The Artists
Generation X & Grunge
All these artists had extremely similar backgrounds, sounds, and lifestyles. With an extreme close range in birth year (1964-1967), all the artists were in Generation X, which refers to the generation of Americans that came after and descended from Baby Boomers. This generation is generally known for their disillusionment, often due to growing up in times of conflict (i.e., the Vietnam War, Cold War), financial uncertainty, and distrust of the government. The media, both in the 90s and now, have closely linked the values and message of Grunge music and Generation X. Not long after, Grunge started to permeate all part of popular culture; fashion, dialect, attitude, etc.
"This generation of greasy Caucasian youths in ripped jeans, untucked flannel and stomping boots spent their formative years watching television, inhaling beer or pot, listening to old Black Sabbath albums and dreaming of the day they would trade in their air guitars for the real thing, so that they, too, could become famous rock-and-roll heroes. A culture was born." -NY Times, 1992
Brief timeline of the rise and fall of grunge:
Ohhhh... I'm still alive?
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Kurt Cobain's death marked the beginning of the end of grunge as he died on April 5, 1994. Exactly 8 years later, on April 5, 2002, Layne Staley. While these two stars now live on forever young, the other three artists we look at have continued growing older. The following photos depict Cobain and Staley just before their deaths, and Cornell, Osbourne, and Vedder in 2016. |
Public Opinions: Then vs. Now
The above chart depicts worldwide google searches of all of our artists. In many ways, it seems that the searches correlate with commercial success of each band. Kurt Cobain seems to be the most heavily searched artist by far. Layne Staley, the other deceased artist, is not quite as heavily searched; this drop could be explained by the fact that Staley was out of the public after 1998 due to his addiction. Kurt Cobain was extremely famous at the time of his death, seeming to memorialize him even further and maintain his popularity well into today. While each band's commercial success certainly varied, they all had albums on Billboard's yearly top 200 albums at one point in the 1990s.
Grunge, whether the public liked it or not, was king in the early 1990s, and Kurt Cobain was the "hesitant post of Grunge rock." However, it was by no means just Nirvana leading the pack. Of the five bands we dove into, all five had albums ranking on either the yearly Top 200 albums or the yearly Top Alternative albums. Commercial success and sold out shows was not unheard of for each of them. Yet, in an article from Loudwire, a rock music website, all five of our bands are listed in the "10 Best Grunge Bands of All Time" with Nirvana and Alice in Chains topping the list (1st and 2nd, respectively), despite releasing far less music over time compared to the other three artists. Additionally, Nirvana landed the #30 spot on Rolling Stones "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," outranking superstars like Metallica, Pink Floyd, and Elton John, all artists who created albums and hits for decades. Quite different from Nirvana and Cobain, who was in the public eye for roughly 3 years and released only 3 studio albums (with one of those being released in 1989 and never reaching commercial success). Cobain was also ranked #73 on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of all time, quite a high title for a man known for songs with a simple power chord structure.
"Nirvana will be remembered for revolutionizing the state of rock 'n' roll in the 1990's, pulling it away from a processed, rather synthetic sound and returning it to something more sincere." - Michael Azerrad
Pearl Jam, Melvins, and Soundgarden all still tour today, continuing the release new music and new projects. Even Alice in Chains, taking a short break in the years following Staley's death, reunited in 2005 and continues to tour and release records today. Even with these popular bands still around today, with more that quadruple albums than Nirvana's measly three records between them, Nirvana still more than doubles the monthly listeners of all four others on Spotify each month.