1 definition by Viking territory
Lots of people have their opinions about Grunge. The name came from Mark Arm who described the sound of seattle bands in late 80s to mid 90s. But it lasted longer than that. Some claim Grunge is dead - It is not. The popularity has fallen, but so will Hip Hop. Blues had it down period for example. So if Grunge is dead then no one is listening to it - and people do. You have the most known metal dude from England who went over to seattle to check out how much in common grunge had with Metal. He soon found out that metal had less in common than what people think. so it is only an opinion. Then you have these people who claim Nirvana is not grunge. Nirvana is if you ask people - but claiming they were not grunge cos of popularity is like saying the fastest car in the world is not fast cos it is popular. It can not be defined by popularity. If you ask kurt cobain himself then grunge is punk that sounds grungy.continue on examples
..If you analyze what happened with chord progressions - it is very much the same as what is typical for punk. In a documentary from the seattle scene you have a guitar player showing that the chord progressions started going away from the traditional punk way of playing guitar - A chord was held longer in some places and done in different patterns. But what is punk really - it is going against the rules. That is what grunge did.Grunge has more in common with punk than metal. Thats why you have to agree with Cobain. Some say sound garden sounded the closest to metal - I would have to agree , but if you ask the band itself they will say that their music is different than from metal. I think it was cos of the same guitars used as typical as for metal bands and clothes - but if you are a musician you will tell the difference - If your into this. It is after all rock´n roll split into different subtitles. It is not a clear answer what grunge really is. Mark arm was describing the sound - and when all bands became hot cos of the hype then it is spread all around. Look at Hip Hop - no matter what opinion people have Hip Hop is the child that came from Rock. Rock from Blues. Pop from blues and rock. It all boils down to slaves in north America who sang out their troubles. So if you wonder where rock , pop , metal , grunge" or punk came from. Take a listen at son house - grinnin in your face. Peace
by Viking territory May 3, 2013