When the Wall fell, popular culture rose to a new level of social relevance. Wind of Change? More like a tsunami! The Nineties washed over the increasingly globalized media landscape in a tidal wave of catchy tunes, cult movies, TV series and show stars. FACES rolls up the decade – and publishes an encyclopedia on the age of girl groups, GZSZ and grunge in loose succession.
Disoriented, irritated by bourgeois ideals, materialism and the abundance of affluent society – a lost generation is looking for something to hold on to. And finds it. In Seattle.
300 rainy days a year, with fog mostly hanging over the coast of the north-west of the USA on the other 65: the weather in Seattle reflects the basic attitude of the so-called Generation X – those born between 1965 and 1975. While Green Day’s fun punk blasts from the boomboxes at skate parks in sunny southern California, disillusioned electric guitarists in Seattle’s musty rehearsal cellars are breeding a cruder kind of guitar music, following in the footsteps of alternative rock veterans Mudhoney, Pixies and Sonic Youth.
Critics soon found a label for it: from then on, “grunge” was the name given to anything that screamed refusal. The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden or the Stone Temple Pilots end up in heavy rotation on radio stations, MTV and Viva. Nirvana’s “Nevermind” becomes a million-seller in 1991. Anti-heroes with the “Brockenhaus” look (flannel shirt, shaggy hairstyle, army boots) – as much as they resist it – become poster boys for Generation X and are kissed goodbye on Top of the Pops and MTV Unplugged. With “Singles”, the genre gets its own blockbuster, Kurt & Courtney are the new Sid & Nancy. Or Bonnie & Clyde on heroin, as the case may be.
That’s more publicity than a borderline depressive young junkie can bear: Kurt Cobain shot himself to death in 1994, and later Layne Staley from Alice in Chains and Soundgarden rocker Chris Cornell, among others, died. Potential successors are waiting in the wings everywhere, Silverchair in Australia, Ash in the UK, and – ahem – the Kelly Family in Germany? Bush singer Gavin Rossdale is hijacking the gossip magazines, post-grunge band Creed are abusing the hype for conversion attempts. Pearl Jam, meanwhile, are waving the flag of the upright until 2020. Even if they now have quite decent hairstyles.
