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So, what were you doing 30 years ago?

I think the listeners divided themselves.

I don't listen to grunge/punk/rap/metal. No time or desire to fill my ears with the rage of others.

Maybe, but to me, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin are all rock and roll and starting in 1991 I needed two rock stations to hear them instead of just one. Except for a few cool stations like 98 Rock in Baltimore that had a mix.
 
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I just flashed on this, and looked it up...maybe they didn't matter to you, maybe they meant everything to you, maybe you hated them because they 'ruined everything' (whatever everything might have been for you), maybe you weren't even born yet; as for me, I was a little beyond the intended demographic, but I liked them. They didn't exactly catch me by surprise as I had heard plenty of similar, forerunner stuff in the previous few years, but was amazed that something so raw was on mainstream rock radio. My only gripe was the over-saturation.
What am I going on about? 30 years ago this month, Nirvana entered a studio with Butch Vig to start recording Nevermind, and while there wasn't exactly one pivotal moment like 2/9/64, the following October was definitely a before/after period. I don't think anything like that would happen again.


Scarily, 30 years ago, last week, I was playing my first gig.

I was in school, and had been playing for all of 3 months.

The band was thrown together at the very last minute, for a big fund raising event.

The gig itself was the bands 3rd rehearsal.

Talk about baptism by fire.

Sub Pop was practically a religion at that time, so Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana, Screaming Trees, TAD, and Unsane were already occupying significant space in my record collection.


We didn't play any Nirvana songs at that first gig, but a couple of months (and several rehearsal) later, we played Love Buzz, and eventually (inevitably) Smells Like Teen Spirit on at least one occasion.

Touch Me I'm Sick by Mudhoney was on the set list for a while, but even at that first gig (where did 30 years go???) we played one original song, and within the first ten months, we'd eliminated all covers, and were just playing originals.
 
I had just picked up the electric bass. Learned it over the summer so I could play in the high school jazz band the next fall. I was already a sight reader so has to learn everything else. If I wasn't doing that, I was probably making Rush mix cassettes.
 
I was coming home after being overseas for almost a year. The radio stations were oddly all different. My bass was in storage at the time.

Nirvana and the grunge thing was great, but I hate how the industry suddenly declared any rock prior to 1990 to be "classic rock" thus dividing listeners into two camps.
It was headed there anyway. It was no different from when The Beatles came along, and then suddenly all the Brylcreemed Frankies and Bobbies, Spectoroid Girl Groups, and Surf Music, let alone Elvis, was declared passe'(and relegated to "oldies" status). The domination of British artists in the American charts in 1964 was overwhelming, only Motown(then on their ascendency)stood their ground. But just like the Grunge tsunami, just like any trend, there was plenty of crap as well as a bunch of just not that great stuff. Whatever Nirvana was or wasn't, and I'm sure they didn't plan on it, their huge embracement signaled a regime change, a new generational zeitgeist.
 
I was 21, living in Colorado, going to trade school to be a machinist, working nights for $5/hr, living 2 paychecks behind and had no clue I was even struggling to survive!
I remember exactly where I was when Nirvana hit the airwaves, I liked it but found Alice in Chains was more my style which eventually led me to Tool and so on...
Today still a machinist, living in Alaska, far from the days of struggling, 2 weeks away from being an empty nester, musical tastes are all over the place, playing bass with friends, life is good...
I raised a family as a machinist too (ID, OD, Centerless, surface grinder with some thread grinding thrown in). Started cleaning floors in a machine shop when I was 15 then moved to grinding when I turned 18 in 1973. Machining was different then. Not much CNC stuff. Eventually moved all the way up thru management then retired. I still miss making things but now I make things out of wood. Building a green house right now. Cheers!
 
I raised a family as a machinist too (ID, OD, Centerless, surface grinder with some thread grinding thrown in). Started cleaning floors in a machine shop when I was 15 then moved to grinding when I turned 18 in 1973. Machining was different then. Not much CNC stuff. Eventually moved all the way up thru management then retired. I still miss making things but now I make things out of wood. Building a green house right now. Cheers!

Yes, never went a day without a job once I finished trade school, highly recommend trade schools if you have no idea what you want to go to college for.
I started out on manuals(lathe, mill, grinders) but saw that the future was cnc's. Worked my way into full blown 3D modeling with Solidworks and programming full 5-axis machining( turbine impellers and such for ground based turbines). Been in a management role for a long time but still get to dirty my hands when needed...
 
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Sure, some bands put out opportunities for trenage boys to vent. But they also CELEBRATED things. Just having a good time. Just being alive. Just getn wild! Fun! Grunge never celebrated a damn thing. It was depressing. It was angry. It was messy. Sure, I'm fine with "raw". But lighten up a little! And (in my region) it never translated well for cover bands. Neil Young and the Allmans had a bit of a comeback at that time. You could get away with playing their stuff. The occasional STP song went over well. But nobody wanted to have a beer over grunge music. Nobody wanted to crowd up to the stage or fill tue dance floor to grunge. They wanted to stand back with their untucked plaid flannel shirts (each if them expressing their individuality.... only exactly like everyone else) and their hands in their pockets looking too "cool" to let loose and have fun. DJs took over here because live music was painted into a box. You couldn't play Boston or Bad Company because that stuff was "selling out". You couldn't play grunge because nobody wanted to party to it. And, after all, partying is why people go to bars.

It was awful to watch unfold. Club owners banged their heads against the wall trying to keep live music going. Bit nobody had an appetite for LOCAL and/or cover bands.
Boston and Bad Company were tired, old news bands by the end of the 80's. 20-year olds in that time period wanting to hear the Allmans? I don't think so. Neil actually embraced grunge, and it was great that he took noisemeisters Sonic Youth(a band influential on Nirvana, and helped them get signed to DGC/Geffen)tour with him to piss off the old hippies. He was the original flannel guy anyway(well, maybe Fogerty). How about that Arc album?
 
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I had just decided to quit my band and move to another state; I was done with music at that point but never really recognized that music as I knew it would also be done with me. When I decided to go to work in a music store only a few years later, everything about making music was different. The music itself was different, but that had also led to a number of other changes.
 
Different look back then . . . but playing of course. :bassist:

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Freshman in HS. 91' was one hell of a year. All of the rock radio stations went from Hair Rock to Hard Rock that summer. Nirvana, Metallica, RHCP, NIN, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, Pearl Jam, all just destroyed the old scene and were GenX's lasting legacy lol.
At the same time the Hippie scene was seeing a re-birth with Phish, DMB, and The Dead were bigger than ever.
Death, Cynic, Faith no More, Suicidal Tendencies all pushed metal forward, it was a glorious time for metal.
 
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I was, if I'm doing the math right, a 2nd year University music student, dating a musician who eventually moved away to her homeland of Spain, living with my mum (a musician), and playing in 3 orchestras, an alt prog rock band, and a jazz fusion group.

Oh and the only bass I owned was a fretless converted Ibanez Musician, Made in Japan, Neck through, active/passive, 4 string, that one was sort of shiny cream finish everywhere (like, everywhere, back of neck too).

Life was very very different then.