To start, those within the scene never cared for the term to begin with, but at least culturally for that time period, somewhat geographically, there’s an association with the term. Obviously you have the bigger commercial names out of Seattle in Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam, with more similarities amongst the vocalists of the latter three. But really the only unifying thing about this scene is the contrast it presented to the hair metal bands of the 80s that had a much cleaner sound.
So what exactly makes grunge grunge? Nirvana, for instance, doesn’t even have a lot of consistencies amongst their own catalogue. They essentially had three albums (not acknowledging that POS album between Nevermind and In Utero) and commercially really only two, and the differences in style between them are pretty large. With Cobain, Nirvana died, then you had Alice In Chains face out with Layne Staley and then he died, and though they’re still around it really isn’t the same. Soundgarden broke up in ‘97 or whenever, so the era kind of phased out. But then you have Pearl Jam and WTF? Pearl Jam has been around now for about 30 years, meaning that they really only spent 4-5 years as a “grunge band,” as nobody would refer to them as that now.
Obviously there’s more to this than the commercially successful bands, but when we’re creating the pop culture understanding of what grunge is, these bands create the backdrop for this. But what exactly defines it? Is it just a time frame and geography? I mean, if you go listen to Ugly Kid Joe’s “America’s Least Wanted,” the actual sound is fairly indistinguishable from being grunge if one didn’t know better, but nobody would have considered them grunge. Is it because they were from California? Because they looked more like they belonged at an Aerosmith or GNR concert rather than in flannel and in the Pacific Northwest?
If your kid asks you, “what kind of music is Pearl Jam?,” what do you say? If someone asks you what grunge is, do you explain it stylistically, or by time and place? If stylistically, how is it differentiated from many other things that aren’t grunge?
TIA
So what exactly makes grunge grunge? Nirvana, for instance, doesn’t even have a lot of consistencies amongst their own catalogue. They essentially had three albums (not acknowledging that POS album between Nevermind and In Utero) and commercially really only two, and the differences in style between them are pretty large. With Cobain, Nirvana died, then you had Alice In Chains face out with Layne Staley and then he died, and though they’re still around it really isn’t the same. Soundgarden broke up in ‘97 or whenever, so the era kind of phased out. But then you have Pearl Jam and WTF? Pearl Jam has been around now for about 30 years, meaning that they really only spent 4-5 years as a “grunge band,” as nobody would refer to them as that now.
Obviously there’s more to this than the commercially successful bands, but when we’re creating the pop culture understanding of what grunge is, these bands create the backdrop for this. But what exactly defines it? Is it just a time frame and geography? I mean, if you go listen to Ugly Kid Joe’s “America’s Least Wanted,” the actual sound is fairly indistinguishable from being grunge if one didn’t know better, but nobody would have considered them grunge. Is it because they were from California? Because they looked more like they belonged at an Aerosmith or GNR concert rather than in flannel and in the Pacific Northwest?
If your kid asks you, “what kind of music is Pearl Jam?,” what do you say? If someone asks you what grunge is, do you explain it stylistically, or by time and place? If stylistically, how is it differentiated from many other things that aren’t grunge?
TIA
