Ask someone what they think of when they hear "Seattle" and chances are that the 3 words above will surface. Not so at the beginning of the 1990s. Seattle was synonymous with one thing and one thing only: Grunge music and flannel shirts.
In wasn't much later than its release in September 1991 that Kurt Cobain's kerrang was heard around the world. Bleach may have been their debut, and "In Bloom" was the first single off Nirvana's brilliant Nevermind album, but it was that opening riff off "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that captured the imagination of teens and twenty-somethings around the world.
back to the roots
It didn't take too long for critics and peers to start looking up Jimi Hendrix's birthplace to find out what the noise was all about. And noise it was. Great noise. Nirvana was definitely not the first band out of Seattle to play Grunge music, but it was the one that would make it explode, sending it to ridiculously stratospheric heights before making it crash and disappear from the earth's surface.Who were some of the true pioneers? Bands like Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone were playing what would soon be labeled Grunge. But these outfits were genuinely alternative . Alternative in the sense that it was drastically different than 1980s Rock. While the Def Leppard's and Bon Jovi's created great rock music sugarcoated with layers of guitar tracks and monster vocals, Grunge music was sharply more raw and devoid of the excessive production polish.
punk mach II
Grunge blended rock with punk, fitting since Punk came around in the 1970s to give classic rock a good kick in the caboose when the likes of Styx and Boston were filling airwaves.But once bands like the Sex Pistols got old and tired, the new wave of British metal rose to the surface, spearheaded by Iron Maiden on the Metal side and Def Leppard on the Rock side. These bands dominated the 1980s, selling millions and developing loyal followers worldwide. But like history, Rock music is cyclical, and Grunge was Punk for the 1990s.
$ells like green $pirit
Because of its sheer raw edge and no-frills production, grunge was an easy sell for young music lovers. And while previous '80s outfits were happy singing about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, grunge songwriters seemed to let Seattle's gloomy weather (and a ton of other stuff) get the better of them.Nirvana was hardly alone. Bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam quickly gained a loyal following as well. While Soundgarden's Louder Than Love was a good album, it wasn't until the epic Badmotorfinger (with a distinctive Sabbath sound) that Soundgarden staked a claim to the throne. Pearl Jam was no slouch either, its Ten album is a classic.
top of the space needle
Kurt, Eddie, Chris, and company were definitely the toast of the music industry. Regulars on MTV, grunge music had definitely put the '80s sound to rest. But how alternative can you be when you are on NBC's SNL ?Although all of these bands took harsh criticism, many showed integrity. Pearl Jam stopped making videos all together. Nirvana kept trekking along, following Nevermind with In Utero almost 2 years later. But things were different, very different.
Cobain was commanding the following that paralleled the Morrison's, Joplin's and Hendrix's. Living in the '90s also added an extra dimension as the media became omnipresent. While Cobain had never sought the role, he, even more so than Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, became the symbol of a generation. The media criticized him, his fans worshipped him, but no one understood him.
dob 02/20/67 - dod 04/05/94
A few months after the critically acclaimed In Utero , Kurt Cobain was found dead in his house. As expected, an outpour of tears, sadness and confusion reigned among fans. As expected, most of his critics rushed to add that Cobain, very much like the movement he represented, was unhappy and ungrateful for life. Then, it was no surprise that when life was taken away from him, few in the media offered much compassion.suicide, murder... overkill
Initially, most indications pointed to a probable suicide. It was no hidden fact that Cobain could have been happier. His songwriting reflected his state of mind, which was unstable at best. Stone Temple Pilots' frontman Weiland was another recovering drug addict that was a mess. Years before, Mother Love Bone's frontman also overdosed. The list of messed up musicians who had either succumbed to drugs or suicide was staggering in the industry.Cobain had a daughter with Hole front woman Courtney Love. While she was one of the few to go along with the conclusion that Cobain had taken his own life, many questions lingered. Doubts about the validity of his suicide note, the credit card use before and after Cobain's death, his excessively high injection of heroin, and many other factors would make any law enforcer have some serious doubts.
Moreover, while Cobain was clearly troubled, many doubt that he would have killed himself. Many, including Tom Grant, the California state private investigator and former detective with the LA County Sheriff's Department.
Grant was hired by Courtney Love to locate her husband after he left a drug rehab center in Marina Del Rey, California. While the police immediately concluded "suicide", he wasn't so sure. Tom Grant's work and research was extensively documented, and various others have raised interesting questions. While Courtney Love has done her best to silence suspicious claims, you can judge for yourself: http://www.thegrid.net/tomgrant/main.html
burn out, don't fade away
Ironically, for all of Cobain's influence and noise, his death came and went fairly abruptly. While previous stars lived in times when TV and radio were only part of their lives, Cobain was under the microscope at all times. His fans mourned, but it was no surprise to most that the media and critics did not care. So many people should have questioned his death -- they didn't. This was, is, and will remain, odd to me.One suggestion for this blasé attitude is that Cobain and most of the grunge warriors were seen as unhappy and ungrateful boys who, despite cashing in on their success, had nothing cheerful to sing about.
Ironically, these same guys became famous for being unhappy and now that they were famous and rich, people expected them to sell out and sing about happy happy joy joy . It was thus no surprise that, like everything else in life, Grunge's success was its undoing.
legacy
When the dust settled, Cobain crashed and burned. He is still remembered as a great songwriter, a gifted performer, and a troubled human being who had the misfortune to marry someone like Courtney who is, let's face it, quite a meal for any man to digest.Before her lawyers ring us up, let it be clear; we will let the detectives question how deeply rooted her involvement was with his death, but it is clear that she never made things easy for the rocker.
Grunge music was officially pronounced dead some time ago. Many of the bands broke up, such as Soundgarden (incidentally, Chris Cornell is now jamming with Rage Against the Machine). Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, however, are still going strong albeit on a smaller scale.
Its real legacy is that Grunge music added a raw edge to Rock music that was sorely lacking. Most rock bands today, like Bush and Matchbox 20, have a more unpolished sound that would not have been in vogue otherwise.
time will tell
While it has only been 7 years since Kurt Cobain's death, his music lives on while the genre he spearheaded has been put to rest for all intensive purposes. Time will tell what future generations think 25 years after his death.While Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Bon Scott, and John Bonham are still revered and worshipped by legions of fans, some doubt that Cobain, who indeed influenced music just as much, will remember him in the same light.
Since then, Nirvana is still a good seller, Pearl Jam is still releasing albums and touring, Stone Temple Pilots has tried several comebacks with a "clean" Weiland. Of the threesome that comprised Nirvana, bassist Krist Novoselic has laid low, to put it mildly. The same cannot be said about the band's drummer, Dave Grohl.
Grohl, as you probably know, went on to found Foo Fighters. While he was highly regarded as a talented drummer, his musical versatility became clear on the band's eponymous first album: the man played every instrument. He got musicians to join him for the tour and played a more conventional role (i.e. not every instrument) on the follow-up.
Courtney Love has been doing her own thing as well. Since Cobain's passing, her career has skyrocketed and her band, Hole, has received some praise.
Time will also tell whether some will scratch below the surface in years to come to finally provide some answers to all of the lingering questions concerning Kurt's departure...
