90s Rock

90s Rock: Grunge:
The genre that was developing latter became known as “grunge” music, this term meant “filth” or “dirt”. Perhaps, the term seemed to fit because of the music’s dirty sound and most of the musicians’ unkempt appearance. The grunge music genre fused the elements of both heavy metal and hardcore punk into one single sound, and it also consisted of heavy use of guitar fuzz, distortion as well as feedback. Typically, the lyrics were angst-filled and apathetic - often it concerned themes like entrapment and social alienation, even though it was well known for its dark parodies and humor of commercial rock.

Bands That Pioneered Grunge Music:
The genre was pioneered by bands like Soundgarden, Green River, Skin Yard and the Melvins, but by the decade’s end, Mudhoney had become the most successful. Until ’91, the grunge music genre remained mostly a local phenomenon, that was until the album “Nevermind” by Nirvana broke right into the mainstream. Pearl Jam was also able to contribute to this with “Ten”, their album. Even though both of these bands were a lot more melodic in comparison to their predecessors and were basically instant music sensations across the world, they absolutely refused to buy into marketing mechanisms and corporate promotion. During ’91 and ’92, there were other grunge music bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, along with Candlebox that were able to gain a much wider audience. Commercial metal and rock almost completely faded from the mainstream.

Even though grunge music itself can be viewed to be somewhat limited in its range, the influence it had at the time was felt across several musical and geographic boundarie. There were many artists that were unaffected similarly with commercial forms of rock music who were suddenly able to find record companies as well as audiences that were more than willing to listen, and dozens of acts that were disparate which positioned themselves as the mainstream music’s alternative. Because of all of these events, the alternative rock music genre was able to emerge from the music underground. In turn, this series of events helped pave the way of success for some bands like Stone Temple Pilots and the Smashing Pumpkins which were initially stereotyped as being grunge music but was later able to enjoy critical and commercial success independently from the genre.

Early April, ’94 :
In ’94, the grunge music genre experienced a sudden increase in popularity with Kurt Cobain’s death, Nirvana’s frontman. Even though there was some grunge bands that had continued to release albums, the grunge music genre had started to decline in popularity and by the time that the decade’s end rolled around, there were many grunge bands that had gone their own separate ways, stopped touring the world and had actually changed their direction musically.