Who started grunge?
 

A friend of mine and I were talking about the origin of grunge.

Granted, we were living in Texas at the time, so I don't want to hear about how grunge started in the 70's, four people listening to the pumpkins in their garage.

The first I remember of grunge was Soundgarden's song "Hands All Over." At the time it was called "Brood Metal." Then "Man in the Box" came out, and it was "Horror Rock."

I know I am missing something....help me out.

Also....

Was Pearl Jam's "Alive" out before "SLTS"? I seem to remember Alive being out for several months, then SLTS, then both of those albums hit the top ten. Is my memory foggy?

Al Gore? :lol:

Okay okay, but seriously... yeah, I personally would go with Soundgarden, but then, I too am from Texas, and probably am about to get ridiculed by some ole school Seattle-ite. Eh, for me, Louder Than Love will always be my grunge cornerstone. Damn but those were good shows.

The grunge roots run deep.

In the beginning, there was Soundgarden and Green River.

Green River begat Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone.

One dead singer later, Mother Love Bone begat Pearl Jam.

Soundgarden and Green River were around long before the higher profile grungers like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains.

Even before the whole grunge phenomenon, Seattle was a somewhat insular home of rather unique prog. metal bands like Queensryche and Metal Church.

I never liked soundgarden as much as the other grunge bands that I heard - they seemed sort of like pop-grunge to me. None of their songs seemed to be about anything. I never knew they were one of the first grunge bands though.

I agree with the Green River, Mother Love Bone-Seattle originating genre. Skin Yard was a much lesser known band who was around at the same time as well.

I was going to say Green River as well but I think the "sound" of grunge music that everyone is familiar with became synonomous with Soundgarden, but to a more extent, Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam was the big breakout artist that everyone associated grunge with.

With that said there were tons of bands on the Seattle scene doing the music even before Green River and Mother Love Bone.

We can't forget Temple of the Dog either. That was the one-album band of Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, and Matt Cameron. That album came out just after the Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone days. I can't believe it's been so long since grunge hit the scene...

Neil Young!

If you want a great documentary about grunge, go rent "Hype!"

I caught about ten minutes of that on TV one time. Thanks for the name!

Oh how I agree with Neil Young. It is scary to just sit back and listen to his early stuff, 15 years before grunge as many people know it, and note the striking similarities. He started it, he excelled at it, and imho, may still be the best at it. Especailly with Crazyhorse...so raw and dirty with distortion, grunge indeed.

I thought he was dubbed the "grandfather of grunge" or something too, wasn't he?