This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s seminal album Nevermind<\/i>, originally released on September 24, 1991. <\/p>\n

It is not uncommon to mark the end of an era with a single, memorable event. Both the Charles Manson murders and the Altamont stabbing are often cted as the end of the free loving, Haight-Ashbury hippie movement that took place in the mid-to-late 1960s. In reality such large, sweeping social changes are much more gradual than that. Still, especially in a historical sense, it’s easier for us to be able to reference a single moment in time and say, “this<\/b> is what caused that<\/b>.”<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, out of glam rock grew what became known as the genre “Hair Metal” — “Metal” referring to the style of hard rock the bands begat, and “Hair” referring to the band members’ hair (always long, usually big). It’s a shame that Hair Metal has become somewhat of a derogatory term over the last several years, as many of the bands and musicians were actually quite talented. Other than big hair, one thing they all have in common is, when asked, they will all deny that their<\/i> band was a “hair metal” band like all the others.<\/p>\n

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The decline of Hair Metal was more gradual than music historians would have you to believe. In the mid-to-late 80s we see bands like Guns N’ Roses coming out with a heavier “street” image. Lots of bands would follow. The writing was clearly on the wall for Hair Metal, but it wasn’t until the Fall of 1991 that we discovered what would dethrone it. <\/p>\n

And what dethroned it were a bunch of guys wearing flannel shirts and blue jeans. Grunge music was everything Hair Metal wasn’t, and wasn’t anything that Hair Metal was. Hair Metal bands were known for their flashy outfits, make up, and lots of Aqua Net hair spray, Grunge performers, on the other hand, wore flannel shirts over t-shirts, cargo shorts, and sneakers. Their hair was not hair sprayed … or particularly clean. Hair metal guitarists were known for their flashy guitar solos; this new wave of grunge guitarists almost appeared apologetic for appearing in front of the camera.<\/p>\n

Although there were others before them, there were three bands, all from Seattle, all of whom released albums in 1991 (one month apart, in fact) that defined grunge: Pearl Jam’s Ten (August, 1991); Nirvana’s Nevermind (September, 1991) and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger (October, 1991). Each did their part to contribute to the “grunge collective”, but it was Nirvana’s Nevermind and their single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that became the voice for Generation X.<\/p>\n