The Define "Grunge" Challenge

Gary Carter

HeavyHands wrote:

"...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.
Would someone please define "grunge" for me. I mean in musical terms. Writing style/theory." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge, accessed 5 December, 2009)

* BTW, the content of this Wikipedia paragraph is bs and is unacceptable. By this definition, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Blur, the Gutter Twins, Smashing Pumpkins, and thousands of others would all be categorized as "grunge." I challenge you to come up with something original.

it's not bs at all. if you posted more of that you woulda led people to this

The Los Angeles hardcore punk band Black Flag's 1984 record My War, where the band combined heavy metal with their traditional sound, made a strong impact in Seattle. Mudhoney's Steve Turner commented, "A lot of other people around the country hated the fact that Black Flag slowed down ... but up here it was really great ... we were like 'Yay!' They were weird and fucked-up sounding."[17] Turner explained grunge's integration of metal influences, noting, "Hard rock and metal was never that much of an enemy of punk like it was for other scenes. Here, it was like, 'There's only twenty people here, you can't really find a group to hate.'" Bands began to mix metal and punk in the Seattle music scene around 1984, with much of the credit for this fusion going to The U-Men.[18]

grunge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeQ6WtR3jSw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIZtCC62G_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gyYKnnRvhc


not grunge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWwmIfy0GNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQfKC-RBjZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-DTrMG4vs

Thoughts_Arrive

I hate how people say grunge is a mixture of punk and metal.
To me it's just a name the media came up with.
Each band had/has it's own sound, style, influences.

Gary Carter

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

To me it's just a name the media came up with.

The word grunge is believed to be a back-formation from the US slang adjective grungy,[2] which originated in about 1965 as a slang term for "dirty" or "filthy." Mark Arm, the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River—and later Mudhoney—is generally credited as being the first to use the term grunge to describe this sort of music. Arm first used the term in 1981, when he wrote a letter under his given name Mark McLaughlin to the Seattle zine, Desperate Times, criticizing his band Mr. Epp and the Calculations as "Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!" Clark Humphrey, editor of Desperate Times, cites this as the earliest use of the term to refer to a Seattle band, and mentions that Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop popularized the term as a musical label in 1987–88, using it on several occasions to describe Green River.[3] Arm said years later, "Obviously, I didn't make [grunge] up. I got it from someone else. The term was already being thrown around in Australia in the mid-'80s to describe bands like King Snake Roost, The Scientists, Salamander Jim, and Beasts of Bourbon."[4] Arm used grunge as a descriptive term rather than a genre term, but it eventually came to describe the punk/metal hybrid sound of the Seattle music scene.

Pepe Silvia

HeavyHands wrote:

Yes to the marketing angle, but when (since the 60's) have rock bands ever really appeared finely groomed? For example, Neil Young has always looked like a vagrant.

if we are talking 'grunge' as in musical sound i think neil young helped create it

mookeywrench

i think it's funny how uptight people are over a label...In the end it doesn't change the music.

It could be called snoopy-paloopy for all I care. If someone wants to call it grunge so be it.

why is metal called metal? why is punk called punk? why is hip-hop called hip-hop?

who gives a shit?

red mos

Here is my 02. I know I'm late to this, but wanted to share.

I've always considererd Grunge a style of rock music that was popular during a certain time period. I say Time period because bands up and coming in 1995 are all of a sudden labeled "post grunge."

to me, it's a genre, it had a particular sound and an image. The image being flannels, khaki's greasy long hair doc martins ect. I say genre because while it is rock music, their was the distinctive sound. The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, ect are all considered rock music too, but the sound and image are different.

So I guess my definition would be Grunge- a genre within the rock music catagory that that had the distinctive sound of heavy distortion, and conveyed an image consisting of the following, Flannel, khaki, doc martins, converse sneakers, long greasy hair ect.
The city of Seattle, Wa is credited as the birth place for this genre.
Why Neil Young has been credited as the "father of grunge" due to his influence on the bands growing up, it has been argued that Mark Arm may have originally coined the term to label this genre.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

grunge is metal-infused punk with a twinge of pop. airgo (sp?), PJ is not grunge. I love grunge, but PJ is blues based rock.

catefrances

Paul David wrote:

grunge is metal-infused punk with a twinge of pop. airgo (sp?), PJ is not grunge. I love grunge, but PJ is blues based rock.

ergo.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

catefrances wrote:

ergo.

that's the ticket.

DewieCox

I've heard people use the word grunge to describe certain bands.
Grunge exists. It's just a label to easily identify a number of bands without naming a bunch.

julesandian

Here is my version:

Grunge = Sludge Pop.

Bleach is the perfect example, distorted dirty bassy rock, with pop and punk influence. Green River, Mudhoney, The Melvins, were all grunge, but Nirvana's Nevermind was not grunge.

In my opinion only Deep on Ten was a "grunge" song with the rest being classic hard rock, and only "4th of July" on Superunknown by Soundgarden was also grunge, but Badmotorfinger has much more elements of grunge.

Mother Love Bone was glam/hard rock, Soundgarden was/is metal as was/is Alice in Chains.

The longer the solo's the less I would class it as grunge.

At the time no one who liked "grunge" was calling it grunge until MTV started calling it grunge after Nevermind blew up.

Like most people who were into heavy rock from the late 80's to the mid 90's I love some of the bands, I dislike some of the bands and the rest are ok. Grunge is a white elephant. There is no such thing, there is just rock.

And for those about to rock, we salute you.