Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Re-Calling Grunge: Seattle, Anniversary Journalism, and Changing Narratives of a Genre

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sounds and the City

Part of the book series: Leisure Studies in a Global Era ((LSGE))

  • 839 Accesses

Abstract

While grunge has come to be regarded as a music genre almost exclusively associated with the city of Seattle, this characterisation has not always been stable. This chapter will use anniversary journalism on grunge to demonstrate the changing usage of the label. While for a brief time in the 1990s, as grunge became a worldwide phenomenon, bands from many locations were admitted into the genre, over time the label ‘grunge’ has been increasingly reserved for Seattle bands only. This serves to help recreate the image of grunge as being based in an organic scene, and erases the global and mass-produced nature of the movement in a way that reinscribes ideas about authenticity and ‘purity’.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    A term believed to have been coined by Mark Arm, guitarist and vocalist in the band Green River, formed in Seattle in 1984 and regarded as among the first exponents of the ‘grunge’ sound.

  2. 2.

    Note, for instance, that many of these ‘90s’ bands formed in the 1980s (for example, Nirvana) and/or have continued into the 2000s.

  3. 3.

    It could simply be that more time has passed since Hendrix’s death, making memorials seem more appropriate.

References

  • ‘15 Grunge Classics’ (2004) Mojo Classic: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge, pp. 129–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, P. (2011) ‘The Year Punk Broke’, Mojo, March, pp. 82–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, G. (1993) Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana. New York: St Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A., & Rogers, I. (2016) Popular Music Scenes and Cultural Memory. New York: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S., Knifton, R., Leonard, M., & Roberts, L. (eds) (2015) Sites of popular music heritage: Memories, histories, places. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Considine, J.D. (2011) ‘The Roaring 20s’, Guitar Legends, May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cross, C. (2001) Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain. London: Sceptre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, F. (1984) Decade Labeling: The play of collective memory and narrative plot. Symbolic Interaction, 7(1), pp. 15–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeRogatis, J. (2003) Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90s. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1992) On Collective Memory (L.A. Coser, Trans.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, M. (2014) ‘Kurt Cobain’s Hometown Honors Him With Hideous, Crying Statue’, Spin, February 21, online at https://spin.com/2014/02/kurt-cobain-day-statue-nirvana-aberdeen-washington/ [accessed 13 November 2017].

  • Irwin-Zarecka, I. (1994) Frames of Remembrance: The Dynamics of Collective Memory. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S. (1995) Covering Cobain: Narrative Patterns in Journalism and Rock Criticism. Popular Music and Society, 19(2), pp. 103–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S., & Featherly, K. (2002) Re-viewing Rock Writing: Narratives of Popular Music Criticism. In S. Jones (Ed.), Pop Music and the Press (pp. 19–40). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitch, C. (2005) Pages from the Past: History and Memory in American Magazines. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, D. (2017) ‘Jimi Hendrix Park Opens to Public in Seattle after Years of Delays’, Rolling Stone, June 19, online at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jimi-hendrix-park-opens-to-public-after-years-of-delays-w488577 [accessed 12 November 2017].

  • Lacitis, E. (2011) ‘Seattle Area’s Many Jimi Hendrix Memorials’, The Seattle Times, August 14, online at https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-areas-many-jimi-hendrix-memorials/ [accessed 12 November 2017].

  • Lashua, B. (2018) Popular Music Heritage and Tourism. In Baker, S., Strong, C., Istvandity, L., and Cantillon, Z. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Popular Music History and Heritage (pp. 153–162). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, M. (2007) Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Letkemann, J. (2011) ‘The Age of Innocents’, Billboard, September, pp. 14–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. (2011) ‘The Album that Changed Everything’, NME, September 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘Martyr in a Muffler Shop’ (2006) The Columbian, July, online at http://www.columbian.com/news/strange/outerlimits/martyr.cfm [accessed 9 July 2006].

  • McLeese, D. (2010) Straddling the Cultural Chasm: The great divide between music criticism and popular consumption. Popular Music and Society, 33(4), pp. 433–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMurray, J. (2011) Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearlman, N. (2011) ‘Black Days’, Guitar Legends, May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, L. (2011) ‘Teen Esprit Revisited’, Spin, August.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘Plaid to the Bone’ (2004) Guitar One, May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prato, G. (2009) Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music. Ontario: ECW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pray, D. (dir.) (1996) Hype!: The Northwest Music Explosion. Republic Pictures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, R. (2014) ‘Aberdeen’s Kurt Cobain Day Features Weird Crying Statue’, Rolling Stone, February 21, online at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/aberdeens-kurt-cobain-day-features-weird-crying-statue-20140221 [accessed 13 November 2017].

  • Reynolds, S. (2011) Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, J. (2004) ‘Help Me, I’m Hungry’, Mojo Classic: Nirvana and the Story of Grunge, pp. 46–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmutz, V. (2005) Retrospective Cultural Consecration in Popular Music: Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums of All Time. American Behavioral Scientist, 48(11), pp. 1510–1523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strong, C. (2011a) Grunge: Music and Memory. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, C. (2011b) Grunge, Riot Grrrl and the Forgetting of Women in Rock. Journal of Popular Culture, 44(2), pp. 398–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strong, C. (2015) Shaping the Past of Popular Music: Memory, Forgetting and Documenting. In A. Bennett and S. Waksman (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Popular Music. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • True, E. (2001) Live through This: American Rock Music in the Nineties. London: Virgin Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Appen, R., & Doehring, A. (2006) Nevermind the Beatles, Here’s Exile 61 and Nico: ‘The top 100 records of all time’—a canon of pop and rock albums from a sociological and an aesthetic perspective. Popular Music, 25(1), pp. 21–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitely, S. (2010) Trainspotting: The Gendered History of Britpop. In A. Bennett and J. Stratton (Eds.), Britpop and the English Music Tradition (pp. 55–70). Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarm, M. (2011) Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge. New York: Crown Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Catherine Strong

Authors
  1. Catherine Strong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine Strong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Brett Lashua , Stephen Wagg , Karl Spracklen  & M. Selim Yavuz , ,  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Strong, C. (2019). Re-Calling Grunge: Seattle, Anniversary Journalism, and Changing Narratives of a Genre. In: Lashua, B., Wagg, S., Spracklen, K., Yavuz, M.S. (eds) Sounds and the City. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94080-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94081-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation