In the early and mid 1980s, grunge was a subgenre of punk that included bands such as Green River, The Melvins and Soundgarden. Though these bands did combine elements of heavy metal and punk, the term was mainly coined to describe the murky and dirty guitar sound. Eventually, grunge was used to describe a fashion style, which consisted of torn and faded jeans, flannel shirts, and ratty t-shirts, as well as bands such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice in Chains.
by xvilexcopachex October 8, 2003
First of all, grunge is not a style. It is a genre of music that started in the late 80s. If you see a person wearing a Nirvana shirt with purple hair and Doc Martens, that does not make them "grunge". They may call themselves grunge but like I said it's not a fashion style. It is a music genre. Nirvana did not start grunge. There had been many bands before Nirvana that were grunge. Nirvana isn't the only mainstream grunge band either. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, and many more bands are all grunge. There is no such thing as soft grunge. That has never existed and it never will. When people say "Grunge is dead," they don't know what they are talking about because there are bands out there that are grunge. So grunge is simply a music genre and nothing else.
Sarah: I'm grunge. I have pastel hair, Doc Martens, and a Nirvana tee shirt.
Max: No you're not. Grunge is not a style. It is a genre of music like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
Max: No you're not. Grunge is not a style. It is a genre of music like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
by Maybetomorrow February 24, 2013
a derivitive of punk rock that has a disorted, murky sound. Term was first used in the early to mid 1980's to describe bands such as green river, the melvins etc...
also called the 'northwest' sound-as the majority of this music origionated in the pacific north west of america-especially around the seattle area, or the 'subpop' sound, as many of the 'grunge' records were released on this small lable.
'grunge' reached the mainstream in the late 1980's/early 1990's with the breakthrough of acts such as nirvana, soundgarden, mudhoney, pearl jam, alice in chains and so on and so forth.
grunge really ended around the time of the death of kurt cobain in 1994, but many origional fans see the end of grunge with the over comercialisation of the music around the time nirvanas nevermind was released, the most extreme case of this overcomercialisation being the vogue grunge spread.
also called the 'northwest' sound-as the majority of this music origionated in the pacific north west of america-especially around the seattle area, or the 'subpop' sound, as many of the 'grunge' records were released on this small lable.
'grunge' reached the mainstream in the late 1980's/early 1990's with the breakthrough of acts such as nirvana, soundgarden, mudhoney, pearl jam, alice in chains and so on and so forth.
grunge really ended around the time of the death of kurt cobain in 1994, but many origional fans see the end of grunge with the over comercialisation of the music around the time nirvanas nevermind was released, the most extreme case of this overcomercialisation being the vogue grunge spread.
by emily March 9, 2005
Grunge came about in the late 80's early 90's. Charactarized by people in flannel shirts and torn up jeans. it originated in seattle washington. some may say that the arists were a bunch of teenagers affected by the bad climate in seattle. Grunge is has a sound that sets it aside from the rest. The guitar typicaly has a dirty "mest up" distortion, heavy feed back and useally tuneing is a little off or tuned to D (DADGBE). Drumming has a steady beat mostly influenced by metal drum beats, untill NIRVANA where the beats were more popish. bass was usally alot like punk folled the guitar useing the beat of the drum. although grunge is conciderd to be a product of punk and metal, it developed its own melodic sound. The first real grunge band was Green River. and many more came about during the late 80's/90's. ex. Mudhoney, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, NIRVANA, Stone Roses, Alice In Chains, Sound Garden, Temple of the Dog, L7, Smashin Pumpkins, Hole, Pearl Jam, Candlebox, Live, Collective Soul, Malfunkshun.. etc. Grunge reached its mainstream popularity which NIRVANA, Nirvana released theyr first Album in 1989 "Bleach" on 12" which didnt make it main stream. In 1991 Nevermind was realesed. it was estimated to sell only 500,000 copys, a surprise to the band it went on to sell over 10 million copys, in the U.S. alone. Grunge became populrized and bands from then on have tryed to recreate such a success. Many popular rock bands today have elements of grunge. Grunge is called grunge cause of the dirty sound.. and sometime the artists look dirty. ;-)
by www.myspace.com/nirvanainnirvana August 12, 2005
I'll tell you what grunge isn't
grunge is not a fashion statement. it was turned into one by preppy assed MTV suckers who thought Kurt Cobain was the shit, then took flannel shirts and ripped jeans to the runway.
Grunge is not alive. although there are some pretty great bands out there that sound grunge, and Pearl Jam is still making records, grunge is essentially dead
Grunge is not homo music. although grunge does not tend to slander or bash homosexuals, it is not homosexual music. it is usually called homosexual music by disgruntled hair metal fans, who are pissed off that grunge peed out the last embers of their dying scene. but you have to remember, these people idolize men who wear womens makeup and pantihose, who use more hairspray than a chick, and seem to have to show each other their cocks all the time? whats gayer, pantihose or ripped jeans... mmm i dunno!
fans of shit-assed nu metal bands like slipknot and Marilyn Manson seem to rip on Grunge for homosexuality quite a bit.but tell me who's gayer, a quartet from seattle, sometimes featuring one or more girls, or nine fat middle aged men wearing condoms and bondage gear on their heads? mmm... another tough one.
Grunge is not just Nirvana. contrary to what MTV tells you, grunge had a lot more bands than that. bands that were better than Nirvana, that only some people heard of. Pearl Jam, alice in chains, STP, Soundgarden. grunge had bands that were better than Nirvana that no one heard of. Mudhoney, Mother love bone, green river, Tad, Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur JR.! there were also many more tragic stories than Kurts Wife blowing his head off! like the Band that could have been bigger than Nirvana, mother love bone. poor andrew wood died of a heroin overdose when the band was still a baby. what about Shannon Hoon? what about Layne Staley? or the beautiful sucsess stories, like the bandmates of mother love bone that didn't give up, and went on to form a little band called pearl jam. ever heard of them? I'm sick of People telling me that grunge died when Kurt did! SUPERUNKNOWN and holes best album live thru this were all released after this. sure, kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation, but not the only voice.
so now you know what grunge isn't. read the other definitions to find out the meaning of grunge, or better yet, put some Mudhoney, Soundgarden, the Melvins, PJ or even Nirvana on the media player, shut your hole and listen
grunge is not a fashion statement. it was turned into one by preppy assed MTV suckers who thought Kurt Cobain was the shit, then took flannel shirts and ripped jeans to the runway.
Grunge is not alive. although there are some pretty great bands out there that sound grunge, and Pearl Jam is still making records, grunge is essentially dead
Grunge is not homo music. although grunge does not tend to slander or bash homosexuals, it is not homosexual music. it is usually called homosexual music by disgruntled hair metal fans, who are pissed off that grunge peed out the last embers of their dying scene. but you have to remember, these people idolize men who wear womens makeup and pantihose, who use more hairspray than a chick, and seem to have to show each other their cocks all the time? whats gayer, pantihose or ripped jeans... mmm i dunno!
fans of shit-assed nu metal bands like slipknot and Marilyn Manson seem to rip on Grunge for homosexuality quite a bit.but tell me who's gayer, a quartet from seattle, sometimes featuring one or more girls, or nine fat middle aged men wearing condoms and bondage gear on their heads? mmm... another tough one.
Grunge is not just Nirvana. contrary to what MTV tells you, grunge had a lot more bands than that. bands that were better than Nirvana, that only some people heard of. Pearl Jam, alice in chains, STP, Soundgarden. grunge had bands that were better than Nirvana that no one heard of. Mudhoney, Mother love bone, green river, Tad, Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur JR.! there were also many more tragic stories than Kurts Wife blowing his head off! like the Band that could have been bigger than Nirvana, mother love bone. poor andrew wood died of a heroin overdose when the band was still a baby. what about Shannon Hoon? what about Layne Staley? or the beautiful sucsess stories, like the bandmates of mother love bone that didn't give up, and went on to form a little band called pearl jam. ever heard of them? I'm sick of People telling me that grunge died when Kurt did! SUPERUNKNOWN and holes best album live thru this were all released after this. sure, kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation, but not the only voice.
so now you know what grunge isn't. read the other definitions to find out the meaning of grunge, or better yet, put some Mudhoney, Soundgarden, the Melvins, PJ or even Nirvana on the media player, shut your hole and listen
grunge is a great genre of music that cannot be put down without using homophobic bullshit, or childish name calling, like sounddookiegarden or pearl cunt
by 12345432112345 August 30, 2006
Grunge is a term used particularly by the media in hopes of classifying the unusual, unique and different sounds that emerged from the Seattle scene during the late 1980's and good portion of the 1990's. However, some Music Historians argue that grunge had existed long before these decades, suggesting that musicians such as Neil Young and The Wipers were the first artists to use the "grunge effect" in their musical compositions. This term indicated the murky, "dirty" sounds that originated from guitars from various artists such as: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Melvins, Bush, Green River, Alice In Chains, Candlebox, Helmet, Love Battery, Mad Season, Porno for Pyros, Screaming Trees, Silver Chair, The Stone Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Temple of The Dog and many other bands. Yet, hard and heavy metal rock had been embedded in grunge's roots, since most of the inspirations originated from "raw rock" during the 1960's - 1970's.
Another analogy associated with grunge music is a term known as "The Explosion of The Big Four". This described the sudden explosion of underground thrash/analytical-punk/metal music in the mainstream. The "Big Four" refers to the main bands that had caused grunge music to be such a success: Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Furthermore, the era in which grunge became popular had other causes as well. Most of the younger generations rebelled against parents and society, causing them to turn to music in which they could relate to, instead of the typical 1980's hair metal scene, which included artists such as Poison and Motley Crue, who typically wrote about unrealistic and uncreative occurrences that did not deeply impact society.
Another analogy associated with grunge music is a term known as "The Explosion of The Big Four". This described the sudden explosion of underground thrash/analytical-punk/metal music in the mainstream. The "Big Four" refers to the main bands that had caused grunge music to be such a success: Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Furthermore, the era in which grunge became popular had other causes as well. Most of the younger generations rebelled against parents and society, causing them to turn to music in which they could relate to, instead of the typical 1980's hair metal scene, which included artists such as Poison and Motley Crue, who typically wrote about unrealistic and uncreative occurrences that did not deeply impact society.
"Screw the Crue, it's all about Grunge." Crue, meaning Motley Crue and other bands that emerged from the 1980's due to the band's popularity.
"F*ck it, let's Grunge it." Meaning, f*ck the other bullshit, let's get genuine about it and f*ck society.
"Better for Grunge to be dead, than be mainstream." Since grunge balanced with underground, many fans felt that the underground should never have mixed with the mainstream, due to the exploitation and abuse of being unique and different from the typical 1980's - 1990's pop sound.
"F*ck it, let's Grunge it." Meaning, f*ck the other bullshit, let's get genuine about it and f*ck society.
"Better for Grunge to be dead, than be mainstream." Since grunge balanced with underground, many fans felt that the underground should never have mixed with the mainstream, due to the exploitation and abuse of being unique and different from the typical 1980's - 1990's pop sound.
by Mamasita Angelita February 4, 2006
The time period when a person must salvage the last bit of weed they have until they get money to buy more.
by Spittingtruth July 2, 2014