The Grunge Movement of the 90's: How It Affected our Culture Today

On February 1st, Sound City hit public theaters and video-on-demand. Directed by Foo Fighter's frontman Dave Grohl, this documentary of the Los Angeles studio of the same name elaborates on what my friend can only call "...dirty, greasy, old time rock and roll stories." Of all the musicians today, Grohl is certainly no stranger to these kind of stories. Grohl hit mainstream success with a little help from a band called Nirvana. During the 1990's, Nirvana was one of the leading bands in the grunge movement, a phase of heavy music which originated in Seattle. Alongside such notable bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana pushed grunge out into the rest of the country, radically changing our culture of music.

While looking for blogs concerning the grunge movement, I found a blog which seemed to be equally as angry as grunge itself (click here). Looking at the rhetorical devices used in this post, the first thing that sticks out to me is the diction. Ryan uses such loaded words to denounce the new bands that are taking the reigns. Overall, the tone of the post seems very, very angry. This technique, however, does a great job in mimicking the type of music is talks about. If Ryan were to be commenting on Katy Perry with this same type of tone, it would feel greatly out of place. Grunge was a type of music new to our culture; it was one that was intended to be judged, to be rejected by the majority, and to stand out. The author knows this and writes his post the same way a grunge artist was to write a song.

On the other end of the spectrum stands a more professional and less furious (click here) blog post about grunge. In this post, the author relies heavily on ethos and spends much more time telling why the grunge movement became what it was. It is much more calm and a lot more coherent. It is, in a way, much like Sound City. It is a documentary. The diction is a lot less loaded and the tone seems more informative than persuasive. There are no vulgar similies or metaphors. With the use of these device, the author conveys much more clarity and calmness in their post.

It may just be a personal bias but I truly believe grunge changed the music scene of our country. As such, I highly doubt that without the Seattle Sound music today would be the same. Music movements change our culture. We saw it happen with Elvis and Buddy Holly and again with the British Invasion, which ushered in big name bands such as The Beatles. Grunge was no different.