Why oh why does grunge and pearl jam come to peoples minds every time we think about the 90s! Every time I come to this board I see a bunch of threads about the same things. LOL. How Lame!

Feel free to talk about whatever you think defined the 90s.

Why oh why does grunge and pearl jam come to peoples minds every time we think about the 90s! Every time I come to this board I see a bunch of threads about the same things. LOL. How Lame!


::)  If you don't like it, then maybe you need to find another messageboard for a hipster such as yourself. ::)

Grunge and Hip-Hop

A bad decade for music, if you ask me

there were exceptions, ie:
Dream Theater and prog bands like them
Megadeth had their best album, "Rust In Piece" in 1991
Eric Johnson

It's not always grunge, though that was a HUGE part of it for a time.

There was also:
gangsta rap like Ice Cube's It Was a Good Day,
alternative-styled R&B like Blackstreet's Don't Leave Me,
Euro-Pop songs like Real McCoy's Runaway,
punk-based rock like Green Day,
pop like Mariah Carey,
women rockers like Alanis Morissette;
and in the end, country goes pop with artists like Shania Twain.

So yes, there were many other awesome musical trends in the 90s.  But if you ask me, personally, I think grunge influenced most of the rock and R&B songs, as you might notice a few hints of it in each song and video.  So, I think grunge truly was the biggest musical force in the 90s.

Why oh why does grunge and pearl jam come to peoples minds every time we think about the 90s! Every time I come to this board I see a bunch of threads about the same things. LOL. How Lame!


Well it's like how young kids usually think that the 80s were all about Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper.  Or kids who think that people were breakdancing and moonwalking all the time back then while dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice.  Anyone who was around for the actual 80s knows the reality was nothing like that.  If we got to put up with stupid stereotypes/images about a decade, why not you? 

the 90s was also about music "groups"

boyz ii men
SWV
Backstreet boys
jodeci/k ci& jojo
En Vogue
TLC
Spice Girls
All 4 One
Dru Hill
BBD
Hi-Five
N sync
Xscape
Blackstreet
702

most of them doing a poppy/r&b mix

i think grunge gets the most attention because my god, even into 2000 or so those plaid shirts with the big blocks of dark colors were still in, even the rappers were doing the plaid thing, not to mention Grunge was the leading stereotype of "Generation X" in the 90s, and with gangsta rap and metal-rap to carry on the tradition og angst-ridden music, and even in the late 90s lots of people were still into dark colors, you can see how the "Grungy" attitude is used to sum up the 90s.

I think grunge defined  just a small % of music and style. The beginning of the 90's still had 80's influence, then around 92 things started to change, and grunge kind of took over.  By 96 grunge was gone!!!

Well it's like how young kids usually think that the 80s were all about Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper.  Or kids who think that people were breakdancing and moonwalking all the time back then while dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice.  Anyone who was around for the actual 80s knows the reality was nothing like that.  If we got to put up with stupid stereotypes/images about a decade, why not you? 


You have a point, Chris.  :)

Well it's like how young kids usually think that the 80s were all about Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper.  Or kids who think that people were breakdancing and moonwalking all the time back then while dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice.  Anyone who was around for the actual 80s knows the reality was nothing like that.  If we got to put up with stupid stereotypes/images about a decade, why not you? 


Good answer, good answer!  *applause*

But honestly, I think the early 90's, particularly music wise, DID seem a lot about "the grunge thing", like it or not.   :-\\

I really believe that the '90s are about Furby and quality kids programming and toys.  Now in the 2000s, good toy commercials seem to be obsolete and those Bratz dolls are nothing but trouble.  In the '90s, kids played with Super Soakers and little stuffed animals that talk back to you, like cute Furby.  Some of these toys know 1,000s of words.  Kids watch Ren and Stimpy, Barney (UGH!), The Simpsons, PPG, and Pokémon.  Now they watch, Jackie Chan, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other shows on the WB that do belong CN.  I  want 90s toys and TV shows, BACK!  NOW!  God, please bring back Ren and Stimpy. Jesus Name.  AMEN!

No reply on this thread has mentioned Rave culture, the progression of late 80's Acid House. Massive illegal warehouse/ open-air parties fuelled by Jungle Techno, High Choons, Bangin' Hardcore etc, attended by thousands of revellers, often arriving in massive convoys. The anarchic nature of these parties actually caused the UK government to introduce draconian laws to prevent groups of people gathering together in public to listen to amplified music, unless of course it was legally organised & taxed. Though the culture itself was derived from Acid House, this in turn came from Disco. Rave led to progressions such as Techno, Trip-Hop, old-skool Garage, Trance, Drum 'n' Bass & a number of other electronic music styles, influences of which can still be seen in modern music. The UK government killed the underground scene with its' laws in '92-'93, but Dance music had by then crept into the mainstream culture & clubs, and continues to thrive (in an albeit derivative form) to this day. I'm sure it wasn't just in the UK that Raves were popular- or is it just that those involved have had too much chemical damage to remember?!  :D 

Well it's like how young kids usually think that the 80s were all about Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper.  Or kids who think that people were breakdancing and moonwalking all the time back then while dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice.  Anyone who was around for the actual 80s knows the reality was nothing like that.  If we got to put up with stupid stereotypes/images about a decade, why not you? 


Good comeback! I couldn't agree more.

Yeah, the early 90's were grunge - Pearl Jam, Nirvana, REM, etc...  Then there was Green Day and the start of punk as well as the hip-hop influence.  Then it all went to crap when Backstreet Boys, N Sync, and all those other no talents came along.

Sure there were other cultural elements that emerged in the 90s, but I still believe that grunge defined the decade, particularly in terms of youth culture. The 90s was the decade of the slacker. Even when grunge itself faded away, the bands and music acts that came after it were still celebrating the slacker culture. Grunge may be gone, but it had such an enormous influence on popular culture that it still manifests to this day. Why does everyone mention grunge when discussing the 90s? It was one of the most important and influential cultural revolutions ever, that's why. You might not have liked it, but you simply can't ignore it. The 90s weren't "about" grunge, but grunge certainly helped define them.

I think the 90's were about grunge and also country. Just think Garth Brooks, Tim Mcgraw, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus, Brooks and Dunn should i go on.

I think the 90's were about grunge and also country. Just think Garth Brooks, Tim Mcgraw, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus, Brooks and Dunn should i go on.



That's true. Country did make a giant leap into the mainstream.

Tanya

I don't think the 90's was all about "grunge". You had Pop/R&b laced songs by Toni Braxton and Mariah Carey. They were grunge bands like STP, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam. You also had R&B groups like Jodeci, Dru Hill, SWV, Total, En Vogue, and TLC. You had the pop-based punk like Green Day, Weezer, Rancid, and No Doubt.There was po-rock groups like Soul Asylum, Collective Soul, Sponge and Better Than Ezra. Don;t forget as late as 1997 Depeche Mode and U2 were still hanging around still having hit songs. There was groups coming from the UK like Oasis, Blur, and The Verve. There was groups that mixed hip-hop with rock very well in the 90's like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Faith No More, Fun Lovin Criminals, and 311. The 90's had alot of variety music-wise to it. Don't forget all about the Dance-Club music one or two hit wonders that were around in the early to mid 90's like Corona, Nickie French, Everything But The Girl, La Bouche, No Mercy and Robin S. There was also fun care free pop music such as Amy Grant and Ace Base around 1994. What about R&B solo artists like Brian Mcknight, Babyface, Ginuwine, Usher, Faith Evans, Monica, R. Kelly, and Tevin Campbell? What about Hip Hop like Naughty By Nature, PM Dawn, or A Tribe Called Quest?

I think the late 90's were about the return (like it or not) of teen pop and boy bands like Backstreet Boys, NSync, 98 Degrees, Britney and Christina. Even two former New Kids (Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre) released their first solo albums in 1999.

I don't think the 90's was all about "grunge". You had Pop/R&b laced songs by Toni Braxton and Mariah Carey. They were grunge bands like STP, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam. You also had R&B groups like Jodeci, Dru Hill, SWV, Total, En Vogue, and TLC. You had the pop-based punk like Green Day, Weezer, Rancid, and No Doubt.There was po-rock groups like Soul Asylum, Collective Soul, Sponge and Better Than Ezra. Don;t forget as late as 1997 Depeche Mode and U2 were still hanging around still having hit songs. There was groups coming from the UK like Oasis, Blur, and The Verve. There was groups that mixed hip-hop with rock very well in the 90's like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Faith No More, Fun Lovin Criminals, and 311. The 90's had alot of variety music-wise to it. Don't forget all about the Dance-Club music one or two hit wonders that were around in the early to mid 90's like Corona, Nickie French, Everything But The Girl, La Bouche, No Mercy and Robin S. There was also fun care free pop music such as Amy Grant and Ace Base around 1994. What about R&B solo artists like Brian Mcknight, Babyface, Ginuwine, Usher, Faith Evans, Monica, R. Kelly, and Tevin Campbell? What about Hip Hop like Naughty By Nature, PM Dawn, or A Tribe Called Quest?


Hells yeah. Ace of Base's "The Sign" was first CD I ever bought. It was in like '94 when I got my first CD player (I was like 9). Swedish pop with an excellent dance beat? I said "ja" then and I still say it now. Even though i love Grunge (not all of it), I still also love the mid-nineties Alternative, the early-nineties dance, and even some of the euro pop from '97 like the Spice Girls and Chumbawumba. More than all of this... I like the 80s!

I have to say it, for me the 90s was about real geetar music and the seattle and portland scene was the spear head that brought it into the mainstream for the masses...... But like many above me have said, it was only a short lived thing and like all of the "revolutionary" musical movements before it was on a one way track to burning out.

I am also a big fan of the late 90s UK trance scene, which later develped into nasty vocal trance (but the less said about that the better). When alls said and done though, it has to be the early 90s punk/grunge era that I owe my faith too. It gave me the career I have today as a musician.

In my heart, since the death of grunge in 94, there will always be something missing.

Well it's like how young kids usually think that the 80s were all about Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper.  Or kids who think that people were breakdancing and moonwalking all the time back then while dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice.  Anyone who was around for the actual 80s knows the reality was nothing like that.  If we got to put up with stupid stereotypes/images about a decade, why not you? 


I think the '80s were almost like today, except for the pop cultural taste, lack of Internet, a different Cold War then the current one, and the fact that in the '80s people weren't so sensitive about stuff.

I agree, back in the day Grunge and even the term GenX just meant a subculture from Seattle. Country, Rap, and even some metal was just as popular.

I think grunge is the 90's. At least from 1991-late 1994.

The music, of course, had all different stuff going on (in fact, I'd say the '90s was the last decade alot of "multiple" styles co-existed easily), but I think the grunge attitude had a big impact on the '90s.

Some things, such as coffeehouses, or TV shows like Melrose Place, 90210, Friends and Seinfeld, have a "grunge era" quality to them too. Of course, it doesn't mean everyone in those shows, or everyone who goes into a Starbucks is a huge Nirvana fan or anything, but it had a cultural impact outside of just the music, if that makes sense?

Same way not everyone in the '80s was a new waver, but the new wave "lifestyle/feel" was a big part of everything then (i.e. flashy colors and styles).

The music, of course, had all different stuff going on (in fact, I'd say the '90s was the last decade alot of "multiple" styles co-existed easily), but I think the grunge attitude had a big impact on the '90s.

Some things, such as coffeehouses, or TV shows like Melrose Place, 90210, Friends and Seinfeld, have a "grunge era" quality to them too. Of course, it doesn't mean everyone in those shows, or everyone who goes into a Starbucks is a huge Nirvana fan or anything, but it had a cultural impact outside of just the music, if that makes sense?

Same way not everyone in the '80s was a new waver, but the new wave "lifestyle/feel" was a big part of everything then (i.e. flashy colors and styles).


Yeah, I totally agree with that. '90s trends like Starbucks and Whole Foods Market certainly get a "grungy" Seattle feel to them, and the lo-fi look of shows like Seinfeld and Friends get alot of the grunge aesthetic. Grunge was really the most important musical movement of the decade, and the one that defined the general direction of the decade the best-moving away from new wave and '80s excess and towards a darker, more simplistic feel.

I think in the future everything from the '00s will either be seen as being influenced by "glam rap" or "emo/hipsterism", including the high-special effects movies, hard-to-understand unconventional commercials, and shows like The O.C. and much of the reality TV.

The '90s were not just about grunge, certainly...they were a way more musically varied decade than the '00s, and in some ways, the '80s. There was "diva" type music (Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, et. al.), New Jack Swing and Boyz II Men type stuff, slow jam R&B, hip-hop pop like TLC, gangsta rap, non-grunge alt rock (The Pixies, R.E.M, Liz Phair, Tori Amos, Pavement, Weezer, Beck, The Smashing Pumpkins, etc.), goth and shock rock music, teen pop, pop-punk (Green Day, Blink 182), nu metal, fast-paced hardcore metal, "post-grunge", women singers like Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow, country pop, latin-influenced music...I miss that variation in music, even if all the music wasn't great. But grunge was the most unique, important, and important trend of the decade by far.

Why oh why does grunge and pearl jam come to peoples minds every time we think about the 90s! Every time I come to this board I see a bunch of threads about the same things. LOL. How Lame!

grunge was the best thing that could happen to the music scene at the time!

Alright, what I like about the the '90s is that it had variety for everyone. Grunge was just one of the many major pop cultural categories of the '90s.

Though I grew up in the 90s, I was too young to really live the Grunge movement - so for a large proportions of those who lived in the 90s, Grunge was not actually much part of their lives (though its successors were). Musically, I automatically associate the 90s with boy bands, Adult contemparary, late Brit-pop, only because I was not exposed to music at all (or very little) prior to the late 90s.

But Grunge was extremely important in shaping music, society and culture in the 90s. So important it spawned many Grunge back-lashes..

Grunge dominate rock in the early '90s, but it didn't rule the pop charts of course hip-hop, pop, and r&b did. So I associate what topped the pop charts (hot 100) with the '90s more than grunge. I remember very little if anything about grunge to be honest, though I do remember a few of the real popular pop songs from the early '90s. The mid '90s are quite a big clearer and I was aware of a number of the so-called post-grunge bands like Smashing Pumpkins because I had older cousins into that stuff.

Though I grew up in the 90s, I was too young to really live the Grunge movement - so for a large proportions of those who lived in the 90s, Grunge was not actually much part of their lives (though its successors were). Musically, I automatically associate the 90s with boy bands, Adult contemparary, late Brit-pop, only because I was not exposed to music at all (or very little) prior to the late 90s.

But Grunge was extremely important in shaping music, society and culture in the 90s. So important it spawned many Grunge back-lashes..


Grunge backlashes-

Teen pop
"Cheerier" late '90s alt-pop
'00s indie rock and indiemo (delicate, not focused on sludgy guitar, return to new wave stylings, etc.)

Grunge backlashes-

Teen pop
"Cheerier" late '90s alt-pop
'00s indie rock and indiemo (delicate, not focused on sludgy guitar, return to new wave stylings, etc.)


Britpop was THE major back-lash against grunge...1994 was the year when it all turned. If Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison's death signalled the end of their Age, then Cobain's really was the death gnell for Grunge and everything that came with it.

Britpop was THE major back-lash against grunge...1994 was the year when it all turned. If Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison's death signalled the end of their Age, then Cobain's really was the death gnell for Grunge and everything that came with it.

yep,I agree on that one. After Cobain's suicide the whole hype around Seattle bands certainly cooled off.
Even though the 3 other major "grunge" bands were still around (Soundgarden,Pearl Jam & AIC), they were quicky left behind.

Britpop was THE major back-lash against grunge...1994 was the year when it all turned. If Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison's death signalled the end of their Age, then Cobain's really was the death gnell for Grunge and everything that came with it.


Britpop was certainly a major backlash, but it never quite wiped away the popularity of gloomy hard-rock like grunge, which was popular in the US until 2002.

Britpop was certainly a major backlash, but it never quite wiped away the popularity of gloomy hard-rock like grunge, which was popular in the US until 2002.

I guess grunge wasn't as popular in Europe as in America.

I guess grunge wasn't as popular in Europe as in America.


It was certainly very popular (and has not died out completely) down here...

Grunge backlashes-

Teen pop
"Cheerier" late '90s alt-pop
'00s indie rock and indiemo (delicate, not focused on sludgy guitar, return to new wave stylings, etc.)
...and glam rap.

The 90s were about grunge and hip hop.

Grunge backlashes-

Teen pop
"Cheerier" late '90s alt-pop
'00s indie rock and indiemo (delicate, not focused on sludgy guitar, return to new wave stylings, etc.)


In a way, that's true. I was thinking though, that grunge and old school alternative music never had a true backlash (i.e. 1993 music wasn't uncool in 1998, just a bit older). For instance, those more poppish genres mentioned were a reaction against grunge, although they never made it look totally silly and uncool (the way grunge did witth hair metal) because heavy or edgier stuff tends to be more timeless.

I remember when teenpop became big, people were talking about how The Spice Girls were making radio pop sound fun again after a few years of sludgier grunge sounds. But poppier or more party music won't really offset a heavier genre or make it sound uncool, whereas the other way is easier.

Nope the '90s were about many things (bubblegum pop, alternative/grunge, hip-hop soul, rap, country pop, pop ballads, etc). Grunge was obviously important for the popularity of "alternative" rock which ultimately is basically what all rock is nowadays for some reason, so it likely is the most important style that came out of the '90s because of the lasting side effects.

Nope the '90s were about many things (bubblegum pop, alternative/grunge, hip-hop soul, rap, country pop, pop ballads, etc). Grunge was obviously important for the popularity of "alternative" rock which ultimately is basically what all rock is nowadays for some reason, so it likely is the most important style that came out of the '90s because of the lasting side effects.

Yeah, grunge was the most dominant music in terms of overall influence on things other than music (i.e. tv shows, fashion, clothing), but on the actual charts, it was more pop, R&B, dance music and AC.