Pop Music and Me: Music of the 1990’s Grunge was the popular style of our juvenile age. We got used to it when we were teenagers. Grunge shaped our culture, our world outlook and our viewpoints. The phenomenon of grunge is worth our attention to observe. We listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. We idolized Kurt Cobain and his songs.
We loved grunge when we were teenagers and we dont shift our ground until now. Grunge is interesting by the fact that it didnt bring anything completely innovative into musical culture. At the same time it is generally considered as an independent musical style. Hoarse melodic melodies, at one moment fierce, at another apathetic-pulsatory tempo, sound of grunge generally reminds us the hybrid of Beatles and Black Sabbath. The major part of popular grunge-groups could exist in 1970s as well. Evidently, the secret of popularity of Seattle guitar rock is somewhere beyond the limits of musical innovations.
Grunge appeared at the time of global political vacuum. The conflict between West and East seemed to be settled, and young people turned to personal problems and neuroses. Pop-music of the early 1990s sounded like something sterile and artificial. Rowdy peacockery, clumsy stylishness and cocaine were a la mode. In this regard grunge was completely opposite phenomenon. Mere mortals, ordinary guys in ragged jeans and chequered flannelette shirts romped on the scene and sang melodic rock-ballads about hatred and disappointment.
They sang emotionally and their style of behavior was totally different from what mainstream proposed to the youth. However, the guys, in contrast to punk culture, tried to avoid any social or political argumentation. As far as we remember, grunge originated from Seattle. Seattle was traditionally known as an abandoned lot in relation to pop-culture (Bell 17).
The Term Paper on Cultures in apa style
As businesses become global, limitations between cultures and environments crumbled little by little. However, within the vastly developing globalization, business observers discovered many ‘unpredictable’ phenomena. These phenomena come to the scope of observation, only after globalization is widely accepted by firms all over the world. One of these phenomena is the success of corporations from ...
With the exception of the fact that Jimmy Hendrix lived in Seattle for a long period of time, as well as some weak sounds of heavy-metal and punk musical groups, Seattle couldnt boast of any sign of musical culture. Cultural life there was mostly oriented at rich bourgeois. Young musicians who had alternative way of thinking left for neighbor’s Vancouver.
Those who decided to remain in Seattle started to mix punk and metal, flavoring the energetic mixture with pop-melodies. Green River, Melvins and Soundgarden were among pre-grunge groups. Approximately at the same time Foggy Albion gave birth to local analogue of grunge under unusual name shoegazing. Musicians of such groups like Ride, Swervedriver, Curve, Chapterhouse and Slowdive (Humphrey 36) played their leisurely meditative compositions gazing at the floor. In the early 90s shoegazing disappeared under a furious attack of brit-pop from one side and American grunge from the other. In 1986 Bruce Pewit created an independent recording studio Sub Pop. In 1989 Sub Pop introduces debut albums of Nirvana and TAD (Bush 174) furious and lyrical.
By chance local label of Nirvana is discovered by international musical press. German magazine SPEX announces Sub Pop a label of the year. However, further ascending to musical horizon and its commercial absorption start only in November 1991, when legendary Nirvanas album Nevermind winded up on top of American and European hit parades. Sounds of Nirvana, together with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Melvins, Mudhoney and TAD immediately got plenty of imitators and fans. Seattle became a cult city where amateurs started to arrive in order to show their rock talents. Groups of the first hour gradually switch to major labels. Grunge like any other alternative culture drawn to the marketplace gradually lost its authenticity but remained extremely popular. When we listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam we defined positivity or, on contrary, negativity of textual influence.
The Essay on Classical Music in Pop Culture
There may just be a glimpse of good news for the music front. Recently I’ve heard numerous television commercials using pieces of classical music to display the message. Two of them, it must be stated, were for the same product, one of those so called daily vitamins. One had a piece of Wagner - the theme from Die Walkure – and the other accented a melody from Mozart’s Die Zauberflote. Actual ...
Some of us interpreted their texts like prophecies, others used them like aphorisms. Some of us lived up to their songs, whereas the others treated their songs like new bible. Grunge reflected the time we lived in and had great impact on our life. Actually, I can even claim that grunge helped to shape my current musical tastes because I still like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Their energy is really amazing. Some fans listened to their music and didnt try to catch a hidden content. They heard nothing except of so-called music of words the melodiousness of pronunciation and singing of words and syllables.
At the very beginning some of them didnt hear the depth of lyrical thought, but rather music of the words and wild energy verged on hysteria. Actually, music and energy made me listen to grunge. So, why did we listen to grunge? Inspiration Every person can interpret this word in his own way. The vocabulary dwells on burst of creativeness. Yet, it is quite a disputable statement. Inspiration is something you cannot describe by words.
Creativeness what is it, then? It is hardly a hip of muscles or a tangle of gyruses. It is something completely different. What about the music? Music is a mere combination of sounds. This definition is technically correct but it explains nothing. You must hear the music and only then you will be able to speak about it with understanding. When we examine musical faceting of grunge, we have to note that in contrast to other musical styles, its base is quite difficult to understand. For example, musical substructure of punk rock is much more primitive if compared to grunge.
Nobody knows who was the first person decided to combine harmonies and melodies into unimaginable musical pattern. Yet, the final result is the subject of unreserved admiration. Kurt Cobain created wild cocktail consisted of various musical styles. He combined punk with psychedelic of the 60s, added new age, and attached a whimsical rhythm with sparkles of atonal models of guitar solo. Finally, classical grunge technique low loud, serene unbalanced served like top-coat. Smells like Teen Spirit embodies all these techniques (Morell 82).
The Essay on Music Ethnography Of Jazz Culture In Charlottesville Virginia
The lights dim and slowly fade to a cool blue glow that covers the stage. The drum set waits facing in towards the rest of the instruments. Its signaling to the others as if it is time to play; reflecting greens and oranges off the symbols that hang motionlessly above the set. Across from the drums an electric keyboard is perched on top of a slender metal stand. Its plugged into its amplifier but ...
It became the exemplary model and fierce guide to action.
This album was a first powerful spur to musical post-underground culture. Smells like Teen Spirit. Lithium, Lounge Act, On a Plain, Aneurism, Heart-Shaped Box, Rape Me, – all these songs belong to grunge standards. They are familiar to everybody. Pearl Jam also gave birth to plenty of musical compositions. This group added a vivid and glorious page to history of grunge.
Their songs from the most famous album Ten can be called more rock-like if compared to Nirvanas albums. Such impression appears due to quite simple accord sequences and classical pentatonic guitar solos (Clarke 85).
However, melodic voice pattern puts everything in its place. Such symbiosis of innovation and natural classicism creates unique impression of original grunge. Their albums Vs and Vitalogy (1994-1995) can be definitely called the best examples of grunge culture. This eternal culture embodies hopes and myths of 90s.
I listen to grunge with a special feeling. This music is simple and unpretentious but it cut you to the quick. The attitude to music of 90s is changed drastically; some people consider it an antiquity, some of them prefer modern technologies, the ecstasy from overloaded and sophisticated special effects under the slogan no more grunge. Nevertheless, grunge is not dead only due to the reason that some other musical style replaced it. We can examine the decline of grunge like a problem, but the same situation is with modern tendencies in literature and art. The good old music will never die because each musical style has its own wording and self-expression. Every style has its fans. I listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam hitherto and Ill continue to listen to them till I grow grey.
Grunge aesthetics is expressed in solitude, urban destruction and an accent on personality. It is rather individual culture than gregarious one. Grunge never declares We are together; it abruptly and distinctly provokes to conflict by its slogan You are alone in the whole world. Songs of Nirvana were focused on personalities who realize their dissimilitude among glamour and glossy snobs. Come as you are became the motto of a new generation that destructs itself but tries to find the way out single-handed.
The Essay on Spanish Music Culture
Spain is known for it’s unique music and dance culture that has helped influence the way we see music today. The Spanish culture is filled with traditional music and dance that many other Spanish speaking countries have taken the art and modified it into their own culture. Music and dance, a huge part of the Spanish culture, has many different varieties that gets the whole Spanish community up out ...
Bibliography:
– Bell, Th.
(1998).
Why Seattle? an Examination of an Alternative Rock Culture Hearth. Journal of Cultural Geography, Vol. 18 – Bush, J. (1999).
Encyclopedia of Northwest Music: From Classical Recordings to Classic Rock Performances, Your Guide to the Best of the Region. Seattle: Sasquatch Books – Clarke, M.
(2003).
Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder: None Too Fragile. Plexus Publishing UK – Humphrey, C. (1999).
Loser : The Real Seattle Music Story. Harry N. Abrams – Morell, B. (1994).
Nirvana and the Sound of Seattle. Omnibus Press.
