WEBSITE TO LOOK AT:

Here is a website that I have found very useful:

http://www.subpop.com/

LIGHTS, CAMERA...ACTION!

Another aspect which I would like to have a look at is the visual representation of the grunge scene. Through reviewing many "grunge" video clips as opposed to the "rock" and "other" genres in the early 90's, it is clear to see a style emerging, one that would capture the fascination of masses of youths.

More to come once I have further researched this aspect (and figured out how to load YouTube files onto my blog!)

CREATING THE GRUNGE PHENOMENON PART II

As I was saying earlier, I sadly lost a large chunk of writing to the inner workings of the world wide web...below is (what I can recall) what I previously wrote:

There is a great lot to be said about Grunge on the internet - a lot of very useful information readily backed up by academic material, but also a lot of personal opinion. Below is a couple of paragraphs which I believe are fundamental in explaining many aspects of the birth of Grunge - the website offers a lot of information about Grunge as a musical sub-culture such as The Creation, The Consumers, The Interactive Process Between Individuals and Aspects of Popular Culture, Control of PC by Groups, Organisations and Institutions, Difference in Perceptions of SC and much much more.

It has been well documented that the subculture known as "Grunge" started in Seattle. To most teenagers, it started when Nirvana released "Nevermind" in September, 1991. That single record release was undoubtedly the key event in moving Grunge from subculture to popular culture.

As 'Spin' magazine proclaimed in December, 1992, "Seattle...it's currently to the rock world what Bethlehem was to Christianity". Seattle in the north western United States is rightly regarded as the launching pad of Grunge, but why? The journey from the local scene in Seattle in the mid 80's, through Nirvana's national number one with Nevermind in 1991, to the global success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden et al is a classic example of the emergence and subsequent exploitation of popular culture.

According to those who were there, Seattle in the early 80's was a fairly isolated place culturally. Major bands often didn't bother adding Seattle to their west coast American tours, and the live scene was awash with derivative bands doing their best to sound like someone else. It wasn't an environment which seemed immediately conducive to an explosion of orginal musical vitality. Yet environment seems to be a key concept in explaining the 1985-95 decade.

In September 1991 Nirvana's second album, "Nevermind" was released. Nirvana were still a small scale local act, mainly recognised for emerging from the mind numbingly boring small red-necked loggin tow of Aberdeen. Local record promoter Susie Tennant remembered that "the record came out in the fall. The video, I remember when I first saw it, I thought this is so cool, but there's no way MTV will play this, and when they started going with it, it reached millions of kids instantly".

The song MTV had placed on high rotation was "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It became the anthem of a generation, and gave the mainstream media a focus point to categorise that generation with. Kurt Cobain suddenly found himself not only the financial saviour of Sub Pop, but more disturbingly for one who's psyche was so fragile, the spokesman of a generation. As he said in his last major interview (US Rolling Stone issue 674, Jan 27, 1994), "Everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It's been pounded into their brains." Thus in the rock world of the 1990's, the key to national and global success was high rotation on MTV. In the age of satellite TV that was enough to guarantee a global profile. "Nevermind" knocked Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" off the top of the American Album Charts, Nirvana toured Australia as part of the Big Day Out, and Grunge was now a global popular culture. The merciless exploitation was about thirty seconds behind. As Eddie Vedder of Pear Jam explained, "when commerce is involved, everything changes".

This particular website gives credit to "Hype" as being an essential video to view in order to gain an appreciation for the Grunge movement. I have certainly put this on my "TO DO" list.

APOLOGIES FOR VIDEO BARS!!

Before I continue my post, I just wanted to apologise for the random things my once well-structured video-bars were, have now become...

I promise that once upon a time the Nirvana vid-bar to the right hand side was actually, once upon a time, a direct link to Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on You-Tube, however has since morphed into some guy doing backflips into a pair of jeans?! SoundGarden WAS "Black Hole Sun" and is now a large lady in a bikini in a car, and Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" has shape-shifted to take on...well...something inappropriate! Hrmm...

If anyone knows how to post a direct link (that DOESN'T change form) to YouTube, I would be greatly appreciative of such information!!

WIKI WIKI GRUNGE

Sponge Blog Grunge Pants would like to share with everyone this link to the Worlds Most Extensive Online Database of "STUFF" - what WIKIPEDIA has to say about GRUNGE...(remember this is not an academic reference...just somewhat useful ;)

WOO!

Hello and welcome to 'The Grunge Sponge'...

My mission (which I have chosen to accept) is to seek and display what information (useful of course) I can in order to produce a piece of assessment surrounding the many faces of Grunge as a musical sub-culture.

For this purpose, I will now become a GRUNGE SPONGE, and soak up as much of this musical sub-culture as I can! The aim is to keep this sucker moist at all times because nobody likes a hard, dry sponge! (eww)

Signing Off:

SPONGE BLOG GRUNGE PANTS.