MovieChat Forums > Nirvana Discussion > Grunge is the most recent culture shift?

Grunge is the most recent culture shift?


30+ years since the grunge wave wiped away the stink of Hollywood hair metal. Dr Dre The Chronic happened at the same time, so pop culture changed so drastically all at once.

I can't think of another moment or movement since 1991 in pop culture this powerful since then. I mean, this was like Elvis, or The Beatles culture shifting moment in time.

Grunge didn't last very long, only a few years. Gangster rap went the whole decade before petering out. I'm arguing that there hasn't been a year as powerful to music since 1991, what do you think?

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The white stripes, the strokes , queens of the stone age, radiohead. Moved me in 00s

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It's interesting that you just bumped this band as I was reading just last night how Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque beat Nevermind to Spin Magazine's Album Of The Year 1991.

Probably a fair result as I recall Bandwagonesque as being the superior album.

Also weirdly read that the guy from The Postal Service (tragic they only made one album) and Death Cab For Cutie did a complete cover album of Bandwagonesque (describing it as his favourite album ever) which you can listen to on the Spotify...

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Hair metal became a parody of itself soon after it started in my opinion. Grunge was a welcome change!

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Hair metal was awesome! Grunge was depressing.

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I can't think of another moment or movement since 1991 in pop culture

Me neither , but I attributed that to getting old and not being down with the kids anymore

the was that nu-metal thing in the 2000s?
Apparently now they have a "Machine gun kelly" my stepson keeps telling me about .

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Grunge was replaced by Alternative and Nu Metal. Pop started barfing out boy bands, girl bands, and Brittany Spears style acts. By Napster, radio lost the edge on music and its been playing R&B and Rap that has the quality of a baboon farting on a snare drum.

Thankfully music is more open and less controlled by radio stations with bad taste

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I think Grunge died out around 1996 or 1997. Since 2005 or so there hasn't been any new genres of music created. There was Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. After the metal/rap genre died out we basically have entered a music dead zone. Everything today is generic or a copy of music from the past.

You are right, Grunge was so powerful that it basically killed a decade of hair metal. I still have all my old cds and there is a lot of great music from that era. Even my local rock radio station still plays music from that era.

I think the internet killed creativity because now you can use software and Google to create songs.

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I think Nu Metal is the closest thing to a music genre that was a massive movement for people. I don't think 2000 was as influential as 1991, but that's my personal biased opinion.

Nu Metal is itself a kind of protest against the same hair metal that Grunge rockers had. Protest isn't really the right word maybe, but grunge was definitely like fuck glam, fuck the decadence, our music is gloomy but it rocks harder and is real. Nu Metal is like fuck your virtuoso guitar solos.

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I agree with you, Grunge was huge and more influential. At least Nu Metal was original and put out some good music as well.

Makes you wonder now why are young kids not protesting against anything? Music wise? Everything is bland and generic.

Also what happened to girl rock bands?

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Nirvana was really the only great band to hit the big time. There were other good bands (Soundgarden eventually hit big time; The Melvins never did but should have, same with Green River). I never understood why they called it grunge. Nevermind is a punk rock album whose songs are so well crafted they appeal to the mainstream. That's all Nirvana was--a VERY talented punk rock band. And fittingly, with the demise of Nirvana, punk rock was commodified (s.p.) by the record companies and we got frat boy punk like Blink 182 and Sum 41 (I think that's what they were called). Sleeve tattoos are now mainstream and if someone refers to something as "punk" you know someone in a boardroom somewhere calls the same thing "edgy" and thinks they're challenging the status quo (even though they ARE the status quo). So, the greatest thing Nirvana did (aside from making great music--I'll never argue against the quality of their work) is kill real punk rock. And it needed to die. As others have mentioned, it was time to listen to an angry demographic beyond the white middle class surfers in Redondo Beach. It was the perfect time for gangsta rap to become the new sound of disenchantment (and, of course, the suits and ties eventually appropriated it as well).

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I look at Grunge as sort of a Drain-O. Hair bands were out of control and basically clogged pop culture. Grunge, like a drain cleaner was caustic and nasty. I never particularly cared for it. But it did the trick. It cleared away the hairbands which made way for alternative, more independent music.

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