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Grunge

Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture which emerged during the mid-1980s in the U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal.[3] The genre featured the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, neglect, betrayal, social and emotional isolation, addiction, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom.[5][6]

This article is about the music genre. For other uses, see Grunge (disambiguation).

Grunge

Mid-1980s, Seattle, Washington

The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed the style shrewdly, encouraging the media to describe it as "grunge"; the style became known as a hybrid of punk and metal.[7] By the early 1990s, its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge was commercially successful in the early-to-mid-1990s due to releases such as Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Superunknown, Alice in Chains' Dirt, and Stone Temple Pilots' Core. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music.[8]


Several factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", struggled with an addiction to heroin before his suicide in 1994. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture[9] and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself.[10] Grunge was also an influence on later genres such as post-grunge.

Recording production[edit]

Like punk, grunge's sound came from a lo fi (low fidelity) recording and production approach.[33] Before the arrival of major labels, early grunge albums were recorded using low-budget analogue studios: "Nirvana's first album Bleach, was recorded for $606.17 in 1989."[87] Sub Pop recorded most of their music at a "low-rent studio named Reciprocal", where producer Jack Endino created the grunge genre's aesthetic, a "raw and unpolished sound with distortion, but usually without any added studio effects".[88] Endino is known for his stripped-down recording practices and his dislike of 'over-producing' music with effects and remastering. His work on Soundgarden's Screaming Life and Nirvana's Bleach as well as for the bands Green River, Screaming Trees, L7, the Gits, Hole, 7 Year Bitch, and Tad helped to define the grunge sound. An example of the lower cost production approach is Mudhoney; even after the band signed to Warner Music, "[t]rue to [the band's] indie roots ... [they are] ... probably one of the few bands that would have to fight [their label] to record for a lower budget rather than a higher one."[57]


Steve Albini was another important influence on the grunge sound. Albini prefers to be called a "recording engineer", because he believes that putting record producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys the band's real sound, while the role of the recording engineer is to capture the actual sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their creative product.[89] Albini's recordings have been analyzed by writers such as Michael Azerrad, who stated that Albini's "recordings were both very basic and very exacting: like Endino, Albini used few special effects; got an aggressive, often violent guitar sound; and made sure the rhythm section slammed as one."[90]


Nirvana's In Utero is a typical example of Albini's recording approach. He preferred to have the entire band play live in the studio, rather than use mainstream rock's approach of recording each instrument on a separate track at different times, and then mixing them using multi-track recording. While multitracking results in a more polished product, it does not capture the "live" sound of the band playing together. Albini used a range of different microphones for the vocals and instruments. Like most metal and punk recording engineers, he mics the guitar amp speakers and bass amp speakers to capture each performer's unique tone.

Graphic design[edit]

Regarding graphic design and images, a common feature of grunge bands was the use of "lo-fi" (low fidelity) and deliberately unconventional album covers, for example presenting intentionally murky or miscolored photography, collage or distressed lettering. Early grunge "[a]lbum covers and concert flyers appeared Xeroxed not in allegiance to some DIY aesthetic" but because of "economic necessity", as "bands had so little money".[133] This was already a common feature of punk rock design, but could be extended in the grunge period due to the increasing use of Macintosh computers for desktop publishing and digital image processing. The style was sometimes called 'grunge typography' when used outside music.[134][135][136] A famous example of 'grunge'-style experimental design was Ray Gun magazine, art directed by David Carson.[137][138]


Carson developed a technique of "ripping, shredding and remaking letters"[137][138] and using "overprinted, disharmonious letters" and experimental design approaches, including "deliberate 'mistakes' in alignment".[139] Carson's art used "messy and chaotic design" and he did not "respect any rule of composition", using an "experimental, personal and intuitive" approach.[140] Another "grunge graphic designer" was Elliott Earls, who used "distorted ... older typefaces" and "aggressively illegible" type which adopted the "unkempt expressiveness" of the "grunge [music] aesthetic"; this radical, anti-establishment approach in graphic design was influenced by the 1910s-era avant-garde Dada movement.[139] Hat Nguyen's Droplet, Harriet Goren's Morire and Eric Lin's Tema Canante were all "signature grunge fonts."[137][138] Sven Lennartz states that grunge design images have a "realistic, genuine look" which is created by adding simulated torn paper, dog-eared corners, creases, yellowed scotch tape, coffee cup stains, hand-drawn images and handwritten words, typically over a "dirty" background texture which is done with dull, subdued colors.[141]


A key figure in creating the "look" of the grunge scene for outsiders was music photographer Charles Peterson. Peterson's black and white, uncropped, and sometimes blurry shots of the underground Pacific Northwest music scene's members playing and jamming, wearing their characteristic everyday clothes, were used by Sub Pop to promote its Seattle bands.

Literature[edit]

Zines[edit]

Following the tradition in the 1980s US punk subculture of amateur, fan-produced zines, members of the grunge scene also produced DIY publications which were "distributed at gigs or by mail order". The zines were typically photocopied and contained handwritten, "hand-colored pages", "typing errors and grammatical mistakes, misspellings and jumbled pagination", all proof of their amateur nature.[142] Backlash was a zine that was published from 1987 to 1991 by Dawn Anderson, covering the "dirtier, heavier, more underground and rock side of Seattle's music scene", including "punk, metal, underground rock, grunge before it was called grunge and even some local hip-hop."[143] Grunge Gerl #1 was one early 1990s grunge zine, was written by and for riot grrrls in the Los Angeles area. It stated that "we're girls, we're angry, we're powerful."[142]

Local newspapers[edit]

In 1992, Rolling Stone music critic Michael Azerrad called The Rocket the Seattle music "scene's [most] respected commentator".[57] The Rocket was a free newspaper about the Pacific Northwest music scene which was launched in 1979. Edited by Charles R. Cross, the paper covered "fairly obscure alternative bands" in the local area, such as the Fartz and others.[144] In the mid-1980s, the paper had stories on Slayer, Wild Dogs, Queensrÿche, and Metal Church. By 1988, the metal scene had faded, and The Rocket's focus shifted to covering the pre-grunge local alternative rock bands. Dawn Anderson states that in 1988, long before any other publication took notice of them, Soundgarden and Nirvana were Rocket cover stars.[145] In 1991, The Rocket expanded to include a Portland, Oregon edition.

List of grunge bands

List of grunge albums

Riot grrrl