Grunge Music Evolution

In 1991 music changed forever. Three misfits from Aberdeen, Washington unleashed smells like teen spirit onto the world and alternative rock became the mainstream. Grunge wasn't so much a genre as a close-knit selection of bands that came from the same approximate area, its epicentre being Seattle. The sabbath-y doom of Soundgarden sounded little like the garage rock bluster of Mudhoney, but at the same time they were all tied together with sense of existential angst, unhurried tempos, and dirty, sludgy, grungy audio qualities. But what was this scene? What were the essential steps along the way, the key tracks and influences? And how did it get to the point where Nirvana could have thrown Guns N' Roses as America's biggest rock band? This is the journey to Nevermind, how grunge became grunge. This video is sponsored by Surfshark. I don't know about you, but I'm constantly on the move. and so unfrequently using public and potentially unsafe Wi-Fi hotspots. Without a VPN you're putting your personal information in danger. Surfshark encrypts your internet data, preventing others from sniffing out your information when you're using a public Wi-Fi network in hotels, cafes or airports. Surfshark enables users worldwide to protect their privacy and security. Whether on your laptop, phone or TV, Surfshark is easy to install. and able to be run on an unlimited number of devices at the same time from one subscription. So that's safe, unrestricted surfing wherever you go. You can get Surfshark VPN at the link on screen and if you enter the promo code TRASHTHEORY you'll receive 83% off and 3 extra months for free. Not only that but with a 30-day money-back guarantee you have plenty of time to try out Surfshark risk-free. So surf safely and in style with Surfshark. And now back to the video. While grunge as a movement was centralized in Washington state from the mid-80s onwards, there were definite calling points and shared influences from outside their era and area. Garage rock from the 1960s inspired many with its lo-fi sounds, simplistic chord-led structures and wild uncontrolled distortion. Detroit's The Stooges, in particular on Funhaus, being the zenith of that sound. Their frontman Iggy Pop's disregard for his own safety while stage diving would transfer over to the haphazard leaps of Eddie Vedder, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. In Birmingham, England, Black Sabbath was creating down-tuned yet heavily-grooved metal on 1971's Master of Reality album. It's stone density impacting the simile-doomy sonics of Soundgarden and Allison Jaynes. Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Hey Hey My My Into the Black from 1979 has also been classed proto-grunge, its sprawling feedback amongst Americana, taken to heart by Pearl Jam and especially Dinosaur Jr. Kurt Cobain would also quote the world version of the track in his suicide note. For the most part grunge was a combination of metal's heft and punk's attitude, but by the early 80s there were already hardcore punk bands that had started making their sounds slower, sludgier and heavier. All in all more grunge. There was the dark, ominous D7 by Wipers, famously covered by Nirvana, the gurgling bass of monolithically heavy, eight-minute party starter Sex Bomb, by Flippa and even Black Flag, much to their fans' disapproval, were eking out a metallic rhythmic ooze on their 1984 My War album. It was definitely a line in the sand. It was sort of an intelligence test. If you could handle the changes of Black Flag, you weren't an idiot. And if you thought they were just selling out, then you were an idiot. But by 1984, Seattle was starting to get itself the beginnings of its own scene. In punk terms, Seattle was isolated from the rest of the US. While bands like Black Flag, DOA and the Minutemen had blazed the trail across the mainland US, forging a punk-friendly touring circuit which other punk bands would follow, often the Pacific Northwest, a land of lumberjacks, rain and not much else, was left off the schedule. A lot of touring bands totally skip Portland and Seattle, because it was 14 hours north of San Francisco. and 32 west of Minneapolis, people in the northwest had to make up their own entertainment. As such, in their remote corner, Seattleites were brewing their own particular brand of begrimed punk rock. Alongside the various shades of punk from Fastbacks, The Accused, and Mr. F and the Calculations was the proto-grunge of Bam Bam. Formed in 1983 and led by the Firebrand singer Tina Bell, Bam Bam were the original Seattle band to dwell within that sludgy punk sound. Although seemingly erased from the grunge story, the 2019 recovery of their early recordings on streaming reaffirmed their place as pioneers, their 1984 home demos showing some suitably lo-fi punk metal with Bell's ragged, full-throated vocals being more than equal to her better-known peers and descendants. Despite being the first group to record at Grunge Mainstay reciprocal recordings, for whatever reason, Bam Bam were not included on Grunge's early defining document, Deep Six. Named after Washington State's Nosorio Serokiller, Green River created a searing brew separate from what was considered cool in the hardcore punk movement. Said producer Jack Andino, Green River were borrowing from 70s hard rock, but they also had this Stooges kind of chaos overlaid over it. In retrospect, that is the music people started calling grunge. In October 1985 they released the EP Come On Down on Homestead Records, now considered one of the first grunge releases. Their second EP, 1987's Dry as a Bone, would be described by Bruce Pavitt on a Sub Pop press release as ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation. The earliest time the word grunge would be used in conjunction with the Seattle scene. Six months after Come on Down, their first grunge compilation, Deep Six, was released. While the music was scattershot in quality, the musicians present would prove to be hugely important to the future of the grunge movement. As well as Green River it would feature The Melvins, Malfunction, Skin Yard and Soundgarden in their first recorded outputs. Also featured were the You Men, who had been part of the Seattle scene since 1981, creating an eccentric, dirty version of punk rock, and they would be the first of the bands to tour outside Washington. Malfunction would be better known for being led by future Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, themselves a grimy reworking of hair metal. Skinyard's guitarist Jack Andino would find his calling as a producer, working on the lights of Superfuzz Big Muff, Bleach and Spanking Machine. Soundgarden would later become a very big deal indeed. And the Melvins? Well let's talk about the Melvins. Hailing from Monteceno, Washington, an hour and a half from Seattle, came the Melvins. Led by the sideshow bob-haired Buzz Osborne, they started out as the fastest punk band in Washington. But then around 1985, as to be purposely awkward and freak everyone out, they pulled the brakes, creating these monolithically heavy, sludgy tunes. The idea to slow down came pretty much from Black Flag's My War Side 2. Side 2 is all these slow songs which their fanbase didn't like because they wanted faster stuff to mosh to. Debut album Gluey Porch Treatments was released in 1916. 1987, which Dave Grohl once stated was heavier and better than Black Sabbath. Though hugely influential on their own terms, their connection to future scenebreakers Nirvana is massive. Not only did Chris Novoselic audition to be in the group, and Cobain supposedly roadied for them, but Melvyn's drummer Dale Crover played on several tracks on Bleach, including the particularly Melvyn's-like Floyd the Barber. At the start of the 1980s, alternative rock, at the time mostly known as college rock, occupied the ground between the mainstream and underground. It was never meant to sell a large quantity of records, but by 1984 the ill-defined genre was starting to get mainstream attention, with R.E.M.'s Reckoning, Husker Du's Zen Arcade and The Replacements' Let It Be, all making the top ten of Village Voices, Jop and Paz list. All three would leave their mark on grunge, whether it be R.E.M.'s existential angst, Husker Du's white noise distortion and psychedelia, or the replacement sarcastic anthems for the dissatisfied. Soon major labels would sign these bands and similar in an attempt to break alternative into the mainstream. They would succeed in October 1990 when Jane's Addiction's Ritual de la Habitual, a Warner Bros. release, hit number 19 on the Billboard 200. Major labels' pursuit for their own Jane's Addiction would eventually lead them to Washington State. Sonically though, Alternative Rock was delving into deep, dirty and distorted sounds, becoming a parallel influence on the burgeoning Seattle scene. New York's Sonic Youth would fuel the experimental feedback-focused side of grunge, Mudhoney covering Halloween, and Kim Gordon co-producing Holes Pretty on the Inside. Dinosaur Jr's squalling distortion and Jay Masters' disaffected drawl would produce the pre-teen spirit slacker anthem in Freak Scene. The Pixies were blending roaring vocals, quiet loud dynamics and sliced up eyeballs imagery. Having not only an impact on one weird kid from Aberdeen, Washington, but embedding themselves with the UK music press, an essential component in making grunge go international. Formed in Ellensburg in 1985, Screaming Trees were awkward even by grunge standards. For lead songwriter Gary Lee Connor, The ambition was for the group to be a psychedelic revival band. If you look at the artwork for 1986's Full Lamp debut album, Clairvoyance, I've got a Beatles-y haircut and psychedelic clothes. That's what I wanted to do, and I was writing the songs, but nobody else was really into that. So that tempered it enough that we became something more. Alongside Conner's psychedelia, The Tree's sound blended scuzzy 60s garage rock with added husky-doo disharmony. the bruised whisper of vocalist Mark Lanigan tying it all together. Clairvoyance sold a shockingly impressive 2,500 copies, catching the attention of Black Flag's Greg Ginn, who signed the Trees to his SST Records label, home of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and Husker Duke. After releasing three albums for the label over the next three years, the Trees would sign to major label Epic. in 1990 for the release of Uncle Anesthesia, but drugs, infighting and misadventure would be the band's downfall. We didn't have a damn thing in common, except insanity, so we fought a lot. Even though they would have some alternative radio hits with Nearly Lost You and Bed of Roses, they were overlooked as grunge broke into the mainstream. Never making it anywhere near as big as the bands they had preceded. After spearheading grunge, Green River would break up in autumn 1987. There was a tension in the band for a while, and then it just got to be too great. It was punk rock versus major label deal. It was obvious things weren't happening the way certain people wanted them to happen, so we broke up. While the commercial metal-inclined guitarists would join up with Malfunction singer Andrew Wood to form Mother Love Bone, their Stooges-obsessed singer Mark Arm would reunite with original Green River guitarist Steve Turner. To establish Mudhoney, Touch Me I'm Sick was the group's first single, a raw, primitive garage rock thrash that featured arm, yowling, incomprehensible come-ons. If you look to the origins of that riff, it's actually like the Yardbirds, happenings 10 years time ago. and or the fast part of The Stooges' I'm Sick of You. As far as the lyrics go, I think I just came up with this idea, touch me I'm sick, and thought it was funny and ran with it. Starting with a belch, it was dirty, scuzzy, but due to it becoming a national college radio hit, and a regular feature on BBC Radio's John Peel Show. Outside the Pacific Northwest, Touch Me I'm Sick was most people's first taste of grunge. The single would be released on Sub Pop, a Seattle-based independent label owned by Bruce Pavitz and John Parnamon. During the late 80s-early 90s it became the unofficial label for grunge, with Soundgarden, L7, Sebadeau, Seaweed, Tad and Nirvana all appearing on the label. Soundgarden had been a staple of the Seattle scene since 1984. When we started the band we were all listening to hardcore and new wave. Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Husky Doo, Joy Division, Wire, Killing Joke, Bauhaus. At that time in Seattle the Melvins were slowing down their music. Then all the bands that had been playing fast started to slow down. Everyone was sick of trying to be minor threat. As Soundgarden slowed down they added elements of Zeppelin and Sabbath to their sound. Vocalist Chris Cornell's anguished wails more than equal to those of Robert Plant. Kim Thayil's dirty, down-tuned guitar work a worthy successor to Tony Iommi. Through recommendation from the guys from Screaming Trees, Soundgarden was signed to SST in time for their debut album Ultra Mega OK in 1988. The hard-driving Flower would be released as a single in 1989. With its music video making waves on MTV's 120 Minutes, the first chance to see grunge on music television. If there was ever going to be a breakthrough band for the Seattle scene, everyone's bets were on Soundgarden. Due to this, they were one of the first grunge bands to get called up to the majors, signing with A&M in 1989 with their second album, Louder Than Love, coming out in September the same year. Though many critics saw them as just another metal band, Soundgarden didn't dwell within the genre's mainstream excesses. Big Done Sex was a sarcastic piss-take of the then-dominant, sleaze-obsessed hair metal scene. The album would be a huge commercial leap forward for the burgeoning scene, charting at number 108 on the Billboard album chart. Outside of Grund, the album had its impact. Act, having fans in The Cult and Axl Rose, and it even inspired Metallica's Kurt Hammett to write Enter Sandman. Soundgarden had just put out Louder Than Love. I was trying to capture their attitude towards big, heavy riffs. By the time Soundgarden would release their follow-up Bad Motorfinger in 1991, a couple of other bands had swiped their spotlight. Latecomers to the grunge party were Nirvana, formed in 1987. As much as Cobain would big up the impact of Black Flag, Black Sabbath and a hundred other oh-so-cool alternative groups, Nirvana's first single in 1988 was a cover of Love Buzz by Dutch bubblegum group Shocking Blue. Can't you hear my love buzz? Famous internationally for their smash Venus, their willingness to embrace pop, even if it was pop in an alternative sense, is what differentiated Nirvana from the scene. That said, their debut, the Indino-produced Bleach, released in 1989, would be heavily indebted to the Melvins and their distorted sludge, while the lyrics and general mood is fogged in a bleak miasma. of unspecified angst. It was like I'm pissed off, don't know what about, let's just scream negative lyrics, and as long as they're not sexist and don't get too embarrassing, it'll be okay. I don't hold any of those lyrics dear to me. But there are links to the band they were going to be, not least the quiet, loud, Beatlesque about a girl. Some promising UK reviews aside, no one was expecting much from Nirvana. The new hotness in Seattle at the time was the current group from the singer of Malfunction. Unlike the members of Green River that became Mudhoney, the three that formed Mother Love Bone were looking to make rock and roll their career. Punk rock was all well and good, but it didn't pay the bills. Formed in late 1988, their modern take on the Dynanism and showmanship of Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, twisted by a punk urgency, wouldn't seem out of place on the Sunset Strip. After some bravada gigs around Seattle, they were quickly signed to Mercury Records. Their March 1989 EP Shine would be the first grunge record released by a major label, edging out Louder Than Love, by six months. Mother Lovebone's focus was always singer Andrew Wood, on stage clearly embodying the role of classic rock star, with the whiteface makeup of Kiss and the flamboyance and feather boas of Queen, completely at odds with his contemporaries in ripped jeans and flannel. Shine's key track was the epic, swirling two-part Chloe dancer Crown of Thorns. Sedwood's fiancée Zana Lafuente, this song is about a relationship ruined by drugs. He wrote it about our near breakup and how I tried to control him and the drugs, hence his allusion to being tied to the ceiling. Unfortunately, Mother Lovebone's legacy is shadowed by Wood's issues with heroin, a drug that was a chronic, looming presence in the Seattle scene. Days before the band's debut full-length, Apple was supposed to be released. On the 19th of March 1990, Wood would die of an overdose. He was only 24. Not wanting to continue without their frontman, that was the end of Mother Lovebone, forever consigned to history as the band that could have broken grunge into the mainstream. The outpouring of grief from the Seattle scene for Words Passing was immense. A tribute album under the name of Temple of the Dog was released in April 1991, its title taken from lyrics at the start of Man of Golden Words. A Seattle supergroup, the album features members of Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden and future members of Pearl Jam. Alison Chain's Wood was also written in memory of Wood, said guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Andy was a hilarious guy, full of life and it was really sad to lose him. But I always hate people who judge the decisions others make, so it was also directed towards people who pass judgements. While Mother Lovebones skated the line between Seattle and the Sunset Strip, the original version of Alice in Chains were a straight-up hair metal group, complete with Guns N' Roses-style n- . It wasn't until vocalist Layne Staley hooked up with guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell that the band evolved into a more grunge-embracing direction. On their 1990 debut Facelift, Staley's deep bluesy vocals and the band's sludgier, more narcotic sound fit the grunger sound. pathetic. But in the days before Nevermind, record labels didn't know what to do with the band. Said Facelift producer Dave Jordan, The feedback we were getting was, Lane Staley's voice is wrong, because this is at the time of Axl Rose and Dio and all these high voices. I've always liked a little bluesy voice myself. To say Lane's voice is wrong, or to say anybody's voice is wrong, is a pretty ridiculous thing to say. But that's the feedback I got. But in early 1991 MTV, sensing that hair metal's glamour was on its last legs, found themselves looking at two artists, each representing a different path. Blue Murder with two singles or Alice in Chains with Man in the Box. and perhaps more importantly, its sturdy, rust-tinted video. After MTV chose to put Man in a Box into daily rotation, Facelift's weekly sales increased significantly. It would peak at number 42 the first week of July 1991, just before Alice in Chains joined three of the big four thrash metal bands, Slayer, Megadeth and Amphrax, on the Clash of the Titans tour. Despite the album's rising sales, audiences were not yet ready. Reflected guitarist Scott Ian of Amphrax would stand on stage every night and just watch them get pelted with anything and everything those crowds could throw at them, and Lane would be jumping into the audience and punching people, but they never once walked off the stage. Audiences may have been hostile, but when the tour ended and grunge's time came, Alice in Chains were in a perfect position to ride the Seattle wave. Outside Washington there were grungy goings-on elsewhere. Minneapolis' Babes in Toyland were vomiting up a murky, birthday-party-indebted stew. Vocalist Cat B. Yellen yelling bloody murder on tracks like Swamp Pussy. Still there was the Seattle connection. Their debut album Spanking Machine, released in April 1990, would be produced by Jack and Dino at Reciprocal Recordings. The group would find fans in Sonic Youth who would take them along for their European tour, in support of Goop. Though B. Ellen is adamant that this wasn't the case, LA-based Courtney Love was supposedly part of the original line-up for Babes in Toyland. In September 1991, Love's new group, Hole, would release their first album, The Caustic Pretty on the Inside. Inspired by Big Black and Sonic Youth, Hole were a noise rock group, but Love's frustrated lyrics reflecting on taboo subjects would endear her to grunge scene-sters. Debut single The Sneakingly Popped Teenage Whore would even top the UK independent chart, no doubt helped by John Peel's championing of the band. Then in Chicago were The Smashing Pumpkins, They were an unrepeatable mix of alt-metal, shoegaze and Cheap Trick-style power pop. Due to happening at the same time and being equally angst-filled as the Seattle bands, Billy Corgan's quartet would often get tagged as grunge. The association was further compounded when their 1990 single Tristessa was released via sub-pop. Initially their 1991 debut album Gish would top out at number 195 on the Billboard chart. But with Alternative becoming big business in 1992, it would end up going platinum, pre-empting the world-conquering Siamese dream and melancholy of infinite sadness. Having failed to reach mainstream glory in Green River and Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard tried again. forming a band that would finally boost them into the big leagues, Mookie Blaylock. Eventually they realised that naming themselves after the point guard for the New Jersey Nets was not going to inspire rock and roll infamy. So after a brief debate they switched to the slightly more odd Pearl Jam. Frontman Eddie Vedder was the abrasive, volatile edge that the classic rock influenced guitarists needed to truly fit in with their contemporaries. Formerly a San Diego gas attendant, Vedder had gone his hands on an instrumental. free song demo for a mutual friend, and by the end of the weekend had written the lyrics for a trilogy of raw-hearted songs based around his own troubled upbringing. Footsteps, Once and Alive. The latter was to grunge as Freebird was to southern rock, an epic multi-soloed monster of a track. Inspired in part by Kisses' Ace Frehley, I thought about it like, I'm going to approach this like Ace did on She. And I remember the chord pattern that Stone wrote lent it to that kind of a descending pattern, so I kind of went with it, and then I improvised from there. After the breakthrough of Nirvana, Alive, Evenflo and Jeremy would all become massive hits on modern rock radio. Its parent album, Ten, named after Mookie Blaylock's player number, would gradually work its way to selling 13 million copies in the US alone, getting to number two on the Billboard 200 on four separate occasions in the summer-autumn of 1992, always held off the top spot by the achy-breaky heart guy. Just don't think you understand In Cameron Crowe's Seattle-set rom-com Singles, Matt Dillon's character, a rough approximation of Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, bemoans that Generation X has not yet produced an era-defining anthem. Where is the misty mountain hop? Where is the smoke on the water? Where is the Iron Man of today? Shot in April 1991, At that point you could argue for Touch Me I'm Sick or Freak Scene, but by the films released in 1992, we had the song that would indisputably define grunge forevermore. Since Bleach, Nirvana had put out a couple of singles, toured Europe twice and replaced Chad Channing with the drummer from Scream. They had also finangled with the help of Sonic Youth, a deal with major label Geffen Records, and hooked themselves up with Butch Vig. who'd earlier in 1991 produced the Smashing Pumpkins LP. The result was Nevermind, whereas Mother Lovebone and Pearl Jam had been a classic rock group in grunge clothing. Nevermind was Nirvana in the reverse, a gnarled punk band with blockbuster Motley Crue production and serious pop hooks. Named after a brand of deodorant, Lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, with its riotous pep rally music video, was the revolution. A soaring, unlikely mix of Pixies, Boston and The Kingsmen. Said Dave Grohl, I remember writing Teen Spirit in a rehearsal space, and I liked the riff that Kurt came up with because it's percussive. Those muted, stabbing strums in between the chords really lent to the pattern of the drum riff. A combination of college radio play and the video getting heavy rotation on MTV made it so that by the beginning of 1992 Nevermind had knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous from the top of the Billboard 200 and would go on to sell double the amount of Guns N' Roses combined Use Your Illusion albums. As an added insult, when Axl Rose asked Nirvana to support them on on their US tour. Nirvana said no. Though it would take a slow burn of three months to hit their peak, the success of Nirvana would raise up the whole Seattle scene, with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, L7 and Stone Temple Pilots getting plastered all over MTV and collecting platinum records. But instantly Nirvana's influence was felt. After hearing Nevermind for the first time, Courtney Love would write Violet in an attempt to replicate that alternative pop template. Major labels would go on a spending spree to try and get the next Nirvana, with obscure, abrasive and wholly uncommercial bands like The Melvins, Butthole Surfers, Jesus Lizard, Boredoms, Jawbox and Drive Like Jehu all getting deals. At the same time, LA wasn't cool, Seattle had taken over. Though the influence of grungy sound was apparent in its direct aftermath, the differing quality of bands like Bush, Sunnydale Real Estate, Ash, Everclear Candlebox, Silverchair, Live, Matchbox 20, Stained, Creed and Nickelback. The main effect was that weirder, quirkier and more distorted alternative music could be more than an underground concern. Radiohead, Beck, Weezer, Green Day, Blink-182, No Doubt, Garbage, The Strokes, White Stripes, My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Biffy Clyro wouldn't be anywhere near as big if it wasn't for Grunge's breakthrough. Whatever way you want to look at it, Black Flag's My War Side 2 has a lot to answer for. Thanks for watching. What grunge predecessors did I inevitably miss out? Comment down below and like, subscribe and hit that bell. The playlist of all these tracks is now up on Patreon. Thanks to all that support me. Without you videos like this are not possible. And I will see you in two weeks for a 90s new British Canon.

What were the essential steps along the way, the key tracks and influences? And how did it get to the point where Nirvana could have thrown Guns N' Roses as America's biggest rock band? This is the journey to Nevermind, how grunge became grunge.

This video is sponsored by Surfshark. I don't know about you, but I'm constantly on the move. and so unfrequently using public and potentially unsafe Wi-Fi hotspots. Without a VPN you're putting your personal information in danger.

Surfshark encrypts your internet data, preventing others from sniffing out your information when you're using a public Wi-Fi network in hotels, cafes or airports. Surfshark enables users worldwide to protect their privacy and security. Whether on your laptop, phone or TV, Surfshark is easy to install.

and able to be run on an unlimited number of devices at the same time from one subscription. So that's safe, unrestricted surfing wherever you go. You can get Surfshark VPN at the link on screen and if you enter the promo code TRASHTHEORY you'll receive 83% off and 3 extra months for free.

Not only that but with a 30-day money-back guarantee you have plenty of time to try out Surfshark risk-free. So surf safely and in style with Surfshark. And now back to the video. While grunge as a movement was centralized in Washington state from the mid-80s onwards, there were definite calling points and shared influences from outside their era and area.

Garage rock from the 1960s inspired many with its lo-fi sounds, simplistic chord-led structures and wild uncontrolled distortion. Detroit's The Stooges, in particular on Funhaus, being the zenith of that sound. Their frontman Iggy Pop's disregard for his own safety while stage diving would transfer over to the haphazard leaps of Eddie Vedder, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain.

In Birmingham, England, Black Sabbath was creating down-tuned yet heavily-grooved metal on 1971's Master of Reality album. It's stone density impacting the simile-doomy sonics of Soundgarden and Allison Jaynes. Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Hey Hey My My Into the Black from 1979 has also been classed proto-grunge, its sprawling feedback amongst Americana, taken to heart by Pearl Jam and especially Dinosaur Jr.

Kurt Cobain would also quote the world version of the track in his suicide note. For the most part grunge was a combination of metal's heft and punk's attitude, but by the early 80s there were already hardcore punk bands that had started making their sounds slower, sludgier and heavier. All in all more grunge. There was the dark, ominous D7 by Wipers, famously covered by Nirvana, the gurgling bass of monolithically heavy, eight-minute party starter Sex Bomb, by Flippa and even Black Flag, much to their fans' disapproval, were eking out a metallic rhythmic ooze on their 1984 My War album.

It was definitely a line in the sand. It was sort of an intelligence test. If you could handle the changes of Black Flag, you weren't an idiot.

And if you thought they were just selling out, then you were an idiot. But by 1984, Seattle was starting to get itself the beginnings of its own scene. In punk terms, Seattle was isolated from the rest of the US. While bands like Black Flag, DOA and the Minutemen had blazed the trail across the mainland US, forging a punk-friendly touring circuit which other punk bands would follow, often the Pacific Northwest, a land of lumberjacks, rain and not much else, was left off the schedule.

A lot of touring bands totally skip Portland and Seattle, because it was 14 hours north of San Francisco. and 32 west of Minneapolis, people in the northwest had to make up their own entertainment. As such, in their remote corner, Seattleites were brewing their own particular brand of begrimed punk rock.

Alongside the various shades of punk from Fastbacks, The Accused, and Mr. F and the Calculations was the proto-grunge of Bam Bam. Formed in 1983 and led by the Firebrand singer Tina Bell, Bam Bam were the original Seattle band to dwell within that sludgy punk sound. Although seemingly erased from the grunge story, the 2019 recovery of their early recordings on streaming reaffirmed their place as pioneers, their 1984 home demos showing some suitably lo-fi punk metal with Bell's ragged, full-throated vocals being more than equal to her better-known peers and descendants.

Despite being the first group to record at Grunge Mainstay reciprocal recordings, for whatever reason, Bam Bam were not included on Grunge's early defining document, Deep Six. Named after Washington State's Nosorio Serokiller, Green River created a searing brew separate from what was considered cool in the hardcore punk movement. Said producer Jack Andino, Green River were borrowing from 70s hard rock, but they also had this Stooges kind of chaos overlaid over it.

In retrospect, that is the music people started calling grunge. In October 1985 they released the EP Come On Down on Homestead Records, now considered one of the first grunge releases. Their second EP, 1987's Dry as a Bone, would be described by Bruce Pavitt on a Sub Pop press release as ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation.

The earliest time the word grunge would be used in conjunction with the Seattle scene. Six months after Come on Down, their first grunge compilation, Deep Six, was released. While the music was scattershot in quality, the musicians present would prove to be hugely important to the future of the grunge movement. As well as Green River it would feature The Melvins, Malfunction, Skin Yard and Soundgarden in their first recorded outputs.

Also featured were the You Men, who had been part of the Seattle scene since 1981, creating an eccentric, dirty version of punk rock, and they would be the first of the bands to tour outside Washington. Malfunction would be better known for being led by future Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, themselves a grimy reworking of hair metal. Skinyard's guitarist Jack Andino would find his calling as a producer, working on the lights of Superfuzz Big Muff, Bleach and Spanking Machine.

Soundgarden would later become a very big deal indeed. And the Melvins? Well let's talk about the Melvins. Hailing from Monteceno, Washington, an hour and a half from Seattle, came the Melvins. Led by the sideshow bob-haired Buzz Osborne, they started out as the fastest punk band in Washington.

But then around 1985, as to be purposely awkward and freak everyone out, they pulled the brakes, creating these monolithically heavy, sludgy tunes. The idea to slow down came pretty much from Black Flag's My War Side 2. Side 2 is all these slow songs which their fanbase didn't like because they wanted faster stuff to mosh to. Debut album Gluey Porch Treatments was released in 1916. 1987, which Dave Grohl once stated was heavier and better than Black Sabbath. Though hugely influential on their own terms, their connection to future scenebreakers Nirvana is massive.

Not only did Chris Novoselic audition to be in the group, and Cobain supposedly roadied for them, but Melvyn's drummer Dale Crover played on several tracks on Bleach, including the particularly Melvyn's-like Floyd the Barber. At the start of the 1980s, alternative rock, at the time mostly known as college rock, occupied the ground between the mainstream and underground. It was never meant to sell a large quantity of records, but by 1984 the ill-defined genre was starting to get mainstream attention, with R.E.M.'s Reckoning, Husker Du's Zen Arcade and The Replacements' Let It Be, all making the top ten of Village Voices, Jop and Paz list. All three would leave their mark on grunge, whether it be R.E.M.'s existential angst, Husker Du's white noise distortion and psychedelia, or the replacement sarcastic anthems for the dissatisfied. Soon major labels would sign these bands and similar in an attempt to break alternative into the mainstream.

They would succeed in October 1990 when Jane's Addiction's Ritual de la Habitual, a Warner Bros. release, hit number 19 on the Billboard 200. Major labels' pursuit for their own Jane's Addiction would eventually lead them to Washington State. Sonically though, Alternative Rock was delving into deep, dirty and distorted sounds, becoming a parallel influence on the burgeoning Seattle scene. New York's Sonic Youth would fuel the experimental feedback-focused side of grunge, Mudhoney covering Halloween, and Kim Gordon co-producing Holes Pretty on the Inside.

Dinosaur Jr's squalling distortion and Jay Masters' disaffected drawl would produce the pre-teen spirit slacker anthem in Freak Scene. The Pixies were blending roaring vocals, quiet loud dynamics and sliced up eyeballs imagery. Having not only an impact on one weird kid from Aberdeen, Washington, but embedding themselves with the UK music press, an essential component in making grunge go international.

Formed in Ellensburg in 1985, Screaming Trees were awkward even by grunge standards. For lead songwriter Gary Lee Connor, The ambition was for the group to be a psychedelic revival band. If you look at the artwork for 1986's Full Lamp debut album, Clairvoyance, I've got a Beatles-y haircut and psychedelic clothes.

That's what I wanted to do, and I was writing the songs, but nobody else was really into that. So that tempered it enough that we became something more. Alongside Conner's psychedelia, The Tree's sound blended scuzzy 60s garage rock with added husky-doo disharmony.

the bruised whisper of vocalist Mark Lanigan tying it all together. Clairvoyance sold a shockingly impressive 2,500 copies, catching the attention of Black Flag's Greg Ginn, who signed the Trees to his SST Records label, home of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and Husker Duke. After releasing three albums for the label over the next three years, the Trees would sign to major label Epic.

in 1990 for the release of Uncle Anesthesia, but drugs, infighting and misadventure would be the band's downfall. We didn't have a damn thing in common, except insanity, so we fought a lot. Even though they would have some alternative radio hits with Nearly Lost You and Bed of Roses, they were overlooked as grunge broke into the mainstream.

Never making it anywhere near as big as the bands they had preceded. After spearheading grunge, Green River would break up in autumn 1987. There was a tension in the band for a while, and then it just got to be too great. It was punk rock versus major label deal.

It was obvious things weren't happening the way certain people wanted them to happen, so we broke up. While the commercial metal-inclined guitarists would join up with Malfunction singer Andrew Wood to form Mother Love Bone, their Stooges-obsessed singer Mark Arm would reunite with original Green River guitarist Steve Turner. To establish Mudhoney, Touch Me I'm Sick was the group's first single, a raw, primitive garage rock thrash that featured arm, yowling, incomprehensible come-ons.

If you look to the origins of that riff, it's actually like the Yardbirds, happenings 10 years time ago. and or the fast part of The Stooges' I'm Sick of You. As far as the lyrics go, I think I just came up with this idea, touch me I'm sick, and thought it was funny and ran with it. Starting with a belch, it was dirty, scuzzy, but due to it becoming a national college radio hit, and a regular feature on BBC Radio's John Peel Show.

Outside the Pacific Northwest, Touch Me I'm Sick was most people's first taste of grunge. The single would be released on Sub Pop, a Seattle-based independent label owned by Bruce Pavitz and John Parnamon. During the late 80s-early 90s it became the unofficial label for grunge, with Soundgarden, L7, Sebadeau, Seaweed, Tad and Nirvana all appearing on the label.

Soundgarden had been a staple of the Seattle scene since 1984. When we started the band we were all listening to hardcore and new wave. Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Husky Doo, Joy Division, Wire, Killing Joke, Bauhaus. At that time in Seattle the Melvins were slowing down their music. Then all the bands that had been playing fast started to slow down. Everyone was sick of trying to be minor threat.

As Soundgarden slowed down they added elements of Zeppelin and Sabbath to their sound. Vocalist Chris Cornell's anguished wails more than equal to those of Robert Plant. Kim Thayil's dirty, down-tuned guitar work a worthy successor to Tony Iommi. Through recommendation from the guys from Screaming Trees, Soundgarden was signed to SST in time for their debut album Ultra Mega OK in 1988. The hard-driving Flower would be released as a single in 1989. With its music video making waves on MTV's 120 Minutes, the first chance to see grunge on music television. If there was ever going to be a breakthrough band for the Seattle scene, everyone's bets were on Soundgarden.

Due to this, they were one of the first grunge bands to get called up to the majors, signing with A&M in 1989 with their second album, Louder Than Love, coming out in September the same year. Though many critics saw them as just another metal band, Soundgarden didn't dwell within the genre's mainstream excesses. Big Done Sex was a sarcastic piss-take of the then-dominant, sleaze-obsessed hair metal scene.

The album would be a huge commercial leap forward for the burgeoning scene, charting at number 108 on the Billboard album chart. Outside of Grund, the album had its impact. Act, having fans in The Cult and Axl Rose, and it even inspired Metallica's Kurt Hammett to write Enter Sandman. Soundgarden had just put out Louder Than Love. I was trying to capture their attitude towards big, heavy riffs.

By the time Soundgarden would release their follow-up Bad Motorfinger in 1991, a couple of other bands had swiped their spotlight. Latecomers to the grunge party were Nirvana, formed in 1987. As much as Cobain would big up the impact of Black Flag, Black Sabbath and a hundred other oh-so-cool alternative groups, Nirvana's first single in 1988 was a cover of Love Buzz by Dutch bubblegum group Shocking Blue. Can't you hear my love buzz? Famous internationally for their smash Venus, their willingness to embrace pop, even if it was pop in an alternative sense, is what differentiated Nirvana from the scene. That said, their debut, the Indino-produced Bleach, released in 1989, would be heavily indebted to the Melvins and their distorted sludge, while the lyrics and general mood is fogged in a bleak miasma.

of unspecified angst. It was like I'm pissed off, don't know what about, let's just scream negative lyrics, and as long as they're not sexist and don't get too embarrassing, it'll be okay. I don't hold any of those lyrics dear to me. But there are links to the band they were going to be, not least the quiet, loud, Beatlesque about a girl. Some promising UK reviews aside, no one was expecting much from Nirvana.

The new hotness in Seattle at the time was the current group from the singer of Malfunction. Unlike the members of Green River that became Mudhoney, the three that formed Mother Love Bone were looking to make rock and roll their career. Punk rock was all well and good, but it didn't pay the bills.

Formed in late 1988, their modern take on the Dynanism and showmanship of Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, twisted by a punk urgency, wouldn't seem out of place on the Sunset Strip. After some bravada gigs around Seattle, they were quickly signed to Mercury Records. Their March 1989 EP Shine would be the first grunge record released by a major label, edging out Louder Than Love, by six months.

Mother Lovebone's focus was always singer Andrew Wood, on stage clearly embodying the role of classic rock star, with the whiteface makeup of Kiss and the flamboyance and feather boas of Queen, completely at odds with his contemporaries in ripped jeans and flannel. Shine's key track was the epic, swirling two-part Chloe dancer Crown of Thorns. Sedwood's fiancée Zana Lafuente, this song is about a relationship ruined by drugs. He wrote it about our near breakup and how I tried to control him and the drugs, hence his allusion to being tied to the ceiling. Unfortunately, Mother Lovebone's legacy is shadowed by Wood's issues with heroin, a drug that was a chronic, looming presence in the Seattle scene.

Days before the band's debut full-length, Apple was supposed to be released. On the 19th of March 1990, Wood would die of an overdose. He was only 24. Not wanting to continue without their frontman, that was the end of Mother Lovebone, forever consigned to history as the band that could have broken grunge into the mainstream. The outpouring of grief from the Seattle scene for Words Passing was immense. A tribute album under the name of Temple of the Dog was released in April 1991, its title taken from lyrics at the start of Man of Golden Words.

A Seattle supergroup, the album features members of Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden and future members of Pearl Jam. Alison Chain's Wood was also written in memory of Wood, said guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Andy was a hilarious guy, full of life and it was really sad to lose him.

But I always hate people who judge the decisions others make, so it was also directed towards people who pass judgements. While Mother Lovebones skated the line between Seattle and the Sunset Strip, the original version of Alice in Chains were a straight-up hair metal group, complete with Guns N' Roses-style n- . It wasn't until vocalist Layne Staley hooked up with guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell that the band evolved into a more grunge-embracing direction.

On their 1990 debut Facelift, Staley's deep bluesy vocals and the band's sludgier, more narcotic sound fit the grunger sound. pathetic. But in the days before Nevermind, record labels didn't know what to do with the band.

Said Facelift producer Dave Jordan, The feedback we were getting was, Lane Staley's voice is wrong, because this is at the time of Axl Rose and Dio and all these high voices. I've always liked a little bluesy voice myself. To say Lane's voice is wrong, or to say anybody's voice is wrong, is a pretty ridiculous thing to say. But that's the feedback I got. But in early 1991 MTV, sensing that hair metal's glamour was on its last legs, found themselves looking at two artists, each representing a different path.

Blue Murder with two singles or Alice in Chains with Man in the Box. and perhaps more importantly, its sturdy, rust-tinted video. After MTV chose to put Man in a Box into daily rotation, Facelift's weekly sales increased significantly.

It would peak at number 42 the first week of July 1991, just before Alice in Chains joined three of the big four thrash metal bands, Slayer, Megadeth and Amphrax, on the Clash of the Titans tour. Despite the album's rising sales, audiences were not yet ready. Reflected guitarist Scott Ian of Amphrax would stand on stage every night and just watch them get pelted with anything and everything those crowds could throw at them, and Lane would be jumping into the audience and punching people, but they never once walked off the stage. Audiences may have been hostile, but when the tour ended and grunge's time came, Alice in Chains were in a perfect position to ride the Seattle wave.

Outside Washington there were grungy goings-on elsewhere. Minneapolis' Babes in Toyland were vomiting up a murky, birthday-party-indebted stew. Vocalist Cat B. Yellen yelling bloody murder on tracks like Swamp Pussy. Still there was the Seattle connection. Their debut album Spanking Machine, released in April 1990, would be produced by Jack and Dino at Reciprocal Recordings.

The group would find fans in Sonic Youth who would take them along for their European tour, in support of Goop. Though B. Ellen is adamant that this wasn't the case, LA-based Courtney Love was supposedly part of the original line-up for Babes in Toyland. In September 1991, Love's new group, Hole, would release their first album, The Caustic Pretty on the Inside.

Inspired by Big Black and Sonic Youth, Hole were a noise rock group, but Love's frustrated lyrics reflecting on taboo subjects would endear her to grunge scene-sters. Debut single The Sneakingly Popped Teenage Whore would even top the UK independent chart, no doubt helped by John Peel's championing of the band. Then in Chicago were The Smashing Pumpkins, They were an unrepeatable mix of alt-metal, shoegaze and Cheap Trick-style power pop. Due to happening at the same time and being equally angst-filled as the Seattle bands, Billy Corgan's quartet would often get tagged as grunge. The association was further compounded when their 1990 single Tristessa was released via sub-pop.

Initially their 1991 debut album Gish would top out at number 195 on the Billboard chart. But with Alternative becoming big business in 1992, it would end up going platinum, pre-empting the world-conquering Siamese dream and melancholy of infinite sadness. Having failed to reach mainstream glory in Green River and Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard tried again. forming a band that would finally boost them into the big leagues, Mookie Blaylock.

Eventually they realised that naming themselves after the point guard for the New Jersey Nets was not going to inspire rock and roll infamy. So after a brief debate they switched to the slightly more odd Pearl Jam. Frontman Eddie Vedder was the abrasive, volatile edge that the classic rock influenced guitarists needed to truly fit in with their contemporaries. Formerly a San Diego gas attendant, Vedder had gone his hands on an instrumental. free song demo for a mutual friend, and by the end of the weekend had written the lyrics for a trilogy of raw-hearted songs based around his own troubled upbringing.

Footsteps, Once and Alive. The latter was to grunge as Freebird was to southern rock, an epic multi-soloed monster of a track. Inspired in part by Kisses' Ace Frehley, I thought about it like, I'm going to approach this like Ace did on She. And I remember the chord pattern that Stone wrote lent it to that kind of a descending pattern, so I kind of went with it, and then I improvised from there. After the breakthrough of Nirvana, Alive, Evenflo and Jeremy would all become massive hits on modern rock radio.

Its parent album, Ten, named after Mookie Blaylock's player number, would gradually work its way to selling 13 million copies in the US alone, getting to number two on the Billboard 200 on four separate occasions in the summer-autumn of 1992, always held off the top spot by the achy-breaky heart guy. Just don't think you understand In Cameron Crowe's Seattle-set rom-com Singles, Matt Dillon's character, a rough approximation of Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, bemoans that Generation X has not yet produced an era-defining anthem. Where is the misty mountain hop?

Where is the smoke on the water? Where is the Iron Man of today? Shot in April 1991, At that point you could argue for Touch Me I'm Sick or Freak Scene, but by the films released in 1992, we had the song that would indisputably define grunge forevermore. Since Bleach, Nirvana had put out a couple of singles, toured Europe twice and replaced Chad Channing with the drummer from Scream.

They had also finangled with the help of Sonic Youth, a deal with major label Geffen Records, and hooked themselves up with Butch Vig. who'd earlier in 1991 produced the Smashing Pumpkins LP. The result was Nevermind, whereas Mother Lovebone and Pearl Jam had been a classic rock group in grunge clothing. Nevermind was Nirvana in the reverse, a gnarled punk band with blockbuster Motley Crue production and serious pop hooks.

Named after a brand of deodorant, Lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, with its riotous pep rally music video, was the revolution. A soaring, unlikely mix of Pixies, Boston and The Kingsmen. Said Dave Grohl, I remember writing Teen Spirit in a rehearsal space, and I liked the riff that Kurt came up with because it's percussive. Those muted, stabbing strums in between the chords really lent to the pattern of the drum riff.

A combination of college radio play and the video getting heavy rotation on MTV made it so that by the beginning of 1992 Nevermind had knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous from the top of the Billboard 200 and would go on to sell double the amount of Guns N' Roses combined Use Your Illusion albums. As an added insult, when Axl Rose asked Nirvana to support them on on their US tour. Nirvana said no. Though it would take a slow burn of three months to hit their peak, the success of Nirvana would raise up the whole Seattle scene, with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, L7 and Stone Temple Pilots getting plastered all over MTV and collecting platinum records. But instantly Nirvana's influence was felt.

After hearing Nevermind for the first time, Courtney Love would write Violet in an attempt to replicate that alternative pop template. Major labels would go on a spending spree to try and get the next Nirvana, with obscure, abrasive and wholly uncommercial bands like The Melvins, Butthole Surfers, Jesus Lizard, Boredoms, Jawbox and Drive Like Jehu all getting deals. At the same time, LA wasn't cool, Seattle had taken over.

Though the influence of grungy sound was apparent in its direct aftermath, the differing quality of bands like Bush, Sunnydale Real Estate, Ash, Everclear Candlebox, Silverchair, Live, Matchbox 20, Stained, Creed and Nickelback. The main effect was that weirder, quirkier and more distorted alternative music could be more than an underground concern. Radiohead, Beck, Weezer, Green Day, Blink-182, No Doubt, Garbage, The Strokes, White Stripes, My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Biffy Clyro wouldn't be anywhere near as big if it wasn't for Grunge's breakthrough. Whatever way you want to look at it, Black Flag's My War Side 2 has a lot to answer for.

Thanks for watching. What grunge predecessors did I inevitably miss out? Comment down below and like, subscribe and hit that bell. The playlist of all these tracks is now up on Patreon. Thanks to all that support me.

Without you videos like this are not possible. And I will see you in two weeks for a 90s new British Canon.

Transcript for:Grunge Music Evolution

Transcript for:
Grunge Music Evolution