I think I finally knew I was getting old when I missed out (clearly!) on GRUNGE!
I mean I ended up like several bands from there but at the time just felt out of kilter with what the ‘message’ was! Smells Like Teen Spirit I got and then misunderstood what on earth was going on when Curt Cobain left us, Pearl Jam I ended up like when the Neil Young connection fell but many bands I continue to struggle with
This is a K collection and shared here by Butterboy of course
VA - Smells Like Teen Spirit: The 100 Greatest Grunge Songs of All Time (40th Anniversary 1985-2025 Super Deluxe Edition) (6CD) (2025)
90s Seattle grunge was a pivotal alternative rock movement merging punk and heavy metal, defining Generation X with angst-ridden lyrics, distorted guitars, and flannel fashion. Emerging from the Sub Pop label, the "Big Four" bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains achieved massive commercial success, turning Seattle into a global music epicenter.
They go on to say:
Key Elements of the 90s Seattle Scene:
• The "Big Four" & Key Bands: Nirvana (led by Kurt Cobain), Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder), Soundgarden (Chris Cornell), and Alice in Chains (Layne Staley) dominated. Other influential bands included Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, and Tad.
• Origins & Sound: Emerging in the late 1980s, the "Seattle Sound" was a hybrid of 1970s heavy metal (Black Sabbath) and punk rock (Hüsker Dü), often featuring sludgy, murky guitar riffs and anguished, heartfelt vocals.
• Cultural Impact: Grunge became the anthem for Generation X, embodying counter-culture values, anti-establishment attitudes, and a DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos, often influenced by the economic, working-class realities of the Pacific Northwest.
• Fashion & Lifestyle: Characterized by a "non-fashion" aesthetic, including thrift-store finds, flannel shirts, ripped jeans, and combat boots, which grew out of necessity and a rejection of the mainstream 1980s glamour.
• The Sub Pop Scene: The independent label Sub Pop was crucial in marketing the "Seattle sound" globally, with bands like Mudhoney and Nirvana building the foundation before mainstream breakthroughs like Nevermind in 1991.
• Iconic Locations: Key spots included the Crocodile Cafe, The Central Saloon, and the Moore Theatre, where bands like Alice in Chains and Nirvana played early, defining gigs.
• The Decline: By the mid-to-late 1990s, the scene began to decline, with many bands breaking up, evolving, or losing visibility following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994.
The movement was not just a musical style but a cultural shift that briefly made Seattle the epicenter of American rock music.
There isn't one single "first" grunge song, but Green River's "Swallow My Pride" (1985) or their entire Come on Down EP are often cited as pivotal early releases defining the sound. The term "grunge" itself emerged later to describe this Seattle scene's sludgy, punk-infused rock.
Several factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", struggled with an addiction to heroin before his suicide in 1994. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself. Grunge was also an influence on later genres, such as post-grunge.
The word "grunge" is American slang for "someone or something that is repugnant" and also for "dirt". The word was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in a Sub Pop mail order catalog from 1988, when Bruce Pavitt described Green River's Dry as a Bone EP as "Gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps. Ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation". Although the word "grunge" has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the grinding, sludgy sound of Seattle. It is expensive and time-consuming to get a recording to sound clean, so for those northwestern bands just starting out it was cheaper for them to leave the sound dirty and just turn up their volume. This dirty sound, due to low budgets, unfamiliarity with recording, and a lack of professionalism may be the origin of the term "grunge".
The "Seattle scene" refers to a regional Pacific Northwest alternative music movement that was linked to the University of Washington in Seattle, and the Evergreen State College in Olympia. Evergreen is a progressive college which does not use a conventional grading system and has its own radio station, KAOS. The music of these bands, many of which had recorded with Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, became labeled as "grunge". Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain, in one of his final interviews, credited Jonathan Poneman, cofounder of Sub Pop, with coining the term "grunge" to describe the music.
look up the link and find the tracklisting here
100 Greatest Grunge - Butterboy and K
