Music Masterclass- Grunge

October sees the return of the almighty Music Masterclasses - Here's the first one of the month...

The Facts...

• Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that was created in the mid-1980s by bands from the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area.
• Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, the early grunge movement coalesced around Seattle independent record label Sub Pop.
• Grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal, and is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song dynamics, and apathetic or angst-filled lyrics.
• The grunge aesthetic is stripped-down compared to other forms of rock music, and many grunge musicians were noted for their unkempt appearances and rejection of theatrics

The End...

• During the mid-1990s many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Kurt Cobain, struggled with an addiction to heroin. Rumors surfaced in early 1994 that Cobain suffered a drug overdose and that Nirvana was breaking up.
• On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; Nirvana summarily disbanded. That same year Pearl Jam canceled its summer tour in protest of what it charged as ticket vendor Ticketmaster's unfair business practices. Pearl Jam then began a boycott of the company; however, Pearl Jam's initiative to play only at non-Ticketmaster venues effectively, with a few exceptions, prevented the band from playing shows in the United States for the next three years.
• In 1996 Alice in Chains gave their final performances with their ailing estranged lead singer, Layne Staley, who subsequently died from a heroin overdose in 2002. That same year Soundgarden and Screaming Trees released their final studio albums, Down on the Upside and Dust, respectively. Soundgarden broke up the following year.
• Some grunge bands have continued recording and touring with more limited success, including, most significantly, Pearl Jam. While in 2005 Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt described Pearl Jam as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame," he noted the band developed a loyal concert following akin to that of the Grateful Dead.
• Despite Nirvana's demise, the band has continued to be successful posthumously. Kurt Cobain's Journals and the band's best-of compilation Nirvana, released in 2003 both enjoyed high sales

The Aftermath...

• During the latter half of the 1990, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge, which remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. Post-grunge bands such as Candlebox and Bush emerged soon after grunge's breakthrough. Post-grunge artists lacked the underground roots of grunge and was largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock."
• Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production.

We played...
The Pixies- Here Comes Your Man
Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit
Pearl Jam- Jeremy
Soundgarden- Black Hole Sun
Bush- Swallowed

check out wikipedia.org for lots more grungy type info :)

Article by Gemma Smith, 16 Oct 2007
Posted in The Breakfast Show

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