If a person was asked to sum up the 1980’s music scene in a word, they would probably say ‘disco’. Electronic sounds, drum machines and synthesizers all played a big part in 80’s music. As well as this though throughout the 1980’s there was heavy metal. By heavy metal I mean glam rock, hair metal, pop metal, hard rock and anything else that could easily fall in to one of those categories.
Along with the more obvious disco music, hair metal also dominated 80’s music with bands such as Def Leppard, Van Halen and Iron Maiden showing off fancy solo riffs as well as bands like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith who provided anthemic choruses.
When the 90’s came however, it was all about the demise of the slick metal sound with Grunge and Alternative rock breaking through to the charts.
This type of music did actually begin in the late 1980’s in America, whereby grunge and alternative rock band’s music were being played on college radios. Although a fair few people did like what they were hearing on the radio, Big Hair bands were still in major popularity and college radios are by no means mainstream, therefore there was never an outbreak of this new different music. That is, until Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana came along.
Nirvana made whatever bits of Grunge that came about before the 90’s into the definition of Grunge, the first mainstream band you could call a Grunge act, and a whirl of Grunge and alternative rock acts followed them to make Grunge arguably the biggest genre that defines the 90’s.
Nirvana went down in Grunge music history as soon as the released their second album entitled ‘Nevermind’. Released in 1991 with hits such as ‘Come as You Are’ ‘Smells Like Teen Sprit’ and ‘Polly’, it is a surprise that it took this album a while to make Billboards Top 40, and it wasn’t until 1992 that the album replaced Michael Jackson to become Number One in the Billboard charts. This reiterates the fact that Grunge was underground until this time, and Hair Metal was still very much the popular genre of music. However the public fell for Nirvana’s epic ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ and slowly the album caught on, and became the album to listen to.
Nirvana’s spell however was cut short when Kurt Cobain, the front-man and the writer of virtually all the songs committed suicide in 1994. Nirvana still carried on, however by this time there were many other Grunge bands on the scene as Grunge became a major trend but nevertheless, his death meant the media hyped up his significance even further and today there aren’t many people at all who do not know who Kurt Cobain is.
Before I get on to other Grunge bands, I’ve realised I haven’t actually summed up what Grunge is essentially all about. Grunge actually means ‘dirt’. Now in the 1980’s, you had the hair metal/glam rock type acts singing about dancing and high spirited things such a glam rock influenced Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. In contrast, Grunge lyrics were quite meaningful to the artists who wrote them, lyrics about depression, anxiety, suicide and frustration are common. It had become cool for bands to express deep and in many people’s cases private or delluded emotions.
Key characteristics include heavy drumming, strong and repetitive riffs, and the guitar is almost always used in every Grunge song (I am at the moment trying to think of an exception, but cannot!). There is often guitar distortion somewhat, Nirvana are prime examples for instance in their song ‘Smells like Teen Spirit).
Another major Grunge act who also burst into the mainstream closely following in Nirvana’s footsteps were a band called Pearl Jam. One of their best and their most successful album and a prime Grunge example is entitled ‘Ten’ which features tracks like ‘Alive’, which lyrically is about a son finding out that his father is in fact his step father, while his mother’s grief over his real father causes her to want and force sexual encounters with her son, who reminds her of his father.
The song ‘Jeremy’ is also on the album. It is based on a true story in which a high school student shot himself in front of his class mates. However if you listen to the song and don’t listen out closely for the lyrics you would never guess as almost sounds quite upbeat with buoyant guitar riffs.
Pearl Jam were underground at heart even though their music had made it big, with Eddie Vedder (front man – singer and guitarist) making sure to avoid the media and the band made no videos. They once had a disagreement with their agency as they thought the prices for tickets to see them live were too high, making it hard for some of their fans, particularly fans who had supported them when they underground, hard to attend gigs. Pearl Jam are still around today, however are more so classified as alternative rock.
Other grunge bands include Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, The Melvins, Green River and Screaming Trees.
