The record label Sub Pop, most notable for kick-starting the grunge movement of the 1990s, celebrated its 20th anniversary this past weekend with a music festival in Seattle. Unleash the nostalgia!
Wow, Sub Pop is 20 years old! That makes me feel… surprisingly young. I mean, I was only 12 when they released Nirvana’s Bleach in 1989. Frankly, I was oblivious to Nirvana and all the Seattle grunge until 1991, “the year punk broke.” And after it did, I was way more into record labels like SST, Fat Wreck Chords, K, Kill Rock Stars, and Epitaph. Grunge sort of bored me: Buncha guys with loud wailing guitars and local wailing angst-ridden vocals.
Even more damning, grunge was commercially successful and listened to by the same jocks and preps that sneered “freaks” to me and my friends. I remember my sophomore year semi-formal when they played “Smells like Teen Spirit.” Everyone got in a circle, dutifully imitating the mosh pits that they saw on MTV, while I sulked, outraged that anyone would portend to mosh in the school cafeteria. A few boys ran out into the middle of the circle, flailing around in their dress shirts and pants, but no serious contact was made under the watchful eyes of teachers. It was the last school dance I ever went to.
Meanwhile, I spent just about every Saturday night at the dance club Breakers in Malvern, PA, where grunge was played sparingly because, well, who wants to dance to grunge? Grunge wasn’t cool, anyway. The radio and MTV was filled with grunge. Breakers was for the punks, goths, ravers, and assorted hybrids, with a smattering of hard core/straight edge guys and ska fans. To go into Breakers wearing a flannel shirt and stonewashed blue jeans would be like social suicide.
So virulent was the contempt for “alternative” mainstream music that when Kurt Cobain shot himself, I totally respected him for it. I thought he realized what a hypocrite he became, how he was the biggest sell-out in the history of rock and roll and decided to kill himself almost as an act of honor. Typical screw-up teenager romanticism. I couldn’t fathom the demons that haunted and tortured Cobain, like depression, drug addiction, and Courtney Love.
Back to 2008: I was kinda surprised that Sub Pop is still around and releasing new music of bands that I’ve actually heard of. None of them seem very grunge. Like Wolf Parade features a sort of jazzy piano, while the Ruby Suns are World Music hippies. But even Sub Pop’s musical tastes must evolve with the times.
