Why/How Was Grunge So Popular?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on March 4, 2017, 9:59 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
As a great fan of hard rock and heavy metal music, I have often heard that the rise of grunge in the early 1990's caused a significant decline in the popularity of traditional rock and metal music, which in turn caused many bands, most notably Metallica and Megadeth, to change their style (i.e., making it "lighter") to retain popularity and keep "current." I have heard that grunge was a massively popular musical movement and that many previous bands had difficulty in maintaining their popularity in its wake. As a side note, in direct contrast to that, Pantera made their style much heavier, defiantly keeping the "heavy" in heavy metal and resisting the grunge movement even as other bands succumbed to it.
Therefore, I wish to ask: how is it that grunge was so popular? I have heard some grunge songs, and they do not appeal to me even remotely; they are too dreary and depressing for my liking and lack the energy and passion of rock and metal. Why, after three decades of increasingly epic and complex rock music, did listeners suddenly choose to listen to a new and completely different style of music that was a different as possible from rock and metal? What does everyone else say about this?
Grunge was my era and has affected my life ever since it took off.
The thing about Grunge is that it was so much more than just the MUSIC. It was also the attitude, the lifestyle, and the clothing.
Grunge did what punk did.
It said fuck you, your expensive clothes, and your fancy accessories.
We are gonna wear flannel shirts, second-hand Doc Martins, get our noses pierced, hang chains off ourselves, smoke dope, get tattoos, and listen to whatever the fuck we want to.
We are disaffected. You left us out of your reality. So now we are gonna fucking make sure you know we haven't gone away. Here we are now, entertain us.
The music was not as heavy as metal but that also allowed it to be more MELODIC. Catchy as hell.
You could sing along to it, because I-I-I-I-I'm still alive.
There were a lot of women involved with the Grunge scene, moreso than with other forms of metal. We wanted to see women scream onstage, matching it with the blokes. Singing about awkward topics like sociopathy and sadism, and telling you that you can get fucked if you think you can keep us quiet. You've made my shit list.
I can't explain Grunge to you. You will never get it. It is much more "complex" and "epic" than you could ever grasp, but it is more nuanced in these areas.
It is not for you to understand. It is not yours. You go back to whatever it is you listen to. All hail me.
March 4, 2017 11:54 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #4
I was in middle and high school when this shift went down; I grew up with it. That being said, 80's hair metal was HUUUGE back then. Bands like Poison, Dokken, Motley Crue, Mr. Big, etc. were very much about glam, bling, and so forth. They typically utilized a tenor who sang big, lots of complicated guitar parts, and killer guitar solos. They were also the forefront of the music industry and the face of the record labels. Their music sold records and was designed that way. On a short aside, Metallica, Pantera, and Megadeath weren't hair metal and were heavy metal, much darker than the aforementioned radio rock.
Anyway, bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden were milling about Seattle doing their own thing, against the grain of everyone in Hollywood and everything on the radio. And people liked it because it was different, it was real and raw, and they could relate to it. And the rest is Bleach, In Utero, Jar of Flies, Plush, and Super Unknown.
March 4, 2017 11:56 p.m.
Tonnes more Grunge albums than just those.
Here are some of my favourites:
American Thighs
Bricks are Heavy
Dirt
Frogstomp
Last Splash
Live Through This
Mother Love Bone
No Alternative
Singles
Superunknown
Ten
and of course every Nirvana album.
March 5, 2017 12:18 a.m.
pinecone2k3 says... #6
To add on to aeonstoremyliver's comment, the only other genre of music that was really popular, in the 80s, just before grunge took over, was happy, bubbly pop music. So, virtually all of the popular music, at the time, was relatively happy. The rise of grunge was essentially a widespread cultural backlash against that. People were fed up with only ever hearing songs about love and partying. Newer musicians started writing about darker topics (i.e. coping with depression, drug addiction, etc.), and fans couldn't get enough.
March 5, 2017 7:58 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Argeaux, first, grunge is not a form of metal; it is the antithesis of metal, it is as far removed from metal as possible (with the exception of unrelated genres, such as hip-hop or country western). Second, grunge was not the first musical movement to rebel against the mainstream culture; the very first wave of rock and roll in the early 1960's was perceived as rebellious and subversive, a full thirty years before grunge existed. And there were plenty of female musicians in rock and metal music before grunge, including Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Jinx Dawson.
aeonstoremyliver, pinecone2k3, not all of the music in the 1980's was bright and happy; perhaps it was in the 1960's, but, in the 70's, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest introduced the world to dark and gloomy music that was a sharp departure from the "flower power" of the previous decade. Then, in the 1980's, the thrash metal movement started as a direct response to the glam metal of that decade; it eschewed the fancy clothing, wild hairstyles, and bright colors for a focus on technical proficiency and furious sound, so grunge was not the first genre to rebel against happy party music.
Please understand that I do not seek to insult grunge or those who are fond of it; I simply am attempting to understand how it was so popular despite being so different from rock and metal.
March 5, 2017 2:17 p.m.
pinecone2k3 says... #8
I, for one, never said grunge was the first genre to rebel against happy music. Just that it did rebel against it. As far as why it got popular while other genres didn't... Maybe it's the fact that it was, as you say, so different from rock and metal, at the time. If you look at grunge, in general, it was certainly easier for Billboard Top 40 type radio stations to work into their programming than bands like Black Sabbath, Slayer, or Iron Maiden would have been. I think it was just the pure dumb luck of being a bit more mainstream radio-friendly than other genres, while still having different enough subject matter, from what was popular, to capture the attention of people who were tired of hearing what was popular at that point.
March 5, 2017 2:53 p.m.
hosshughes says... #10
Grunge was in response not to heavy metal but to hair metal pop which required incredible instrumental ability and absolutely no passion or emotion whatsoever. Grunge by comparison required little instrumental ability but pure, unadulterated, raw emotion.
March 5, 2017 4:42 p.m.
For those saying the charts were dominated by bubblegum pop just prior to Grunge, that was earlier.
House music was probably the most prevalent form of music on the radio Pre-Grunge.
DemonDragonJ yeah good going misconstruing almost everything I said.
Grunge is widely held to have elements of heavy metal. Listen to Lithium, In Bloom, or even Stay Away.
"Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, such as the distorted electric guitar used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other."
I never said Grunge was the first form of music to rebel. I said it was ONE form, and also cited Punk.
You go back to early rock but LONG before that there was Jazz, and before Jazz there were many others.
You have named a handful of female musicians spanning three decades. Before Grunge hit most female musicians were exceptions to the rule.
In the 80s from time to time albums would be released that featured female rockers, because they were that unusual.
When Grunge hit we had
Kelley DealKim DealJennifer FinchSuzi GardnerNina GordonGail GreenwoodKathleen HannaBilly Karren Courtney LoveDemetra PlakasLouise PostDonita SparksPatty Schemel Josephine WiggsKathi Wilcox Tobi Vail
to name a few.
Plus a lot of female acts that were more "alternative" than Grunge.
Like I said, you will never understand Grunge. I don't think you really want to, anyway. I think the topic is more about trying to say that metal is better than Grunge.
I'm done trying to school someone who I suspect is just out to put shit on a genre I love so much.
March 6, 2017 1:06 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #13
Argeaux, why do you believe that I am insulting grunge? Did I say anything explicitly negative about it in my previous posts? I promise you that I do not intend any disrespect toward you or anyone else who is fond of that genre, so I do not wish for there to be any negative feelings between us. Also, why is it that women were more prominent in grunge than in previous generations of music? Was there something about grunge that appealed to them?
March 8, 2017 8:54 p.m.
Grunge clothing is Very Famous We strive to keep grunge and all it represents alive in its most authentic form. While our products cater to all of its subcultures, we have kept the true grunge elements alive in all of them.
guessling says... #2
I can't speak for anyone except myself. I find that it resonates with my own feelings. I don't think aesthetics or popularity are easy to explain or judge as objectively right or superior. The heart loves what it loves.
At the time, I felt pressured to conform to various cliques and eerily I'll at ease within spanking new realms of suburbia seeming somehow surreal and also lifeless. However, I wasn't filled with passionate anger. That didn't resonate with me.
March 4, 2017 10:16 p.m.