|
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in Seattle. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, but by the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge acts in California and other parts of the U.S. building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge became commercially successful in the first half of the 1990s, due mainly to the release of 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 hard rock music at the time. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, their influence continues to affect modern rock music. By 1999 grunge music and culture were completely irrelevant in modern mainstream pop culture. The “Grunge Era” is usually considered to be from 1991-1996. Often characterized by a sludgy guitar sound that uses a high level of distortion, fuzz and feedback effects, grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. The music shares with punk a raw sound and similar lyrical concerns.〔 However, it also involves much slower tempos, dissonant harmonies, and more complex instrumentation—which is reminiscent of heavy metal. Lyrics are typically angst-filled, often addressing themes such as social alienation, apathy, confinement, and a desire for freedom. Grunge bands had made inroads to the musical mainstream in the late 1980s. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label when they joined the roster of A&M Records in 1989. A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-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", appeared unusually tortured by success and "struggled with an addiction to heroin before he committed suicide at the age of 27 in 1994". ==Origin of the term== Although writer Paul Rambali used "grunge" in a 1978 ''NME'' article to describe mainstream guitar rock, Mark Arm, the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River—and later Mudhoney—is generally credited as being the first to use the term ''grunge'' to describe this genre of music. Arm first used the term in 1981, when he wrote a letter under his given name Mark McLaughlin to the Seattle zine ''Desperate Times'', criticizing his own band ''Mr. Epp and the Calculations'' as "Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!". Clark Humphrey, contributor to ''Desperate Times'', cites this as the earliest use of the term to refer to a Seattle band, and mentions that Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop popularized the term as a musical label in 1987–88, using it on several occasions to describe Green River.〔Humphrey, Clark. ''Loser: The Real Seattle Music Story''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. ISBN 1-929069-24-3, p. 63.〕 Arm said years later, "Obviously, I didn't make grunge up. I got it from someone else. The term was already being thrown around in Australia in the mid-'80s to describe bands like King Snake Roost, The Scientists, Salamander Jim, and Beasts of Bourbon." Arm used grunge as a descriptive term rather than a genre term, but it eventually came to describe the punk/metal hybrid sound of the Seattle music scene.〔Heylin, Clinton. ''Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge''. Conongate, 2007. ISBN 1-84195-879-4, p. 606.〕 Some bands associated with the genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to the label, preferring instead to be referred to as rock and roll.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BEN SHEPHERD TRASHES GRUNGE LABEL, SAYS SOUNDGARDEN WERE NEVER A GRUNGE BAND )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pearl Jam: Interviews with all five members )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「grunge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|