Editing Grunge (section)

==Musical style==
[[File:Seattle Music Scene Exhibit 3, EMP Museum.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=A museum exhibition of items associated with the 1990s Seattle music scene, including two Nirvana record album sleeves, a Soundgarden record sleeve, and instruments.|A museum exhibition about the Seattle music scene, with record sleeves of ''[[Nevermind]]'' and ''[[In Utero (album)|In Utero]]'' by [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]], along with ''[[Badmotorfinger]]'' by [[Soundgarden]]]]
In 1984, the punk rock band [[Black Flag (band)|Black Flag]] toured small towns across the US to bring punk to the more remote parts of the country. By this time, their music had become slow and sludgy, less like the [[Sex Pistols]] and more like [[Black Sabbath]]. [[Krist Novoselic]], later the [[bassist]] with [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]], recalled going with the [[Melvins]] to see one of these shows, after which Melvins frontman [[Buzz Osborne]] began writing "slow and heavy riffs" to form a [[dirge]]-like music that was the beginning of northwest grunge.<ref name=novoselic2004/> The Melvins were the most influential of the early grunge bands.<ref name=anderson2007C1/> [[Malfunkshun]] have also been cited as an influence on the early sound of grunge by figures such as [[Kurt Cobain]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Keneagy|first1=Kevyn|title=Beached, Buzzed and Blown with Nirvana|url=https://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9110kk/index.php#Transcript1|year=1991|magazine=The Columbus Edge|access-date=March 15, 2025}}</ref> and [[Mark Arm]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mark Arm on Grunge, Green River, and Reuniting For SP20|url=https://community.pearljam.com/discussion/7693/green-river-interview|website=Pearl Jam.com|date=2008|access-date=March 15, 2025}}</ref> Sub Pop producer Jack Endino described grunge as "seventies-influenced, slowed-down punk music".<ref name=kallen2012/><ref name=azerrad1992/>

Leighton Beezer, who played with [[Mark Arm]] and [[Steve Turner (guitarist)|Steve Turner]] in the Thrown Ups, state that when he heard [[Green River (band)|Green River]] play ''Come On Down'', he realized that they were playing punk rock backwards. He noted that the [[diminished fifth]] note was used by Black Sabbath to produce an ominous feeling but it is not used in punk rock. In the 1996 grunge film documentary ''[[Hype!]]'', Beezer demonstrated on guitar the difference between punk and grunge. First he played the riff from "Rockaway Beach" by [[the Ramones]] that ascends the neck of the guitar, then "Come On Down" by Green River that descends the neck. The two pieces are only a few notes apart but sound unalike.<ref name=cameron2014/><ref name=true2006/> He took the same rhythm with the same chord, however descending the neck made it sound darker, and therefore grunge.<ref name=unterberger1999/> Early grunge bands would also copy a riff from metal and slow it down, play it backwards, distort it and bury it in feedback, then shout lyrics with little melody over the top of it.<ref name=anderson2007C2/>

Grunge fuses elements of [[punk rock]] (specifically American [[hardcore punk]] such as Black Flag) and [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] (especially traditional, earlier heavy metal groups such as Black Sabbath), although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other.<ref name="AllMusic grunge" />{{better source needed|reason=[[WP:ALLMUSIC]] dubious for anything other than entertainment reviews with attribution|date=April 2021}} Alex DiBlasi feels that [[indie rock]] was a third key source, with the most important influence coming from [[Sonic Youth]]'s "free-form" noise.<ref name="DiBlasi, Alex 2013. p. 520"/> Grunge shares with punk a raw, [[Lo-fi music|lo fi]] sound and similar lyrical concerns,<ref name="AllMusic grunge" />{{better source needed|reason=[[WP:ALLMUSIC]] dubious for anything other than entertainment reviews with attribution|date=April 2021}} and it also used punk's haphazard and untrained approach to playing and performing. However, grunge was "deeper and darker"-sounding than punk rock and it decreased the "adrenaline"-fueled tempos of punk to a slow, "sludgy" speed,<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 135" /> and used more [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonant]] harmonies. Seattle music journalist [[Charles R. Cross]] defines "grunge" as distortion-filled, down-tuned and riff-based rock that uses loud [[audio feedback|electric guitar feedback]] and heavy, "ponderous" [[bassline]]s to support its song melodies.<ref name="Cross, Charles R 2012">{{cite book|first1=Charles R. |last1=Cross|first2=Jim |last2=Berkenstadt|title=Classic Rock Albums: Nirvana – Nevermind|publisher= Music Sales Group|year= 2012}}</ref> Robert Loss calls grunge a melding of "violence and speed, muscularity and melody", where there is space for all people, including [[Women in music|women musicians]].<ref name=loss /> [[VH1]] writer Dan Tucker feels that different grunge bands were influenced by different genres; that while Nirvana drew on punk, Pearl Jam was influenced by [[classic rock]], and that "sludgy, dark, heavy bands" such as [[Soundgarden]] and [[Alice in Chains]] had a sinister metal tone.<ref name="Tucker">{{cite web |url=https://www.vh1.com/news/e5qxql/10-heaviest-grunge-bands |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908162247/http://www.vh1.com/news/52235/10-heaviest-grunge-bands/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 8, 2015 |title=Heavier Than Grunge: 10 Alt Rock Bands That Were Coated In Metal |first=Dan  |last=Tucker  |date=December 21, 2013 |website=vh1.com |publisher=VH1 |access-date=March 1, 2017 }}</ref>

Grunge music has what has been called an "ugly" aesthetic, both in the roar of the distorted electric guitars and in the darker lyrical topics. This approach was chosen both to counter the "slick" elegant sound of the then-predominant mainstream rock and because grunge artists wanted to mirror the "ugliness" they saw around them and shine a light on unseen "depths and depravity" of the real world.<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 136">{{cite book|first=Steven|last=Felix-Jager|title= With God on Our Side: Towards a Transformational Theology of Rock and Roll|publisher= Wipf and Stock Publishers|year= 2017|page= 136}}</ref> Some key individuals in the development of the grunge sound, including [[Sub Pop]] producer [[Jack Endino]] and the [[Melvins]], described grunge's incorporation of heavy rock influences such as [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] as "musical provocation". Grunge artists considered these bands "cheesy" but nonetheless enjoyed them; Buzz Osborne of the Melvins described it as an attempt to see what ridiculous things bands could do and get away with.<ref name="Hype">Pray, D., Helvey-Pray Productions (1996). ''[[Hype!]]'' Republic Pictures.</ref> In the early-1990s, Nirvana's signature "stop-start" song format and alternating between soft and loud sections became a genre convention.<ref name="AllMusic grunge" />{{better source needed|reason=[[WP:ALLMUSIC]] dubious for anything other than entertainment reviews with attribution|date=April 2021}}

In the book ''Accidental Revolution: The Story of Grunge'', Kyle Anderson wrote:

{{blockquote|The twelve songs on ''[[Sixteen Stone]]'' sound ''exactly'' like what grunge is supposed to sound like, while the whole point of grunge was that it didn't really sound like ''anything'', including itself. Just consider how many different bands and styles of music have been shoved under the "grunge" header in this discography alone, and you realize that grunge is probably the most ill-defined genre of music in history.{{sfn|Anderson|2007|p=207}}}}