MTF Week 10 17/05/2007

Grunge is a genre that I grew up with and as Steve points out is another form of rebellion, possibly against the Glam Metal that was so prevalent. As Steve points out the idea of grunge had been around for quite a while and he would describe Dick Dale as ‘60’s grunge. Grunge, a gritty, soiled, unkept and raw sound in its purist form with mistakes left as a stamp of personality and reality. Like Punk the desire and passion to play rather than musicianship was the main idea. I believe that this in the most part is due to the young participants just learning their instruments.
The big wave of Grunge centred on the Seattle music scene where Nirvana broke. Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog (collaboration), Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Mad Season (collaboration) recordings were all very popular and inspired other bands further away such as The Stone Temple Pilots.

Grunge became more stylised in a fashion sense and a musical sense. Pieces of “Grunge mistakes” were added to tracks such as those found on Nirvanas’ In Utero album. Record companies couldn’t cope with the idea of releasing a half baked product and it is famous that Nirvana hated their slick sound on “Nevermind”.

Steve suggests that Soundgardens’ “Badmotor Finger” was the last of the rawer sounding recordings of the period. I agree, when the following album “Superunknown” came out it was “superproduced”. Grunge became assimilated into the mainstream like many Genres before.
One this that is evident is that when a major label gets involved nothing is left to chance. I suppose as a musician myself I find we forget the main of the population want to be entertained and aren’t interested in something different or breaking musical barriers. Music is a soundtrack to life and be it washing dishes or partying on a Friday night most enjoy the tricks record companies employ.

References:
Music Technology Forum-EMU Adelaide Uni, Lect:Steve Fieldhouse