A blend of influences from heavy metal to punk rock. This description embodies grunge as an attitude, a form of music and as a style. Grunge music hit the mainstream throughout the late 80’s into the early 90’s. Though grunge did not want to have either of these identities, punk or heavy metal, and in fact rebelled against them. Grunge is just one piece of a larger movement that originated in Seattle, Washington in the mid to late 1980’s. Music with a message. Grunge can be about a sense of rebellion and that is what it took most from punk, was that kick of rebellion, but in a far less political sense and instead, the cynicism was turned inward. Punk music with a message typically speaks out against authoritarianism, consumerism, governments …show more content…
A basic but well put together mix with a fantastic end result. Grunge has an attitude that people want, typically teenagers and young adults at the time it became widespread. It had what people were looking for so bands were able to become successful in it because grunge had what people wanted, a nice sound and usually a straightforward message or point. It sounded like what people wanted to hear. Many people still listen to grunge music purely because it sounds nice and it makes sense to them. Even today, rock music has heavy influences from grunge, and it has inspired post-grunge as well. Important people/influential people in Grunge: Eddie Vedder was born December 23rd, 1964 in Evanston, Illinois. Vedder became increasingly interested in music in the 80’s and in 1990 Pearl Jam was formed. The band released their debut album, Ten, and it became one of the most popular and best selling albums of the 90’s. Layne Staley was born in Kirkland, Washington on August 22nd, 1967. In 1984 he created his first band Sleze, which eventually turned into Alice in Chains. In 1990 they released their album, Facelift, and soon after became platinum and then it went on to become double platinum. In April of 2002 Staley died of an overdose to a mix of heroin and
Eddie Van Halen was born in Holland in 1955 and immigrated to Pasadena California. At the age of seven, Eddie was training as a classical pianist, although his love for Rock and Roll was developing. He started working a paper route and used the money to buy a drum set. His brother Alex, also musically inclined, bought a guitar. After months of practicing, Alex and Eddie switched instruments. Alex would spend hours on Eddie's drums and loved to play them. Eddie, a little frustrated with the drums, picked up Alex's guitar and felt at home with the instrument. Eddie would sit in his room for hours memorizing Eric Clapton guitar rifts' from "Cream". In his teenage years, Eddie and Brother Alex Van Halen played in local clubs and local parties in California. They started become a big name in the local area of Pasadena California. A police officer once commented that the parties that the Van Halen brothers played at were so big, that the police were looking for where the party was in a four-block radius. There would be almost 2,000 people attending house parties when the Van Halen brothers played. Alex and Eddie initially called there band Genesis but learned there was a much bigger group in Europe with the same name, so they changed it to Mammoth. The band had humble beginnings and the brothers could not afford a PA system for their concerts. They rented a PA system from David Lee Roth when his band was not playing. During one performance, the rented PA system broke down. A member of the local band...
Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Valens were both in the early 1940’s only a year apart from one another. Ritchie Valens was born on May 13, 1941 in Pacoima, California, the son of Joseph Valenzuela and Concepcion Valenzuela. His parents split up when he was only
Billy Joel was born on May 9, 1949 in Bronx, New York. He moved at the age of four to a small town on Long Island. This is where at the ripe age of four he discovered the art of music. Originally a classical music fan, Billy Joel honed his skills with classical piano training. This undoubtedly has had a major influence on his life and certainly his music. Growing up Joel was a big fan of such greats as Ray Charles, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Otis Reading. He was greatly persuaded into a career of music when he saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Amusingly Joel's first band was inspired by the uncanny opportunity to meet girls. The band was called The Echoes, but this was not the best of times for Joel because his parents were involved in a messy divorce, which included serious financial shortcomings. Joel even began working professional music gigs at night to help support his mother. Joel's schoolwork suffered a little and he began missing school way too often. He was subsequently not allowed to graduate with his high school class due to the number of absences. After high school Joel immediately joined a very popular band called The Hassels for which he recorded two albums with. Within two years Joel was on to a new band which he named Attila, and featured heavy metal drummer Jon Small who he played with during his time with The Hassels. Despite the previous release of two albums Joel still needed to bring in more money so he worked many music related jobs and gigs. He even wrote a rock and roll criticism piece in a weekly column for a magazine.
Drug references, homosexuality, anonymous homosexual encounters, trans gender characters, cultural/sexual identity, a father’s sexual abuse towards his cross dressing son, place, and swearing are the elements in Loaded, besides the swearing and drug references none of these elements are in grunge music. What exactly makes it grunge? Grunge music is about freedom, being free to do what you want, social discomforts, and social observations/commentary. Loaded on the other hand are 151 pages of subtle complaining since it is difficult to recall him liking anything. The lead character Ari is torn between his cultural and sexual identity, hates conformity, the consumption of drugs to get out of his hated reality, use of music when he has no drugs, coming up with narrow-minded conclusions based on generalizations, and lack of future direction which all doesn’t sound very grunge.
In rock music its target audience is the youth. And by youth I am not referring to teenagers, but instead to the mentality of youth, the adults and teens still in the sociological stage between being a ‘kid’ and accepting the responsibilities of ‘adulthood’ [Weinstein pg6] These youth negotiate the genre and change it to their liking. For example both males and females have different subgenres of rock targeted specifically at them. Males are seen from a young age as being naughty and rowdy, not very responsible and thus given more freedom. While girls are seen as quiet and polite, with very low aggression. These traits have reflected in the genres that are targeted at the two genders. Males were targeted with Heavy Metal as it expressed the qualities the very qualities they will have to give up in order to become adults and how they will lose their freedom. While for females rock music is soft and romantic, females will typically grow up faster than males and leave youth behind in order to take up responsibilities. An example of how the music was negotiated to fit the two genders is seem in the 1960s when performers such as Carole king and James Taylor transformed themes of protest into sentimental commentaries, romance and illusions of youth. [Weinstein pg 12-13] While heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath sung about politicians and how disgusting they are for exploiting young people in the name of greed which is shown in the song Wicked World. This very characteristic of rock being created by the youth for the youth is still alive today, for example during the 2004 presidential election Green Day released American Idiot. The song was about how the media and political are brainwashing Americans to remove their individuality. The singer wanted to warn America of this and prevent them from turning into ‘idiots’ and
Many people from the 1900’s contributed to the evolution of the history of rock and roll. However, Jimi Hendrix was the rock legend who changed the way music was made and he raised the bar for the rest of the music industry. Jimi was born in 1942, in Seattle, Washington, he had a difficult childhood, being raised by a young mom who had Jimi at seventeen and a dad who eventually left and started another family, he was often left living with relatives. He only saw his mom a few times before she eventually died in 1958. In many ways, music has become a sanctuary for Jimi since he grew up not having much.
Today classic rock is basically extinct you could say. Most kids now listen to rap, pop, and other music genres. Classic rock bands most all of the time had a message in their songs. Now most music today is about bad things or just plain stupid things. Classic rock bands tried to get people to relate to their songs. Some of the classic rock songs were about pain and love.
I believe that the history of rock and roll demonstrates a link between culture and social class race, and age; by the way a genre brings all the people in these different categories into one big group. When rock and roll began to emerge people from different cultures and social classes started to come together as a group by the way they dressed. It was not only the music but also the fashion it brought along with it. People from this era changed the way they dressed, styled their hair and their means of transportation. This brought together people from different cultures and social class, race and age all together.
Music is an art form that has been around since humans were created. All over the world music is played in many different forms and styles. As early as the 1950s, a new style of music was being created in the United States, one that would forever change the world. Not only would this music bring a completely different sound, but it changed the way people acted, dressed, and even their lifestyles. This new style of music became known as rock and roll, and while no one person created it, many artists have added their own unique inputs and helped shape music into what it is today. Rock and roll branches off and has many genres all to which owe it as the roots. Without the contributions of every artist who has performed, the style would not be what it is today.
Rock n’ Roll is a type of music that came about in the late 50’s. Before that, there was no music that resembled Rock n’ Roll; instead, folk and other genres dominated. Then the Korean War ended. Shortly thereafter, the Vietnam War began, and with it came a new type of music, featuring hateful songs and concerts. The introduction and evolution of rock and roll music from the late 50’s and 60’s made a generation more violent both physically and verbally.
Another founding member of the band was Bev Bevan. He was born Beverly Bevan in Birmingham, U.K. on November 25, 1945. He formed his first professional band, called Denny Lain and the Diplomats, in 1963.He retired from music to become a furniture salesman, but then joined Carl Wayne and the Vikings. He then later joined The Move and helped create ELO. (Petersdorff 4)
Ted Nugent was born on December 13, 1948. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. His musical journey all began at just the age of six years old. Nugent was mainly a self taught musician. Although he did take a couple guitar lessons, he learned to play by himself. He first started playing guitar at six years olds, and by fourteen he has mastered it and created a little band called Lourds. He became a part of a band called Amboy Dukes just after he moved to Chicago. After his high school graduation, he moved back to Detroit to recruit new members for Amboy Dukes. Within three months of being a band, they were signed at a record label. With their hard work and dedication, they earned a single to hit number eight on the pop charts. As the
First, let us define what grunge is and where it comes from. Grunge as defined by web encyclopedia alt.culture is the cumulative influences of punk and ‘70s heavy metal (plus rain, coffee, cheap, potent beer, and occasionally heroin), a cohort of Seattle bands developed a soulful hard rock variant that was instrumental to alternative music’s early-‘90s move underground (altculture. com). Among the bands included in the definition Nirvana would be mainly the one that made this phenomenon popular. Released in 1991, Nevermind—a record by an obscure band working in a genre considered as hopelessly uncommercial—launched the grunge phenomenon and marked an era of unprecedented exposure for alternative acts. Then other bands like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Candlebox followed the trail that Nirvana started in the grunge w...
Blues music was the voice of the black community during the early to mid 20th century. Blues expressed the angst many felt due to segregation and mistreatment by white society. Similarly, metal music is the voice of the frustrated and ostracized youth of the 1980's to today (Young). In Metal Heads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett examines the effects of heavy metal music on adolescents and concludes that messages of violence, anger, hate and rebellion have created a brand of antisocial and hateful teen outcasts. However, this is false. Metal music, while it may occasionally have messages of violence, anger and hate, usually spreads messages of individualism, enjoyment of the present moment, and freedom. These messages, along with the energetic music, and instrumental virtuosity are what attract youthful listeners to this genre.