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SEATTLE REIGN

The rise and fall of GRUNGE: How Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Melvins and others declared war on the glitz and glamour of the Eighties and turned Americas youth into an army of flannel-wearing rock soldiers.

BY JON WIEDERHORN

ITS ONE OF THE MOST instantly recognizable videos from the Nineties: In a smoke-filled basketball gym, tattooed cheerleaders with anarchy symbols on their jet-black uniforms twirl their pompoms, while a dirty blonde guitarist with unwashed hair and a striped sweater strums vociferously at his black and white Stratocaster. Even without the scenes of the crowd moshing hysterically, a janitor swaying back and forth, or even shots of the other two band members, anyone should be able to identify the clip as Nirvanas Smells Like Teen Spirit.

By January 1992, the video was being played constantly on MTV, and the song could be heard everywhereon radio, in record stores, even from buskers on street corners. Within days, Nirvana would replace Michael Jackson for the top slot on the Billboard album chart. A new era had dawned, and teen spirit was running rampant. Grunge had been transformed from a small regional scene to a global phenomenon, and the entire music industry was about to mutate into a beast that would turn its back on slickly produced pop and glam metal in favor of ragged, swampy noise that emphasized emotional intensity over technical proficiency. Before long, Seattle bands including Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains would join Nirvana at the top of the charts, and high-fashion outlets like Nordstroms and Bloomingdales would start producing grunge clothing lines.

But as explosive as grunge was, it didnt happen like the Big Bang. It took years to evolve. To the outsider, it might seem strange that a music scene with such magnitude and force took place in a city as conservative and far removed as Seattle. But to understand how grunge changed the music community, its necessary to understand the musical environment its chief contributors were weaned in.

Since Seattle hasnt historically been a cultural Mecca, artists seeking fame and fortune have traditionally emigrated elsewhere. Jimi Hendrix was discovered in London, Heart made their mark in Vancouver, Canada, and Queensrche had been declared rock gods in Europe before they were accepted at home. As a result, local musicians generally had to settle for having fun, letting off steam, and maybe getting laid, but few harbored real hopes of becoming rock stars. Because of this, there seemed to be no great need for stellar musicianship.

The tradition of sloppy Seattle garage rock actually began in the Sixties when a group called the Sonics started playing an irreverent, thrashy and energetic style of music that foreshadowed punk. Soon after, a host of like-minded outfits began setting up shop in basements all over town, and creating a furious din that no one but themselves were likely to hear. The trend continued through the Seventies and Eighties, as garage rockers gradually evolved into glam bangers like Whiz Kids and the Lewd, and full-fisted metal bands such as TKO, Metal Church, Forced Entry and, of course, Coven, who crafted the unforgettable underground ditty Iron Dick.

So, what prompted so many seemingly nice kids to pick up guitars and lose their minds? Simple: boredom. Years before grunge, Starbucks and Microsoft hit the area, Seattle was merely a sleepy suburb of Boeing, with plenty of natural beauty but little in the way of quality entertainment. And even the folks who dug salmon fishing, rock climbing and outdoor hikes were limited by the regions miserable weather conditions. Like England, Seattle is cold, cloudy and dreary. Local residents look forward to only about 33 days of cloudless sunshine per year, and even in the summer, the mercury doesnt usually hit the 80-degree mark until after Independence Day. It would probably be a stretch to say that if Seattle had Sacramentos climate, grunge would never have happened, but theres no question that Seattles weather has caused many bands to stay in the rehearsal room longer than they might have otherwise, and its certainly contributed to the genres bleak, cynical lyrics. Anyway, what better way to deal with frustration than to pick up a guitar and scream? The nations economy was at nearly an all-time low. Students were graduating from college and finding that, if they were lucky, they could maybe find employment at the elevator music company Musak or at Boeing, unless they wanted to go off into the country to pick apples, that is.

So what exactly is grunge? Well, in its purest form its definitely grudge music, and it sounds like its been splattered with scunge, but as a catch phrase, its somewhat limiting. After all, Nirvana dont sound that much like Pearl Jam, who dont seem that much like Alice in Chains, who have little in common with Screaming Trees and bear even less similarly to the Fastbacks. As a general guideline, grunge music is stompy, swampy and ultra-distorted, and is perhaps best typified by early Mudhoney or Soundgarden. Picture a super-group made up of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Black Sabbath and the Stooges, and youre pretty close. Grunge is angry and filled with attitude, but it rarely lacks melody.

To someone unfamiliar with Seattle, it might seem strange that nearly all the great grunge bands were on the same label (Sub Pop), and came from the same general area. But Seattles a cozy, communal city, the kind of place where everyone knows their neighbors, and the same 100 people show up at nearly every rock gig. In the early days of grunge, the music scene was friendly and unified. Since no one expected to achieve stardom, there wasnt any of the backstabbing and deceit so common with bands in areas like Los Angeles and New York. At one point or another, nearly every musician had jammed with or been in a band with everyone, and there was a genuinely positive spirit about the scene.

Theres been plenty of debate over whether grunge derives from punk or heavy metal, but the truth is, it collectively fuses both music forms. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and especially Soundgarden used to argue that they were heavy, but not metal, yet their sound was unmistakably influenced by Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Motrhead. Sure, the I-could-give-a-fuck attitude and introspective lyrics were manifested from alt-punks like the Ramones, Dinosaur Jr and Hsker D, but the chunka-chunka rhythms told a different story. In fact, Seattle grunge bands were so metal that by the time Nirvana had released their third album, In Utero , one-time metalheads had basically discarded the music they held so dear to embrace this new, vibrant form of noise. Suddenly, bands like Guns N Roses, Ratt and Mtley Cre became an anachronism. They were singing about celebration and escapism and when Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden came along, audiences realized that its better to confront emotional pain than ignore it. Listeners discovered a sensitivity and insecurity in grunge music that they could empathize with. No longer were rock stars putting up an impenetrable wall of bravado. They were letting down their guard, expressing their vulnerability and admitting that, like the rest of us, they were all scared geeks and losers.