Montview Journal of Research & Montview Journal of Research &
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Volume 11
Research Week 2024
Article 1
Come As You Are: The Rise and Fall of The Grunge Movement and Come As You Are: The Rise and Fall of The Grunge Movement and
Its Implications on The Identity of Seattle Its Implications on The Identity of Seattle
Colin J. Wood
Liberty University
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Page 3
Come As You Are
Wood
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is one of the most recognizable songs in music
history. Composed by the musical group Nirvana, it brought a little-known
cultural movement in a declining area to the front page of popular culture. Though
the grunge movement was mainly a musical and cultural movement that
dominated the early half of the 1990s, it encapsulated the identity of a region. It
birthed many trends and social movements that still dominate current culture. The
rise and fall of the grunge movement through Nirvana's Nevermind album created
a unique burst of culture out of the dreary aura of the Pacific Northwest and
helped identify the city of Seattle.
Entrenched within a corner of America and under the constant cover of
misty rain, Seattle exists as a vacuum for a forgotten yet influential people.
Inhabited by the Salish peoples for millennia and settled by the Scandinavian
Denny Party in the mid-19
th
century, Seattle gradually grew to 80,000 people by
the turn of the century (notably through its role in the Klondike Gold Rush).
1
As
Seattle grew into the city it is seen today, it faced many population spikes and
droughts. The most momentous contributor to Seattle’s progression and
contraction was the “Boeing Boom” during the Second World War. The Boeing
manufacturing plant, housed in Everett (just north of Seattle), became a critical
component to the United States’ dominance in the skies during the war. Seattle
became a mecca for manufacturing jobs, where a significant swath of the
population worked to build the planes that won the air.
2
The boom increased the
population of Seattle by 60% from 1940-1960, sparking an optimistic perspective
on the future for Seattle in its quest to solidify itself as a competitive and
influential West Coast city such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
3
In 1962,
Seattle hosted the World’s Fair and erected the famed Space Needle as a prideful
recognition of that futuristic perspective. However, Seattle’s population growth
halted and began decreasing 12% over the next two decades,
4
giving the city a
negative and bereft perspective across the nation.
5
Progressing into the 1980s,
Seattle was seen as a metropolis whose best days were behind it, though its
importance steadily began to grow as the residents increased.
Culturally, Seattle found its identity in the area around it. The damp
forests of the Cascades and Olympic Mountains and the frigid, saline Puget Sound
defined the lives of the locals. The primary professions of the local Seattleites
were either logging or maritime jobs. The Pacific Northwest overall was known
1
Roger Sale, Seattle: Past and Present (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019),
51.
2
Ibid., 189.
3
“Seattle, Washington Population History | 1890 - 2019.” n.d. Www.biggestuscities.com.
https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/seattle-washington.
4
Ibid.
5
Sale, Seattle, 243.
Volume 11 Issue 1
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Page 4
for rain, folklore and seasonal depression. In many areas, it rained nine months
out of the year, creating a bleak and gloomy atmosphere. Moreover, the area
became noteworthy for stories of mysterious creatures and dangerous men.
Legends of Sasquatch and a two-hundred-foot diameter octopus spread as
amusing yet influential tales of the unique logging and maritime culture of the
area; furthermore, the term “flying saucer” was coined in Seattle.
6
Also,
“Shanghaiing” was a common practice in the dirty underground of downtown
Seattle, the act of kidnapping unfortunate individuals and forcing them into slave
labor on ships.
7
The area also boasted a number of the most notable serial killers
in the late 20
th
century, such as Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway.
Musically, Seattle has produced some of the most influential figures in the
rock genre, such as Jimi Hendrix and Heart. Influences on rock's progression as a
more inclusive environment for African American and female stars were born and
cultivated in Seattle, pioneering a new wave of music. However, they did not
represent Seattle's identity. When Jimi Hendrix gained median success in Seattle,
he moved east to New York and then London (until his untimely death at 27), and
he is known for the Woodstock and Civil Rights movements, not Seattle’s identity
(most would be surprised to know he was from Seattle in the first place). Again,
Heart, spearheaded by Ann and Nancy Wilson, originated in Seattle in the 1960s
as a small band performing in pubs in Seattle’s Magnolia district, but their success
came when they traveled north to Vancouver, British Columbia, to record and
once they gained recognition, they left the Northwest. The hard rock group found
its identity as the feminist outlier in a male-dominated genre, which has been a
defining staple of the band, not as a native of the Pacific Northwest. Musically
and culturally, Seattle has been significant in housing legends in American music,
though it has never received the recognition it deserved.
As Seattle entered the 1980s, it began to solidify and understand its place.
Pacific Northwest Historian John Findlay asserts that the Pacific Northwest was
culturally ambiguous for many decades, looking to the East for its identity, finally
settling into its own in the early 1980s.
8
The area has gone through many phases
in its history, via its Indigenous roots, its pioneering and Gold Rush legacy in
addition to its role in WWII, its contribution to the world’s future, and even with
its folklore, but still, it could not pinpoint its identity. Leading into the early
stages of the grunge movement, Seattle was beginning to understand who it was.
Although it was unknown who or what started “grunge,” a particular
sludgy punk sound began playing in the local clubs and basements around Seattle.
6
Erick Lacitis, “‘Flying saucers’ became a thing 70 years ago Saturday with sighting
near Mount Rainier,” The Seattle Times, June 24, 2017, B12.
7
Richard H. Dillon, Shanghaiing Days, (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961), 234.
8
John M Findlay, “Something in the Soil? Literature and Regional Identity in the 20th-
Century Pacific Northwest,” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 97, no. 4 (2006): 183.
Page 5
Come As You Are
Wood
Grunge musician and producer, known as the “Godfather of Grunge,” Jack
Endino explained its artistic origins as due to the constant rain and excessive
dreariness; one would simply go into their basements and garages to take their
emotions out in music.
9
It was a reaction to the depressive, lonely, shut-in aura of
the Pacific Northwest and the rowdiness of youth enduring it. Grunge critic Dawn
Anderson described it as such: “Grunge was an euphemism for extremes,
extremes of anything, a lot of people say it’s a throwback to heavy metal, it was
one influence, punk rock was an influence. Basically, anything loud, crushing,
and extreme was an influence.”
10
The volatile nature of grunge encapsulated the
mood of the performers and fans, exercising an enjoyment of noise and angst.
Bailey Gomes of Northern Michigan University explained that "Music provides
an outlet for aggression. Grunge allowed adolescents to experience a cathartic
purging of emotion in a healthy way. In addition to this catharsis, grunge gave
adolescents a movement to stand behind.”
11
Grunge was a medium for many in
the Pacific Northwest to express themselves. The singer may express themselves
through their lyrics (complaining about their miserable life and expressing a
countercultural narrative), and the guitarist and drummer express themselves
through the intensity of their playing (transferring the emotions in their mind into
the instruments they play). But the listeners express themselves by moving in a
sea of flesh at the clubs and garages across the Seattle area (letting go of the
sickening experiences of life). The word “grunge” perfectly describes the noise of
the genre: young, raspy vocals complaining about society, accompanied by
destructive, rageful rapping on drums and aggressive, repetitive riffs on an
electric guitar, complemented with a psychedelic crowd of young men and
women moving and roaring in approval.
Culturally, “grunge” went beyond music. The movement embodied a
youthful dissent against the clean clique and the conservative reaction from
society in the 1980s.
12
Many who felt forgotten in their secluded corner of the
continent expressed their angst through song and dance. The Reagan
administration’s conservative culture suppressed many issues that young liberal
Americans believed were important. Grunge’s progressive purpose brought with it
reforms within music and performance, most notably with feminism. The “Riot
Grrrl” movement was born out of Washington’s capital, Olympia (60 miles south
of Seattle), as a feministic critique of a patriarchal society through song and
dance. Todd Kerstetter notes, “These radical feminists opened stage mics at
9
Hype! directed by Doug Pray (1996; Lionsgate Films), 04:08, YouTube.
10
Ibid., 24:02.
11
Bailey Gomes, “1990s Grunge and its Effect on Adolescents,” Conspectus Borealis 6,
no. 1 (Spring, 2020): 4.
12
Nina Esperanza Serrianne, America in the Nineties (Syracuse: University of Syracuse
Press, 2015), 142.
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performances to allow audience members to discuss sexual abuse and asked men
and slam dancers to create a safe space for female spectators near the stage.”
13
Bands such as Bikini Kill and later Sleater-Kinney became icons in the
progressive sociopolitical movements that began rising out of pockets of the
nation as a result of the conservative reactions in the early 1980s. Pioneering
musical feminism, Grunge expressed the need for safety towards the female sex
not only in the clubs but also in society.
Early grunge flourished in the nightclubs of Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham,
and other local areas; showing young, horny, transcendental crowds moving in a
sea of hallucinatory flesh led by a band in a similar fashion, which began to take
notice from critics. Seattle’s musical newsletter, The Rocket, started in the early
1980s but covered heavy metal bands exclusively, eventually turning their focus
to grunge in the late 1980s as it began to pick up in popularity. A writer for The
Rocket, Dawn Anderson, began a magazine called Backlash from 1987-1991,
targeting specifically grunge bands. Grunge’s most recognizable names, such as
Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana, were first mentioned
by Backlash.
14
But no publisher or outside force had the influence on the
movement that Sub Pop Records possessed. Started by Bruce Pavitt, a writer for
The Rocket, along with Jonathan Poneman, they worked with local bands on
recording and producing music. With assistance from Jack Endino, they began
developing what is famously known as the “Seattle sound,” now grunge’s most
headlined nickname.
15
They expressed a way to popularize the fledgling
movement by giving it an identity. Pavitt and Poneman’s goal was to develop a
regional movement and exploit it globally,
16
a phenomenon that has happened
before in cities such as Liverpool, San Francisco, and even Athens, Georgia.
Solidified within the cultural underground, Sub Pop Records assembled their first
contribution to music by recording and releasing works by most notably Seattle
bands but also underground icons such as Sonic Youth (a prominent noise rock
group from New York which is commended for helping Seattle band Mudhoney
gain prominence outside of Seattle in the late 1980s).
17
In July of 1986, Sub Pop
released “Sub Pop 100,” a compilation album of primarily grunge bands, being
the genesis of major bands such as Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone (who
13
Todd M. Kerstetter, “Rock Music and the New West, 1980–2010,” Western History
Quarterly 43, no. 1 (Spring, 2012): 64.
14
Dawn Anderson, “Backlash- December 1987 through January 1988,” Backlash,
February 1988.
15
Hype! 54:21.
16
Mike Rubin, “Swingin’ on the Flippity Flop with Sub Pop: Our 1995 Feature on the
Legendary Seattle Label,” Spin, April 2, 2018.
17
Steve Turner, Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through The Grunge Explosion (San Francisco:
Chronicle Prism, 2023), 134.
Page 7
Come As You Are
Wood
later became Pearl Jam through the death of vocalist Andrew Wood).
18
Local
bands like Green River, L7, and Soundgarden began producing albums out of Sub
Pop, and others started recording singles. Kerstetter explains, "Some critics
dispute the existence of a "Seattle sound" and argue that the Northwest as a place
had little to no influence on grunge; they credit timing, circumstance, and, most
importantly, the vigorous promotional activities of Sub Pop Records for bringing
fame to Seattle bands in the 1990s."
19
These promotions of Sub Pop and other
publications throughout the Northwest validated grunge’s identity and began to
spread the movement across the United States, though it remained heavily
underground throughout this early period.
However, the efforts of Sub Pop never produced reasonable fruit in the
late 80s. Success was not expected or even sought out by the groups. Jack Endino
explained- "No one was worried about success, because we knew it was Seattle,
not LA; no one was going to come and sign us."
20
He continued by saying, "The
bands that stuck it out was because they really enjoyed playing their music, and
that was the only positive reinforcement anyone really got."
21
Another critic,
Susie Tennant, asserted, "You had people who were in bands because they wanted
to be in bands. And it grew without any outside force disturbing that."
22
Overall,
the consensus around grunge leaving Seattle was weak at best. To continue
playing was a commitment that many made based on pure passion, for the art of
grunge and values associated with it. Bands did not have the funds nor recognition
to record more than a few songs or even sign a significant contract. Exclusivity
brought with itself a more curated sound; the punkier side of grunge that was
clearly recognized in the early 1980s began to quiet down around 1990. The early
successes of Sub Pop began to dwindle heading into the next decade.
Entering the 1990s, many believed that the small popularity of grunge
would die down and become forgotten history, but quite the opposite happened.
Kerstetter notes, "By the late 1980s, the West stood poised to make another far-
reaching contribution to American culture that arguably has the strongest link to
the region: grunge… where people used the term to describe slow punk played by
a band called the Melvins."
23
The Melvins started in 1983 in Montesano,
Washington, a small town southwest of Seattle near the Pacific coast. They were
on the metal side of grunge and became one of the more successful grunge bands
out of the late 1980s. Through the Melvins, Jack Endino got the opportunity to
meet a new yet endearing face in the grunge era: Kurt Cobain.
18
Sub Pop 100, Sub Pop Records, 1986, Spotify.
19
Kerstetter, “Rock Music and the New West, 1980-2010,” 63.
20
Hype!, 34:50.
21
Ibid., 35:20.
22
Ibid., 38:33.
23
Kerstetter, “Rock Music and the New West, 1980–2010,” 64.
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Cobain was born on February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington, a bleak
logging town adjacent to Montesano on the Pacific. Kerstetter asserts, "When
Cobain came of age, the town (Aberdeen) had lost about two-thirds of its
residents, and high unemployment and alcoholism plagued the city."
24
Cobain
grew up in a world diseased with poverty, drugs, and misery. His parents divorced
when he was nine, and he became homeless due to dropping out of high school
and then became hooked on hard drugs. Cobain was a troublemaker in his town;
vandalization and contempt for authority were common for the troubled
adolescent.
25
He found music as an escape from the harsh world around him,
writing his most successful songs from traumas in his life, such as witnessing
domestic violence with his parents and his homelessness.
26
Cobain met his fellow
bandmate, Krist Novoselic, in high school and formed a grunge group called
Nirvana in 1987.
Nirvana was heavily influenced by the Melvins. The intense and gruff
style of grunge Nirvana adopted showcased the most extreme versions of the
movement. Dawn Anderson was the first to advertise Nirvana in 1987, “They call
themselves Nirvana, a name that signifies both everything and nothing. If you
don't understand this, you can either take a course in world religion or you can
witness Nirvana incarnate next time they perform in the big city."
27
Nirvana
began performing in Olympia, and Cobain became extremely established in the
Riot Grrrl movement, which influenced him through the rest of his career.
28
In
1988, Cobain contacted Endino asking him to come up to Seattle and record a few
songs, telling Endino he was a friend of the Melvins. "Nirvana kinda came out of
left field. It came from Aberdeen, which was this town out in the middle of
nowhere… I thought they were amazing… I believed this band is going to be
huge," Endino recalled.
29
Their freshman album, Bleach, was released on June 15,
1989, under Endino. It received the expected amount of success that a typical
grunge album would have, and Nirvana fell back into the drudges of Aberdeen.
However, Nirvana’s sophomore album, Nevermind, would change music
history. Before the recording of the album, Nirvana’s drummer, Chad Channing,
was replaced by Washington D.C. native Dave Grohl. The band recorded their
24
Ibid., 63.
25
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, directed by Brett Morgen (2015; Universal Pictures,
2015), 1:32:00, Amazon Video.
26
Ibid.
27
Dawn Anderson, Nirvana: It May Be the Devil and It May Be the Lord… But It Sure As
Hell Ain’t Human (Nirvana Information Book).
https://www.livenirvana.com/documents/press/press_kit.pdf.
28
Cobain’s activism against rape and homophobia came as a result of his involvement
within Riot Grrrl. Culturally speaking, the progressive push in the 1990s could have resulted from
Cobain’s iconic figure, especially in his openness to these issues.
29
Hype!, 36:49.
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album in Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA, and Smart Studios in Madison,
Wisconsin; it was released by DGC Records with heavy support from Sub Pop.
The album cover depicts a nude baby in a blue swimming pool reaching out to a
dollar bill attached to a fishing line, symbolizing American society's lust for
money.
30
Many of the songs testified to Cobain’s past, such as “Polly,” which was
about the rape of a teenaged girl in 1987 in Tacoma, WA, a call to the Riot Grrrl
movement; “Lithim,” a ballad of Cobain’s struggle with understanding religion,
and “Something in The Way” which is about his homelessness.
31
The honest,
turbulent, and assertive LP was released on September 24, 1991.
The album became an immediate success for the movement. Within
weeks, Nevermind surpassed all expectations and became the most successful
grunge released at the time. In November, Simon Reynolds of the New York
Times released a review praising the album for its unique sound and message. "It's
not so much the album's glossy grunge that's made it such a success, however, but
the raw, raging fashion with which Nirvana articulates its feelings of impotence,
bewilderment and inertia."
32
But the praise of the highest critics was not
Nevermind’s high point. By the new year, Nevermind hit the top of the Billboard
chart, introducing not only an unknown band and the grunge movement in Seattle
but launching the entire genre of alternative rock out from the underground.
Numerous theories arose to explain the success of Nevermind, ranging
from it being a response to the prevalence of hard rock and 'hair' metal in the
1980s, the infectious riffs of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” to even the opposition to
Reaganomics and its impact on the American economy.
33
What is certain, though,
is that Nirvana became the biggest band in the world, and Kurt Cobain has
become a generational icon practically overnight. Rapidly, Seattle was looked to
as the next capital of music and culture. In April, Rolling Stone asserted that
Seattle is “the new Liverpool.”
34
Bands that had never been heard of outside the
grunge circle became household names. These include Pearl Jam, Soundgarden,
and Alice in Chains, which climbed to rival Nirvana in popularity. In the long run,
Pearl Jam’s freshman album Ten (1992) outsold Nevermind.
35
There were few
moments in music history where a single album could impulse an entirely new
genre into the mainstream, and Nirvana had just made it.
30
Nirvana, Nevermind, Sound City Studios and Smart Studios, September 24, 1991.
31
Ibid.
32
Simon Reynolds, “RECORDING VIEW; Boredom + Claustrophobia + Sex = Punk
Nirvana,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 1991, 34.
33
Serrianne, America in the Nineties, 142.
34
Michael Azerrad, “Grunge City: The Seattle Scene,” Rolling Stone, April 16, 1992.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/grunge-city-the-seattle-scene-250071/.
35
Justin Henderson, Grunge Seattle (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2021), 40.
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As a result of this trend, previous albums and supergroups
36
started to
achieve remarkable success. One such supergroup was "Temple of the Dog,"
which included singer Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, Eddie Vedder from Pearl
Jam, and other members of Pearl Jam. They formed this supergroup in memory of
Andrew Wood, a grunge singer who tragically passed away from a heroin
overdose at the age of 24 in 1990. After the explosion of grunge, the supergroup’s
self-titled album reached no. 5 on Billboard.
37
Alice in Chain’s Dirt (1992) topped
at 6
th
on the charts,
38
and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger (1991) received a
Grammy nomination in 1992.
39
Also, grunge-influenced bands such as Stone
Temple Pilots in San Diego blew up. "Vaguely angry, the Pilots denounce
religion, authority and apathy in their lyrics… the band also attacks mass-media
entertainment and the "dead and bloated nation of sleepwalkers.""
40
Pilots were an
example of the endless list of alternative groups that gained notoriety, showing
the effect that Nevermind had on the music industry.
The cultural implications that came from the grunge movement brought
with it an explosion of culture out of Seattle. The rowdy and dissenting attitude of
grunge caught on with its music, messaging, and fashion. Seattle's unique identity,
deeply rooted in its history of logging and the people who settled and cultivated
the land, gave rise to a distinct style of dress. The flannel has been a staple of the
logger, but as grunge rose, so did the flannel. The flannel quickly became an icon
of 1990s streetwear.
41
Thrifting was another staple of grunge fashion. It was
cheaper to acquire clothes at a thrift store than at a department store, so many
grunge artists thrifted their clothes. Thrifting is still a very hip hobby for many at
the current time. For example, the military boot was heavily thrifted because of
the presence of the massive Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army and Air Force base
south of Seattle; the boot became another must-have for the movement.
42
The
disheveled wardrobes of Seattleites became the newest trend that took the world
by storm. Major designers in New York, such as Christian Francis Roth and
36
A supergroup is a band temporarily assembled by members of other bands or
independent artists to create musical projects; the most prominent example of this is Cream in the
1960s.
37
Gillian Gaar, World Domination: The Sub Pop Records Story (Chicago: BMG Books,
2018), 125.
38
Alice in Chains: Chart History. https://www.billboard.com/artist/alice-in-chains/chart-
history/tlp/.
39
Soundgarden News. https://www.grammy.com/artists/soundgarden/15924.
40
Mark Jenkins, “Stone Temple Pilots On Familiar Ground,” The Washington Post,
October 30, 1992, N18.
41
Cathy Horyn, “Fashion: Grunge, Wearing Out Its Welcome In New York, More Attic
Inspiration,” The Washington Post, November 5, 1992, D1.
42
Ibid.
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Come As You Are
Wood
Ralph Lauren, started designing and producing grunge-influenced clothes,
43
and
mall department stores opened “grunge” sections.
44
Many of the traits of grunge
fashion, such as flannels and thrifted/vintage clothes, stuck and still dominate
modern streetwear.
Moreover, the characters in the movement became idols to many. Young
people across the world loved individuals like Kurt Cobain, who stirred the pot of
seriousness and the needful urge to rebel against the current system.
45
The
edginess and mannerisms of the movement, along with the topics of feminism and
LGBT+ rights, were adopted by many youths globally. Cobain was seen as a
voice for a generation; a man who experienced the worst that society and life
could throw and who was not afraid to be vocal about what he believed in and
acted as he wanted to. "Nirvana's music reflects the fact that the band did not
come from a West of sun, fun, and opportunity."
46
Seattle was even beginning to
be considered a “ghost town” by residents.
47
The city was a capsule for those who
felt forgotten, a dreary place that was a symbol of decline; many felt their identity
in Seattle.
The final aspect of grunge’s influence came from its popularity. Due to the
maximal success of Nirvana many flocked to Seattle to sign the next big band.
Susie Tennant explains: "When these bands started to get popular, all of a sudden,
everyone wanted to find the next Nirvana, everyone wanted to sign the next Pearl
Jam. All of a sudden bands that have never played live before are getting huge
advances."
48
At its core, grunge was never about success or money but about the
enjoyment of its art. It was the culture of a unique place and people. Paul Safford
of Tarleton State University asserts that "The grunge movement of the early
1990s emerged out of musical friendships content to be on their own, on the
outside, reflecting a sense of isolation and alienation in the music they made."
49
It
would be hard to imagine how the world of the Seattleites and musicians was
being flipped upside down. For the past 30 years, their city was left unnoticed by
the critics and producers of larger and more prominent cities across the nation;
now that it was being thrust into the center of the pop culture world, it was
shocking. In an interview with Krist Novoselic in April of 1992, he stated, "So
43
Ibid.
44
Hype!, 59:35.
45
Serianne, America In The Nineties, 142.
46
Kerstetter, “Rock Music and the New West, 1980–2010,” 65.
47
Eric Scigliano, “Seattle in the ’80s: Big Tech and Boomtown Economics Arrive,”
Seattle Weekly, March 30, 2016.
48
Hype!, 41:28.
49
Paul Edgerton Stafford, “The Grunge Effect: Music, Fashion, and the Media During
the Rise of Grunge Culture In The Early 1990s,” M/C Journal 21, no. 5, (2018):
culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1471.
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much has happened to me in the past year, it’s like winning the lottery. Go buy a
house, indulge in materialistic acquisitions… But, if I was the anti-materialist that
I claim to be, I'd be happy living in a wood hut in the woods."
50
They believed the
embodiment of their ethos was being stripped from them, for years, they preached
anti-materialism, isolation, and alienation, but when they received the boon of
money and attention, their philosophy was being threatened. Though grunge was
what a generation of teens and punk rockers needed to suffice their angst, its
attention by those who became closest to the locals and artists (critics, producers,
and the media) began to cause the decline of the movement.
The overnight success brought with it an iniquitous demon: fame. Men
like the members of Nirvana and Pearl Jam were nameless and unknown to the
public eye; and then, within weeks, they were on the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine, their songs were being played on MTV; and their managers were
flooded with interview requests by major newscasters. They went from normal
individuals going about life to being worshiped as idols by the masses. "Suddenly
your life as a private individual is over and that’s a heavy thing to deal with," Jack
Endino pointed out.
51
That burden was extremely hard to bear for most of those
who suffered under the attention of humanity. Krist Novoselic exclaimed in an
interview in 2015, "It was traumatizing to be famous all of the sudden, especially
coming from complete obscurity to becoming the number one band in the
world."
52
He continued by saying that he used alcohol as a means of escape, and
Cobain became evermore hooked on heroin.
53
The odyssey of Kurt Cobain’s
downfall was a strict result of the movement. He remained ever unchanged on the
outside as a personality, embodying the adolescent character of grunge. In a letter
to the Advocate in 1993, Cobain said, "Stay gay all the way, and wipe your ass
with USA Today. I love you."
54
His sufferings came from that isolating notion of
success, a blow more crushing than the isolation of homelessness. On April 5,
1994, he died in his Seattle mansion. "Fueled by depression and a heroin
addiction, Cobain’s death signaled an end to grunge’s collective appeal while
shining a spotlight on one of the more dangerous aspects of its ethos."
55
In
retrospect, Cobain’s death brought a hammer of stoppage to the madness that
engulfed Seattle from 1992-1994. Steve Turner, musician of Mudhoney, put the
impact of his death best: "Kurt Cobain's death cast a pall on the entire country,
50
Nirvana Guitarist Krist Novoselic , interview by Cyrus Aman, Olympia, WA, May 15,
1992. https://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9204ca/index.php#Transcript2&gsc.tab=0.
51
Hype! 1:04:54.
52
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, 1:32:00.
53
Ibid.
54
Kurt Cobain to Advocate Reader, January 25, 1994, Live Nirvana.
https://www.livenirvana.com/documents/images/letter-the-advocate-jan-25-1994.png.
55
Stafford, “The Grunge Effect,” 2018.
Page 13
Come As You Are
Wood
and maybe even the world. It also felt like it has irreparably altered grunge's
meteoric ascendancy. When grunge escaped Seattle and went international, it was
revolutionary.... But when Kurt died, it was… the beginning of the end for
Seattle's musical supremacy."
56
Cobain’s death symbolizes the suicide of grunge,
a movement that never wanted success which gained it, nevertheless.
The Seattleite’s role in the cultural definition of American (and global)
society cannot be overlooked. A land defined by its people, ignored by the rest of
the nation, finally became noticed. The grunge movement brought forth some of
the most recognizable songs and fashion trends that still endure thirty years later.
But overall, the lost identity of Seattle was finally found and solidified. But above
all, with that newfound identity, Seattle was able to contribute to not only national
culture but also world culture through the birth of the grunge movement. A
movement that would risk suicide as a means of securing its identity. Men like
Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, along with Jack Endino and Bruce Pavitt of Sub
Pop Records did not only define a genre or generation, but they defined a whole
city.
56
Steve Turner, Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through The Grunge Explosion (San Francisco:
Chronicle Prism, 2023), 200.
Volume 11 Issue 1
July 2024
Page 14
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