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168-550: Brighten the Corners is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Pavement , released on February 11, 1997 by Matador Records . The album received very positive reviews from critics. Brighten the Corners was recorded at Mitch Easter 's Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina . According to singer and guitarist Stephen Malkmus , it was either Matador Records or Mary Timony from Helium who suggested that

336-497: A dirge -like music that was the beginning of northwest grunge. The Melvins were the most influential of the early grunge bands. Sub Pop producer Jack Endino described grunge as "seventies-influenced, slowed-down punk music". Leighton Beezer, who played with Mark Arm and Steve Turner in the Thrown Ups, state that when he heard Green River play Come On Down , he realized that they were playing punk rock backwards. He noted that

504-709: A reverb heavy, pop –influenced sound. Marked by the Clean's 1981 debut single "Tally-Ho!" and 1982's Dunedin Double EP featuring the Chills , Sneaky Feelings , the Verlaines and the Stones , its guitars were often jangly and droning and vocals indistinct. The following years, the Dunedin sound spread to other New Zealand cities such as Christchurch or Auckland . The decade then saw

672-466: A sellout ?" Clothing commonly worn by grunge musicians in Washington were a "mundane everyday style", in which they would wear the same clothes on stage that they wore at home. This Pacific Northwest "slacker style" or "slouch look" contrasted sharply with the "wild" mohawks , leather jackets and chains worn by punks. This everyday clothing approach was used by grunge musicians because authenticity

840-419: A snare drum and, for cymbals , Zildjian instruments, including "... 14-inch K Light [Hi-] hats ; 17-inch K Custom Dark crash [cymbal] and 18-inch K Crash Ride; 19-inch Projection crash; a 20-inch Rezo crash; ... and a ... 22-inch A Medium ride [cymbal]". A second example is Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl 's set-up during 1990 and 1991. He used a four-piece Tama drumset, with an 8" × 14" birch snare drum,

1008-407: A "desire to 'crucify the insincere ' ", an approach which fans appreciated for its authenticity . Grunge lyrics have been criticized as "violent and often obscene." In 1996, conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote an essay criticizing grunge, entitled "Our Hero, Heroin"; he called it a music that is mostly "... shorn of ideals and the impulse for political action". A number of factors influenced

1176-420: A "low-rent studio named Reciprocal ", where producer Jack Endino created the grunge genre's aesthetic, a "raw and unpolished sound with distortion , but usually without any added studio effects ". Endino is known for his stripped-down recording practices and his dislike of 'over-producing' music with effects and remastering . His work on Soundgarden's Screaming Life and Nirvana's Bleach as well as for

1344-514: A 14" × 15" rack tom, a 16" × 18" floor tom, and a 16" × 24" bass drum (this kit "was demolished at the Cabaret Metro, Chicago, 10/12/91"). Like Matt Cameron, Dave Grohl used Zildjian cymbals. Grohl used the company's A Series Medium cymbals, including an 18" and a 20" crash cymbal, a 22" ride cymbal, and a pair of 15" hi-hat cymbals. Although other instruments are generally not included in grunge, Seattle band Gorilla created controversy by breaking

1512-595: A 2009 article for the Guardian , journalist Peter Robinson cited the landfill indie movement as dead, blaming the Wombats , Scouting For Girls , and Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong by stating "If landfill indie had been a game of Buckaroo , those three sent the whole donkey's arse of radio-friendly mainstream guitar band monotony flying high into the air, legs flailing." There continued to be commercial successes in

1680-602: A Life (2017) winning the Mercury Prize in 2018 and third album Blue Weekend (2021) being nominated. Writer Martin Young stated in a 2021 article for Dork that "It's impossible to truly state just how important Wolf Alice are. They are the catalyst for almost all the amazing bands you've read about in Dork over the last 5 years." Grunge The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and

1848-536: A descriptor in its own right, describing not only the bands on the tape but also bands who it influenced, often used alongside terms like "anorak pop" and "shambling". Some C86 bands found significant commercial success: the Soup Dragons went on to sell out Madison Square Garden ; Primal Scream were critically acclaimed, receiving the first ever Mercury Prize in 1992; the Wedding Present charted eighteen times in

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2016-475: A desire for freedom . An article by MIT states that grunge "lyrics [were] obsessed with disenfranchisement" and described a mood of "resigned despair". Catherine Strong, in her book Grunge: Music and Memory, states that grunge songs were usually about "negative experiences or feelings", with the main themes being alienation and depression , but with an "ironic sneer." Grunge artists expressed "strong feelings" in their lyrics about "societal ills", including

2184-505: A drug related to Ecstasy , "was a vital contributor to grunge", because it gave users a "body high" (in contrast to marijuana's "head high") that made them appreciate "bass-heavy grooves ". Pat Long's History of the NME states that scene members involved with the Sub Pop label would have multi-day MDMA parties in the woods, which shows that what Long calls Ecstasy's "warm glow" had an impact even in

2352-837: A feeling of burnout in the culture at large. Kids are depressed about the future". The topics of grunge lyrics– homelessness , suicide , rape , "broken homes, drug addiction and self-loathing"–contrasted sharply to the glam metal lyrics of bands like Poison , which described "life in the fast lane", partying, and hedonism. Grunge lyrics developed as part of " Generation X malaise", reflecting that demographic's feelings of "disillusionment and uselessness". Grunge songs about love were usually about "failed, boring, doomed or destructive relationships" (e.g., " Black " by Pearl Jam). The Alice in Chains songs "Sickman", "Junkhead", "God Smack", and " Hate to Feel " have references to heroin . Grunge lyrics tended to be more introspective and aimed to enable

2520-591: A few notes apart but sound unalike. He took the same rhythm with the same chord, however descending the neck made it sound darker, and therefore grunge. Early grunge bands would also copy a riff from metal and slow it down, play it backwards, distort it and bury it in feedback, then shout lyrics with little melody over the top of it. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock (specifically American hardcore punk such as Black Flag) and heavy metal (especially traditional, earlier heavy metal groups such as Black Sabbath), although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or

2688-454: A high level of distortion and fuzz, typically created with small 1970s-style stompbox pedals, with some guitarists chaining several fuzz pedals together and plugging them into a tube amplifier and speaker cabinet. Grunge guitarists use very loud Marshall guitar amplifiers and some used powerful Mesa-Boogie amplifiers, including Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl (the latter in early, grunge-oriented Foo Fighters songs). Grunge has been called

2856-683: A higher one." Steve Albini was another important influence on the grunge sound. Albini preferred to be called a "recording engineer", because he believed that putting record producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys the band's real sound, while the role of the recording engineer is to capture the actual sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their creative product. Albini's recordings have been analyzed by writers such as Michael Azerrad , who stated that Albini's "recordings were both very basic and very exacting: like Endino, Albini used few special effects ; got an aggressive, often violent guitar sound; and made sure

3024-581: A highly amplified electric guitar is held in front of its speaker, were used to create high-pitched, sustained sounds that are not possible with regular guitar technique. Grunge guitarists were influenced by the raw, primitive sound of punk, and they favored "... energy and lack of finesse over technique and precision"; key guitar influences included the Sex Pistols , the Dead Boys , Celtic Frost , King's X , Voivod , Neil Young ( Rust Never Sleeps , side two),

3192-464: A key element of indie is the dichotomy between a "puritan ethos" and a "romantic one", with the former using austere ethics, and the latter being eccentric. This is best seen in the contrast between the indie music of United States and the United Kingdom in the 1990s, with British acts being flamboyant performers, while American acts used their lack of virtuosity as a mark of authenticity. Indie rock

3360-650: A lack of professionalism may be the origin of the term "grunge". The "Seattle scene" refers to a regional Pacific Northwest alternative music movement that was linked to the University of Washington in Seattle, and the Evergreen State College in Olympia. Evergreen is a progressive college which does not use a conventional grading system and has its own radio station, KAOS . Seattle's remoteness from Los Angeles led to

3528-416: A musical approach, the indie rock movement encompassed a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge-influenced bands, through do-it-yourself experimental bands like Pavement , to punk-folk singers such as Ani DiFranco . In his book DIY Style: Fashion, Music and Global Digital Cultures , Brent Luvaas described the genre as rooted in nostalgia, citing the influence of garage rock and psychedelic rock of

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3696-450: A non-conformist move against the "manufactured image", often pushing musicians to dress in authentic ways and to not glamorize themselves. At the same time, Sub-Pop utilized the 'grunge look' in their marketing of their bands. In an interview with VH1, photographer Charles Peterson commented that members from grunge band Tad "were given blue collar identities that weren't entirely earned. Bruce (Pavitt) really got him to dress up in flannel and

3864-430: A perceived purity of its music. The music of these bands, many of which had recorded with Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, became labeled as "grunge". Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain , in one of his final interviews, credited Jonathan Poneman , cofounder of Sub Pop, with coining the term "grunge" to describe the music. The term "Seattle sound" became a marketing ploy for the music industry. In September 1991,

4032-399: A post-grunge and hardcore on their breakthrough albums Word Gets Around (1997) and Performance and Cocktails (1999), before moving into more melodic territory with Just Enough Education to Perform (2001) and subsequent albums. Feeder , who were initially more influenced by American post-grunge, producing a hard rock sound that led to their breakthrough single " Buck Rogers " and

4200-419: A real chain saw and really play up this image of a mountain man and it worked." Dazed magazine called Courtney Love one of "ten women who defined the 1990s" from a style perspective: the "... image of Courtney Love's too-short baby doll dress, tattered fur coat and shock of platinum hair", a look dubbed " kinderwhore ", "... topped with a tiara, of course – is seared on the memory of anyone who lived through

4368-560: A result, the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning and began to refer to the new, commercially lighter form of music that was now achieving mainstream success. New York magazine writer Carl Swanson argued that even the term "sellout" lost its meaning as grunge made it possible for a niche movement, no matter how radical, to be co-opted by the mainstream, cementing the formation of an individualist, fragmented culture. In his book Popular Music: The Key Concepts , media academic Roy Shuker states that "Grunge represented

4536-411: A savanna landscape wearing grunge-styled clothing. This shoot made McMenamy the face for grunge, as she had her eyebrows shaved and her hair cropped short. Designers like Christian Lacroix , Donna Karen and Karl Lagerfeld incorporated the grunge influence into their looks. In 1993, James Truman, editor of Details , said: "to me the thing about grunge is it's not anti-fashion, it's unfashion. Punk

4704-572: A slow, "sludgy" speed, and used more dissonant harmonies. Seattle music journalist Charles R. Cross defines "grunge" as distortion-filled, down-tuned and riff-based rock that uses loud electric guitar feedback and heavy, "ponderous" basslines to support its song melodies. Robert Loss calls grunge a melding of "violence and speed, muscularity and melody", where there is space for all people, including women musicians . VH1 writer Dan Tucker feels that different grunge bands were influenced by different genres; that while Nirvana drew on punk, Pearl Jam

4872-513: A style and more a categorization, it describes an early 1990s trend of acts who followed in the traditions of early electronic music (composers of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop ), krautrock and synth-pop . Progenitors of the genre were English bands Disco Inferno , Stereolab , and Space . Most musicians in the genre can be found on independent labels like Warp , Morr Music , Sub Pop or Ghostly International . Space rock took

5040-686: A style indebted to '60s-70s bands like the Velvet Underground and the Ramones , the band's intention musically was to sound like "a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record." The album peaked at number thirty-three in the United States, staying in the charts for two additional years and debuted at number two on the UK albums chart . When the Strokes made their commercial debut,

5208-489: A technique of "ripping, shredding and remaking letters" and using "overprinted, disharmonious letters" and experimental design approaches, including "deliberate 'mistakes' in alignment". Carson's art used "messy and chaotic design" and he did not "respect any rule of composition", using an "experimental, personal and intuitive" approach. Another "grunge graphic designer" was Elliott Earls , who used "distorted ... older typefaces" and "aggressively illegible" type which adopted

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5376-441: A way to react to 1980s-era metal pop ; he calls the term a misnomer mostly based on hype. Stetson states that prominent bands considered to be grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Hammerbox ) all sound different. Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge , pointed out vast differences between grunge bands, with some being punk and others being metal-based. In 1984,

5544-460: A woman's and a man's wardrobe, and his Seattle thrift-store look ran the gamut of masculine lumberjack workwear and 40s-by-way-of-70s feminine dresses. It was completely counter to the shellacked, flashy aesthetic of the 1980s in every way. In disheveled jeans and floral frocks, he softened the tough exterior of the archetypal rebel from the inside out, and set the ball in motion for a radical, millennial idea of androgyny." Cobain's way of dressing "was

5712-492: Is Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez 's setup. He uses four powerful Ampeg SVT -2 PRO tube amplifier heads, two of them plugged into four 1×18" subwoofer cabinets for the low register, and the other two plugged into two 8×10" cabinets. Krist Novoselic and Jeff Ament are also known for using Ampeg SVT tube amplifiers. Ben Shepherd uses a 300 watt all-tube Ampeg SVT-VR amp and a 600 watt Mesa/Boogie Carbine M6 amplifier. Ament uses four 6×10" speaker cabinets. In contrast to

5880-506: Is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels , by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced. The sound of indie rock has its origins in the New Zealand Dunedin sound of the Chills , Sneaky Feelings , Tall Dwarfs ,

6048-460: Is about a "man who finds faith after his girlfriend's suicide"; it depicts "irony and ugliness" as a way of dealing with these "dark issues". Like punk, grunge's sound came from a lo fi (low fidelity) recording and production approach. Before the arrival of major labels, early grunge albums were recorded using low-budget analogue studios: "Nirvana's first album Bleach , was recorded for $ 606.17 in 1989." Sub Pop recorded most of their music at

6216-482: Is noted for having a relatively high proportion of female artists compared with preceding rock genres, a tendency exemplified by the development of the feminist-informed riot grrrl music of acts like Bikini Kill , Bratmobile , 7 Year Bitch , Team Dresch and Huggy Bear . However, Cortney Harding pointed out that this sense of equality is not reflected in the number of women running indie labels. The BBC documentary Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie pinpoints

6384-546: The Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's highest-charting album in the United States. In August 2017, AM was certified platinum by the RIAA for combined sales and album-equivalent units over of a million units in the United States. As of the 14th of April 2023 every track from the album was certified silver or higher by the BPI with "Mad Sounds" being the last to be certified. When

6552-486: The Nirvana album Nevermind was released, bringing mainstream attention to the music of Seattle. Cobain loathed the word "grunge" and despised the new scene that was developing, feeling that record companies were signing old " cock-rock " bands who were pretending to be grunge and claiming to be from Seattle. Some bands associated with the genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to

6720-622: The Small Clone chorus effect , used by Kurt Cobain on " Come As You Are " and by the Screaming Trees on " Nearly Lost You ". The DS-1 (later DS-2) distortion pedal played a key role in Cobain's switching from quiet to loud and back to quiet approach to songwriting. The use of small pedals by grunge guitarists helped to start off the revival of interest in boutique, hand-soldered, 1970s-style analog pedals. The other effect that grunge guitarists used

6888-466: The Thames Valley . During the 1990s, the mainstream success of grunge and Britpop , two movements influenced by indie rock, brought increased attention to the genre and saw record labels use their independent status as a marketing tactic. This led to a split within indie rock: one side conforming to mainstream radio; the other becoming increasingly experimental. By this point, "indie rock" referred to

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7056-417: The diminished fifth note was used by Black Sabbath to produce an ominous feeling but it is not used in punk rock. In the 1996 grunge film documentary Hype! , Beezer demonstrated on guitar the difference between punk and grunge. First he played the riff from "Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones that ascends the neck of the guitar, then "Come On Down" by Green River that descends the neck. The two pieces are only

7224-497: The hippie counterculture and reggae , both of which are associated with marijuana and psychedelics. In the 1990s, the media focused on the use of heroin by musicians in the Seattle grunge scene, with a 1992 New York Times article listing the city's "three principal drugs" as " espresso , beer and heroin" and a 1996 article calling Seattle's grunge scene the "... subculture that has most strongly embraced heroin". Tim Jonze from The Guardian states that "... heroin had blighted

7392-568: The mid-to-late 1990s , many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain , labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", struggled with an addiction to heroin before his suicide in 1994. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself . Grunge

7560-497: The psychedelic rock , ambient music influence of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind and incorporated them into an indie rock context. The style began with Spacemen 3 in the 1980s, with later groups including Spiritualized , Flying Saucer Attack , Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Quickspace . As Britpop waned towards the end of the decade, post-Britpop took hold within the UK's indie rock scene. From about 1997, as dissatisfaction grew with

7728-419: The rhythm section slammed as one." Nirvana's In Utero is a typical example of Albini's recording approach. He preferred to have the entire band play live in the studio, rather than use mainstream rock's approach of recording each instrument on a separate track at different times, and then mixing them using multi-track recording . While multitracking results in a more polished product, it does not capture

7896-735: The " Eric Clapton of grunge", a reference to the British blues guitarist who Time magazine has named as number five in their list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players". Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has been praised for his blues-influenced, rapid licks. The Smashing Pumpkins ' guitarist Billy Corgan has been called the "arena rock genius of the '90s" for pioneering guitar playing techniques and showing through his playing skill that grunge guitarists do not have to be sloppy players to rebel against mainstream music. Thayil stated that when other major grunge bands, such as Nirvana, were reducing their guitar solos, Soundgarden responded by bringing back

8064-473: The " slacker " stereotype, and as a defining anthem of 90s indie rock. With the rise of Britpop , many of Britain's earlier indie rock bands fell into obscurity. Fronted by Blur , Oasis , Pulp and Suede , the bands in the movement were advertised as being underground artists, as a means to compete commercially with the United States' grunge scene. While Britpop was stylistically indebted to indie rock and began as an offshoot of it, Britpop bands abandoned

8232-402: The "guitars only" approach and using a 1960s-style Vox organ in their group. In 2002, Pearl Jam added a keyboard player, Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar , who played piano , Hammond organ , and other keyboards; the addition of a keyboardist to the band would have been "inconceivable" in the band's "grungy" early years, but it shows how a group's sound can change over time. The grunge singing style

8400-400: The "heroin is not a big part of the [Seattle music] culture", and that "marijuana and alcohol ... are far more prevalent". Jeff Gilbert, one of the editors of Guitar World magazine, stated in 1994 that the media association of the Seattle grunge scene with heroin was "really overblown"; instead, he says that Seattle musicians were "... all a bunch of potheads." Gil Troy's history of America in

8568-412: The "live" sound of the band playing together. Albini used a range of different microphones for the vocals and instruments. Like most metal and punk recording engineers, he mics the guitar amp speakers and bass amp speakers to capture each performer's unique tone. Grunge concerts were known for being straightforward, high-energy performances. Grunge shows were "celebrations, parties [and] carnivals", where

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8736-435: The "massive drum kits " used in 1980s pop metal , grunge drummers used relatively smaller drum kits. One example is the drumkit used by Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron 's set-up. He uses a six-piece kit (this way of describing drumkits counts only the wooden drums, and does not count the cymbals ), including a "12×8-inch rack tom ; 13×9-inch rack tom; 16×14-inch floor tom ; 18×16-inch floor tom; 24×14-inch bass drum " and

8904-470: The "ugliness" they saw around them and shine a light on unseen "depths and depravity" of the real world. Some key individuals in the development of the grunge sound, including Sub Pop producer Jack Endino and the Melvins , described grunge's incorporation of heavy rock influences such as Kiss as "musical provocation". Grunge artists considered these bands "cheesy" but nonetheless enjoyed them; Buzz Osborne of

9072-549: The "unkempt expressiveness" of the "grunge [music] aesthetic"; this radical, anti-establishment approach in graphic design was influenced by the 1910s-era avant-garde Dada movement. Hat Nguyen's Droplet, Harriet Goren's Morire and Eric Lin's Tema Canante were all "signature grunge fonts." Sven Lennartz states that grunge design images have a "realistic, genuine look" which is created by adding simulated torn paper, dog-eared corners, creases, yellowed scotch tape, coffee cup stains, hand-drawn images and handwritten words, typically over

9240-522: The 1960s in progenitors the Stone Roses and the Smiths , in addition to a lyrical preoccupation with literature. In this same vein, Matthew Bannister defined indie rock as "small groups of white men playing guitars, influenced by punks and 1960s white pop/rock, within a broader discourse and practice of (degrees of) independence from mainstream musical values." According to anthropologist Wendy Fonarow ,

9408-412: The 1975 's merger of indie rock and mainstream pop began gaining commercial attraction in the early 2010s, it was controversial; they received the award for "Worst Band" at the 2014 NME Awards , but by 2017 received "Best Live Band" at the same award show. Alternative Press writer Yasmine Summan stated that "If you could summarize 2013 and 2014 in one album for indie and alternative fans, it would be

9576-519: The 1975's self-titled release ". In an article for the Guardian accrediting the 1975 as the band to "usher indie into the mainstream", writer Mark Beaumont compared vocalist Matty Healy's influence on the genre to that of Libertines vocalist Pete Doherty , and Pitchfork listed them as one of the most influential artists in music since 1995. In the 1975's wake, a number of other indie pop artist gained popularity. Some critics termed this phenomenon "Healywave", which notably included: Pale Waves ,

9744-585: The 1980s closed, both Sonic Youth and the Pixies signed to major labels. In the late 1980s, the indie rock subgenre shoegaze emerged, as a continuation of the wall of sound production being used by groups like the Jesus and Mary Chain. The genre merged this with influences from Dinosaur Jr. and the Cocteau Twins , to create a dark and droning style so cacophonous that instruments were often indistinguishable. The genre

9912-405: The 1980s, he preferred to make noise and do feedback during the guitar solo. Baeble Music calls the grunge guitar solos of the 1990s "raw", "sloppy", and "basic". Not all sources support the "grunge killed the guitar solo" argument. Sean Gonzalez states that Pearl Jam has plentiful examples of guitar solos. Michael Azerrad praises the guitar playing of Mudhoney's Steve Turner , calling him

10080-455: The 1990s states that in the Seattle grunge scene, the "... drug of choice switched from upscale cocaine [of the 1980s] to blue-collar marijuana." Rolling Stone magazine reported that members of Seattle's grunge scene were "coffee-crazed" by day on espresso and "... by night, they quaff[ed] oceans of beer – jolted by Java and looped with liquor, no wonder the [grunge] music sounds like it does." "Some [Seattle] scene veterans maintain that MDA ",

10248-554: The 2010s Arcade Fire 's The Suburbs (2010), the Black Keys's Turn Blue (2014), Kings of Leon's Walls (2016), the Killers's Wonderful Wonderful (2017), which reached number one on the Billboard charts in the United States and the official chart in the United Kingdom, with Arcade Fire's album winning a Grammy for Album of The Year in 2011. Other indie rock acts like Florence and

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10416-453: The Aces , Joan , Fickle Friends and No Rome . Of this group, Pale Waves were particularly commercially prominent, with their debut album My Mind Makes Noises peaking at number eight on the UK albums chart, Who Am I? (2021) at number three and Unwanted (2022) at number four. At around the same time Wolf Alice became a prominent force in the scene, with their second album Visions of

10584-837: The Apples in Stereo , Beulah , Circulatory System , Elf Power , the Minders , Neutral Milk Hotel , of Montreal and the Olivia Tremor Control – merged indie rock with psychedelic pop . Gimme Indie Rock author Andrew Earles stated that the collective, namely Neutral Milk Hotel on On Avery Island (1996), "helped keep the genre artistically relevant while other bands defected and other underground styles rose to prominence". Indie electronic or indietronica covers rock-based artists who share an affinity for electronic music, using samplers, synthesizers, drum machines, and computer programs. Less

10752-639: The Clash , the Kinks , the Smiths and the Jam , the band's style of tinny, high register, sometimes acoustic, guitar parts topped by lyrics of British parochial pleasures in the vocalists' authentic English accents became widely imitated. The Fratellis , the Kooks , and the View were three such acts to gain significant commercial success, although the most prominent post-Libertines band

10920-414: The Clean and the Verlaines , and early 1980s college rock radio stations who would frequently play jangle pop bands like the Smiths and R.E.M. . The genre solidified itself during the mid–1980s with NME ' s C86 cassette in the United Kingdom and the underground success of Sonic Youth , Dinosaur Jr. and Unrest in the United States. During the decade, indie rock bands like Sonic Youth,

11088-504: The Corners received very positive reviews from critics and was ranked No. 10 in The Village Voice ' s 1997 Pazz & Jop critics' poll. In the poll's accompanying essay, Robert Christgau referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy", alongside those by Yo La Tengo , Sleater-Kinney , and Arto Lindsay . All tracks are written by Stephen Malkmus , except where noted Indie rock Indie rock

11256-612: The Cribs , Bloc Party , Kaiser Chiefs and the Others . However, the Libertines , who formed in 1997, stood as the UK's counterpoint to the Strokes, being described by AllMusic as "one of the U.K.'s most influential 21st century acts" and the Independent stating that "the Libertines wanted to be an important band, but they could not have predicted the impact they would have". Influenced by

11424-568: The DoubleHappys and Straitjacket Fits . Knox later formed another short-lived punk band called Toy Love , and after it broke up, he went on to start the influential band Tall Dwarfs , who were an integral influence on the emergence of home-recorded lo-fi indie . The punk-inspired aspects of the scene were often inspired by opposition to Robert Muldoon and his government, which prompted satire or outright criticism. The scene saw bands take influence from punk rock, but strip away its aggression for

11592-481: The Head (2002) went multi-platinum , establishing them as one of the most popular acts in the world by the time of their third album X&Y (2005). Snow Patrol's " Chasing Cars " (from their 2006 album Eyes Open ) is the most widely played song of the 21st century on UK radio. The mainstream attention which indie rock garnered in the 2000s began with the Strokes and their 2001 debut album Is This It . Playing

11760-482: The Hunters Club and Scum Pups . In the early 1990s, the Seattle grunge scene, and its most visible acts, Nirvana , Pearl Jam , Soundgarden and Alice in Chains , broke into the mainstream. The monumental success of these bands, particularly Nirvana, brought increased attention to the indie rock scene, which initiated a shift in which the indie rock descriptor became displaced by the term alternative rock . As

11928-741: The Machine , the Decemberists and LCD Soundsystem gained number one singles in the United States during the decade, with Vampire Weekend , Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Bon Iver , the Killers and the Postal Service gaining platinum selling records. Vampire Weekend's third studio album Modern Vampires of the City (2013) received the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2014, with Consequence writer Tyler Clark stating that in 2019 it

12096-481: The Melvins described it as an attempt to see what ridiculous things bands could do and get away with. In the early-1990s, Nirvana's signature "stop-start" song format and alternating between soft and loud sections became a genre convention. In the book Accidental Revolution: The Story of Grunge , Kyle Anderson wrote: The twelve songs on Sixteen Stone sound exactly like what grunge is supposed to sound like, while

12264-537: The Perry Ellis collection they received from Marc Jacobs back in 1993. In 2016, grunge inspired an upscale "reinvention" of the style by A$ AP Rocky , Rihanna and Kanye West . However, "dressing grunge is no longer a badge of authenticity, though: the signifiers of rebellion (Dr Martens boots, tartan shirts) are omnipotent on the high street", says Lynette Nylander, deputy editor of i-D magazine . Many music subcultures are associated with particular drugs, such as

12432-653: The Pixies and Radiohead all released albums on major labels and subgenres like slowcore , Midwest emo , slacker rock and space rock began. By this time, "indie" had evolved to refer to bands whose music was released on independent record labels, in addition to the record labels themselves. As the decade progressed many individual local scenes developed their own distinct takes on the genre: baggy in Manchester ; grebo in Stourbridge and Leicester ; and shoegaze in London and

12600-544: The Promise Ring and Cap'n Jazz distanced emo from its hardcore roots and allowed the genre to develop a much more realised scene than its first wave. This style of emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s, with the platinum-selling success of Jimmy Eat World 's Bleed American (2001) and Dashboard Confessional 's The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2001). One particularly notable scene during this wave

12768-482: The Replacements releasing albums on majors in the middle of the decade. While these albums did not see the same success as R.E.M., and major labels soon lost interest in the scene, they did have a large impact on younger bands. In the following years, Sonic Youth , Dinosaur Jr. and Unrest began to release music on independent labels indebted to these bands, and soon too picked up the categorisation of indie rock. As

12936-403: The Replacements , Hüsker Dü , Black Flag , and the Melvins . Grunge guitarists often downtuned their instruments for a lower, heavier sound. Soundgarden 's guitarist, Kim Thayil , did not use a regular guitar amplifier ; instead, he used a bass combo amp equipped with a 15-inch speaker as he played low riffs, and the bass amp gave him a deeper tone. Grunge guitarists "flatly rejected"

13104-572: The Smashing Pumpkins also died from heroin. After Cobain's death, his "... widow, singer Courtney Love, characterized Seattle as a drug mecca, where heroin is easier to get than in San Francisco or Los Angeles." However, Daniel House , who owned C/Z Records , disputed these perceptions in 1994. House stated that there was "... no more (heroin) here [in Seattle] than anyplace else"; he stated that

13272-640: The Smiths. The Madchester movement burgeoned by 1989, with the success of the Happy Mondays second album Bummed and the Stone Roses ' self-titled debut , which became the most influential work in the scene. In the following years, addition high profile acts included the Charlatans , 808 State and the Inspiral Carpets . The Madchester scene's distinct combination of indie rock and dance music became termed indie dance by critics, or more specifically

13440-560: The Top 40; however many bands in its twenty-two track runtime also fell into obscurity. In the United States, the popularity of R.E.M. allowed those disliking of hardcore punk 's aggression to become a part of the underground music scene. This empowered an array of musicians, particularly those in what would become the post-hardcore scene as led by the Minutemen . Furthermore, major labels began to pursue underground bands, with both Hüsker Dü and

13608-592: The UK with their first five albums. As of June 2019, AM has spent 300 weeks in the top 100 of the UK Albums Chart . The album also peaked at number one in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Portugal, and reached top ten positions in several other countries. In the United States, the album sold 42,000 copies in its first week, and debuted at number six on

13776-460: The US top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award), Bright Eyes (who in 2004 had two singles at the top of the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Single Sales ) and Death Cab for Cutie (whose 2005 album Plans debuted at number four in the US, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status and a Grammy nomination). This new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of

13944-519: The US, and the Smiths , from the UK, who Matthew Bannister states were the earliest indie rock groups. These bands' influence was showcased quickly seen in the formation of Let's Active , the Housemartins and the La's . By this time, the term "indie rock" had begun to be used to describe the bands who produced music on independent record labels, rather than simply the record labels themselves. This made it

14112-530: The United Kingdom, NME released the C86 compilation cassette, which consisted of tracks by groups including Primal Scream , the Pastels and the Wedding Present . Intended to showcase the UK's current independent music scene, the album was made up of groups combining elements of jangle pop, post-punk and Phil Spector indebted Walls of Sound . In 2006, Bob Stanley called it "the beginning of indie music". C86 became

14280-679: The White Stripes , the Vines , and the Hives . These groups were christened by parts of the media as the "The" bands, and dubbed "the saviours of rock 'n' roll", prompting Rolling Stone magazine to declare on its September 2002 cover, "Rock is Back!" The success of the Strokes revitalised the then-dying underground post-Britpop scene in the United Kingdom with groups who took the band's influence and experimented with their sound. This first wave of UK acts included Franz Ferdinand , Kasabian , Maxïmo Park ,

14448-561: The Wonder Stuff and Ned's Atomic Dustbin , "grebo" was broadly defined, and was used more as a name for the Stourbridge scene than as a genre label. However, the bands quickly gained attention: Pop Will Eat Itself's 1989 singles " Wise Up! Sucker " and " Can U Dig It? " both entered the UK Top 40 and Stourbridge briefly became a tourist attraction for young indie rock fans. The seminal albums from

14616-448: The Word magazine. A 2020 Vice article cited Johnny Borrell , vocalist of Razorlight , as the "one man who defined, embodied and lived Landfill Indie" due his forming of a "spectacularly middle-of-the-road" band despite his close proximity to the Libertines' "desperate kinetic energy, mythologised love-hate dynamic and vision of a dilapidated Britain animated by romance and narcotics". In

14784-405: The [grunge] scene ever since its inception in the mid-80s" and he argues that the "... involvement of heroin mirrors the self-hating, nihilistic aspect to the music"; in addition to the heroin deaths, Jonze points out that Stone Temple Pilots ' Scott Weiland , as well as Courtney Love , Mark Lanegan , Jimmy Chamberlin and Evan Dando "... all had their run-ins with the drug, but lived to tell

14952-452: The album Echo Park (2001). After the death of their drummer Jon Lee , they moved to a more reflective and introspective mode on Comfort in Sound (2002), their most commercially successful album to that point, which spawned a series of hit singles. The most commercially successful band in the millennium were Coldplay , whose first two albums Parachutes (2000) and A Rush of Blood to

15120-582: The amp just used to make the sound louder. Grunge guitarists tended to use the Fender Twin Reverb and the Fender Champion 100 combo amps (Cobain used both of these amps). The use of pedals by grunge guitarists was a move away from the expensive, studio-grade rackmount effects units used in other rock genres. The positive way that grunge bands viewed stompbox pedals can be seen in Mudhoney 's use of

15288-614: The antithesis of the macho American man", because he "... made it cooler to look slouchy and loose, no matter if you were a boy or a girl." Music and culture writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd wrote that with Cobain's style of dress "Not only did he make it okay to be a freak, he made it desirable." Grunge music hit the mainstream in the early 1990s with bands such as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana being signed to major record labels. Grunge fashion began to break into mainstream fashion in mid-1992 for both sexes and peaked in late 1993 and early 1994. As it picked up momentum,

15456-546: The artists have been extremely diverse, including punk , psychedelia , post-punk and country . The lo-fi , experimental and art rock sound of the Velvet Underground as well as late '70s punk and post-punk bands such as the Fall , Buzzcocks , Wire , Television and Joy Division would be influential to the genre. Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of "varying musical approaches [not] compatible with mainstream tastes". Linked by an ethos more than

15624-461: The audience at shows were positive and created a "life-affirming" attitude. Grunge bands rejected the complex and high budget presentations of many mainstream musical genres, including the use of complex digitally controlled light arrays, pyrotechnics, and other visual effects then popular in " hair metal " shows. Grunge performers viewed these elements unrelated to playing the music. Stage acting and "onstage theatrics" were generally avoided. Instead

15792-516: The audience expressed its spirit by stagediving, moshing and thrashing. Simon Reynolds states that in "... some of the most masculine forms of rock— thrash metal , grunge, moshing becomes a form of surrogate combat" in which "male bodies" can contact in the "sweat-and-bloodbath" of the moshpit. As with punk shows, grunge "performances were about frontmen who screamed and jumped around on stage and musicians who thrashed wildly on their instruments." While grunge lyrical themes focused on "angst and rage",

15960-477: The band should record the album there. Although Brighten the Corners was mostly produced by Pavement and Bryce Goggin , Easter worked with the band for roughly a week when Goggin left the studio. The recording sessions involved extensive editing, and the band would often record several versions of the same song before deciding on a final take. The vocals were then recorded in New York separately. The album title

16128-450: The bands Green River , Screaming Trees , L7 , the Gits , Hole , 7 Year Bitch , and TAD helped to define the grunge sound. An example of the lower cost production approach is Mudhoney; even after the band signed to Warner Music , "[t]rue to [the band's] indie roots ... [they are] ... probably one of the few bands that would have to fight [their label] to record for a lower budget rather than

16296-446: The bands presented themselves as no different from minor local bands. Jack Endino said in Hype! that Seattle bands were inconsistent live performers, since their primary objective was not to be entertainers, but simply to "rock out". Grunge bands gave enthusiastic performances; they would thrash their long hair during shows as "a symbolic weapon" for releasing "pent-up aggression" ( Dave Grohl

16464-511: The coining of the term "indie" to the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Manchester punk rock band the Buzzcocks , on their Ind ependent record label New Hormones . This inspired a DIY punk movement where bands like Swell Maps , 'O' Level , Television Personalities and Desperate Bicycles followed suit in pressing and distributing their own records. Distribution

16632-750: The concept of Cool Britannia and Britpop as a movement began to dissolve, emerging bands began to avoid the Britpop label while still producing music derived from it. After the decline of Britpop they began to gain more critical and popular attention. The Verve 's album Urban Hymns (1997) was a worldwide hit and their commercial peak before they broke up in 1999, while Radiohead  – although having achieved moderate recognition with The Bends in 1995 – achieved near-universal critical acclaim with their experimental third album OK Computer (1997), and its follow-ups Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). Stereophonics , used elements of

16800-479: The covers of magazines like NME and Melody Maker . Grebo bands were distinct from prior indie rock groups not only because of their broad influences, but their subversion of the twee or unhappy moods of most other bands in the genre, and their pursuit of a heavier sound and aesthetic. The scene came to include the stylistically similar bands of nearby Leicester: the Bomb Party , Gaye Bykers on Acid , Crazyhead ,

16968-597: The decade." The kinderwhore look consisted of torn, ripped tight or low-cut babydoll and Peter-Pan-collared dresses, slips, heavy makeup with dark eyeliner, barrettes, and leather boots or Mary–Jane shoes. Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland was the first to define it, while Courtney Love of Hole was the first to popularize it. Love has claimed that she took the style from Divinyls frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett . The look became very popular in 1994. Vogue stated in 2014 that "Cobain pulled liberally from both ends of

17136-467: The development of indie rock's sound. According to Audioculture , one of the earliest Dunedin Sound band was Chris Knox 's band the Enemy , which emerged as a post-punk group, whose members also included Alec Bathgate . Although the group was only around for a short time, their shows impressed the teenage musicians that came to see them, including a young Shayne Carter , who went on to form Bored Games ,

17304-445: The distinctive 'protest' element of British-based independent music" Music journalist John Harris has suggested that Britpop began when Blur's fourth single " Popscene " and Suede's debut " The Drowners " were released around the same time in the spring of 1992. He stated, "[I]f Britpop started anywhere, it was the deluge of acclaim that greeted Suede's first records: all of them audacious, successful and very, very British." Suede were

17472-635: The dominant sound was a style of indie rock that was heavily indebted to punk and Nirvana's album Bleach album, while also occasionally making use of drum machines . Gigwise writer Steven Kline described the style as "filthy guitars, filthier hair and t-shirts only a mother would wash". Prominent fraggle acts included Senseless Things , Mega City Four and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine . Spin writer Charles Aaron described Pavement and Guided by Voices as "the two bands that came to exemplify indie rock in this period, and still define

17640-643: The first UK punk single " New Rose " by the Damned In Australia , the Saints had their first punk release outside the US, " (I'm) Stranded ," on their own "Fatal Records" label. This was followed by the Go-Betweens releasing ' Lee Remick ' a few months later. Dunedin produced the independent record label Flying Nun Records , whose artists defined the Dunedin sound , which would be particularly influential on

17808-446: The first of the new crop of guitar-orientated bands to be embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. Their debut album Suede for the fastest-selling debut album in the UK. Sunny Day Real Estate 's debut album, Diary (1994), began a new wave of the emo genre, by incorporating elements of it into their indie rock sound. Sunny Day Real Estate and other second wave emo bands, including Piebald ,

17976-740: The focus on such subject matter. Many grunge musicians displayed a general disenchantment with the state of society, as well as a discomfort with social prejudices . Grunge lyrics contained "explicit political messages and ... questioning about ... society and how it might be changed." While grunge lyrics were less overtly political than punk songs, grunge songs still indicated a concern for social issues, particularly those affecting young people. The main themes in grunge were "tolerance of difference", "support of women", "mistrust of authority" and "cynicism towards big corporations." Grunge song themes bear similarities to those addressed by punk rock musicians. In 1992, music critic Simon Reynolds said that "there's

18144-487: The following years the Jesus and Mary Chain and Flying Nun Records bands like the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience morphed the genre into a slower, darker and more hypnotic style. The number of college radio stations in the US decreased significantly following NPR 's lobbying against noncommercial station during the 1980s. In turn, the name "college rock" fell into disfavour, soon being replaced by "indie". In

18312-497: The genre's earlier anti-establishment politics and instead brought it into the mainstream, with bands like Blur and Pulp even signing to major labels. In her essay Labouring the Point? The Politics of Britain in "New Britain" , politician and academic Rupa Huq states that Britpop "began as an offshoot of the independent British music scene but arguably ended up killing it, as a convergence took place between indie and mainstream, removing

18480-472: The genre, with Bandcamp Daily writer Robert Rubsam, calling them the "fountainhead for all that would come". The first wave of bands in the genre included Red House Painters , Codeine , Bedhead , Ida and Low . The genre originated from around the United States, with no geographic focus, and very little interaction between its artists. A younger subset of grebo bands emerged around 1991, who were in turn labelled "fraggle" bands. During this movement,

18648-420: The growing popularity of college radio stations, primarily in the United States, who would play independent artists of various genres, including alternative rock , new wave , post-hardcore and post-punk . The bands broadcast on these station became dubbed " college rock " by fans, another term which lacked any stylistic implication. The most prominent college rock bands were jangle pop groups R.E.M. , from

18816-457: The grunge scene wore the "... same plaid [shirt]s, boots, and short cropped heads as their male counterparts", women showed "... that they are not defined by their sex appeal." "Grunge ... became an anti-consumerist movement where the less you spent on clothes, the more 'coolness' you had." The style did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion; music journalist Charles R. Cross said, "[Nirvana frontman] Kurt Cobain

18984-476: The grunge tag was being used by shops selling expensive flannelette shirts to cash in on the trend. Ironically, the non-conformist look suddenly became a mainstream trend. In the fashion world, Marc Jacobs presented a show for Perry Ellis in 1992 (the Spring 1993 Collection,) featuring grunge-inspired clothing mixed with high-end fabrics. Jacobs found inspiration in the " realism " of grunge streetwear; he mixed it with

19152-438: The habit of choice for many a grunger". The title of Nirvana's debut album Bleach was inspired by a harm reduction poster aimed at heroin injection users, which stated "Bleach your works [e.g., syringe and needle ] before you get stoned". The poster was released by the U.S. State Health Department which was trying to reduce AIDS transmission caused through sharing used needles. Alice in Chains' song "God Smack" includes

19320-482: The instrument. In Will Byers' article "Grunge committed a crime against music—it killed the guitar solo" in The Guardian , he states that while the guitar solo managed to survive through the punk rock era, it was weakened by grunge. He also states that when Kurt Cobain played guitar solos that were a restatement of the main vocal melody, fans realized that they did not need to be a Jimi Hendrix -level virtuoso to play

19488-461: The instrument; he then says this approach helped to make music feel accessible by fans in a way not seen since the 1960s folk music movement. The producer of Nirvana's Nevermind , Butch Vig , stated that this album and Nirvana "killed the guitar solo". Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil stated he feels in part to be responsible for the "death of the guitar solo"; he said that his punk rocker aspects made him feel that he did not want to solo, so in

19656-453: The label, preferring instead to be referred to as " rock and roll " bands. Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden stated that he "hates the word" grunge and hates "being associated with it." Seattle musician Jeff Stetson states that when he visited Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a touring musician, the local musicians did not refer to themselves as "grunge" performers or their style as "grunge" and they were not flattered that their music

19824-552: The last 13 years, including a 35-week run peaking at number 49 in 2016–2017. Furthermore, it was the UK's most streamed pre-2010 song, until it was surpassed in late 2018, and continued to be purchased for download hundreds of times a week by 2017. In March 2018, the song reached the milestone of staying in the Top 100 of the UK Singles Chart for 200 weeks. The impact of the Strokes, the Libertines and Bloc Party led to significant major label interest in indie rock artists, which

19992-620: The late 1980s. Defined by its merger of C86 indie rock, dance music and Hedonist rave culture, particularly its emphasis on the use of psychedelic drugs, the scene was centred in Manchester . The scene was based around the Haçienda nightclub, which opened in May 1982 as an initiative of Factory Records . For the first few years of its life, the club played predominantly club-oriented pop music and hosted performances by artists including New Order , Cabaret Voltaire , Culture Club , Thompson Twins and

20160-515: The line "stick your arm for some real fun", a reference to injecting heroin. Seattle musicians known to use heroin included Cobain, who was using "heroin when he shot himself in the head"; " Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone [who] overdosed on heroin in 1990"; " Stefanie Sargent of 7 Year Bitch [who] died of an overdose of the same opiate in 1992 ... [and] Layne Staley of Alice in Chains [who] publicly detailed his battles with heroin ...". Mike Starr of Alice in Chains and Jonathan Melvoin from

20328-440: The listener to see into "hidden" personal issues and examine the "depravity" of the world. This approach can be seen in Mudhoney 's song " Touch Me I'm Sick ", which includes lyrics with "deranged imagery" which depict a "broken world and a fragmented self-image"; the song includes the lines "I feel bad, and I've felt worse" and "I won't live long and I'm full of rot". Nirvana's song " Lithium ", from their 1991 album Nevermind ,

20496-473: The lower-sounding, downtuned guitars and the darker-themed lyrical messages used in the style. Grunge singers used "gravelly, raspy" vocals, "... growls, moans, screams and mumbles" and "plaintive groans"; this range of singing styles was used to communicate the "varied emotions" of the lyrics. Cobain's reaction to the "bad times" and discontent of the era was that he screamed his lyrics. In general, grunge songs were sung "simply, often somewhat unintelligibly";

20664-489: The luxury of fashion by sending models down the catwalk in beanies, floral dresses and silk flannel shirts. This did, however, not sit well with the brand owners and Jacobs was dismissed. Other designers like Anna Sui , also drew inspiration from grunge during the spring/summer 1993 season. In the same year, Vogue did a spread called "Grunge & Glory" with fashion photographer Steven Meisel who shot supermodels Kristen McMenamy , Naomi Campbell , and Nadja Auermann in

20832-495: The mainstreaming of the North American indie rock ethic and style of the 1980s", going on to explain that a band's status as independent became "As much a marketing device as [indie rock and alternative rock were an] identifiable 'sound'". In the wake of this increased attention, indie rock experienced a split: accessible bands who catered to the now-popular alternative rock radio; and bands who continued to experiment, advancing in

21000-465: The morals of a generation". Although the word "grunge" has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the grinding, sludgy sound of Seattle. It is expensive and time-consuming to get a recording to sound clean, so for those northwestern bands just starting out it was cheaper for them to leave the sound dirty and just turn up their volume. This dirty sound, due to low budgets, unfamiliarity with recording, and

21168-464: The movement. Grunge appeared as a trend again in 2008, and for Fall/Winter 2013, Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent brought back grunge to the runway . With Courtney Love as his muse for the collection, she reportedly loved the collection. "No offense to MJ [Marc Jacobs] but he never got it right," Courtney said. "This is what it really was. Hedi knows his shit. He got it accurate, and MJ and Anna [Sui] did not." Both Cobain and Love apparently burnt

21336-519: The musical style rather than ties to the independent music scene. In the 2000s, indie rock reentered the mainstream through the garage rock and post-punk revival and the influence of the Strokes and the Libertines . This success was exacerbated in the middle of the decade by Bloc Party , the Arctic Monkeys and the Killers and indie rock proliferated into the landfill indie movement. The term indie rock, which comes from "independent", describes

21504-517: The name of two overdrive pedals, the Univox Super-Fuzz and the Big Muff , in the title of their debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff . In the song "Mudride", the band's guitars were said to have "growled malevolently" through its "Cro-magnon slog". Other key pedals used by grunge bands included four brands of distortion pedals (the Big Muff , DOD , and Boss DS-2 and Boss DS-1 distortion pedals) and

21672-463: The only genre at the time which was defined by the methods by which the music was distributed rather than the sound of said music. Journalist Steve Taylor also cited the bands involved in the Paisley Underground scene as early indie groups. However, this jangly style became increasingly mainstream as the decade progressed leading subsequent indie rock bands to abandon this style. Instead, in

21840-439: The other. Alex DiBlasi feels that indie rock was a third key source, with the most important influence coming from Sonic Youth 's "free-form" noise. Grunge shares with punk a raw, lo fi sound and similar lyrical concerns, and it also used punk's haphazard and untrained approach to playing and performing. However, grunge was "deeper and darker"-sounding than punk rock and it decreased the "adrenaline"-fueled tempos of punk to

22008-524: The public perception of "rock music" was based in post-grunge , nu metal and rap rock , putting their throwback style of garage rock as a stark contrast to the mainstream. The band's immediate influence allowed fellow classic rock influenced New York bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs , Interpol and TV on the Radio to gain mainstream attention. The Strokes were accompanied in this commercial breakthrough by

22176-437: The punk rock band Black Flag toured small towns across the US to bring punk to the more remote parts of the country. By this time, their music had become slow and sludgy, less like the Sex Pistols and more like Black Sabbath . Krist Novoselic , later the bassist with Nirvana , recalled going with the Melvins to see one of these shows, after which Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne began writing "slow and heavy riffs" to form

22344-476: The region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed the style shrewdly, encouraging the media to describe it as "grunge"; the style became known as a hybrid of punk and metal . By the early 1990s, its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge

22512-533: The rock genre with the most "lugubrious sound"; the use of heavy distortion and loud amps has been compared to a massive "buildup of sonic fog". or even dismissed as "noise" by one critic. As with metal and punk, a key part of grunge's sound is very distorted power chords played on the electric guitar. Whereas metal guitarists' overdriven sound generally comes from a combination of overdriven amplifiers and distortion pedals, grunge guitarists typically got all of their "dirty" sound from overdrive and fuzz pedals, with

22680-578: The scene were released between 1989 and 1993: the Wonder Stuff's Hup and Never Loved Elvis ; Ned's Atomic Dustbin's God Fodder and Are You Normal? ; and Pop Will Eat Itself's This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! and The Looks or the Lifestyle? . In this period, the scene's bands became fixtures, sometimes headliners, at Reading Festival , sold millions of albums and were frequently featured on

22848-431: The small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies, these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences. The influences and styles of

23016-482: The solos. The early Seattle grunge album Skin Yard recorded in 1987 by the band of the same name included fuzz bass ( overdriven bass guitar) played by Jack Endino and Daniel House . Some grunge bassists, such as Ben Shepherd , layered power chords with distorted low-end density by adding a fifth and an octave-higher note to a bass note. An example of the powerful, loud bass amplifier systems used in grunge

23184-466: The subgenre baggy . Madchester and baggy's most infamous moment was the 27 May 1990 Spike Island concert headlined by the Stone Roses. With an attendance of around 28,000 and lasting twelve hours, it was the first event of its size and kind to be hosted by an independent act. In Stourbridge , a scene of indie bands who took influence from electronic , punk, folk and hip-hop music emerged, dubbed grebo by critics. Fronted by Pop Will Eat Itself ,

23352-555: The tale." A 2014 book stated that whereas in the 1980s, people used the "stimulant" cocaine to socialize and "... celebrate good times", in the 1990s grunge scene, the "depressant" heroin was used to "retreat" into a "cocoon" and be "... sheltered from a harsh and unforgiving world which offered ... few prospects for ... change or hope." Justin Henderson states that all of the "downer" opiates, including "heroin, morphine , etorphine , codeine , opium , [and] hydrocodone ... seemed to be

23520-526: The term in many people's minds". Both bands made use of a Lo-fi production style which romanticised their D.I.Y. ethos. Pavement's 1992 album Slanted and Enchanted , was one of the defining albums of the slacker rock subgenre. Rolling Stone called the album "the quintessential indie rock album", placing it on the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time . In the North Carolina Research Triangle , an indie rock scene

23688-661: The term indie to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock had ceased to be a meaningful term. Additionally, a second wave of bands emerged in the United States that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included the Black Keys , Kings of Leon , the Shins , the Bravery , Spoon , the Hold Steady , and the National . The most commercially successful band of this wave

23856-410: The time they were unpopular enough to offer a new image as opposed to more frequently seen Gibson Les Pauls or Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster used by mainstream pop & rock bands. Being unpopular when grunge started, offset guitars also offered excellent bang for buck. Grunge is generally characterized by a sludgy electric guitar sound with a thick middle register and rolled-off treble tone and

24024-559: The underground. According to AllMusic , it was during this split that "indie rock" solidified itself as a term for the style of music played by these underground artists, while the mainstream indie rock-influenced bands became termed alternative rock. Slowcore developed in the United States as a direct counterpoint to the rapid growth of grunge. Although loosely defined, slowcore generally includes slow tempos, minimalist instrumentals and sad lyrics. Galaxie 500 , particularly their second album On Fire (1989), were heavy influences on

24192-472: The virtuoso "shredding" guitar solos that had become the centerpiece of heavy metal songs, instead opting for melodic, blues -inspired solos – focusing "on the song, not the guitar solo". Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains stated that solos should be to serve the song, rather than to show off a guitarist's technical skill. In place of the strutting guitar heroes of metal, grunge had "guitar anti-heroes " like Cobain, who showed little interest in mastering

24360-399: The virtuoso " operatics of hair-metal were shunned." Grunge singing has been characterized as "borderline out-of-tune vocals". Grunge lyrics are typically dark, nihilistic , wretched, angst -filled and anguished, often addressing themes such as social alienation , self-doubt , abuse , assault, neglect , betrayal , social isolation / emotional isolation , psychological trauma , and

24528-497: The wet, grey and isolated Pacific Northwest region. Regarding graphic design and images, a common feature of grunge bands was the use of "lo-fi" (low fidelity) and deliberately unconventional album covers, for example presenting intentionally murky or miscolored photography, collage or distressed lettering. Early grunge "[a]lbum covers and concert flyers appeared Xeroxed not in allegiance to some DIY aesthetic" but because of "economic necessity", as "bands had so little money". This

24696-533: The whole point of grunge was that it didn't really sound like anything , including itself. Just consider how many different bands and styles of music have been shoved under the "grunge" header in this discography alone, and you realize that grunge is probably the most ill-defined genre of music in history. Grunge guitarists like Kurt Cobain often used "offset" guitars like the Fender Jaguar, Fender Jazzmaster, or Mustang. They used primarily offset guitars because at

24864-459: Was Las Vegas' the Killers . Formed in 2001, after hearing Is This It , the band scrapped the majority of their prior material to rewrite it under the Strokes' influence. The band's debut single " Mr. Brightside " spent 260 non-consecutive weeks, or five years, on the UK Singles Chart as of April 2021, the most out of any song, and As of 2017 , it had charted on the UK Singles Chart in 11 of

25032-544: Was Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys . One of the earliest groups to owe their initial commercial success to the use of Internet social networking , the Arctic Monkeys had two No. 1 singles, and their album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history. In this success, legacy indie bands soon entered the mainstream, including Modest Mouse (whose 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News reached

25200-513: Was a key principle in the Seattle scene. The grunge look typically consisted of second-hand clothes or thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing (most notably flannel shirts) of the region, as well as a generally unkempt appearance and long hair. For grunge singers, long hair was used "as a mask to conceal the face" so they can "expres[s their] innermost thoughts"; Cobain is a notable example. Male grunge musicians were "... unkempt ... [and] ... unshaven [,] with ... tousled hair" that

25368-409: Was already a common feature of punk rock design, but could be extended in the grunge period due to the increasing use of Macintosh computers for desktop publishing and digital image processing. The style was sometimes called 'grunge typography' when used outside music. A famous example of 'grunge'-style experimental design was Ray Gun magazine, art directed by David Carson . Carson developed

25536-475: Was also an influence on later genres such as post-grunge . The word "grunge" is American slang for "someone or something that is repugnant" and also for "dirt". The word was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in July 1987 when Bruce Pavitt described Green River 's Dry as a Bone EP in a Sub Pop record company catalogue as "gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed

25704-469: Was anti-fashion. It made a statement. Grunge is about not making a statement, which is why it's crazy for it to become a fashion statement." The unkempt fashion sense defined the look of the "slacker generation", who "skipped school, smoked pot ... [and] cigarettes and listened to music" hoping to become a rock star one day. Even though grunge fashion had declined in popularity by the late 1990s, designers have continued to occasionally draw inspiration from

25872-404: Was being called "grunge". Rolling Stone noted the genre's lack of a clear definition. Robert Loss acknowledges the challenges of defining "grunge"; stating that while he can recount stories about grunge, they do not serve to provide a useful definition. Roy Shuker states that the term "obscured a variety of styles." Stetson states that grunge was not a movement, "monolithic musical genre", or

26040-446: Was being spearheaded by groups enfranched Merge Records like Superchunk , Archers of Loaf and Polvo . describing a growing scene of indie-rock bands who were influenced by hardcore punk and post-punk. At the time, publications such as Entertainment Weekly took to calling the college town of Chapel Hill the "next Seattle". Superchunk's single " Slack Motherfucker " has also been credited by Columbia magazine with popularizing

26208-427: Was commercially successful in the early-to-mid-1990s due to releases such as Nirvana 's Nevermind , Pearl Jam 's Ten , Soundgarden 's Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt , and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core . The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music . Several factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During

26376-457: Was further improved with the establishment of 'The Cartel', an association of companies like Red Rhino and Rough Trade Records who would take the releases from these small labels and get them into record shops nationwide. Independent record labels would also be integral to the early years of punk rock musical distribution, as seen with Beserkley Records in the US, who put out The Modern Lovers debut album, and Stiff Records who released

26544-490: Was in reference to "Brighten The Corner Where You Are", a gospel hymn written by Homer Rodeheaver in the early 1900s. Brighten the Corners was released on February 11, 1997, by Matador Records . In 2008, Matador released Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition , a compilation containing Brighten the Corners in its entirety, as well as B-sides and other rarities from the same era. Brighten

26712-439: Was influenced by classic rock , and that "sludgy, dark, heavy bands" such as Soundgarden and Alice in Chains had a sinister metal tone. Grunge music has what has been called an "ugly" aesthetic, both in the roar of the distorted electric guitars and in the darker lyrical topics. This approach was chosen both to counter the "slick" elegant sound of the then-predominant mainstream rock and because grunge artists wanted to mirror

26880-473: Was just too lazy to shampoo", and Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman said, "This [clothing] is cheap, it's durable, and it's kind of timeless. It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80s." The flannel and "... cracked leatherette coats" in the grunge scene were part of the Pacific Northwest's thrift-shop aesthetic. Grunge fashion was very much an anti-fashion response and

27048-538: Was often unwashed, greasy and "... matted [into a] sheep-dog mop". The lumberjack attire was a common sight in the thrift stores near Seattle for the low prices that musicians could afford. Grunge style consisted of ripped jeans, thermal underwear , Doc Martens boots or combat boots (often unlaced), band T-shirts , oversized knit sweaters , long and droopy skirts, ripped tights, Birkenstocks , hiking boots, and eco-friendly clothing made from recycled textiles or fair trade organic cotton. As well, since women in

27216-516: Was one of the most low-tech effects devices, the wah-wah pedal . Both "[Kim] Thayil and Alice in Chains ' Jerry Cantrell ... were great advocates of the wah wah pedal." Wah was also used by the Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jr . Grunge guitarists played loud, with Kurt Cobain's early guitar sound coming from an unusual set-up of four 800 watt PA system power amplifiers . Guitar feedback effects, in which

27384-401: Was particularly noted for his " head flips "). Dave Rimmer writes that with the revival of punk ideals of stripped-down music in the early 1990s, "for Cobain, and lots of kids like him, rock & roll ... threw down a dare: Can you be pure enough, day after day, year after year, to prove your authenticity, to live up to the music ... And if you can't, can you live with being a poseur , a phony,

27552-477: Was pioneered by My Bloody Valentine on their early EPs and debut album Isn't Anything . The band's style influenced a wave of bands in London and the Thames Valley area including Chapterhouse , Moose and Lush . This scene was collectively termed "the Scene That Celebrates Itself" by Melody Maker's Steve Sutherland in 1990. Madchester was another style and scene that originated in

27720-404: Was similar to the "outburst" of loud, heavily distorted electric guitar in tone and delivery; Kurt Cobain used a "gruff, slurred articulation and gritty timbre" and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam made use of a "wide, powerful vibrato " to show his "depth of expression." Layne Staley voiced lyrics with a "heaviness" and tremolo . In general, grunge singers used a "deeper vocal style" which matched

27888-448: Was still "an indie rock standard bearer in the wider world of music". Arctic Monkeys' fifth album AM (2013) was one of the biggest indie rock albums of the decade, charting at number one on the UK Albums Chart , having sold 157,329 copies, thus becoming the second fastest-selling album of the year. With the debut of AM on the chart, Arctic Monkeys also broke a record, becoming the first independent-label band to debut at number one in

28056-507: Was the Midwest emo bands of the latter half of the decade, who incorporated the jangly guitar tones of earlier indie rock and elements of math rock to create the distinctive style of groups like American Football . The popularity of emo, also allowed a number of "not-quite-indie-not-quite-emo" bands like Death Cab For Cutie , Modest Mouse and Karate to gain significant attention. The loosely defined Elephant 6 collective – which included

28224-544: Was then exacerbated by the success of the Arctic Monkeys. In the years following Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not there was a proliferation of bands such as the Rifles , the Pigeon Detectives and Milburn , who created a more formulaic derivative of the earlier acts. By the end of the decade, critics had taken to referring to this wave of acts as "landfill indie", a description coined by Andrew Harrison of

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