I love Pearl jam, can anyone give me a definition of grunge?
According to Wikipedia… Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, grunge 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. But I think Pearl Jam have always tried to distance themselves from the whole grunge label.
Grunge – Label (stress the word label) used by the entertainment industry which was taped onto almost every rock band who came out of Seattle in the late 80’s early 90’s. Since it’s a label it doesn’t mean anything. Seattle bands were alternative rock…plain and simple. Some were rock (like Pearl Jam) some were heavy rock….like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Nirvana were a rock band who had the energy of a punk band (no surprise, considering their influences), and other acts like Screaming Trees, and Mudhoney were also hard rock bands. The same thing happened during the late 90’s….almost every rock band that started during that time were tagged as “nu metal”.
Grunge is an extremely broad label, as you can probably tell. “Tourette’s” by Nirvana is about as far from “Better man” by Pearl Jam as you can possibly get. Grunge is about the anti-music scene attitude. It started in seattle and was directly opposed to all the BS that comes with music – the artificial stage prescence and style, the whole “Rock ‘n’ Roll” attitude that had been completely corrupted by the late 80’s. That’s why they wear flannel and ripped jeans – they deliberately try to look as crap as possible. In terms of music, think of grunge as a cross between Punk and metal – The “I don’t care” attitude and song style of punk, with the intensity and distortion of Metal. Of course, this is very broad definition, because almost every “Mainstream” rock song since Smells Like Teen Spirit has ironically been based on this formula. Even bands like Nickelback trace their roots back to early grunge. In short, it’s almost impossible to describe.
