Chozon1 wrote:Grunge?
If you're asking if I love it, then yes. It immensely influenced my musical tastes in high school, and still does to some degree, though I've generally long since moved past listening to the genre with any sort of regularity.
If you're asking what it is, grunge as a form came out of the late-80s Seattle music scene. Bands such as Green River, Mother Love Bone and Skin Yard really kicked off the sound. Nirvana was a major group in the scene, largely bringing popularity to it and to alt-rock as a style about a year after the release of their second full length (and major label debut), Nevermind (released in 1991). Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 would lead to the formation of a major post-grunge/alt-rock band called Foo Fighters, helmed by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
Pearl Jam - formed from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, and the death of that band's lead singer, Andrew Wood - became a band when Soundgarden lead singer (and former roommate of Andrew Wood) Chris Cornell put together a tribute band called Temple of the Dog, which featured two members of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, as well as the then-drummer for Soundgarden, Matt Cameron (who later became the drummer for Pearl Jam after Soundgarden's dissolution), and an unknown Eddie Vedder, who would within the next year become the lead singer for Pearl Jam. Their debut album, Ten, surpassed Nevermind in sales and brought a style of arena rock to the grunge scene which literally defined the sound of grunge for years to come.
Soundgarden brought the grinding pulse of grunge together with the banshee howl of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, steeping their music in a dark, rain drenched vision colored with feedback, fuzz bass and guitar distortion. Albums such as Badmotorfinger and Superunknown saw the band moving away from the metal that had influenced them as younger musicians and finding a voice for themselves amid the crowd.
Alice in Chains - eternally marked by the death of lead singer Layne Staley in 2000 - first found success with their self-titled debut, but came across as more or less middling until their masterwork, 1992's Dirt, a concept album about heroin addiction and the pitfalls of that lifestyle. Their sound was more based in metal than Soundgarden's and used two part harmonies with Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell.
And the Screaming Trees, a lesser known band based about 100 miles outside of Seattle, brought the psychedelic roots rock of the Doors with the sound of grunge and the grizzled, smoke-cured voice of Mark Lanegan to create something all their own.
All of the bands crossed and mingled with each other, occasionally forming one-off supergroups and recording, as is the case with the band Mad Season, which formed with members from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Screaming Trees and released only one album.
Grunge's sound was defined by a slow, plodding feel, as well as distortion and fuzz. However, it was the individual influences that each band brought to the fold that ultimately shaped how the bands sounded, which ultimately means that grunge as a whole contained more inventiveness than most music today does. These bands weren't copying one another, but rather playing off of each other and creating their own sound.
Their music constitutes what has become, for me, the greatest era of music.
