Grunge, Alternative
this discussion is really a continuation of Discussion 17 - Glam Rock & Punk - as the roots of grunge and 90s alternative rock can all be traced back to the punk movement. I was always a little fuzzy on the distinction between Grunge and Alternative: Alternative is supposedly a subcategory of grunge. To my ears, it was a little bit more radio friendly, slightly more refined, while maintaining links to the grunge sound. In the beginning of the "alternative" era, bands like STP and Pearl Jam could be classified as both, however, near the end of the "alternative" era, you would be hard pressed to find any grunge-iness in the big hits by the new crop of "alternative" artists.
Grunge
One of the most influential bands of the late 1980s was the Pixies, who laid the foundations for what was to follow in the grunge style.
Their biggest hit is not really indicative of the style:
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
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Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
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This heavily influenced Kurt Cobain and the rest of the band Nirvana. Very rarely are we able to pinpoint an origin of a style, but grunge can be said to have started in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, essentially), with bands Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam.
While Soundgarden had some success in 1987 and 1988, their style wasn't really "grunge" so to speak. Their style was/is more like hard rock / art rock / metal with a little bit of punk mixed in. Certainly, there is a virtuosity in the instrumentalists and the singer. Grunge is less clean, less virtuosic, and more like "metal-i-fied punk" sound. For this, we turn to Nirvana. I don't think there is anyone who can dispute that Nirvana *is* the epitome of the grunge sound.
They had two big monster hits from their second album Nevermind:
Nirvana - Come As You Are
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Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
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It's hard to understate how popular they were in the early 90s. I somehow kind of missed the Nirvana train, although you couldn't escape their music on the radio, especially some songs from their MTV Unplugged performance.
On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain killed himself, and sent shockwaves through the rock world. It was almost as big as the deaths of Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison were in 1970s.
The MTV Unplugged performance was turned into an album, which went to #1 shortly after Kurt's death, and their cover of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" was really really big on the radio at the time, as well.
Drummer David Grohl went on to form the Foo Fighters and find great success there as the lead singer and guitarist.
Foo Fighters - Everlong
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Foo Fighters - My Hero
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Pearl Jam
Another Seattle based grunge band, they were formed from the remnants of several other grunge bands and San Diego vocalist Eddie Vedder. Their first album Ten was a huge hit, and I remember the song Jeremy hit pretty hard at the time - the song was about a kid who committed suicide in a school classroom with a gun, and the video was pretty graphic for the time. It included the lyrics:
"Daddy didn't give attention Oh, to the fact that mommy didn't care"
Which were not truthful, and caused real harm to the kid's parents and friends.
Pearl Jam - Jeremy
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Another big hit for Pearl Jam was Evenflow
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They did have a softer, folkier side as well, from their follow up album, a song with the longest title I've ever seen in rock/pop/folk:
Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
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Alice in Chains
A lot of radio hits from this band as well, they were a refined version of grunge, with hard hitting percusion, vocals, and guitars.
Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
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Alice in Chains - No Excuses
Links to an external site. - this one was on the radio all the time in my youth. I remember hearing that drum pattern in the beginning, and knowing exactly what was coming up.
On April 5, 2002, the lead singer Layne Staley overdosed on drugs and died in his apartment. His body was not discovered until April 19th, as he had been living as a recluse for the past few years.
Stone Temple Pilots
Many rock history texts seem to ignore Stone Temple Pilots. They were part of my first music purchase for myself, so I do have a bit of a fondness for them. I have a friend who swears they can't tell the difference between Pearl Jam and STP. I never had any trouble telling the two apart, but part of the problem was that they were labelled "Pearl Jam Clones" and ripping off Pearl Jam's style. Upon reflection, you can hear some vocal similarities, especially on STP's first really big album "Core", but as familiar as I was with the songs, I never had to figure out who was singing what. I will admit that there is a tri-tone leap in the vocals in Plush and Evenflow that sounds pretty much the same vocally (listen here
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STP's first big hit was Plush
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Another big hit for them was an acoustic version of "Big Empty
Links to an external site." that really helped differentiate them from the rest of the grunge movement, and, as a preview of their second album "Purple", helped build hype and get a bunch of hits off of that album.
Of the hits from the second album, their biggest was Interstate Love Song
Links to an external site.. Note in the video link below that singer Scott Weiland is doing some of the glam rock stuff with his pink feather jacket near the end. This sounds more refined and studio polished than the more 'live' Pearl Jam style (video below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjJL9DGU7Gg
STP's third album was a real departure from their first two, and didn't do as well in the charts, with a somewhat different vocal style on the entire album, showing on their main single, Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Links to an external site., a bossa-nova style And so I Know Links to an external site., and another hit Lady Picture Show Links to an external site., which STP says was inspired by Bad Finger's Apple of My Eye
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Scott Weiland was in and out of rehab, was fired from the band in 2013, and was discovered dead in the bathroom of his tour bus in 2015, with multiple drugs and alcohol found in his bloodstream. Many of us were surprised he made it that long, considering his history with drugs and the earlier deaths of Kurt Cobain and Lane Staley. In fact, the grunge movement might be also be just as well known for the deaths of the band lead singers (mostly to drug problems):
Kurt Cobain (1994) - Nirvana
Shannon Hoon (1995) - Blind Melon
Lane Staley (2002) - Alice in Chains
Scott Weiland (2015) - STP
Chris Cornell (2017) - Soundgarden
Riot Grrrl
This was an attempt to start a "Women In Rock" movement in the Pacific Northwest, and although they had some bands that eventually opened for Nirvana, the movement somewhat floundered, and many of the bands formed through the organization like Bikini Kill and Calamity Jane ended up breaking up after a short career. However, this wave did inspire a new wave of female singer-songwriters like Ani DiFranco, Jewel, Alanis Morrissette, PJ Harvey, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, and Sarah McLaughlin.
Specifically, Alanis Morissette - her debut album Jagged Little Pill with the debut hit "You Oughta Know" was huuuuuge. Everywhere. You couldn't escape it. I think this album did a lot to shape rock music going forward.
Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know
Links to an external site. - has some explicit lyrics, has some grunge sound to it, and has the awesome bass playing by Flea (from Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Basically, in my mind, this is the epitome of the "Alternative" style - lots of grunge influence, but with some instrumental expertise and a singer who can belt, with a tiny bit of punk in there, with hard hitting choruses.
Alanis Morissette - Right Through You
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Other Alternative Artists
Another big "alternative" band was Alice in Chains. Probably the biggest hit was Man in the Box, but they also had a some great "unplugged" performances, and another massive radio hit No Excuses.
No Doubt was another massive seller. Their third album "Tragic Kingdom" had six or seven hits, and all were massive. This band was more of a precursor to ska, but mixed the alternative and rock styles of the time.
Just a Girl
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Spiderwebs
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Don't Speak
Links to an external site. - massive ballad-style hit, written by the lead singer Gwen Stefani about her breakup with the bass player Tony Kanal.
Note - a few of the band members used to work at Disneyland in Anaheim, hence the play on "Magic Kingdom" in the album title. Sidenote - I was at Disneyland with friends on a band trip right around when this album came out, and recognized the guitar player Tom Dumont in an "employee" area, just hanging out with old friends, and managed to get a picture with him. I don't remember the camera, probably some small disposable thing. This was before cell phones, so I don't know that I'll ever find that picture, but it's just a fun memory of a random encounter in my youth.
Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Soul Asylum, Pavement, Hole, Garbage, and Jane's Addiction were all to varying degrees other popular alternative groups. More on that in the questions
Pop Punk
The main characteristics of punk - high energy, punk attitude, distorted guitar, simple chords, lots of repetition, was taken a little further with the group Green Day. They added melodic hook lines, tuneful choruses, and a bit more of a refinement of the general punk aesthetic. In general, they were the "mainstream" version of punk.
Their first big hit, Basket Case
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Green Day - American Idiot
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They continued in this vein for a long while, but they also experimented with a softer side, and had another resurgent hit with Wake Me Up When September Ends
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Indie Rock
In the 90s, Indie rock became a bigger thing. "Indie" referred to music that, in some manner, placed itself opposite of the mainstream culture. Some indie rock was about appearance - looking like you dressed in a thrift store. Other artists were about eschewing studio perfect vocals or other recording studio magic. A popular "counter" to the mainstream produced pop/rock was to proclaim "no autotune used" on an indie album. Certainly, the vocals on all the indie stuff should be a little bit more "live" sounding.
Weezer is band that had some hits, then took some time off, and have had a resurgence a few years ago. They tend a bit more to the geek friendly indie style, with lots of cultural references and homages and obscure humor. Some of their songs on their debut album "The Blue Album" were recorded in one take on a soundstage.
Weezer - Buddy Holly
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I remember this video like it was yesterday - all the references worked for the re-run shows I used to watch on Nick-at-Nite (Nickelodeon was a kids network in the day time, and switched to 60s sitcoms in evening hours when the kids were presumably in bed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4
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Weezer - Say It Ain't So
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Beck
These are two of Beck's biggest hits, and to me, not his best music. Because of these two, I kind of wrote him off as an artist I didn't want to listen to. I actually turned into a bit more of a Beck aficionado through a friend at music school who had all of his albums and exposed me to more of his music beyond the simple hits. There's a lesson in there somewhere, "don't judge a book by it's cover", etc...
Hits:
Beck - Where It's At
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Beck - Loser
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Arguably better than the hits:
Beck - Sunday Sun
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If you listen to his album "Morning Phase" - it is very different from the hits, with some songs sounding more like Bon Iver style songs.