Grunge

Grunge music was originally started in Seattle, Washington in the mid 80's. It was a new sound and was heavily influenced by metal and punk. Bands such as 'The fartz' and 'The U-men' and more importantly the 'Melvins' are what influenced the 'Grunge' sound. Other influences on grunge are early heavy metal bands such as 'Black Sabbath' and 'Led Zepplin', these bands influenced certain individuals such as Kurt cobain (Nirvana). As a result, the sound is dirty distorted guitars, minor sounding and angry lyrics.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWkbFKJZB0k heres a link to the soundgarden song, spoonman. This will give an example of the sound of grunge.

In an interview, kurt cobain talked about how he was 'pissed off with the world, because of rape violence and problems in the world' these topics are reflected in his lyrics. The term 'grunge' comes from the slang term 'grungy' meaning dark and dirty sounding. The lyrics wern't just angry, they also talked about alienation, apathy and desire for freedom, these were due to their surroundings. Seattle is a very isolated place full of woodland, therefore there wasn't many changes in the surroundings and people had nothing new to dwell upon, this caused people to feel 'alienated' and isolated.

Mudhoney were one of the first grunge bands, and their vocalist was said to be the first person to use the slang term 'grunge'. From this many bands emerged such as 'stone temple pilots', 'soundgarden', and 'mother love bone'. As time went on these bands influenced new bands such as 'nirvana', 'peal jam' and 'alice in chains'. All these bands went on to develop mainstream success, the early bands did also, including soundgarden, but none achieved the success of Nirvana.

After Nirvana signed to 'subpop records', which at the time was the most important grunge label with all the well known grunge bands signed to it. They released their first studio album 'Bleach'. Although it did not generate as much success as their future albums it set the foundations for their upcoming career. Subpop records, was started by jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt and are said to have helped launch the genre that is grunge.

In 1990 Nirvana signed to Geffen records and in 1991 released their world famous album 'Nevermind'. This classic album showed the world grunge music, and gave a new input on the music business. The album sold over 10 million copies and went number one. To this day it is still one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

The song 'smells like teen spirit' from the 'Nevermind' album generated massive success and is still played on music channels, this song lauched Nirvana and made them the world famous band they were.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPQR-OsH0RQ this is the famous smells like teen spirit-Nirvana.

The image of grunge was very different to that of modern day music, they were dressed in normal working man clothing. Due to the isolation and woodland of seattle, the main industries were 'Lumbering' and as a result their image was stonewash jeans and chequey lumerjack shirts. They wern't there to be glamorous, they message was that they wern't popstars they were just normal people playing music.

Resources used:

youtube-smells like teen spirit-nirvana

youtube-spoonman-soundgarden

Mudhoney picture-http://www.kindamuzik.net/gfx/mudhoney-grp1-0506.jpg

nevermind picture-http://sleevage.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/nirvana_nevermind_cover.jpg

nirvana picture-http://www.fanoftheband.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/nirvana.jpg

Bon Jovi (essay on band that has released an album since 2000)

Bon Jovi is a globally famous band formed in New Jersey, USA. The band consists of members Jon Bon Jovi who is singer and songwriter for the band. Ritchie Sambora, electric guitar and co-songwriter, Tico torres, drums. David Bryan, keyboardist and most recently Hugh McDonald on bass. The band formed in 1983 with the original members, including Alec John Such on bass.
The bands original sound was considered to be ‘80’s hair metal’, and from this they have progressed into a stadium rock band, writing number one anthems such as ‘living on a prayer’ and ‘you give love a bad name’ and ‘it’s my life’. During the bands 25 year career they have released 12 studios albums and one live album, selling over 120 million albums worldwide. 9 of their 12 studio albums have gone platinum with ‘Slippery When Wet’ selling 12 million copies in America alone
Throughout their 12 albums their sound has remained to their roots however each album has had some sort of experimental edge. From their self-tited album through to their ‘New Jersey’ album the bands sound has remained hard rock 80’s ‘cock-rock’ so to speak! However when it came to their ‘Keep the Faith’ album in 1992 the band toned down the cheesy hair metal and added a feeling of blues with their sound. The result was an album that sold 13,000,000 copies and topped the European, UK and Australian charts, it signified the end of the hair metal bon jovi and introduced the new rock’n’roll bon Jovi.
In 1995 the bands 7th studio album brought another new twist on the Bon Jovi sound. The album had a darker feeling appose to their more popular bouncy rock tunes and love ballads. After the huge success of the ‘These Days’ album selling 10,000,000 copies the band continued to produce globally successful albums and most recently the ‘Lost Highway album (2008)’ which introduced a ‘country’ feel to it.
In terms on bon Jovi’s influences their idols are classic rock bands such as Aerosmith and Thin Lizzy, through to successful artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix and The legendary Beatles. These influences can be heard through Bon Jovi’s whole discography for example the ‘These days’ has a lot of rock blues rhythm much like that of Aerosmith and in a few occasions the band has covered ‘Boys are back in town’ by thin lizzy at concerts. All their influences can be picked out in bon jovis sound however the band remains to have that original edge over other rock’n’roll bands, this is mostly due to Jon’s very unique sounding voice, that makes Bon Jovi the band they are today.
The bands image has changed with time, starting with big hair and torn blue jeans during their 80’s period, then to the denim jackets, leather pants and shorter haircuts in the 90’ which has remained a part of their image the current day. So after 25 years of practice and 12 studio albums, 6 number ones and 9 platinum albums its no surprise that bon jovi are one of the most successful bands of the past 20 years.