Remembering The Grunge...

[The Dewbliners]

So, browsing through a Bar Room Thread the other night, I realized a good number of us grew up in the so-called "Grunge Era" of music. The purpose of this thread is to spark a lively discussion about that particualr moment. This issue is not limited to the more mainstream acts, and not even just the music. Grunge did effect the fashion industry as well, y'know. So, yeah, anyway, let's get this road on the show!

For, me, Grunge was the beginning of my musical awakening. Before the first time I heard Hunger Strike, my listening pleasure was, as was alot of other peoples, the likes of Michael Jackson, along with Poison, Guns N' Roses, and the like. Then I heard this haunting voice, that of Eddie Vedder, and the song had a message. Not too much later, I heard Nirvana for the first time, and was instantly hooked. Then came the style: Cut-off jeans, flannel shirts, and Doc Martens/Chuck Taylors (depending on your preference). Hell, I'm still guilty of driving down the street, blasting PJ, or Ugly Kid Joe, rockin' the cut offs, and what not. And, God know's what I'd do without my Flannels.

So, what did the grunge mean to you all? Who were your band of choice? Who was the superior band, out of them all? Let the discussion begin!

 

[Tenta]

Dewey, this is a fantastic thread idea, man.

As for grunge for me? What defines grunge? That'd be the pain one can feel when the singer expresses feelings of angst. Grunge expresses feelings of anger, contempt, sorrow, and yes, weakness. Maybe that's the most appealing thing of grunge... The artists were far more human than the Hair Metal in which came earlier in the 80s.

And what band signifies pain in the best possible way? Why, that would be Alice in Chains. Each and every band member was fighting off some addiction of some sort. Tragically, Layne couldn't overcome it, but you could feel his pain in all of his songs. His anguish for the feelings he has. The wish to give uop his addictions. Even his self loathing, to some extent. Alice in Chains was very up front of their drug use.... And they played it out in their music, and how it's performed.

I'll leave said example in "Rooster". This is easily my favorite Alice in Chains song.

[youtube]vpH5i3xD7tA[/youtube]

Terrific thread, Dewey. Really great thread

 

[X]

Great, great thread Dewey.

Grunge music will always hold an extremely special place in my heart. Sure, there were a few bands I really liked to listen to as a little kid whe I was 7 or 8. Green Day, The Beach Boys, old Blink 182. That was about the beginning and end of my music collection. I'll always remember the day that grunge changed my life forever. It was morning time and I was in the 5th grade. Before school started, everyone would hang out outside the school, waiting for it to open. Usually me and my friends would play a game of basketball before school started, and today was no different. After a quick game, my friend Andy tol me I had to listen to this song on his walkman. I put the earbuds on, and the opening chords of Smells Like Teen Spirit began to play. From that second on, I was hooked. My life was changed forever. Music suddenly EXPLODED in my mind, I came to this realization that "Holy shit...music is the greatest thing on the face of the Earth", and "Oh my god...there's music that's NOT on the radio that's awesome!" I stole his walkman several times during school that day, and just had to listen to that song and Nirvana again and again. I immediately went out and bought Nevermind and From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah.

Grunge really blew open the doors of music for me. Within months of listening to Nirvana, I discovered punk rock with bands like The Clash and X and Anti-Flag, and all of a sudden I just became addicted to music. I had to learn everything about it, every genre, every decade. I can track my musical taste from the introduction of grunge to my ears, to punk rock, to psychedelic rock, to electro-pop and beyond. Grunge is what opened those flood gates for me, and I'll always be eternally grateful to it for that.

Grunge music dominated my life for a few years. Nirvana was my favorite band growing up, and I worshipped Kurt Cobain as a God. I used to take a morbid pride in the fact that my birthday is April 5th, the day that Cobain died. Along with Nirvana I constantly listened to Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney among others. This was a weird point in my life where depression first began to hit me, and the music I heard from bands like Nirvana and AIC truly represented how I felt inside, all of the pain, anguish, and anger. It was like they were talking directly to me, and no one else.

I'm rambling here, so I'll cut this short. Suffice to say that Nirvana is still one of my top 3 bands ever, and that I still constantly listen to the genre. Growing up, nothing to me was cooler than the grunge scene; Cobain and Vedder, Cornell and Staley. Nirvana were always the best though in my book.

I'll leave you with a few random grunge songs that I really love.




Viva le Grunge!​

 

[Paradox]

Damn good thread... I remember listening to this back in the day... Nirvana was the band for me, then listening to soundgarden, alice in chains... Great band all around...

 

[The Dewbliners]

I guess it's time for me to explain further what grunge meant to me.

Like X hinted at, I too was starting to go through what my dad and stepmom called " a slump", which was actually clinical depression. I didn't feel I fit in, and was kind of awkward. Then, I discovered grunge. Pearl Jam, to be more specific. With Ed's lyrics, I learned that I did have a place, and everything wasn't as bad as I felt. Plus, with the social commentary, I was able to pull ahead of my classmates with being able to understand a few more things going on.


From Pearl Jam, I soon ventured to a band that, to all my friends, wrote non-sensical poems, in the form of Nirvana. Honestly, I don't know what attracted me to them. But, once I was a fan, it was done. I remember being in sixth grade, and all my classmates were clamoring for the hip-hop, and I showed up rockin' an In Utero t. I was almost laughed out for following the "poseurs", who none of the other kids could understand. 'Cause, you know, god forbid somebody listen to quality music.

Once I started to realize Nirvana was becoming the hip band, I decided to move onto other grunge-esque bands. I started listening to Ugly Kid Joe, AIC, Soundgarden, and Bush. You can only imagine the looks I got, rolling up to the grade school, on a daily basis, looking like the (at the time) unknown Raven.

As you can guess, this only built my self-respect. knowing that I had the ability to stand up for social issues, and myself, when all the others were mindless drones, slaves for fashion.

So, yeah, basically, grunge saved me. It gave me purpose, and hope. Most would think the opposite, but if you actually listen to it, grunge has a fairly positive message, at least for me. It says "Don't give up. No matter what, you could always be as fucked up as this kid from Texas, who blew his brains out in front of his class. Or, you could be a junkie like us. But, if you stand your ground, you can always make a difference."

Thank you for listening.

 

[Hacksaw Highway]

Well, by the time I was growing up, grunge was long dead. Nevermind came out in 91, and I was born in 92, so while grunge was exploding I was still in diapers. For that reason, grunge never affected me as profoundly, because I wasn't there for it. I would also not say grunge is my favorite genre of music, however, my 2 favorite bands are grunge: SOundgarden and Nirvana, in that order. I atrted listening to grunge in about grade 8, so 2004/5. I was a huge fan of Chris Cornell's band Audioslave, and through the wonders of wikipedia found out he was in a band called Soundgarden. I downloaded Black Hole Sun, because all signs pointed at it being their best song. I liked it, but wasn't really sold. The next song I dowloaded, Rusty Cage, changed things. Rusty Cage blew my mind, it was such a cool song. I can't say what, but something in it just resonated with me. I then sought out more of their music, eventually buying Superunkown (my favorite album of all time by now) and also descovering Pretty Noose and Jesus Christ Pose, 2 of my all time top 5 favorite songs. All this Soundgarden mania lead me to looking for other grunge, eventually leading me to Nirvana, AIC, Pearl Jam, and some of the similar bands from that era who were not really grunge, but still fit in with that whole alternative scene, like RHCP and STP. So while grunge never made a dramatic impact on my life, it slowly grew on me until it was very much ingrained in me.

 

[RVDgurl]

I was in middle school when the grunge scene first became big. It absolutely swallowed up pop culture. I have never seen so many flannel shirts in my life. It really was crazy seeing people's style of dress and music prefence change over night.

I have always been really into rock music and hair bands were (and still are) some of my favorite groups to listen to. Back then, any radio station would play Poison, Motely Crue, Def Leppard, etc. Grunge changed all that. It gave rock music a complete makeover. It was darker and many mainstream radio stations stopped playing alot of rock music. For me, Grunge was unwelcomed.

Not to say that I hated all of it, because I didn't. That era really did produce some great music. Alice in Chains is still one of my favorite bands and I love Soundgarten and STP. Pearl Jam's first 2 albums are both masterpieces (even though I haven't heard a single song I like from them since) which I still listen to with some frequency.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I remember the grunge era fondly. The music was so much different than everything you heard. It was the first time I remember music being an expressive art form. I was never a big fan of punk, so it was my first foray into a angry music.

It started with Nirvana for me, like so many others. Smells like teen spirit blew everything else I had heard out of the water. The last triumph for 80's hair rock was November Rain, by Guns and Roses. I will always love that song, but soon, the heavy chords and anger got to me, and I was hooked.

As I grew, I kept listening to the same albums. Today, I can now say that my favorite band from the era was Stone Temple Pilots. Their sound had something lying under the anger.


This band signaled a confidence not found in other bands. Nirvana capitalized on a lot of self-loathing. STP seemed to embrace all of their problems and accepted their lives as inspiration. The haze in their lives was their muse and that was good for them. It was good for us as well, as we got awesome music from them.

Another highlight of the era for me was Alice in Chains. I hadn't begun to experiment with a lifestyle, but I knew what to expect because of this band. Alice in Chains made me start to feel almost high, in that I felt my mind elevate onto a different plane of existence.

I love the grunge era. Every time I hear a Fall Out Boy Song, I think back to this wonderful era of music.

 

[NSL]

I can't really say what grunge meant to me, because it all came about while I was still getting into music. I was a die-hard GNR fan, and then Nirvana came about, and changed the entire face of music.

Of all the grunge bands of the time, I have only seen STP live, and it was while Weiland was clean, so suffice it to say that it wasn't the same, sadly. They were all great bands, but when I think of who was the "best", I have to go with Alice In Chains.

Not only was the duo of Staley and Cantrell the best for vocals, but the band was the most talented. Nirvana was good, but there's times where Cobain just can't carry the song, and the music falls flat. You never see that happen with Alice In Chains.

I was in middle school when the grunge scene first became big.

You felt really old typing this, didn't you?