So, what were you doing 30 years ago?

[Basslice]

I just quit my first gigging band and moved to CA to start my career in Corporate Research. I think I saw Nirvana later that year in a rock club in San Jose. I used to go to the clubs all the time and saw so many acts it is hard to remember the lesser known (at the time) bands. Lots of grunge back then. Personally, I started working on my jazz and upright skill then.

 

[Gaolee]

I was in Seattle and had a new baby to think about. I was very aware of what was going on, but had other priorities. I was not playing at all then, either.

 

[Ostie]

30 years ago I had a wife, a mortgage, two kids and career. Seattle Grunge was so far off my radar. Now I still have a wife, three grandkids, I'm retired, and I have all the basses and amps I need. I'm still not into Seattle Grunge. But Life is good.

 

[Naigewron]

I was 11, still 3-4 years away from discovering rock music and guitar. I'd been playing drums for a few years at this point, but I didn't take it seriously. That came 10-12 years later.

 

[Mike N]

30 years ago I was playing in a band and working at the same job I'm still at.

I also owned the Camaro, El Camino and Blazer that I still have to this day.

 

[eliascalles]

Was working as a jazz pianist in San Francisco Bay Area.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Working in a record shop wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. That summer I saw Nirvana at Reading Festival. Nevermind hadn't been released in the UK yet so they were playing Bleach. Honestly, at the time I preferred Swervedriver but what did I know, eh?

Swervedriver were f#£%1ng superb.

They seemed to come out of nowhere, and didn't sound quite like anyone else around at the time - as if the MC5 had reformed as a Thin Lizzy cover band.

I still think Son of Mustang Ford sounds great :



They seemed to be perennially supporting everyone - I saw them dozens of times, but unfortunately the net effect was that perception sort of stuck, and I was kind of reluctant to shell out to see them headline (which thinking about it now, would have cost at most £7 ).

I don't know if it's because both they, and Ride, came from Oxford, or because both bands were on Creation Records, or because both bands were known for their array of pedals, but the term "Shoegaze" didn't seem to discriminate with regards to musical style. Not sure how it became a genre.

 

[honeydorick]

I hate to break it to you, but if you were 48, 30 years ago...

OOPs I was 37,My math sucks

 

[Diminishedfilth]

I was 15 and probably at a pawn shop trying to get rid of my Gibson Ripper to help save up for a car, because girls.

 

[Mikey F]

Funk music with a horn section. And a lot if drugs.....

 

[Bruce Eggleston]

Same thing I'm doing now... playing in honky tonks and dive bars. (only with better stuff)

I have always been curious about the distinction between a honky tonk and a dive bar, can they be the same thing, or do they have a wide overlap with different fringes?

 

[Mrmatt1972]

The mines were closing in my hometown, but I had moved to the city to live with my dad for a semester of high school. I bought the cassette. That year I traded my first bass for an Ibanez Roadstar II strat in green. My first guitar. A cop helped me string it at the subway station.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Anybody asked this guy what he was up to 30 years ago?

 

[BassAndCigars]

I was listening to a lot of Michael Franks, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and various fusion/jazz stuff plus Funk like Cool'r and Pleasure. Also just developing a real strong interest and discovery of the Blues. Played guitar then. I didn't know who Nirvana was. Now of course I've heard of them. My absolute favorite version of Smells Like Teen Spirit is by Paul Anka. No I'm totally serious. It swings. Hard.

 

[BarfanyShart]

11 years old, trying to get good at saxophone, renting Sega Genesis games, 6 months away from picking up bass guitar and starting my first band with my next door neighbor. Maybe starting to think about how I might go about talking to a girl.

 

[TemplesOfSyrinx]

I get where you're going with this. Nirvana did cause a sea change in popular music. But the first thing of this coming genre that caught my ear was almost 2 years prior when Nine Inch Nails released Pretty Hate Machine. I was 25 in 1989 when it was released. Heavily into prog and the Beatles as I still am today. But something about NIN really struck a chord with me. I knew big things were on the way from other bands. Nirvana just sealed the deal along with countless other bands of the era.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

30 years ago I was only 2 years away from being born!

 

[LBS-bass]

I get where you're going with this. Nirvana did cause a sea change in popular music. But the first thing of this coming genre that caught my ear was almost 2 years prior when Nine Inch Nails released Pretty Hate Machine. I was 25 in 1989 when it was released. Heavily into prog and the Beatles as I still am today. But something about NIN really struck a chord with me. I knew big things were on the way from other bands. Nirvana just sealed the deal along with countless other bands of the era.

I was thinking about NIN when I wrote my post. Just didn't know where to fit them in. Proto punk started in the seventies and proto-grunge started earlier too. Those are the things that influenced those who came later and crafted the genres, proper. NIN spawned a few things and definitely brought techno and EDM into the mix.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Trying to keep a roof over my head during a recession. It would be 10 years before someone gave me a bass.

 

[BunchyMutt]

Breastfeeding in the Castro