The Parents of Grunge
Punk rock has a broad range of starting points. Original groups like The Sex Pistols and The Clash of Great Britain, Great White Idiot and Big Balls of Germany, and The Ramones and The Dead Kennedys of American fame don’t even scratch the surface of the cultural wave of rebellion that rose out of Neoliberal politics and Post-Fordism economic policies and their effects on world wealth distributions. These were just some of the bands that screamed lyrics and blasted rough, minimalist guitar riffs, attacking our eardrums to the sounds of social protest about rising wealth inequalities, soaring unemployment, and deteriorating conditions for the middle class. Punk rock, and its close relative, heavy metal, would be the birth parents of grunge, and set the stage for a new rebel yell that came about in the 1990s.
New York was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1975, and with the encroaching stagflation, (a term describing rising inflation coupled with rising unemployment) of post WWII liberalism, the city was desperate for federal intervention. Gerald Ford’s famous decline to provide a bailout for the city prompted the New York Daily News to print the ominous headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead”. The eventual compromise would come by way of the state of New York and would include austerity measures that stripped public services and gutted social programs to make way for capitalist enterprises. This laisse-fair style of economic approach and shunning of what was described as the “welfare state” would cripple the city and set standards for corporate piracy in America to this very day. The comments from William E. Simon, treasury secretary under the Ford administration testified that any aid to New York should be “so punitive, the overall experience made so painful, that no city, no political subdivision would ever be tempted to go down the same road.”, as Ryan Moore quotes in “Sells Like Teen Spirit” (p3, 2010) From these policies, and indeed, similar economic stances worldwide, the declining middle class arose a voice determined to throw its thumb at the systems of power.
Punk rock was an aggressive, distorted, youth rebellion. The South Bronx was the birthplace of the Ramones, and a boiling point of youth unemployment. By 1977, the young people there were experiencing jobless rates as high as 60%, and buildings regularly burned as owners sought to collect insurance payouts. Conditions were similar in Brooklyn, where another birthplace was taking shape. DJ Cool Herc, as early as 1973, was hosting community center parties, where he was developing a style of music that sampled the breakdown sections of popular funk albums. While punk was driving the youth rebellion in one part of the city, hip-hop was being born at 1520 Sedgewick Avenue- now officially designated by the New York State Office of Parks and Recreations as the genres place of origin. The declining middle class was proving itself an important player in the voice of social change. Heavy metal would also be a big influence in this social upheaval.
The heavy crunch of metal guitar in combination with the minimalistic composition of punk rock protest lyrical content are defining characteristics of grunge. Heavy metal has its own broad branches of styles and influences, many rising out of the youth culture that developed from unemployment as a result of new automation in the global industrial complexes. Great Britain and America would experience immense shifts in blue-collar job loss, and the gritty, dark, and thunderous sounds of Iron Maiden and Motorhead would craft some of the youth rebellion responses to these changes. All across America and much of the world, the sounds of youth culture were creating a voice that would be continually challenged by political figures. The Reagan presidency through the 1980s continued policies that put a “war on poverty”, a “war on crime”, and a “war on drugs”. These unwinnable, ridiculous fear tactics would eventually wear out the next generation of music influencers. By the 1980s, apathy was the word of the day, and a bed of middle class, angry teens with dwindling prospects for the future were ready to write a decade of music dedicated to yelling out how hopeless their situation really was. Their ranks were broadening, and not only was grunge poised to scream directly at the heart of capitalism itself, feminism found a bold new platform to generate an army of role models. All women groups like L7, Bikini Kill, the Cranberries, Garbage, and many more would rise and give young girls everywhere strong, talented, empowered figures to follow.
The rise of grunge rested on the shoulders of punk and medal and were paralleled by the birth and popularization of hip-hop and rap. A whole country of young people would spend the late 70s into the 80s yelling about a deck of cards that was growing more and more stacked against them. By the 90s, grunge would take shape and express a whole new exposure of how wealth distribution was shaping the days to come. By 1994, Sound Garden and Chris Cornell would cry out in their song “Black Hole Sun” and prophesize the world the was developing beneath our very feet. After Cornell’s death in 2018, Nora Jones gave a haunting tribute in her rendition of this song. Tomorrow I will explore the rising female empowerment movement of Riot Grrrl and its connections to grunge, but for now enjoy today’s listening example of “Black Hole Sun” by Nora Jones, and thanks for reading!