Grunge

More than a decade after his death, alienated, awkward, heavily eye-lined Kurt Cobain continues to sit front and center in the arena of popular culture, as the subject of books, music, fashion, gossip, and inspiration for major motion pictures and documentaries. Together with flannelsporting, music-obsessed communities emerging (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) from the chilly Pacific Northwest, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and Pearl Jam changed the scene with wild aggressive sounds and truly alternative records.

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Author Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth)—who introduced Kurt Cobain t David Geffen (Geffen Records), a meeting that resulted in Nirvana's first major debut, Nevermind, in September 1991, which by December was selling 400,000 copies a week—writes about the discovery of Seattle punk youth, the seminal bands that defined the movement, the exploitation of the subculture, and the backlash of grunge, as well as the death of his longtime collaborator and intimate Cobain.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 160 pages

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Liked Grunge? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Grunge. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Pearl Jam: Place/Date Shares music, photography, nonfiction
  2. Misery Obscura: The Photography of Eerie Von (1981-2009) Shares music, photography
  3. Michael Jackson: Before He Was King Shares music, photography, nonfiction
  4. Chris Stein / Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk Shares music, photography, nonfiction

“People who read Grunge tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas
  2. Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain
  3. Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge
  4. Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now!

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen
  2. Cult Rock Posters: Ten Years of Classic Posters from the Punk, New Wave, and Glam Era
  3. The Velvet Underground: New York Art
  4. The Clash

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Rolling Stone 1,000 Covers: A History of the Most Influencial Magazine in Pop Culture
  2. Rock Seen
  3. CBGB & OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock
  4. A Little History: Nick Cave & cohorts, 1981-2013

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind
  2. Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge
  3. Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music
  4. Please Feed Me: A Punk Vegan Cookbook