Do you think grunge killed metal?

[Amelia G]

So I just watched "When Metal Ruled the World" on VH1. Well, really on TiVo, but you know what I mean. Every metal special has to have some mention of the Seattle grunge scene with its politically sensitive messages and Nirvana knocking out the Los Angeles hair metal scene with its excesses and Motley Crue and GNR. So, uhm, if Nikki Sixxx overdosed on heroin, was clinically dead in the hospital, but lived to go home and shoot up again and play another day . . . and Kurt Cobain managed to actually kill himself permanently, albeit not exactly directly with heroin . . . but really how different are the excesses? Was Seattle really less excessive than Los Angeles? Does anyone really think guys from Seattle didn't have stripper girlfriends supporting their long-haired partying asses?

[hewhoisagod]

Courtney Love was a stripper who also had a band when she met Kurt. So yeah there are some similarities, but then I think the LA metal scene killed itself. Seattle grunge was just the final nail, you can only have so many power ballads.

[KilLAtomiK]

Courtney Love was a stripper who also had a band when she met Kurt. So yeah there are some similarities, but then I think the LA metal scene killed itself. Seattle grunge was just the final nail, you can only have so many power ballads.

hey the first time i got laid was because of a power ballad

[MechaKali]

Grunge was just like metal in that it was just a bunch of guys playing but the problem was that it became too commerical and mainstream. Both collapsed under the weight of money.

[pedar]

some old friends: Chris Young (are you on this list?) was in one of the very last metal bands here in LA- 'Grinchfist'
re- grunge..I knew also Kelly Lemieux from Electric Love Hogs- one of the seminal grunge bands in the Pacific NW who got ripped off by Cobain- last I heard he was with Megadeth-Pedar

[Celtic WereWolf]

Metal never died it just went to Scandanavia to get even more brutal. and American Metal, lets just say took a siesta and awoke a "Big Hulking Dragon" ready to tear the heads off the , glam pop, and Boy bands yahoo,s !!!

[CeruleanFire]

I think metal is still lurking around somewheres, just waiting to resurface (I reallllly hope)

[memorydream]

I think many of the Seattle-Grunge personalities, in my perception, had very different personalities. You look at Nirvana itself as a band and those three guys were all completely different. Kurt, ironically, did end up getting the stripper girlfriend and a habit, but it just didn't seem as hedonistic as the Crue, GnR or Poison. Kurt seemed so destructive and self-involved in his own pain from what I've read and heard.

Alice In Chains used to be a hair-band, I'm told and Soundgarden was a lot more metal back in the later eighties. It seemed totally different to me.

But, if you looking to see the death of hair bands, it's not going to happen. They aren't as big, but people still go to all their shows still. Most of those bands still perform.

Ever hear of the song Grungewhore? It seems to sum up a much angrier version of Amelia quanders.

[CeruleanFire]

Theres one of my few regrets in life, I never got to see AIC perform live. That was one band that had such potential, and yet never had a chance, with a singer hooked on heroin. There was a point in my life, where I thought everything I knew was a lie, but somehow, listening to AIC kept me going. I remember the day they announced they had found Layne Stayleys(?sp) body, my friend AcidIceAdam, posted me the news. He knew how much I was into them. It was so sad. I had tickets that night for STP, in CT, and Scott Weiland did a solo that night, dedicated to Layne, it was The Big Empty. Thats so fitting. Thats exactly how I felt. as for Metal, I dont want a return of hair bands, I want loud, in your face, make you feel something metal. I was always an old metalhead. :p

[Foxbird]

There's still a lot of great metal going on; it's definitely less publicized, but really, metal is not about publicity. It's about playing no-bullshit music that large sweaty crowds of people can take their shirts off and elbow the shit out of each other like civilized human beings to.

Like Celtic Werewolf mentioned, though, a lot of the good stuff does seem to coming from Northern Europe lately.

[pedar]

Courtney Love was a stripper who also had a band when she met Kurt. So yeah there are some similarities, but then I think the LA metal scene killed itself. Seattle grunge was just the final nail, you can only have so many power ballads.

As of July -Love had been in and out of rehab twice in one month...so that makes it around 2000 times in her life..P.

[CPRB]

metal never died and grunge never killed anything....it jusst bacem marketable and the "in" thing if anyhting grunge was aseosme becasue it was simple and it got more women involved in " heavy agressive music" Grunge had some amazing bands that never got the recognition that had been rawking way before and still after the "crash" Mudhoney or even Sonic Youth( but they have been doing thier thing forever) comes to mind. as for metal..there are some amazing bands One o my Favourites comes to mind THE HAUNTED
but seriously as a open minded male thankgod for grunge it made wome grow some musical inntestinal fortitude and rawk out it made people realize they could just pick up an instruemtn and rawk. Sure punk did that to extent but look at the number of agressive women fronted bands? Otep, Walls of Jericho....heck even industrail music...

[CPRB]

oh as for hair bands..The darkness are doing a horrid job of trying to revive it

[memorydream]

Oh well, it's all gone now...

[TheQuietPlace]

Metal... I like swedish metal... so Melodic <3

[Amelia G]

Metal... I like swedish metal... so Melodic <3

Totally agree!

[Tequila Zaire]

Well the grunge thing simply brought a new style (that's debatable given it was basicly punk at heart..or an army Cheap Trick clones) to a new generation who grew up on metal as kids. GnR and Metallica where bands my friends were DEEPLY into in GRADE SCHOOL...while they never grew out of it it was safe to say that something new had to replace it. Plus it was getting really hard to identify with the hair metal style...I never got into it personally cause the guys looked (and still do in my eyes) like a massive collection of silly looking fucks who sing shitty music. Grunge was a bit more palpable but ultimately became the same thing...but at least Nirvana came out of it. ALl grunge did was bring an end to something that needed to be put on the shelf for a bit...that's all.

Same as punk is put away...then taken back out...then executed...then fucked in the ass...then remolded by an army of canadians in shitty bands who mange to steal radio play with some sick and twisted voodoo.

When Avril and Ashlee "I'm not my hot sister" Simpson are considered punk by teens today and Metallica is considered classic with low tier wastes like Rancid getting some surreal cred with people...

It's time for something new to kill it all off.

It wasn't "Electronica" or "Indie Folk Crap" and it's not "White Boy Crying over Silly Blond Girl College Chick Emo shit"

Hmm went into a bit of a rant there...oh well. I'll just end by saying I really really really want to see TommY Lee executed.

[Caligula]

I think the question presupposes that what sundry rock hacks and cultural commentators (myself included) matters. To an extent these movements are created and executed in the imaginations of various journalists. One of the things I really liked about metal in the first place was its perennial unfashionability. If you liked it, it wasn't to impress anyone. You were 'allowed' to like grunge because it had 'a message' (yawn). Metal is going through something of a revival - particularly over here courtesy of the fuckawful Darkness. Ironically, this brief moment in the limelight is just about the only thing that could kill it, as metal's always fed on its unpopularity in the mainstream.

[Mirren]

Theres one of my few regrets in life, I never got to see AIC perform live. That was one band that had such potential, and yet never had a chance, with a singer hooked on heroin. There was a point in my life, where I thought everything I knew was a lie, but somehow, listening to AIC kept me going. I remember the day they announced they had found Layne Stayleys(?sp) body, my friend AcidIceAdam, posted me the news. He knew how much I was into them. It was so sad. I had tickets that night for STP, in CT, and Scott Weiland did a solo that night, dedicated to Layne, it was The Big Empty. Thats so fitting. Thats exactly how I felt. as for Metal, I dont want a return of hair bands, I want loud, in your face, make you feel something metal. I was always an old metalhead. :p

Alice In Chains was an excellent band. The lyrics alone were enough to have me hooked. It was the combination of Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley that made it so unique , hard yet melodic. I don't consider Soundgarden "grunge" either, maybe I am just naive, I just don't. Songs like "Jesus Christ Pose", that's not grunge, that hard. Even though they are from Washington state, I don't group them with bands like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were influenced heavily by Heart, who are also Washington state natives and older rock music. It showed in their work. I miss their music but we have the cd's to remind of us of how powerful they were, they will always live on.

[TheDeathKnight]

If you guys are ever in Southern California,
go check out my friend's band...

http://www.aliceunchained.com/

They do an amazing job.

[SUSIEQ502]

Metal still lives in the bay area. There are quite a few metal bands with followings in Northern California. There just aren't any record companies that want to sign a Metal band when their marketing power is so weak.
It sucks
Disco Slayer