Grunge Music Quiz

The Grunge music genre emerged in the mid-1980s in Seattle, Washington, and is a fusion of punk rock and heavy metal, with influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Grunge music typically features electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals, with angst-filled and introspective lyrics addressing themes such as social alienation, addiction, and psychological trauma. Grunge was marketed by Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and gained popularity with the success of bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, becoming the most popular form of rock music in the early-to-mid-1990s. However, several factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence, including the disbandment of many grunge bands and the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Despite this, grunge influenced modern rock music, bringing socially conscious issues into pop culture. Grunge guitarists used offset guitars, primarily Fender Jaguar, Jazzmaster, or Mustang, and loud Marshall or Mesa-Boogie amplifiers, with a very distorted power chord sound created using overdrive and fuzz pedals. Grunge guitarists also used wah-wah pedals and the Small Clone chorus effect, and downtuned their instruments for a lower, heavier sound.The Sound and Style of Grunge

• Grunge guitarists rejected the virtuoso shredding guitar solos of heavy metal and focused on melodic, blues-inspired solos.

• The grunge guitar solos of the 1990s were raw, sloppy and basic, and were designed to serve the song rather than showcase technical skill.

• Grunge bassists often used fuzz bass and layered power chords with distorted low-end density.

• Grunge bassist Mike Inez used four powerful Ampeg SVT-2 PRO tube amplifier heads, two plugged into four 1x18" subwoofer cabinets, and the other two plugged into two 8x10" cabinets.

• Grunge drummers used relatively smaller drum kits compared to the massive kits used in 1980s pop metal, with cymbals from Zildjian.

• Grunge lyrics are typically dark, nihilistic, wretched, angst-filled and anguished, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, assault, neglect, betrayal, and a desire for freedom.

• Grunge lyrics were less overtly political than punk songs, but still indicated a concern for social issues, particularly those affecting young people.

• Grunge songs about love were usually about failed, boring, doomed or destructive relationships.

• Grunge recordings were low-fi and produced with a raw and unpolished sound with distortion, but usually without any added studio effects.

• Grunge concerts were known for being high-energy, straightforward performances where the audience expressed its spirit by stagediving, moshing and thrashing.

• 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 stage acting and "onstage theatrics" as unrelated to playing the music.Grunge Fashion and Culture

• Grunge musicians wore the same clothes on stage that they wore at home, with long hair as a symbol of pent-up aggression.

• Grunge fashion consisted of second-hand clothes, flannel shirts, ripped jeans, thermal underwear, and Doc Martens boots.

• Lumberjack attire was a common sight in thrift stores near Seattle for low prices that musicians could afford.

• Grunge fashion was anti-consumerist and non-conformist, pushing musicians to dress in authentic ways and not glamorize themselves.

• The grunge look became a mainstream trend in the early 1990s, with designers like Marc Jacobs presenting grunge-inspired clothing mixed with high-end fabrics.

• Grunge fashion continued to inspire designers and made a comeback in 2008 and 2013.

• The kinderwhore look, popularized by Courtney Love, consisted of torn, ripped dresses, heavy makeup, and leather boots.

• Grunge fashion was associated with drugs, with heroin being a drug of choice for many grunge musicians.

• Graphic design for grunge bands featured lo-fi and deliberately unconventional album covers.

• The style was called 'grunge typography' when used outside music and was characterized by messy and chaotic design.

• David Carson and Elliott Earls were famous grunge graphic designers.

• Grunge fashion is still popular today, but the signifiers of rebellion are omnipotent on the high street.The Grunge Scene: Music, Design, Literature, Women, and History

Music:

• Grunge evolved from the Seattle punk rock scene in the mid-late 1980s, inspired by bands such as the Fartz, the U-Men, 10 Minute Warning, the Accüsed, and the Fastbacks.
• Grunge's sound partly resulted from Seattle's isolation from other music scenes, giving it a unique and authentic feel.
• Heavy metal of the early 1970s, particularly Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, played a significant role in shaping the grunge sound.
• Alternative rock bands from the Northeastern United States, including Sonic Youth, Pixies, and Dinosaur Jr., are important influences on the genre.
• Several Australian bands, including the Scientists, Cosmic Psychos, and Feedtime, are cited as precursors to grunge, influencing the Seattle scene through college radio broadcasts.

Design:

• Grunge design was characterized by a radical, anti-establishment approach, influenced by the 1910s-era avant-garde Dada movement.
• Grunge fonts, such as Hat Nguyen's Droplet, Harriet Goren's Morire, and Eric Lin's Tema Canante, were aggressively illegible and adopted the unkempt expressiveness of the grunge aesthetic.
• Grunge design images had a realistic, genuine look, created by adding simulated torn paper, dog-eared corners, creases, yellowed scotch tape, coffee cup stains, hand-drawn images, and handwritten words, typically over a dirty background texture done with dull, subdued colors.
• Music photographer Charles Peterson was a key figure in creating the look of the grunge scene for outsiders.

Literature:

• Grunge lit is an Australian literary genre of fictional or semi-autobiographical writing in the early 1990s about young adults living in an inner city world of disintegrating futures where the only relief from boredom was through a nihilistic pursuit of sex, violence, drugs, and alcohol.
• Grunge lit was typically written by new, young authors who examined gritty, dirty, real existences of everyday characters.
• Grunge lit has been described as both a subset of dirty realism and an offshoot of Generation X literature.

Role of Women:

• Many all-female or woman-led bands are associated with grunge, including L7, Lunachicks, Dickless, 7 Year Bitch, the Gits, Courtney Love's band Hole, and Babes in Toyland.
• Grunge was closely linked with Riot Grrrl, an underground feminist punk movement.
• Women instrumentalists in grunge were uncommon in most rock genres, notable examples include bassists D'arcy Wretzky and Melissa Auf der Maur from the Smashing Pumpkins, and drummers Patty Schemel of Hole and Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland.
• Women played active non-musician roles in the underground grunge scene, such as riot grrrls who produced zines about grunge bands and indie record labels and Susan Silver, the first female manager of the Seattle music scene.

History:

• The term proto-grunge has been used to describe artists as having elements of grunge well before the genre appeared in the mid-late 1980s.
• Grunge's success built on the foundations laid throughout the 1980s by earlier alternative music scenes.
• Outside the Pacific Northwest, alternative rock bands from