grunge

A movement/style from the late 80's and early 90's that derives from punk. Centered around teen angst. Nirvana and Pearl Jam were at the center.

Evolved into the alternative classification that is now ubiquitous and watered down.

grunge /gruhnj/ n.

1. That which is grungy, or that which makes it so. 2. [Cambridge] Code which is inaccessible due to changes in other parts of the program. The preferred term in North America is dead code.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Grunge is a form of design (usually for websites) emphasizing the pessimistic side of life instead of the optimistic. Quite popular on the amateur circuit of design (like somethingleet.com and endeffect.com), it is somewhat on the decline there, but is still quite common in proffessional design as well (the Resident Evil movie poster, for example, and many skateboarding advertisements).

More emphasis goes into borders of images than most forms of design (such as trendy or abstract). The borders are usually black and have a great deal of noise, with wispy tentacle-like shapes common as well. Fingerprints, smudges, and other distortions are also common. The entire point of having the border is make the viewer feel claustrophobic, like being in a dark cave, which deepens the emotional impact.

This is not to say, however, that the image itself is neglected; the border only strengthens the focus of the piece, which is usually something ironic, dark, or disturbing. A majority of the grunge photos are of a single color (like red or brown) or are sometimes sepia-toned. In addition, distortion like old film is common, such as dust and scratches, or distortion like old photographs, with warping, water damage, bends, and tears.

As for the creation of such an image, Adobe Photoshop is the tool of choice, and moreso than other forms of design, brushes are emphasized because they hasten the border creation process (noise, smudge marks, etc. can be easily made into reusable brushes, akin to rubber stamps). The displace filter is also commonly used (it is an integral part to the border building). The focus is usually a photo, as opposed to abstract art or typography, which means a camera is commonly used.

I have identified three forms of grunge, outlined below:

• Victorian grunge (usage of cursive fonts, sepia tones, and elegant, though no less dark images)
• Retro grunge (utilizes pictures of weaponry, explosions, '50s style logos/designs, usually antagonizes war)
• Modern grunge (resembles an FBI file or something similar, as in usage of fingerprints, stains, barcodes, typewriter fonts, photos, mug shots, etc.)

There are most likely more than this, but as I have found, most fall under one or two of the aforementioned categories.

For an example of grunge, one should frequent graphic design forums, such as SomethingLeet or thinkDan. Alternately, one could just /msg me... :)

A genre of music that became popular in the early nineties with the explosion of Nirvana into mainstream music (their 2nd album “Smells like Teen Spirit” ousted Michael Jackson from the #1 spot on the billboard charts) originated in Seattle, Washington, home of bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden and bands lesser known to the public but much more influential like Mud Honey and The Melvins.

The fashion known as grunge usually included items from Good Will or thrift stores as well as lots and lots of flannel.

Some say the grunge movement died when Kurt Cobain did in 1994, while others contest the party was over after Sound Garden broke up. One of the mainstays of the grunge music movement was Sub Pop records, a label that specialized in grunge bands. Sub pop is still around, pushing more indie rock friendly bands (i.e. the shins, hot hot heat) while many grunge bands have broken up.

I really do love music and I ought to prove it by writing about it more. If you could only see my drafts. The 10-arms length list of musical ideas, from people to albums to individual songs, that I've felt compelled on some level to write about and just haven't...

But the writeups in this node are so grossly insufficient. And some other adverbs and adjectives that I won't bother mentioning. So for once, let me tell you a story.

Before I begin I should give a little disclaimer: I'm not trying to tell the entire story. Not trying to cover all the bases of all the directions and all the influences, and I don't care if I "missed" something or if I didn't namedrop that obscure 70s German band that made noises which bore similarities to what I'm calling grunge. And also, and this is very important, I couldn't care less about the fashion or the music videos or the scene that the people who "were there" cultivated. I'm actively choosing to not contextualize based on that. All I'm concerning myself with is the music, and only on the extraneous as it pertains to the music. So if necessary, please adjust your expectations.

In the summer of 1985 an album was recorded. It was a compilation album featuring six different bands from the Seattle, Washington area. It was called Deep Six, and released on April Fool's Day 1986. In my opinion, this was the first big step in the story of grunge. Among the bands were Melvins, who would go on to create an awesome discography but who would never quite neatly fit within the box of grunge. There was also Green River, who many have argued to be "the first" (an assessment I might agree with if I cared.). There were also some guys you probably heard of called Soundgarden.

For the rest of the 1980s Seattle bands such as Green River and Soundgarden, as well as Mother Love Bone from Seattle and Screaming Trees from fairly nearby Ellensburg, Washington, started releasing music and laying foundations. And I might as well mention that outside of Seattle different sounds and ideas analogous to grunge, or which were simply a deviation from what the commercial status quo was at the time, were being cultivated as well. Down south in California some guys named Jane's Addiction were making some music that was pretty well outside the box, especially when compared to everyone else from Los Angeles that you'd actually heard of up to that point. And there's this one really mad guy from Cleveland who started making some completely-out-of-left-field stuff (It wouldn't be til years later that we would understand he was much much much much much more sad than mad).

"The people" were changing too. As the decade was winding down, so too was the excitement for hair metal and glam rock as a new generation of an MTV infected apathetic youth started to grow into adolescense without much regard for Jimmy Page or Don Henley or even Axl Rose who had only just debuted in 1988. They were looking for their own generational voice. Then in June of 1989, a young man literally in constant pain from a town not too far from Seattle called Aberdeen, Washington by the name of Kurt Cobain made his commercial professional debut as the frontman of Nirvana with Bleach. Now this wasn't "the" moment per se, but to say that it made an impact on the local scene would be an understatement.

Then the calendar flips to 1990. Alice in Chains debuts. Candlebox forms. Mookie Blaylock forms. Andrew Wood (Mother Love Bone) dies and Temple of the Dog is formed for a brief commiserative moment. Some unique music is starting to be made here. And this sound, this feeling that comes from this region, it begins to pick up a head of steam.

And then 1991. In August, Pearl Jam released Ten. In September, Kurt and his band with their new drummer released Nevermind. In an instant, the global spotlight shifts to the pacific northwest. Aerosmith and all their respectable contemporaries become irrelevant overnight. These discontent young Americans, and soon after people from all walks of life all over the world, gravitate towards this sound. A few weeks later, Soundgarden releases Badmotorfinger. Then 1992: Screaming Trees release Sweet Oblivion, Alice in Chains release Dirt. Core is made, in some people's eyes, as a commercial gimmick to cash in on the sound. But I don't see Stone Temple Pilots as a right-place-right-time kind of band, I believe they held their own. In any case, this musical style has reached critical mass in the public eye. It is objectively successful. It can no longer be brushed off as a fad or a scene, it is an era.

These bands would continue releasing albums successfully over the course of the next 2.5 years or so following Nevermind. Most notable are Superunknown and In Utero. By early 1994 Vitalogy was mostly finished, but wouldn't be released until November. But in April of 94, Kurt left us for good.

Most everyone would eventually leave. Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, then joined the musicians from Rage Against the Machine to create Audioslave) died by his own hand, like Kurt. And the man who idolized Cornell who would revolutionize the next generation would also die in the same way. Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) and Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) 's deaths weren't declared suicides per se, but it's fair to say that they willingly destroyed their bodies and that their actions resulted directly in their premature deaths. Eddie Vedder is still around, just turned 60 and wouldn't dare to die, he has too many politically fueled monologues to ramble about. Gavin Rossdale debuted with Bush in December of 94, and could possibly be complimented as the UK's response to grunge. He's still alive.

But death itself is such a consistent if not persistent theme within the music. Maybe that was the attraction. Maybe it's how little sun they see in Seattle. Maybe grunge died in a greenhouse in April of 94. Maybe it's still not dead. I don't think it really matters. What matters is what we have, and from this genre we have been given an embarrassment of riches. Some of the greatest musical ideas and performances in history were birthed from it or are tied to it. And for this I am eternally grateful.