Lately I see a question often
posed by people in their 20s or early 30s: “What’s to explain about Grunge?”
with an irritated tone for feeling treated as if they weren’t good enough to
understand.
The point is it’s not that
easy to explain what grunge represented for those who were teen-agers back in
the days.
The 80’s was the
quintessential hedonist decade: yuppies careerists, movies about steroid
abusers fighting “the reds”, hair metal-hard rock bands celebrating money and success.
But then the magic happened.
A bunch of guys coming from
Washington state dressed with ripped jeans, simple T-shirts and Converse shoes
said enough with this shit, let’s talk about real people, real problems.
The “Losers” took over the “Successful
ones”.
No more Mötley Crüe, Bon
Jovi, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Europe and above all Gun’s N’ Roses.
Just drum, bass, guitar and distortion.
And anger expressed through
art.
And us empathizing with them,
feeling finally represented.
For a lustrum we were king.
That was it
That was it
