Grunge

Seattle-based punk rock merged with 70's hard rock and Sabbath-esque heavy metal that emerged in the mid-80's. Pioneers of the sound include Green River and Soundgarden. Green River is considered to be the first crucial grunge band, the band that coined the term and truly kickstarted the then-new Seattle Sound. The band split toward the late 80's, forming Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney in its wake. By 1990, MLB was considered the biggest band in Seattle, and was poised to break the scene wide open, but tragically singer Andrew Wood died just days before their major label debut. Grunge seemed to lose momentum for a year or so, but in 1991 all that would change with the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten. Smells Like Teen Spirit became a Top 10 Hit on the Hot 100 and received heavy rotation on MTV, instigating the grunge revolution. Jeremy won four VMA's in 1993, including video of the year. In the early 90's, grunge was THE most dominant music genre in America, however, with the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994 and Pearl Jams backing-away from the spotlight, grunge quickly lost momentum once again. In its place came the generic watered down genre known as post-grunge, filled with forgettable bands like Bush and Silverchair. Not long after the breakup of Soundgarden in 1997, pop-punk, nu metal, and teen pop took hold and seriously fucked popular music. Layne Staley of Alice in Chains' death in 2002 was grunge's death knell.

Grunge music is often credited for killing hairmetal and 80's-style pop rock, and when grunge was fresh and dominant this was thought of as a good thing, and rightly so...but the bands that took over after end of grunge, like Korn, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Blink 182, and eventually Fall Out Boy etc., are bands horrible enough to the point that even the cheesiest, most asinine hairband (see Tuff) is preferable.

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