History

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Callum plays many different genres of music, but one that always seems to go back to is grunge, here we have a background on the main type of music that Callum Performs:

Throughout history there has been many different types of music that have dominated a certain era or time period. One of these being Grunge music, which dominated the 80’s up to the mid 90’s. Grunge seemed to come out of nowhere, and to many people it wasn’t recognised as a genre until recently as certain people categorised Grunge into other genres such as punk. There were many artists that helped Grunge to get recognised, with some of them being less well known than others such as Mud Honey, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam. But the most famous one that could be said to have been the godfather of Grunge music, is Nirvana.

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Grunge was created in Seattle, which had a very poor political situation as many people were staying out of the area because there were a lot of mass killings throughout the state. However, it could be said that this political situation somewhat helped create Grunge music as this culture almost created a musical cult as many goths ended up coming out of Seattle, and grunge music became very appealing to them.  Seattle was also economically unstable as many people didn’t want to move to a state that had a terrible murderous reputation. The state also struggled to gain money through the music industry as well as many bands that were touring in western America would not come to Seattle as they were gigging up to San Francisco and didn’t think it would be worth moving up any further just so that they could play one gig. This also helped develop Grunge as since many bands didn’t show up in Seattle, it led to an increase in home grown bands putting on gigs throughout the state. This helped Grunge as these bands would book out venues and fill them with friends and families who wanted to see a musical performance, this helped out the economic situation as it allowed many businesses to stay open such as clubs and pubs as they were raking in money from the amount of people who were coming into their venue in order to see a Grunge concert. (Carla and the Walkabouts: Hype documentary, 1996) Grunge then begun to spread quickly throughout America, and Seattle was getting the best of it as things such as Grunge clothing and Grunge music festivals were being created which resulted in a large boost in the Seattle economy. There was also a lot of technology that was used to help create a Grunge sound, with the main one being the distorted sound that was always put on the electric guitars of Grunge bands and artists, they also created the sound of Grunge by using a raspy vocal tone to make the vocals sound unique from other musical genres. (Source for this paragraph is the documentary Hype, 1996.)

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The sound and style of grunge, is known for its unique type of music as it can be said to sound dirty and could be said to of represented the attitude of society during the 80’s and 90’s. (The History of Grunge-Rock my world 19/06/2019) It could be said that the whole brand of Grunge was made into this by just one band that completely changed the world, Nirvana. It could be said that their fame was not instant though as Bleach (1st of June 1989) was not that successful, and many people have criticised the tightness of the songs and didn’t not find the sound of music pleasing. This changed with their second album Nevermind (24th of September, 1992), as more production was put into it, the songs and lyrics were tighter, and Nirvana had brought in the drummer Dave Grohl to the band from Mudhoney . This changed Nivana’s sound as unlike their first album Dave kept the drumming simple, but still managed to make it sound good, as the drumming on Bleach was viewed as a racket that was over complicated. This band and their album Nevermind can be seen as the most iconic part of the grunge era and could be said to be one of the most important bands in the whole of Music History as they completely changed the face of music in western civilisation. (Classic Albums-Nevermind: BBC 15/1/2005)

Too begin with, Grunge was not seen as a pleasant musical genre as many people found this time of music funny and couldn’t take it seriously, due to the band names, the look of the musicians and the screamo singing. However, there was one band that forever changed this, with them being the famous Nirvana. Nirvana fully changed the face of Grunge due to their sound and their lyrics, that had become so appealing to the younger generation, as young people in the mid 80’s and 90’s believed that no one ever really understood them, this led to them taking pride in Nirvana’s music as they believed that Kurt Cobain understood them due to his lyrical devices that talk about all the gloom and horrific things that are in this world. We know that as the book What’s That Sound tells us “Nirvana’s lead singer Kurt Cobain performing in England 1992. Nirvana combined simple but intense guitar work with poetic, sometimes disturbing, longing lyrics to create a new sound “Grunge.” This sound seemed to appeal especially to young white suburbanites  who felt alienated from mainstream American values. Cobain’s suicide in 1994 helped turn him into an icon of “alternative” music and culture.” (What’s That Sound, John Covach, 8th of March 2006) It wasn’t just the younger generation that got into Grunge though, as many other people no matter what their age was being to get drawn towards Nirvana’s music, we know this as Catherine Strong who is the author of the book Grunge music and memory tells us “The really incredible thing about Nirvana was that everyone got into them” (Catherine Strong, Grunge music and memory, page 1, 2011)  However, later on it could be said that the band later became but a memory of grunge music as the band collapsed after the death of Nirvana’s singer Kurt Cobain who committed suicide on the 5th of April 1994, it is argued throughout history on whether this had a positive or a negative impact on Grunge as a genre as many believe it was a gain as Cobain became a martyr for grunge and more people began to listen and embrace grunge music. But to could also be said that many believed that this was a loss for the brand as it turned many fans and artists against grunge forever, as Cobain was their inspiration and now he was gone, they no longer saw a point in continuing  their musical careers. (Hype: Documentary 1996)

It could be said that Grunge successfully managed to change the face of music as a musical genre that was once seen as a laughing stock managed to get the whole of Western America and the rest of the world behind it we know this as  because SPIV said in December 1992 that “Seattle…Is currently to the rock “n” roll world what Bethlehem was to Christianity.” (SPIV December 1992) This shows us that Grunge took off throughout the world and Seattle was the birthplace of an extraordinary type of music.

Bibliography:

:Carla and the Walkabouts, 1996

: Catherine Strong, Grunge Music And Memory, 2011

: Classic Albums, Nevermind, BBC, 15/1/2005

: Hype, documentary, 1996.

: SPIV, December 1992

: What’s That Sound? , John Covach, 8/3/2006