Love it or hate it, you’ve got to give credit to the grunge movement of the early 90s. Without it, we would have remained stuck in a quagmire of hairspray and make-up, with bands singing about fast cars and faster women. But a trio of bands in particular – Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam – along with other similarly styled groups, helped bring about a sea change in popular music.
Until then, Seattle had already given us a few renowned names (most notably Jimi Hendrix and Heart), but 1991 truly put the Emerald City on the rock’n’roll map. Mixing the detuned, snail-paced riffs of Black Sabbath with the punk energy of Black Flag, the birth of grunge could be traced back to one Kiss-obsessed Buzz Osborne. He formed The Melvins in the logging town of Aberdeen, Washington. After that, it seemed like a lightbulb went on over the head of every local musician, and the first wave of soon-dubbed ‘grunge’ came fast and furious.
As with any new musical trend, it wasn’t long before record labels took note and began cranking out horrific pretenders. It’s something that can still be detected today; the number of bands with guitarists aping Nirvana riffs and singers imitating Eddie Vedder’s baritone is ridiculous.
One thing that the first wave grungers were not prepared for, however, was success, and the resultant drug abuse, deaths, break-ups and falling-outs of bands and their members effectively ended the movement almost as soon as it had begun.
