Grunge: A story of irony
The grunge phenomenon hitAmericain the mid 1990s. Originating inSeattlein the late 1980s, grunge became more than just a fad; it became a way of life and this subculture had just as big of an impact on American pop culture as hippies or beatniks. That impact turned out to be the downfall of this subculture. The grunge way of life was exploited in every facet and ironically, it was the fame that was the demise of this promising genre. The dress and music of grunge were used as a platform for advancement for the media. Sadly, this humble subculture was wrung dry by corporate society and the media squeezed every last cent out of it, profiting from teenage anguish.
Grunge music first appeared inWashington as early as the 1960s and 1970s. Garage bands such as the Sonics, the Wailers, the Telepaths, and the Lewd, captivated young audiences with their punk sound. Earning the tag, “garage band” because of their young and often amateur perception, these early versions had the same agenda as their more modern relatives: express teen emotion through music. Because of their young age and because they preceded the modern “club,” the bands often performed at high school dances (Prato 11). The Wailers in particular were wildly popular, drawing as many as 3,000 kids at their performances and band founder Kent Morrill even said the Beatles got an idea for one of their songs from them. Grunge, even then was about the music not the fame, so perhaps it was bittersweet when the British invasion trumped further advancement for this prehistoric genre (Prato 14). These garage bands never reached commercial fame, simply because of the timing.
Glamour Rock ruled supreme for the next several decades. It seemed as if all ofAmerica was caught up in the hype of British glitter rock and this really set the stage for change. Glam rock, with the flamboyant and outrageous clothes, hair, and shoes that accompanied it, and hair metal, categorized by eye makeup and long hair, served no benefits for teens in pain. The show that accompanied the music was of unimportance and beginning inSeattle in the late 1980s, music for a new audience was introduced. The long tenure of glam rock became a catalyst for the success of the rising, unknown genre of grunge; it was time for change.
Much like in the essay Subcultures, Pop Music, and Politics: Skinheads and ‘Nazi Rock’ in England and Germany where author Timothy Brown states, “The decline of the original skinhead culture by the early 1970s, and its rebirth later in the decade under the influence of punk rock, opened the way for new influences” (Ballenger, Payne 303), grunge reemerged with a new influence. Twenty to thirty years after the first garage bands, this variation of punk fused with metal, the very genre grunge pushed out of fame. This time around, though, grunge was here to stay.
Silver Dragon Records suggests that, whether it was the dreary, rainy weather that droveSeattle’s residents to take out their anger on musical instruments inside, or the fact thatSeattle was a culturally isolated city (few bands stopped on inSeattle on their tour),Seattle took to grunge like a fish in water. Local rock icons like Jimi Hendrix were pushed aside and local, unknown bands like Melvins, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana reigned supreme. These local bands were so popular, not just because they were local acts, but also because of their new sound; raspy voice, heavy distortion, angry lyrics, a fusion of punk and metal.
September of 1991 was a historically significant month for grunge in America. The record that would change society forever, Nevermind, was released by Nirvana (Kamp). Teens loved Nirvana and more specifically Kurt Cobain because he was not afraid to sing about sadness and his music was expressed in the most purest form, no costumes or gimmicks and he was not in it for the fame (Bell 35). This new fan base was ecstatic because as Ryan Moore puts it “After mostly ignoring them for more than a decade, the music industry took an interest in localized music scenes during the early 1990s with the success of Nirvana and Seattle’s “grunge” scene, as “alternative,” became a new advertising buzzword in marketing for young people” (10).
Beginning in September of 1991, the world was buzzing about his new style of music and dress. Nirvana did not create grunge, but they were certainly the face of grunge. Kurt Cobain, with his laidback demeanor, was seen as the face of a generation, Generation X, and his hit single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” was the anthem (Wood 334). It is still not exactly why grunge latched on to Nirvana, but it is certain that they fit the profile. “[Kurt] Cobain was a genius. To be an innovator, a rock icon, and yet to be so humble, is amazing. He was impartial to the politics, respected individualism. How can you not love a guy like that? What a cool dude” (Purcell).
This new genre of music was stripped down to the bare essentials; no fancy costumes, just blue jeans and rock and roll. This new fashion caught fire along with the music because of its purity. Grunge fashion could be seen everywhere. Stores like JC Penny and designers like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger had exclusive grunge selections. New York fashion shows were seen modeling thermal t’s, flannels, and ripped jeans (Snead). Vanity Fair even put out an entire issue dedicated to grunge fashion, including models and everything (Flett).
Grunge captured the youthful spirit and was made for and by teens. “Caution: If you are one nanosecond over 35 years of age, you may look pret-ty darn silly in grunge clothing. Grown-ups wearing torn, shrunken, ill-fitting, mismatched layers do not look hip and cool. They look poor. Grunge just isn’t easy for adults. It’s that old dogs and new tricks problem.” (Snead). The industry knew the grunge look wasn’t for adults and they exploited this aspect. The teen-parent relationship was a driving force for the movement and the fashion just further separated the two. Adults didn’t understand the fashion and perhaps disliked it, and this was another reason to sport this fashion; because it made their parents angry, “you just don’t understand!”
Up until this point, the grunge subculture was very successful because it was homologous. There were no so-called “posers” because the subculture was localized toSeattle. As grunge became more successful, the foundations of the subculture began to crack. Brown states in his essay, “Youth subcultures—organized as they are around an internal logic that reconfigures select commodities or elements of style into symbolic weapons against dominant society—are inherently unstable; the meaning of the elements that signify membership are, as we have seen, open to interpretation” (Ballenger, Payne 305). The same thing was happening with grunge. The media was driving a wedge, separating the true grunge culture inSeattle, from the new audience that was getting swept up in the hype. The elements of membership were becoming shaky. The whole lifestyle of grunge was based on obscurity so the beginning of success was also the beginning of an end.
By the early 1990s, grunge was as mainstream as ever. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden was quoted as saying, “that’s what makes pop culture so significant to all the little consumers out there, they have no interest in history or economics… they’re interested more in gossip and the nature of celebrity.” Grunge continued to be so popular just because, it was the popular thing to be apart of and it was troubling because popularity went against the moral foundation of grunge. The hype the media created was driving a stake through the heart of the grunge movement.
Just before Kurt Cobain’s suicide and the ensuing collapse of the grunge movement, being a grunge member meant nothing more than dressing the part. The market was flooded with cheap grunge knock-offs. Timothy Brown states that, “being a skinhead is, at the most basic level, a matter of adopting a certain outward appearance” (Ballenger, Payne 305). Being a grunge member did not mean being above the influence and being an individual anymore. During the mid 1990s, it was just another medium for social conformity. The media commercialized grunge, which completely took the magic out of it. Kurt Cobain later said of his hit song Smells Like Teen Spirit, “Everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It’s been pounded into their brains” (US Rolling Stone 1994). The commercialization of music and fashion by corporations like MTV ruined grunge.
Because of the American unification of grunge, the genre and the people that comprise it have been in submission since the 1990s. Maybe you can’t turn on MTV and watch a Nirvana music video, but it is not sufficient to say grunge is dead. Blue jeans were made popular by the movement and still are today. The musical genre that resulted, post-grunge, has many of the same aspects of its monopolized predecessor. Maybe the head banging, long haired children of grunge will never be atop again, but they did not fight in vain. Raspy voiced acts like Foo Fighters, Shinedown, Puddle of Mudd, and Seether are as popular as ever. Modern, “alternative” rock is as popular as ever, and is nothing more than a few angry lyrics from being considered grunge. The media and pop culture may have exhausted every aspect of the grunge subculture, but it still lives on today and continues to make an impact of pop culture.
Sources:
Works Cited
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Flett, Kathryn. “Fashion Victims.” The Times 10 Apr. 1993, Features ed. Print.
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Purcell, Logan. Personal Interview. 06 Mar. 2012.
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