Playlist [90s Style 3 - Flannel Riot (Grunge)]

When someone talks about "90s Music," the Grunge scene is the first thing that will pop into most people's mind. Images of angst ridden, long haired boys in black leather boots and mangled thrift store jeans dance in the head as our ears brace themselves for guttural shouts and roaring fuzz guitar.

While grunge tends to define the 90s the same way that disco seems to define the 70s, the actual grunge scene was mostly finished by the time it became popular in the mid 90s. It heavily influenced popular music for the next decade. But, most of the original innovators of the sound remain obscure footnotes in the histories of bands with a cleaner more palatable sound.

Here you will find no pretenders to the throne. Which also means that if you're going to listen to this whole playlist, you're going to need some cotton balls to keep your bleeding ears from staining your flannel shirt.  Like it's original fan-base, this music is unwashed. This is noisy, dirty music.

While compiling this set, I discovered several bands that I would have adored when I was 17. I don't know how I many times I've heard the Melvins mentioned and then never bothered to listen to them. I was actually surprised by how many bands that I identified as part of this genre that were actually just influenced by it. Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Toadies, all decedents of the original Seattle genome which seems to degrade and horribly mutate once exposed to popularity. So, while Green River begat Mother Love Bone who begat Temple of the Dog who begat Pearl Jam with no noticeable defects. Pearl Jam became popular and begat Creed who begat Nickleback. So also did Alice in Chains beget Days of the New and Godsmack. Grunge was a naturally nonconformist entity that died of it's own success.

I also should note that this was a largely male dominated genre. Most of the female fronted bands that I included are more commonly referred to as Riot Grrl bands. Some of them, especially Bikini Kill, fit that description better. So this is really a Grunge/Early Riot Grrl list. But, in the spirit of the music, I can do whatever I want.