Question

Discuss the negativity in the lyrics of 90s grunge and industrial rock music such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Terrible Lie". Why do you think this genre was so popular in a time of relative peace and great prosperity in the United States?

Answer 1

Answer.

the early 1990’s brought a new type of Rock music to the stage- Grunge music which changed the emotion in a singer’s voice from formal to distorted and full of angst, it opened the audience’s ears to heart-breaks and mental disorders that the world suffered from. The distorted energy created by the sound of electric guitars and drums reproduced the underlying imagery of troubled and reckless ways of modern progressive society which had created a hunger and desire for high end lifestyle in the masses. Grunge music then drew upon the prevailing notions of sexual deviance, eternal sadness, failure of relationships, death and suicide in its lyrical productions of a state of hopeless existence.

grunge music started in the mid 1980’s, and was influenced by punk and metal. The term “grunge” came from Mark Arm the vocalist of grunge band Mudhoney; who used it to describe the sound of their band as “Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!” . Even though the 1990s was a period of economic and social stability, Grunge music created a new sound that appealed to the sensibility of angry and depressed teens who felt that they could relate to the lyrics and the everyday hateful-heartbreak that was reflected in songs like Nirvana’s ‘ Smells Like Teen Spirit’. The lyrics of grunge artists like Kurt Cobain allowed distraught American youth to embellish in the music and use it as their way of coping with disorders like depression and anxiety, it allowed them to feel that they were not alone during hard times. It is because of the discursive power of grunge music to represent youth identity as a state of emotional and social crises that it allowed for the emergence of sub cultures in the American youth and gain lasting popularity in return.