How Important Was Grunge As A Musical Movement?

According to this Best Of Grunge tape from Caroline Records my dad bought me in middle school, Tin Machine was grunge.

Why did so many '80s band names consist of the same word twice?

An alternate view is that "hard rock" is seeing its evolutionary niche taken over by "hardcore rap" which represents a Hegelian synthesis of the dialectic strains of Dionysian hair metal and Appollonian grunge.

David Coverdale hired Steve Vai and Aynsley Dunbar = APOLLONIAN

this is simple, people.

And yes, echoing Shookout, the godliness of the Screaming Trees can't be affirmed enough.

http://www.angelfire.com/film/princepurplerain/apollonia.jpg

http://www.operagloves.com/Modernstars/PrincesBeauties/apollonia-2a.jpg

"Come Out And Play" by The Offspring

*(insert name of any 3rd rate late '80's-early '90's lammo brit "indie" band here)

Grunge = introverted, sarcastic, angry, chaste, restrained, self-conscious, heroin, hardcore

Hair Metal = extroverted, shallow, playful, libidinous, transgressive, self-forgetful, cocaine, glam

While grunge (like any loud rock music) still partakes of a Dionysian element, I would say that it represents somewhat of a retreat to a more Apollonian restraint. This is especially notable in its sartorial conservativeness and relative asexuality.

i think you have to credit Nirvana for the rise in popularity of punk, indie, and alternative as well as the wackness of "modern rock". to me, the good far outweighs the bad, especially since it is very easy for me to never hear Creed, Nickelback, etc. also, i'm not sure anyone out there is aping the sound of Nirvana, at least not that i've ever heard. even back in the day, it was always knock offs of Pearl Jam that were huge, not Nirvana. i can't even think of one post-Nirvana band that sounds even remotely like them.

also, i think Mudhoney just aged a little better than a lot of this other stuff because they always remained raw. this is not a quality that mainstream rock ever ripped off, it keeps their sound a little more fresh because of it.

there are some pretty bad rock radio bands these days that are more on the Nirvana than PJ in terms of influences -- Seether and Puddle of Mudd in particular have been really ubiquitous on the radio the last couple years.

i've at least heard Puddle of Mudd once, maybe one song? i can't see the Nirvana comparison at all!

'She Hates Me' was so Nirvana-for-tweens

That is true pipecock they do deserve credit for that, too. As I said I was a big fan at the time. I did not mean to be hard on them.
As far the aping of their sound; it is almost always a failure anyway (these bands try) but it annoys anyway.
I also agree with you on why Mudhoney still sound good.

i'm not saying they're super Nirvana-ish, but if you were gonna trace their sound to any of the big grunge bands, it would be Nirvana. it works that way for most big active rock bands of the past decade, really...Shinedown = Soundgarden, Godsmack = Alice In Chains, etc.

xpost

i remember arguing about the merits of Godsmack with a coworker at the corporate CD store i worked at when they came out in 1999. i was like "they sound just like AIC but worse, they named themselves after one of their songs for godsakes!!" that guy finally just last year sent me a myspace apologizing for defending them.

Godsmack certainly stole their name from AiC, and they have a few moments of atmospheric gloom which recalls Dirt...Voodoo is prolley one that most readily comes to mind...but if there is any numetal ripoff song which truly captures the spirit of what AiC is all about, it was Incubus' "Drive"...

http://www.subpop.com/catalog/discography