Grunge Music Goes Mainstream

        Although grunge music's origins can be traced back to the 1960s, it re-emerged into the mainstream thanks to three Seattle bands - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. This all began in 1988 when a small-scale record label called Sub Pop released an album featuring songs from many bands including Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden as well as a photography booklet featuring the artists' grungy looks. This provided the new punk-metal hybrid genre with a distinct look and gave way for a generation of ripped jeans, flannels, and combat boots.
        In 1990, Soundgarden's debut album, Louder than Love was released and reached #108 on the national charts, and its second studio album, Badmotorfinger, would be a top 40 national hit within the next year. 1991 was a key year for grunge music as it started to make its way into the mainstream. Pearl Jam's multiplatinum-selling debut album, Ten, was released as well as Nirvana's Nevermind by Geffen Records. The album reached Number One on the Billboard pop album charts. Nevermind's Smells Like Teen Spirit, in particular, shifted the global musical balance and would become the anthem for the rock genre as a whole. Each day, the song circulated at least four or five times a day on MTV after the channel hired its first grunge veejay (video jockey). This song brought alternative music from the underground to dominate rock, with Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain, leading this movement.
       By the early '90s, grunge music was gaining a major influence on pop culture and even into the entertainment industry. A 1992 movie titled Singles, directed by Cameron Crowe was based in Seattle and featured a soundtrack including unreleased music from Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and solo recordings by the lead singer of Soundgarden, Chris Cornell. In the same year, Seattle was named the new Liverpool when Nirvana received its first cover on The Rolling Stone following the use of the words "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on a cover featuring the stars of Beverly Hills, 90210 a few months earlier. By the end of this year, 5 grunge bands were featured on Rolling Stone covers.
      The grunge movement's presence even reached the fashion world. Designers including Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Sui, and Marc Jacobs incorporated the classic elements of grunge fashion, like flannels, ripped jeans, and combat boots, into the contemporary designs featured in their fashion shows. Grunge fashion was also featured in Vogue magazine and it seemed as though the classic Seattle look was seen all over the world.

        Sadly, on April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home at the age of 27. The grunge world felt the pressure of this death and suddenly, the spotlight was placed on Pearl Jam to carry the movement. During this time, the number of grunge bands on Rolling Stones covers began to drop from its peak at 18 in 1994 and Pearl Jam struggles to recapture the sensation that this genre created in the early '90s after its album sales decrease significantly and Soundgarden breaks up. By 1998, grunge is dead but continued to influence the evolution of rock for years to come.




Sources:
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/grunge-music-90s-rock/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-31-ca-54992-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/15/style/grunge-a-success-story.html