Would you say grunge is more of a label than a genre?

Question

The so-called "grunge" bands are some of my favorite bands (Nirvana's my favorite band of all time) But to be honest, I don't think they all really sound a whole lot alike. Seems like a very broad genre if you ask me. Nirvana, Mudhoney, and green river are very punk-ish to me. Soundgarden, stone temple pilots, and alice in chains sound very metal inspired to me and Pearl jam and temple of the dog sound more alternative rock/hard rock. Is grunge more of a label for bands that came out of the same area (besides STP) that were different from hair metal? I'd say so in my opinion...

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely. Look, to some people grunge is an attitude. To some people, it IS a sound (think dirty, fuzzy guitars). To some it applies to nearly any band that came out of Seattle in the early 90s, but to others there are only literally a handful or grunge bands. Some will say that Nirvana, the supposedly definitive grunge band aren't grunge at all but punk or postpunk...

So...different people use the word differently. If people want to call Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and the Screaming Trees all grunge bands in the same sentence, that's fine with me. But to me personally, grunge is more of a sound and a vibe.

For what it's worth, I was a teenager in the late 90s and did not live in Seattle. So obviously I was pretty removed from most of what got described as "grunge" or the seattle scene, which is synonymous with grunge to a lot of people. Again, some people would disagree with that.

Tl;dr Yes, although it is often used as a genre, it is more of a BS label and means different things to different people.

Answer 2

Technically speaking grunge doesn't exist as a genre, it's alternative rock but the term was coined to describe the Seattle music scene at the time. I think the other reason for this was the grunge bands would have been influenced by existing genres like punk, metal, country and classic rock but not enough so to fully fit the genres.Stone Temple Pilots would be considered grunge because of their similarities to Pearl Jam and most modern bands that get the grunge label sound like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Labelling has more to do with marketing than to describe the actual music, just look at how carried away the metal genre has got with all it's sub-genres, some of them are quite tedious and it looks like if one band plays slightly different to another than it becomes a whole new genre. You could also look at grunge as the anti-hair metal. Hair metal bands were very fashion and image conscious whereas the vast majority of grunge bands didn't care how they looked.

Answer 3

It isn't descriptive of a particular genre. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden are hard rock/borderline metal bands. Nirvana and Pearl Jam aren't. If Nirvana is grunge, then Alice In Chains isn't grunge.



"Grunge" was more of a lifestyle in the early 90's than a defineable music genre.

Answer 4

Grunge = alternative Rock from Seattle.

Answer 5

No I consider it a genre for it's trademark grungy Seattle sound that was coined to be the savior of Rock (being lumped with Alternative wasn't it's aim).