Grunge was around for about 40 years. This genre of music arose in Seattle in the 1980s, and it is closely related to the sound of punk and heavy metal. Grunge was very similar to punk music at the time in the way they both talked about some of the same problems as: child neglect, social alienation, social/emotional isolation, addiction, psychological trauma or the constant desire to escape with freedom and the ability of an uncontrolled life. Grunge at times can sound like punk music, mostly from the fast-paced drumming in punk music, but with grunge, they coordinated their songs. Unlike punk grunge was mostly on slower tempo beats that are artistically constructed to make you feel deeper emotions as you step into the music, but with punk music, it is mainly made for you to get angry and would hype immoral activities up in the expression of emotion.
With punk artists, their motive would focus mainly on the aspect of anarchy that goes against all authority while supporting the image of a stateless society. In the early stages of punk, there was a release of a song that really set this idea of anarchy and rebellion against people who are in a position of power; this event shows this in the song from 1976, “Anarchy In the UK,” By Sex Pistols, “I am an Antichrist; I am an anarchist. I don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it.” The singer John Lydon talks about how instead he doesn’t obey normal rules that prevent his desires and states that he knows how to get around it for his own acclimation. He also implies that he is a person with small moral value by saying, “I am an Antichrist,” meaning that he goes against Christian beliefs, which lead him to a more desirable life to live because he is constantly feeling unhappy with the way Christianity controls your life and prevents you from doing certain things that are enjoyable.
With Grunge artists, their motive would focus on expressing oneself through playing dark, sometimes sad, sometimes joyful-sounding music. Most artists at the time used a lot of distortion on guitar and experimented with altering the sounds of different instruments to make it sound more out of this world. For example, some Grunge artists used different types of pedals on their guitars to create ambient spacey sounds, like in the song “Rooster” by Alice In Chains, they used a phaser pedal in this song to create a spacy-rolling-vibration, following up with a smooth woman’s singing voice to set an airheaded tone.
Grunge was the genre that really made a change to how musicians should coordinate music by not following normal musical standards and finding their own way of making music. A great example is Kurt Cobain who was apart of the band Nirvana that made music from 1989 to 1994 and becoming really successful after the passing of Kurt Cobain on April 5th 1994, Kurt Cobain was not the most organized musician, but he had such of a keen ear for music and this shows in his song smells like teen spirit as it was very catchy and something that is a great depiction of grunge. Kurt Cobain was never really good at the guitar, but he played stuff that was very emotionally connected to his lyrics, and his style of playing.
Grunge has been around many years and has definitely changed a lot, and for the better. I would say the musical ideas that were shown in the late 80s-90s were just the start of how unique grunge would be in the future. There were many ideas being widespread in grunge at the time; some kept using the same hooks that kept grunge living through this time, as in, very slight but very catchy repeating melodies that seem to take you on a rollercoaster full of emotions. Most of the bands that were grunge developed a style of singing that is called yarling. People who liked to sing in this yarling tone are Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, and Layne Staley. Grunge made it so that most people who are really interested in very emotional, dark songs can escape into a world of past meaningful memories. Grunge, to me, is very deeply centered around emotions and is an escape, and it is full of meaningful advice. This, to me, is the meaning of grunge.
