[46] In 1996 Alice in Chains gave their final performances with their ailing estranged lead singer, Layne Staley. That same year Soundgarden and Screaming Trees released their final studio albums, ''Down on the Upside'' and ''Dust'', respectively. Soundgarden broke up the following year.
Some grunge bands have continued recording and touring with more limited success, including, most significantly, Pearl Jam. While in 2005 ''Rolling Stone'' writer Brian Hiatt described Pearl Jam as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame," he noted the band developed a loyal concert following akin to that of the Grateful Dead.^[47] The group's 2006 album ''Pearl Jam'' reached number two on the Billboard 200 in 2006,^[48] and they continue to sell out arenas around the world. Despite Nirvana's demise, the band has continued to be successful posthumously. Due to the high sales for Kurt Cobain's ''Journals'' and the band's best-of compilation ''Nirvana'' upon their release in 2003, ''The New York Times'' argued Nirvana "are having more success now than at any point since Mr. Cobain's suicide in 1994."^[49]

Prominent bands

Seattle area

★ Alice in Chains ★ Blood Circus ★ Green River ★ Gruntruck ★ Hammerbox ★ Love Battery ★ Mad Season ★ Malfunkshun ★ Melvins ★ Mono Men ★ Mother Love Bone

★ Mudhoney ★ My Sister's Machine ★ Nirvana ★ Pearl Jam ★ Screaming Trees ★ Seven Year Bitch ★ Skin Yard ★ Soundgarden ★ Tad ★ Temple of the Dog ★ The U-Men

Outside the Seattle area

★ Babes in Toyland (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

★ The Fluid (Denver, Colorado)

★ Hole (Los Angeles, California)

★ L7 (Los Angeles, California)

★ The Nymphs (Los Angeles, California)

★ Paw (Lawrence, Kansas)

★ Pond (Portland, Oregon)

★ Stone Temple Pilots (San Diego, California)

Notes and references

1. Grunge
2. Humphrey, Clark. ''Loser: The Real Seattle Music Story''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. ISBN 1-929069-24-3, p. 63
3. Pray, D., Helvey-Pray Productions (1996). ''Hype!'' Republic Pictures.
4. Marin, Rick. "Grunge: A Success Story." ''The New York Times''. November 15, 1992.
5. Grunge Freind, Bill
6. Aston, Martin. "Freak Scene". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 12
7. Wall, Mick. "Northwest Passage". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 9
8. Wall, Mick. "Northwest Passage". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 8
9. Everley, Dave. "Daydream Nation". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 39
10. Fricke, David. "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview." ''Rolling Stone''. January 27 1994
11. Carden, Andrew. "Black Sabbath". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 34
12. Brannigan, Paul. "Outshined". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 102
13. Azerrad, Michael. ''Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991''. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1, p. 419
14. Azerrad (2001), p. 418
15. Azerrad (2001), p. 439
16. McNair, James. "''Rust Never Sleeps'' - Neil Young". ''Q: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge''. December 2005. p. 36
17. Azerrad (2001), p. 420
18. Azerrad (2001), pp. 436–37
19. Azerrad (2001), p. 421–22
20. Azerrad (2001), p. 411
21. Lyons, James. ''Selling Seattle: Representing Contemporary Urban America''. Wallflower, 2004. ISBN 1-903354-96-5, pp. 128–29
22. Azerrad (2001), p. 449
23. Azerrad (2001), p. 450
24. Wice, Nathaniel. "How Nirvana Made It". ''Spin''. April 1992.
25. Lyons, p. 120
26. "The ''Billboard'' 200." ''Billboard''. January 11, 1992.
27. 10 years later, Cobain lives on in his music Olsen, Eric
28. Azerrad (1994), p. 229-30
29. Pearlman, Nina. "Black Days". ''Guitar World''. December 2002.
30. Lyons, p. 136
31. Azerrad (2001), p. 452–53
32. Lyons, p. 122
33. Smells Like Big Bucks
34. Azerrad, Michael. ''Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana''. Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47199-8, p. 254
35. Five Against the World
36. DeRogatis, Jim. ''Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's''. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81271-1, p. 18
37. In Numero Uno
38. Pearl's Jam
39. Post-Grunge
40. Britpop
41. Harris, John. "A shite sports car and a punk reincarnation." ''NME''. April 10, 1993
42. "Lock the Door". ''Stop the Clocks'' [bonus DVD]. Columbia, 2006.
43. ''Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop''. Passion Pictures, 2004.
44. Never mind
45. The Brawls in Their Courts
46. DeRogatis, p. 65
47. The Second Coming of Pearl Jam
48. Pearl Jam > Charts & Awards > Billboard albums. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
49. Nine Years After Cobain's Death, Big Sales for All Things Nirvana Nelson, Chris

External links

★ All Music Guide article on grunge