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Characteristics
Grunge music is generally characterized by "dirty" guitar, strong riffs, and heavy drumming. The "dirty" sound resulted primarily from the common use of heavy guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback. It also resulted from a stylistic change in the standard method of playing punk rock. Grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a single sound, although sometimes it is performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Grunge bands were noted for their punk mentality and attitudes, and the music shares with punk its raw sound, fast tempos, and often vocal delivery. However, grunge also involves slower tempos, dissonant harmonies, and more complex instrumentation reminiscent of heavy metal.
The lyrics concern similar themes such as social alienation, apathy, entrapment and a desire for freedom. They are typically angst-filled — anger, frustration, ennui, fear, depression and drug addiction are often explored in grunge songs. The lyricism bears similarities to those of punk and the perceptions of Generation X. A number of factors may have influenced these lyrics. Many grunge musicians and fans displayed a general disenchantment with the state of society and discomfort with social prejudices. They were often identified as 'slackers' and drug use was common. Also, many grunge musicians began their careers as teenagers or young adults, when feelings of angst are common. Nonetheless, not all grunge songs dealt with such themes: Nirvana's satirical "In Bloom" is a notable example of more humorous writing. In fact, several grunge songs are filled with either a dark or fun sense of humor as well (for example, Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" or Tad's "Stumblin' Man"), though this often went unnoticed by the general public. Humor in grunge often satirized glam metal (for example, Soundgarden's "Big Dumb Sex") and other forms of rock music that were popular during the 1980s.[2]
Grunge concerts were known for being straightforward, high-energy performances. Grunge bands avoided the complex, high budget presentations that bands from other musical genres such as heavy metal were known for; complex light arrays, pyrotechnics, and other visual effects unrelated to playing the music were not part of the concerts. Stage acting was also generally avoided. Instead, the bands presented themselves no differently from any local band, using only their instruments and their own presence as visual "effects" (neither being budgeted higher than what was needed). However the concerts did have some level of interactivity. Fans and musicians alike would participate in stage diving, crowd surfing, headbanging, and pogoing, though the audiences at grunge concerts were best known for their extremely enthusiastic moshing. The mosh pits would be located close to the stage, allowing such interaction between the audience and the band.
[edit] Roots and influences
Grunge evolved out of the Pacific Northwest's local punk rock scene, inspired by local punk bands such as The Fartz, The U-Men, 10 Minute Warning, the feedback- and distortion-intensive The Accused, and pop-punksters The Fastbacks.[3] Additionally, the slow, heavy, and sludgey sound of The Melvins was one of the biggest influences on what would become the grunge sound. The band itself is often considered grunge, although others would classify them differently. The same can be said for Portland's The Wipers, who were also highly influential in the development of grunge. Aside from its punk origins, the grunge movement had strong roots in the musical and youth culture of the American Northwest. The musical resemblance to such 1960s Northwest bands as The Wailers and The Sonics is unmistakable.
Mark Arm, the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River (and later Mudhoney), is widely credited for being the first to use the term "grunge" to describe the style. However, Arm used the term pejoratively; he called the band's style "pure grunge, pure shit". This was not seen as being negative by the media, and the term was subsequently applied to all music that sounded similar to Green River's style.[4] The word grunge itself means "dirt". It is likely that the term was seen as appropriate because of the "dirty" guitar sound that grunge is known for, and the unkempt appearance of most grunge musicians. This was in direct contradiction to the relatively polished look and sound of glam metal bands of the late 1980s.
Formed in 1983, Green River is widely believed to have created the genre, and was a prime inspiration for many grunge bands, despite the band's relatively low level of commercial success.[5] After the band split up in 1988, members of Green River went on to form Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, and Pearl Jam. Green River, who used a harder and dirtier sound in their performance than many later grunge bands, inspired other early grunge bands to use a similar style.
Grunge's unique sound is often said to have resulted from Seattle's isolation from other alternative rock scenes.[6] However, outside of the Pacific Northwest, other musicians are said to have influenced grunge. Such Northeastern alternative rock bands as Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. are considered important influences on the grunge sound. The influence of the Pixies on Nirvana — and through them on other bands — is also unquestionable.[7] Nirvana's use of the Pixies' "soft verse, hard chorus" popularized this stylistic approach in both grunge and other alternative rock genres. Hüsker Dü were a strong influence on the Pixies and in turn had an influence on grunge bands.
Certain noise rock bands, with their raw and distorted sound, are believed to have influenced grunge. This includes Wisconsin's Killdozer, and most notably San Francisco's Flipper, who were known for their slowed-down and murky "noise punk". The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was also a major influence, particularly on the early work of Soundgarden. Other noted contributers to the grunge sound include Detroit's proto-punk luminaries the Stooges and MC5, and Australian punks The Scientists.
Two bands that pioneered hardcore punk, Black Flag from Los Angeles and Bad Brains from D.C., were major influences on the genre, particularly as both bands later combined it with heavy metal. Mudhoney's Steve Turner says that Black Flag's 1984 record My War and its supporting tours made a strong impact in Seattle. The record found the band slowing their tempo considerably and injecting a potent dose of heavy metal, though to considerable derision and disgust from some fans. Turner says that "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."[8] Concerning Bad Brains, Dave Grohl of Nirvana said, "Seeing Bad Brains live was, without a doubt, always one of the most intense, powerful experiences you could ever have... They made me absolutely determined to become a musician, they basically changed my life, and changed the lives of everyone who saw them." Fellow Nirvana bandmate and bassist Krist Novoselic said that an early version of their single "In Bloom" "sounded like a Bad Brains song."[9] Bad Brains' albums such as I Against I and Quickness helped pioneer the combination of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a single sound. While elements of heavy metal made their way into the grunge sound,[10] the genre continued to remain loyal to its punk roots. The mentality of the musicians was still deeply rooted in the punk scene, with many bands adhering to the DIY ethic.
After Neil Young played live a few times with Pearl Jam and recorded the album Mirror Ball with them, some members of the media gave Young the title "Godfather of Grunge," a claim grounded mainly on his work with his band Crazy Horse, and his regular use of distorted guitar, most notably in the song "Hey Hey My My" from the album Rust Never Sleeps. A similarly influential, yet often overlooked, album is Neurotica by Redd Kross,[11][12] 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."[13]
[edit] Early development
Prior to its popularity, grunge was listened to mostly by those who played the music. Bands would play at clubs with very few people in attendance, most of whom were from other performing bands. Others who listened to the music in those early days were often people who were "just trying to get out of the rain" as many attendants would claim. As bands began to issue albums, independent labels became the key catalysts in bringing the music to the local public. Many of the more successful bands of the era were associated with Seattle's Sub Pop record label. Other record labels in the Pacific Northwest that helped promote grunge included C/Z Records, Estrus Records, EMpTy Records and PopLlama Records.[3]
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".[8] As Sub Pop producer 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 in 1986 Bruce Pavitt released the Sub Pop 100 compilation as well as 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".[14]
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 noted that early grunge bands like Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Tad had disparate sounds, he noted "to the objective observer, there were some distinct similarities."[15] Grunge began to attract media attention after journalist Everett True from the British magazine Melody Maker was asked by Pavitt and Poneman to write an article on the local music scene. This helped to make grunge known outside of the local area during the late 1980s, giving the genre its first major spurt of popularity in the United Kingdom. Mudhoney is often credited as having been the biggest commercial success for grunge during this time, and was the most successful grunge band until the end of the 80s, gaining attention with their 1988 single "Touch Me I'm Sick".[16]
Grunge's popularity in the underground scene prior to alternative rock's breakthrough in the early 1990s 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."[17] As a reaction, many grunge bands diversified their sound, with Nirvana and Tad in particular creating more melodic songs.[18]
[edit] Mainstream success
Nirvana is generally credited for breaking the genre into the popular consciousness in 1991. The popularity of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit", from the album Nevermind, surprised the entire music industry. The album became a #1 hit around much of the world, and paved the way for more bands, including, most popularly, Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam, in fact, had released their debut album Ten a month earlier in August 1991, but album sales only picked up after the success of Nirvana. For many audiences then and later, grunge came to be almost totally associated with these two bands and their punky, rebellious attitude towards mainstream mores as well as cultural and social institutions. During 1991 and 1992, other Seattle grunge bands gained mainstream success, most notably Soundgarden with their album Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains with their album Dirt. Los Angeles' L7 also gained a wider audience with their album Bricks Are Heavy, especially due to the single "Pretend We're Dead". By the mid-90 some similar sounding bands from further afield, such as San Diego's Stone Temple Pilots, Australia's Silverchair, and Great Britain's Bush also became popular.[19]
Most grunge fans and music critics believe that grunge emerged as a popular genre and was embraced by mainstream audiences in reaction to the declining popularity of glam metal. Glam metal bands, such as Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Warrant, had been dominating the charts during the 1980s (especially in the United States) despite being looked down upon by most critics. Glam metal was known for macho (some critics have said misogynist) lyrics, anthemic riffs, gaudy clothing style and a perceived lack of social consciousness, especially in the race to attract mainstream audiences. These aspects were popular during the 1980s, but they began to have the opposite effect on audiences towards the end of the decade. Grunge, however, sharply contrasted glam metal. With a viable alternative to hair metal realized by the public, the popularity of glam metal began to die off as the popularity of grunge began to rise.
Grunge fans in the Pacific Northwest believed that the media gave excessive importance to the clothing worn by grunge musicians and fans, along with other aspects of the local culture. Clothing commonly worn by grunge fans in the Northwest in its early years was a blend of the punk aesthetic with the typical outdoorsy clothing (most notably flannel shirts) of the region. The "fashion" did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion, but due to the inexpensiveness of such clothes and the warmth that they provided for the cold climate of the region. The media gave this fashion a heavy amount of exposure. In the early 1990s, the fashion industry marketed "grunge fashion" to a widespread audience, charging relatively high prices for clothing that they assumed to be popular in the grunge scene. Similarly, the media would view grunge as a whole culture, assuming it to be Generation X's attempt to create a culture similar to the hippie counterculture of the previous generation. An interesting case of this superficiality backfiring on the media was the grunge speak hoax, which caused The New York Times to print a fake list of slang terms that supposedly were used in the grunge scene. This was later proven to be a prank by Sub Pop's Megan Jasper. The excesses of this media hype would also be documented in the 1996 documentary Hype!.[3]
While such superficiality bothered Seattle-area grunge fans, most grunge musicians from the area continued to dress in the way that they had prior to popularity. Some musicians from outside the region also began to dress similarly. In the rock world, expensive, designer clothing was shunned in favor of less elaborate clothing; some common items worn included flannel, jeans, boots (often Doc Martens), and Converse sneakers. Many young fans outside of the region embraced this style for its simple defiance of the norms of the era's popular culture, which was seen by many of them as corporate-dominated and superficial. In England, youth who dressed in this fashion were sometimes called "grungers", while the term "grungies" was often used in the United States. Traditional rock and roll ostentatiousness became offensive to many rock music fans, inspiring an anti-fashion trend. After this attitude helped the fashion industry push their "grunge fashion" line, many grunge fans dropped the "traditional" grunge fashion soon after having embraced it; the industry stopped marketing it shortly afterwards.[verification needed]
Many notable events happened during the "grunge era" of music that may not have happened had grunge never become popular. Alternative rock, previously heard mostly in local clubs, on college radio, and on independent record labels, became popular in the mainstream as major record labels sought out more previously obscure music styles to sell to the public. The traveling festival Lollapalooza came about as a result of this, with grunge being a major part of the 1992 and 1993 events. In the media's spotlight, grunge became part of the pop culture, most notably being a major part of the 1992 film Singles, which featured several grunge bands. Nirvana and Sonic Youth starred in a documentary film that same year, 1991: The Year Punk Broke. Riot grrrl, another hardcore punk offshoot that came into being in Western Washington (and was thus often seen as the feminine equivalent of grunge), became well known from the media coverage of the local scene. With such punk derivative genres becoming popular, punk itself was able to make a revival, as bands such as Green Day and The Offspring became chart-topping successes. Independent record labels, which used to rarely have success on level with major labels, were able to sell albums with equal or similar success as the major labels (most notably in the cases of Sub Pop and Epitaph Records).
[edit] Decline of mainstream popularity
The mass popularity of grunge music was short-lived, however. There were several important factors that contributed to this. Though some of them could have single-handedly ended the genre's mainstream popularity, it is generally believed that more than one factor caused the decline.
Most fans and music historians believe that many grunge bands were too opposed to mainstream stardom to actually achieve long-lasting support from major record labels. Many grunge bands refused to cooperate with major record labels in making radio-friendly hooks, and the labels found new bands that were willing to do so, albeit with a watered-down sound that did not sit well with the genre's long-time fans. A decline in music sales in general in 1996 may also have influenced labels to look for different genres to promote rather than genres such as grunge that were popular up to that point. However, this decline may have been a result of the industry's use of such watered-down groups.
Another factor that may have led to the fall of grunge's mainstream popularity was the advent of the sub-genre of grunge known as post-grunge. Post-grunge was a radio-friendly variation of grunge which lacked the "dirty" sound that most fans of grunge were used to. The sub-genre is generally believed to have come about at the behest of label executives who wanted to sell a variation of grunge that would sell to a larger audience as a result of sounding more like pop music. In the mid-1990s, record labels began signing several bands that used such a sound and gave them wide exposure. While some of these bands, such as Silverchair and Bush, were able to gain widespread success, many fans of grunge denounced post-grunge bands as being sell-outs. This is most notable in the cases of Candlebox and Collective Soul, who were reviled by most grunge fans. Even the commercially successful post-grunge bands would be given such accusations by grunge fans, causing most of them to have shorter spurts of popularity than earlier grunge bands.
Heroin use amongst grunge musicians was also a serious problem for the continuation of some grunge bands. Andrew Wood's death from an overdose in 1990 was the first major tragedy for the grunge scene, bringing an end to Mother Love Bone. Kurt Cobain's use of heroin is believed to have contributed to his death in 1994 (though whether or not it did was never confirmed).[3] The death of Kristen Pfaff of Hole in 1994, and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains in 2002, were also caused by heroin overdoses. It is believed by many that grunge effectively began its decline when Cobain died in April of 1994. Interestingly, Cobain had often been photographed wearing t-shirts stating that "Grunge is Dead."
The year of 1996 proved to be the last year in which grunge musicians were considerably active. During this year, many "lasts" had occurred. Pearl Jam released their last album that topped the charts, No Code. Alice in Chains gave their final performances with their ailing estranged lead singer, Layne Staley. Soundgarden and The Screaming Trees released their final studio albums, Down on the Upside and Dust, respectively. And Nirvana released the live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, the only new release from the band until the greatest hits album Nirvana in 2002.
For many fans of the genre, it wasn't until the pioneering band Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 that they finally conceded grunge's time in the mainstream was over. Over the next few years grunge's mainstream popularity quickly came to an end. Many grunge bands have continued recording and touring with more limited success, including, most significantly, Pearl Jam. Their most recent album, the self-titled Pearl Jam, reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2006,[20] and they continue to sell out arenas around the world. Grunge music still has its followers, and many of them still express their fandom over the Internet. Grunge's mainstream following still shows some continuation in the popularity of Nirvana's post-break-up releases; the previously unreleased song "You Know You're Right" became a chart topping hit in 2002, and the box set With the Lights Out has become the best selling box set of all time.
[edit] Timeline of bands
Note: Bands in green are defunct. Bands in orange are still active as of 2007 (with grey representing likely future continuation).
[edit] Prominent bands
[edit] Seattle area
