|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGRUNGEThe dominant American rock flavour of the early '90s: 1960s garage fuzz filtered through '70s punk anger and '80s self-awareness with a timeless heavy metal wall-of-sludge acoustics. The formal beginnings were in the Seattle sound of Mudhoney and Soundgarden but all the best grunge records (such as the second albums by Massachusetts's Dinosaur Jr and Arizona's Meat Puppets, all the albums by Boston's Pixies, Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising from Minnesota) had probably been made by the time the term was coined. Hüsker Dü had formed their own label; Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt formed Sub Pop to capture the Seattle scene; as Sun in Memphis had captured the gloriously raucous possibilities of being a babyboomer, 30 years later the tail end of that demographic bulge examined the underside and were not supposed to 'sell out' to corporate interests, in their naive middle-class way unable to separate financial from artistic success. Reputable practitioners (Nirvana, Sonic Youth) and some less reputable (Pearl Jam) strove to disown the corporate marketing frenzy which followed the genre climax (and death knell) with Nirvana's stupendous Nevermind '91; the absurd spectacle of fashion designer Perry Ellis's 'Grunge fashion' collection and film cash-ins (such as Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe's lamentable film Singles) were the final nails in the coffin. Interesting bands (Pavement, Sebadoh) all stayed underground after Kurt Cobain's death, while lame Nirvana tribute acts (Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, others too horrible to mention) reaped a rich commercial harvest. See entries for some of the groups. |