Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Music & the Arts
Blame it on the weather, or maybe it's all that natural beauty, but the Pacific
Northwest is ground zero for right-brain thinkers and mind-blowing art.
From music-makers to famous writers to glassblowers and cutting-edge ar-
chitecture, you'll find creativity galore in this progressive and inspiring re-
gion.
The Seattle Sound: Then & Now
No other music genre is associated with the Pacific Northwest like grunge - that angst-
driven, heavily riffed and distorted sound born in the late 1980s out of Seattle's garages
and cherished by generation X. Evolved from music to a lifestyle (flannel shirt and ripped
jeans, anyone?), grunge became a way to voice cynicism and disillusionment in a society
of vanity and materialism.
Grunge was heavily influenced by a cult group called the Melvins, inspiring Seattle
bands with their sludgy and aggressive mix of hard-core punk and heavy metal.
Alternative-rock band Green River also had a heavy hand in the genre's beginnings - vo-
calist Mark Arm even coined the term 'grunge' (and its members later went on to start
Mudhoney and Pearl Jam).
The real success didn't explode until record label Sub Pop - which signed many of the
bigger grunge band names - put out Nirvana's
Nevermind
in 1991, skyrocketing the
'Seattle Sound' into mainstream music. Purists, however, shunned Nirvana for what they
considered selling out to commercialism while overshadowing equally worthy bands like
Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. In fact, some bands renounced their own fame and for-
tune, claiming it went against the spirit of the movement.
The general popularity of grunge continued through the early 1990s, but the very cul-
ture of the genre took part in its downfall. Bands lived hard and fast, never really taking
themselves seriously: playing to friends for fun was more important than being successful
in business. Many eventually succumbed to internal strife and drug abuse. The final blow
was in 1994, when Kurt Cobain - the heart of Nirvana - commited suicide.
In the mid-1990s postgrunge was born. It was a commercially friendly, more accessible
version of grunge, borrowing the sound and aesthetics of its predecessor but with an up-
lifting spirit. Popular bands show- casing this new genre were Foo Fighters (with ex-Nir-
vana drummer Dave Grohl), Creed, Bush, Candlebox and Matchbox Twenty.
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