4 August 2008
Grunge is dead
Posted by Charley under: Music; Thoughts .
I remember seeing this quote when I was 11 years old. ‘Grunge is dead’ printed right on Kurt Cobain’s t-shirt in a photo taken with his daughter. This was my first exposure to what is at it’s core called modern punk culture. It was the epitome of cool then. He just didn’t care; and not caring was sweet. Hipsters still do and will always be fighting the battle of who could care less. But back in the 90’s not caring was in the mainstream for reals. Apathy was truly popular. Then one day, out of the blue, the trend was dead right? Not really.
I think for some grunge died the day Walmart started selling flannels and ripped jeans. For others it was the day bands like Silverchair blew up among middle-schoolers like myself at the time. For me… it was today. Anyone that knows me well knows I love 90’s alternative rock. It had a significant impact on me as a musician. I’ve been keeping it alive in my friend circles for as long as I can remember. Here are the two big recent events that drove the final nail inches deep into the coffin. Goodbye my love.
- Chris Cornell the lead singer of Soundgarden (my favorite grunge band with currently no dead members) is working with Timbaland and it doesn’t sound grand. Checkout the thirty second clip of ‘Long Gone‘ and hear for yourself. As Stereogum wrote, the title of the song describes his career better than the music itself. The track ‘Watch Out’ sounds like a Gnarls Barkley rip. Chris Cornell successfully growing in a genre like this really seems like a bit of a stretch.
- Scott Weiland (the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots) can’t sing anymore. I know it’s debatable whether or not STP is considered a true grunge band, but here’s how I see it. They carried that early/mid 90’s alternative sound through the late 90’s mainstream while the others were dropping. And man, were they tight. It appears that drugs have ruined yet another great musician.
Now if you will excuse me I have to go meltdown my 24k gold version of Nevermind (which is more rare because it doesn’t include the secret song) for some extra cash. I’m trying to scrounge enough together to buy this.
3 Comments so far...
Car Job Says:
18 August 2008 at 7:59 pm.
Quit your crying. Dualism of Jar of Flies then Badmotorfinger.
Daniel Borgmann Says:
28 October 2008 at 12:13 pm.
Ok, I’m going to risk sounding really old. If the 90s were a decade of ‘not careing’ then what were the 80s? Yes, I admit the spandex, big hair, and such take the forefront of what people think of when they consider the 80s but if you want to talk about ‘not caring’ then the 80s generation created it. It was a generation of gimme gimme gimme where the ‘to hell with everyone else’ was king. After all, all we cared about was Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll….at least that’s all I remember. 
In all, its good to see that some things never change. See you at Ignite!
scott weiland Says:
5 December 2008 at 2:19 am.
(PR) Scott Weiland will be performing his new single,
