Editing Grunge (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Mudhoney Clash Club Night 2 (2952836201).jpg|thumb|right|alt=A photo of a rock band, Mudhoney, at a live show. The photo is blurred from the onstage motion. From left to right are the electric bassist, singer and guitarist.|This photo of a [[Mudhoney]] concert captures some of the band's live show energy.]]
In 2011, music critic Dave Whitaker wrote, "every generation since the beginning of recorded music has introduced a game-changing genre", from [[swing music]] in the 1930s, [[rock and roll]] in the 1950s, [[punk rock]] in the 1970s, and then grunge in the 1990s. However, he states "grunge was the last American musical revolution", as no post-grunge generation has introduced a new genre which radically changed the music scene.<ref name=popmatters /> He states that the "digital revolution" (online music, file sharing, etc.) has meant that there has not been a "generation-defining genre since grunge", because, for "one genre to so completely saturate the market requires ... a [[music industry]] with immense control over the market".<ref name=popmatters /> In 2016, [[Rob Zombie]] stated that grunge caused the death of the "rock star"; he states that unlike previous stars like "[[Alice Cooper]] and [[Gene Simmons]] and [[Elton John]]", who "might as well have been from another fuckin' planet", with grunge the attitude was "[we] need all our rock stars to look just like us."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://loudwire.com/rob-zombie-grunge-era-end-of-larger-than-life-rock-star/?trackback=tsmclip |title=Rob Zombie: Grunge Era Marked End of the 'Rock Star' |last=Childers |first=Chad |date=May 1, 2016 |magazine=Loudwire |access-date=January 29, 2017}}</ref>

Bob Batchelor states that the indie record mindset and values in Seattle which provided guidance for the development and emergence of Nirvana and Pearl Jam "conflicted with the major recording label desire to sell millions of CDs." Batchelor also states that despite grunge musicians' discomfort with the major labels' commercial goals, and the resistance by some key bands to do the promotional activities required by the labels, including music videos, [[MTV]]'s video programs "played an instrumental role in making [grunge]" become "mainstream, since many music fans received their first exposure" on MTV, rather than on local or "niche radio."<ref name="Batchelor" /> Gil Troy states that the "grunge rebellion, like most others" in America's "consumerist" culture, ended up being "commodified, mass-produced, ritualized, and thus sanitized" by major corporations.<ref>Troy, Gil. ''The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s''. Macmillan, 2015. p. 106</ref>

In 2011, John Calvert stated that "timing" is the reason why a grunge revival did not happen; he says that the cultural mood of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which inspired the movement, were no longer present.<ref name="Calvert">{{cite magazine |url=http://thequietus.com/articles/06941-my-own-private-nirvana-john-calvert-revisits-nevermind-20-years-on |title= My Own Private Nirvana-Revisiting Nevermind 20 Years On|last=Calvert |first=John |date=September 8, 2011 |magazine=The Quietus |access-date=February 17, 2017}}</ref> Seattle songwriter Jeff Stetson states that people from the 2010s who are listening to grunge should learn about the "context and history of how it all came to be" and "respect for what a truly amazing thing it was that happened here [in Seattle,] because you probably won't see anything like it again."<ref name="Stetson" /> ''Paste'' magazine's Michael Danaher states that the grunge "movement changed the course of rock 'n' roll, bringing ... tales of abuse and depression" and socially conscious issues" into [[pop culture]].<ref name="Danaher" />

Calvert stated that Nirvana's "[[Smells Like Teen Spirit]]" has an "iconic place in history" as it had "generation-defining resonance" for [[Generation X|young people from its era]]"; he states that "no other band ... made the urge to self-destruct ... as listenable", with "authentic" pain and "disaffection".<ref name="Calvert" /> Calvert also calls the record "chart history's most ferocious, dark and intense" music since early punk rock, and he says it was "heavy when heavy was needed" by young people of that era, "jarr[ing] young America awake" and giving them something to "cling to" in difficult times.<ref name="Calvert" /> A 2017 book stated that grunge "forever changed the identity of [[rock music]] in a way analogous to punk"; moreover, grunge added "introspective" lyrics about "[[Existentialism|existential]] authenticity" and "what it means to be [[Authenticity (philosophy)|true to oneself]]".<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 134" /> Grunge's Kurt Cobain has been called the "voice of Generation X", playing the same role for this demographic as [[Bob Dylan]] played for 1960s youth and that [[John Lennon]] played for the 1970s generation.<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 134" /> Bob Batchelor stated that Nirvana was "as important as [[Elvis]] or the [[Beatles]]."<ref name="Batchelor" />

In 2008, Darragh McManus of ''The Guardian'' states that grunge was not simply a young person's trend or a musical fad; she states that grunge synthesized the key philosophies of the modern era, from "[[Feminism]], [[liberalism]], irony, apathy, cynicism/idealism&nbsp;... [[anti-authoritarianism]], [to] wry [[post-modernism]]". McManus states that grunge dealt with serious, "weighty" topics, which does not occur often in popular music. McManus stated that for Generation X, grunge was not just music, it was a key cultural influence.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/oct/31/grunge |title=Just 20 years on, grunge seems like ancient history |last=McManus |first=Darragh |date=October 31, 2008 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=February 19, 2017}}</ref> Marlen Komar stated that Nirvana's success popularized "non-heterosexist", non-binary ways of thinking about "gender and sexuality", emphasized how men and women were alike and promoted progressive political thinking.<ref name="Komar" />

When asked about the '90s grunge movement in 2021, [[Mark Lanegan]] commented, "It's not something that was contrived or cooked up around the campfire somewhere. It just happened organically. It's hard for me to comment, because there's always great new music and there probably always will be – as long as the sun keeps shining."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Prato|first=Greg|date=2021-12-15|title=Mark Lanegan on His New Book Devil in a Coma and His Near-Death Experience With COVID|url=https://consequence.net/2021/12/mark-lanegan-interview-2021/|access-date=2022-01-01|website=[[Consequence (publication)|Consequence]]|language=en}}</ref>