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Which Song Introduced Grunge To The Mainstream?
- Thread starter Altitude
- Start date
i remember with my hazy brain when grunge was just an adjective used to describe some really rough 1960's garage rock from the pacific northwest on the back of a compilation of such music. then 20-30 years later there were bands like mudhoney, tad who were sort of doing the modern equivalent; not in a retro fashion of apeing the genre, but just playing raw rock n roll with modern gear but with that same attitude and sonic filth. and then nirvana started to become popular, someone (scott from the young fresh fellows maybe?) suggested to eddie vedder he should try singing like they guy out of blood sweat and tears, and then countless other bands sprouted up or tailored their sound to do that whole dreadful "underbite rock" thing, and it became a fashion thing and it was all just very depressing. if anyone should have been megastars, no one deserved it more than the fastbacks, who weren't part of that whole aesthetic and trend, but were there well before it started, were better than everyone else, and kept going after the seattle craze died down. thank goodness kurt bloch never sold out and kept doing what he does best to this very day.
Planet Boulder
Hey, this is a private residence...man
- Nov 10, 2001
- 4,014
- 65
- Disclosures
- I once had impure thoughts. Oh, and I pluck my ear hair.
Nobody's going to write in Neil Young...geesh.
Seriously though, Pearl Jam was definitely the first one on my radar. _Ten_ came out just before my junior year in high school and it was just everywhere. Then I was a sophomore in college when _Vs._ came out I remember being in line to buy it at midnight, then that was everywhere.
In the grand scheme though it was almost certainly Nirvana that brought the Seattle Sound to the wider population. Though I never did like them as much as Pearl Jam, and the whole Cobain=Messiah thing is getting a bit old.
Seriously though, Pearl Jam was definitely the first one on my radar. _Ten_ came out just before my junior year in high school and it was just everywhere. Then I was a sophomore in college when _Vs._ came out I remember being in line to buy it at midnight, then that was everywhere.
In the grand scheme though it was almost certainly Nirvana that brought the Seattle Sound to the wider population. Though I never did like them as much as Pearl Jam, and the whole Cobain=Messiah thing is getting a bit old.
A big ole +1 to all that.
You mention Cobaine's death and everyone's all ooooohhhhh.... You mention Layne Staley's, and they are like "who?". It's sad really.
I'd say this song.
I got out of the Army in June of 1991. I auditioned for a cover band in either Aug or Sept- and "Man In The Box" was one of the songs I had to audition with. I hadn't heard it (but knew of AIC), but then again I was in kind of a bubble.
If you remove the "grunge" stipulation and the "mainstream" stipulation- the first band, for me, that was part of that whole "new sound the kids are digging" was the Smashing Pumpkins. Some friends had seen them in the summer of 91, and I had Gish before summer was over. I saw the Pumpkins in a record store in Sept of 91 and had Billy and James sign the back insert of my CD.
Re-read what was written and the premise of the thread.
"Which song introduced grunge to the mainstream."
The "mainstream" is not music fans that pay attention to things. That's still in a niche. While I believe AIC had a higher profile than any other "punk" influenced band to that point, they were by no means "mainstream." By that point, metal couldn't be considered "mainstream."
To me, it changed when you had a radio station playing stuff like Color Me Badd, Taylor Dane, Rick Ghastly and Paula Abdul and then playing "Smells Like..." THAT'S mainstream. THAT'S where it changed.
Teen Spirit, without a doubt. (Even though Touch Me, I'm Sick should've been a huge hit.)
But as far as first Grunge Band goes...
Blue Cheer?
Loud as balls, sludgy, grungy, minimal skill...
But as far as Seattle goes, The Melvins. It's a crime this thread got three pages in before they got mentioned. The Melvins were the first grunge band, period.
But as far as first Grunge Band goes...
Blue Cheer?
Loud as balls, sludgy, grungy, minimal skill...
But as far as Seattle goes, The Melvins. It's a crime this thread got three pages in before they got mentioned. The Melvins were the first grunge band, period.
There is no debate. "Teen Spirit" was definitely the song that brought grunge to the masses. However, Mudhoney, Green River, Screaming Trees, and other bands brought grunge to Nirvana.
fugazi was never and never will be on a major label. Dischord is owned by Ian MacKaye himself. The whole "neo emo" thing was birthed way after all of those bands' hey day. Even when Jimmy Eat World was on independent labels much later than the bands you mentioned the word "emo" didn't become mainstream. If anything it's more that all these later bands just listened to JEW and The Get-Up Kids, took modern goth fashion, and just went from there.
Back then it was a derogatory term and no band wanted to be called emo. Now it's a derogatory term, but not in the same way. Many of those bands, and their fanbases, like being called emo. They just needed a term for all those eyeliner wearing pansies. The stuff that gets called emo today sounds more like watered down pop punk more than what was called emo back then. There isn't much of a connection between Moss Icon and Rites of Spring, the two bands often considered the progenitors of emo, with these later bands.
fugazi was never and never will be on a major label. Dischord is owned by Ian MacKaye himself. The whole "neo emo" thing was birthed way after all of those bands' hey day. Even when Jimmy Eat World was on independent labels much later than the bands you mentioned the word "emo" didn't become mainstream. If anything it's more that all these later bands just listened to JEW and The Get-Up Kids, took modern goth fashion, and just went from there.
Back then it was a derogatory term and no band wanted to be called emo. Now it's a derogatory term, but not in the same way. Many of those bands, and their fanbases, like being called emo. They just needed a term for all those eyeliner wearing pansies. The stuff that gets called emo today sounds more like watered down pop punk more than what was called emo back then. There isn't much of a connection between Moss Icon and Rites of Spring, the two bands often considered the progenitors of emo, with these later bands.
Really? Name one major band that actually likes being called "emo". I certainly haven't heard of one.
you younger players might want to listen to Blue Cheer from the 60's, throw in a few jazz chords and turnarounds ala George Harrison and a few moving 5th Sabbath runs and a touch of Neil Young...
please, grunge was already in the mainstream it just faded and returned with nirvana in a watered down rehashed formula
please, grunge was already in the mainstream it just faded and returned with nirvana in a watered down rehashed formula
I wanted to hear the perspective of the people who did not vote for Nirvana. So far, four people have done so - I am not sure whether or not they are deaf. But their thoughts are the most interesting to me.
I loved that whole album! (I think the album title was Louder Than Love). Hands All Over was my favourite track.
Pre Ben Shepherd too, Hiro Yamamoto I think played bass on that one.
On topic, I voted Teen Spirit. Thats the tune that broke grunge to the masses, absolutely no doubt.
I'm sure several of them didn't mind at first. The term "emo" for these later bands was originally used by its fanbase, who I'm sure did not mean so in a derogatory fashion. Even though the term was derogatory to begin with, it eventually was used as a descriptive term for certain bands during the 90s without all the hate attached to it. Read any Maximum Rock n Roll or Punk Planet during that era and you'll see emo used most of the time as just a regular, descriptive term. When the zines first coined the term emo it was definitely in a derogatory fashion. It was certainly a dig at what bands like Rites of Spring were doing. The term just gained enough acceptance in the 90s for bands to not mind as much. Then it became associated with bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, and suddenly the term gained mainstream notoriety outside of punk circles and sadly became associated with those bands and those fans. Now people outside of those circles associate emo with said bands and fans and use it in a derogatory fashion again.
