Vnertia.com

A collection of grunge videos, primarily from the 1990’s.

In the mid 80’s a small movement was brewing in an unlikely place, Seattle, Washington. This movement was not actually lead by Nirvana as many have said when they released “Nevermind” in September of ‘91 but actually went back to other Seattle bands like Melvins and Mudhoney. It was due in large part to Nirvana and Pearl Jam that the movement came to the forefront of mainstream success, a move which combined with the tragedy of Kurt Cobain’s death conspired to kill the movement. While alternative music was a term for underground rock bands, Grunge bands combined guitar rock with punk and metal to give birth to a new movement.

By the mid 90s the two movements combined in the eyes of the public to one big genre known as grunge. As a offshoot of this situation rock emerged and returned to the roots of the alternative movement and took the mantle of what was formerly known as alternative or college rock. Grunge moved from a local sound in Seattle through national and international venues and became a part of the musical vocabulary of most subsequent bands. Most modern musicians owe a debt of gratitude to those plaid wearing teens from Seattle. What caused this phenomenon? No one knows exactly but there are some possible causes to consider.

Once mainstream success came along local control of Grunge was gone. National magazines heralded the “new sound” and major successes like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were in great demand. Suddenly grunge artists became big celebrities and the gossip mill wanted to know every little detail. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden was quoted saying “that’s what makes pop culture so significant to all the little consumers out there, they have no interest in history or economics… they’re interested more in gossip and the nature of celebrity”. Suddenly grunge became embedded in the popular culture and to the artists who pioneered the movement it lost its appeal at the same time. Groups began to distance themselves from the movement. In December, of 1992, Spin magazine reported “Seattle…it’s currently to the rock world what Bethlehem was to Christianity” When the New York Times called Sub Pop to get the inside scoop on “Grunge” employee Megan Jasper made up a whole series of words which were allegedly the Grunge translation of common terms. It was a total lie but was printed just the same. When the story was exposed the hypocrisy of over commercialization began to become apparent and the movement began to unravel.

At 11:05 am. on April 8th, 1994, three coroners from the King County medical examiners office arrived at the home of Kurt Cobain. They found Kurt’s body in a small room over the greenhouse. They took pictures of the scene and swiftly concluded Cobain had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Information was quickly leaked to the media, and the world learned that Kurt Cobain spokesman for Generation X was dead. Has Grunge changed the music world forever? Certainly the grief at Kurt Cobain’s death shows that he was as important to his generation as John Lennon had been to the 60’s. The image of thousands at the Seattle vigil celebrating his life amid a sea of media documenting the event was a fitting epitaph of Grunge as a popular culture.

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