I was watching this documentary on 1992 on
VH1 yesterday.
Grunge. The year Michael Jackson's
Dangerous album was booted off the Billboard #1 spot by Nirvana's
Nevermind, whose bassist is quoted as saying that "Nirvana didn't go to the mainstream; the mainstream came to Nirvana." Before me, images of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains from the
long hair and flannel shirt stage of their budding careers flashed up on the screen, and I was immediately filled with a strange
reminiscence of my dear old college days, since 1992 was the year I graduated high school and went off to college. Grunge came in handy. But how dear and old should these days, not so long since past, be to me?
Kurt Cobain on the cover of Rolling Stone, wearing a shirt with a handwritten statement that Corporate Magazines Suck. Kurt Cobain dead. And how long did grunge live? 1995, maybe. Three years, and it seems the supposed anthem of our generation is but a memory. It is shows like these that make me feel old, make me feel less a part of any generation and more like change that fell through the cracks. Even now, at 24, I am bonding with other 24 year olds on how our music was real, how music kids are listening to is shit, how the evening news was still worth watching when we were young and now it seems like so much filler.
I know it is not this way, but it feels this way. Will it feel this way for the rest of time, time that seems to move too quickly to say what is really on its mind?