Grunge Movement In The Mid-80's

During the mid-80’s, in the rainy city of Seattle, a musical movement was born. The “Seattle Sound”, commonly called Grunge, is trademarked for its distorted guitars, heavy drumming, and flannel shirts. When you think grunge, you think basic, if not dirty, as many grunge musicians became known for having messy appearances and were repelled from any sort of dramatic stage presence. With the help of bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana, the popularity of grunge increased and from the late 80’s to the mid 90’s, it became the favored type of music to listen to. Regardless of the fact that most grunge bands broke up or faded away by the late 1990s, their influence still continues to affect rock music today.

Seattle’s isolation from other, more popular music scenes helped it grow and form its own distinct sound. As Sub Pop record label founder, Jonathan Poneman, stated, "Seattle was a perfect example

Eventually, the United Kingdom’s press caught wind of the grunge movement after Everett True, a journalist for the British magazine Melody Maker, wrote an article on the music scene in Seattle. This caused grunge to be known outside of the local area and was able to help draw more people to shows. Grunge's popularity in the underground music scene started become so popular that newly formed bands started to begin to move to Seattle and imitate the look and sound of the original bands. Steve Turner from the band Mudhoney said, "It was really bad. Pretend bands were popping up here, things weren't coming from where we were coming from." (Azerrad) This sparked a diversification in the original grunge bands sound, causing groups like Nirvana to create more melodic songs. However, grunge was still able to captivate the press with its "promised return to a notion of a regional, authorial vision for American rock".