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Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 39922
A friend of mine is teaching a class on the idea of 'cool' and he's structuring the course around major trends decade by decade. A lot of the class will be on music. He asked me if there are any key books or essays on grunge. Are there?
I'm not sure it'll be exactly what your friend will be after, it's an oral history of the scene, but I think it's superior to the more recent, and seemingly more well-received, 'Everybody Loves Our Town' by Mark Yarm which does the exact same thing just not quite as well (for my money, anyway).
Joined: Thu January 24, 2013 9:20 am Posts: 2687 Location: Great southern land.
I really enjoyed this book, both its substance and the author's style. A great read (and would seem to suit your friend's purpose, if you assume that "alternative" somehow equates at least a bit to "cool").
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 39922
to clarify, he's not just looking for biography. He is looking for books/essays that touch on grunge as a cultural phenomena (authentic or manufactured) as much as anything else.
while it's kurt cobain focused. the heavier than heaven book was pretty good. the rest and i've read a bunch over the years tended to lack and real journalistic credibility and more the work of populist hacks. no real analysis, more gossip.
I thought it was good until it started praising the Foo Fighters for "brightness" and "grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
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I thought it was good until it started praising the Foo Fighters for "brightness" and "grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
Yeah the problem is grunge isn't a real sub genre. Most bands that one might put under that moniker don't really have much in common. So saying grunge has no shelf life is kinda dumb because it was never a real thing. The term grunge never really mattered. Those bands were different degrees on the rock dial. Calling them alt rock seems more appropriate. Unless you wanna say that the alt rock late 80s early 90s Seattle scene is called grunge in which case it would be pretty unlikely for it to continue forever unless the expectation is that every band in that geographic location is forever required to pick one of the big four bands from that era and do their impression.
Last edited by bada on Tue November 12, 2013 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I thought it was good until it started praising the Foo Fighters for "brightness" and "grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
Yeah the problem is grunge isn't a real sub genre. Most bands that one might put under that moniker don't really have much in common. So saying grunge has no shelf life is kinda dumb because it was never a real thing. The term grunge never really mattered. Those bands were different degrees on the rock dial. Calling them alt rock seems more appropriate. Unless you wanna say that the alt rock late 80s early 90s Seattle scene is called grunge in which case it would be pretty unlikely for it to continue forever unless the expectation is that every band in that geographic location is forever required to pick one of the big four bands from that era and do their impression.
this
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you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.
I thought it was good until it started praising the Foo Fighters for "brightness" and "grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
Yeah the problem is grunge isn't a real sub genre. Most bands that one might put under that moniker don't really have much in common. So saying grunge has no shelf life is kinda dumb because it was never a real thing. The term grunge never really mattered. Those bands were different degrees on the rock dial. Calling them alt rock seems more appropriate. Unless you wanna say that the alt rock late 80s early 90s Seattle scene is called grunge in which case it would be pretty unlikely for it to continue forever unless the expectation is that every band in that geographic location is forever required to pick one of the big four bands from that era and do their impression.
i was about to say, "grunge" is more location based. alt rock or pop punk is probably what i think as "cool" music genres of the early/mid 90s.
Oh, OK. Yeah; not like "transcendent grunge" (how I was reading it). I'm just not really sure how FF "transcend grunge" except to be more poppy and watered-down. But maybe it means that they managed to be a legitimate "event" all these years later. Or something else.
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RisingTides wrote:
There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
I thought it was good until it started praising the Foo Fighters for "brightness" and "grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
Yeah the problem is grunge isn't a real sub genre. Most bands that one might put under that moniker don't really have much in common. So saying grunge has no shelf life is kinda dumb because it was never a real thing. The term grunge never really mattered. Those bands were different degrees on the rock dial. Calling them alt rock seems more appropriate. Unless you wanna say that the alt rock late 80s early 90s Seattle scene is called grunge in which case it would be pretty unlikely for it to continue forever unless the expectation is that every band in that geographic location is forever required to pick one of the big four bands from that era and do their impression.
this
Yep. I just thought the article offered scant evidence that the movement had no good influence on anything, or even that it was required to. I get that it became "commercialised" and all the bands assimilated into a "movement" that may or may not have been recognised by the bands themselves, but that's not the bands' fault; in a way, the media killed it.
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RisingTides wrote:
There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 2:22 pm Posts: 4377 Location: faked by jorge
I completely agree with the idea that the media killed it- regardless of what it was called.although the word 'grunge' was held in special contempt, as I'm sure everyone knows. I remember being especially put off when i started seeing commercials for grunge fashions... it was rather antithetical to the whole idea of being alternate anything...
also, I haven't read the article yet but will, i was mainly agreeing with what bada posted.
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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.
Joined: Fri January 04, 2013 2:06 am Posts: 1919 Location: Australia
theplatypus wrote:
harmless wrote:
"grunge transcendence" (what's that?).
Trascending grunge?
Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.
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Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.