Rank the 5 Grunge Acts

[leemajors]

The idea that Alice In Chains was a hair band is comical. Not even early. Not even late. I'd love to hear examples of which songs with their hair band comparison.

Agreed. Pantera started out as a hair band.

[JMarkJohns]

Live through this Was not a solid album. The chord complexity made Green Day look like Jay Mascis. They sounded worse live.

By the time they were overplaying Black Hole Sun more than any other song in the history of music it was over.

NIN was not grunge and did not try to be. They were an offshoot of industrial acts like Skinny Puppy and Astrelwerks. Nickelback and Creed can hardly be considered that and LZ and Metallica tried to coattail that to failure. Marilyn Manson? bleh!

Best post-grunge acts that still sounded like grunge are Bush and Local H. As you mentioned, far too many ty bands got labeled grunge (Creed, Nickelback, Staind, Puddle Of Mudd), too many good bands evolved beyond it (Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots each after their first album turned Alternative), and the late 90s saw a rise in Goth Metal (I'm blaming it on Marilyn!), Alt-Metal (I see you Korn, Limp Bizkit), and bubble-gum punk (Green Day leading the charge). By the late 90s/early 00s a lot of otherwise solid rock had a backbone of Electronica (Orgy, Stabbing Westward, even Bush) but none coul match the genius of Nine Inch Nails.

That's at least how I remember it.

[JoeTait75]

By the time they were overplaying Black Hole Sun more than any other song in the history of music it was over.

I think the only two songs they played the entire summer of '94 were "Black Hole Sun" and "Interstate Love Song," tbh.

[JMarkJohns]

Agreed. Pantera started out as a hair band.

I have a feeling he said it because Layne, in the bands beginnings, donned a ragged Alice In Wonderland get up, but many people said it was satire about modern bands popularity, not actually trying to be a glam-rock band, because nothing about their music, be it chord progressions, lyrics, or overall tone twixt both ever felt like anything out out by hair bands, and many have even suggested Alice In Chains created it's own genre called fright metal, a cleaner, simpler offshoot of death metal that evokes feelings of grim macabre without the grisly gore associated with a lot of death metal acts.

How many hair bands so openly, introspectively discussed their drug addictions as the first step to death, then wallowed in the realization for entire albums?

[JMarkJohns]

I think the only two songs they played the entire summer of '94 were "Black Hole Sun" and "Interstate Love Song," tbh.

Basket Case by Green Day was huge in that rotation as well.

[leemajors]

I still have the Singles soundtrack on my phone

[JMarkJohns]

I still have the Singles soundtrack on my phone

I've got every song recorded in a studio by the Layne-fronted versions.

[leemajors]

I've got every song recorded in a studio by the Layne-fronted versions.

It's not on my phone, but I do have the Last Action Hero soundtrack too

A Little Bitter and What the Have I are awesome.

[cantthinkofanything]

oh yeah...that reminded me...the Lennon cover from Mad Season "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier"...good stuff.

x100 on Black Hole Sun. That was one of my least favorite songs on the CD anyway...compounded by MTV playing it every hour.

Still like Interstate Love Song tho...

[JMarkJohns]

Named my concept album of like 12 years back What The Have I.

Keep thinking I should rename it, but, ya know, IT'S HARD TO START THINGS OVER!

[JMarkJohns]

oh yeah...that reminded me...the Lennon cover from Mad Season "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier"...good stuff.

x100 on Black Hole Sun. That was one of my least favorite songs on the CD anyway...compounded by MTV playing it every hour.

Still like Interstate Love Song tho...

The videos for each are the culprit. When I photobomb pics I do it with a smile my sister calls my Black Hole Sun grin.

[The Gemini Method]

Won't rehash the lists but the Melvins, Mother Love Bone and the like could be in any top-5 Grunge lists. I like that Smashing Pumpkins were listed but they weren't so much as grunge as more a conduit for grunge to meld with Indie and henceforth, were probably top-5/top-10 band of the 90's and one of the best ever. Billy Corgan and Co. Really switched it up from Gish to Siamese Dream to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. You got a little about lost love, shallow morals, a defining teen anthem, and consistency from this band.

[cantthinkofanything]

The videos for each are the culprit. When I photobomb pics I do it with a smile my sister calls my Black Hole Sun grin.

lol. I've put myself in a state to see people actually grin like that.

I guess I'm actually kind of thankful it was Black Hole Sun they wore out and not some of the other songs that I liked better.

[JMarkJohns]

Won't rehash the lists but the Melvins, Mother Love Bone and the like could be in any top-5 Grunge lists. I like that Smashing Pumpkins were listed but they weren't so much as grunge as more a conduit for grunge to meld with Indie and henceforth, were probably top-5/top-10 band of the 90's and one of the best ever. Billy Corgan and Co. Really switched it up from Gish to Siamese Dream to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. You got a little about lost love, shallow morals, a defining teen anthem, and consistency from this band.

I think I was the first here to mention them, and did so with similar intent to yourself.

Gish was Grunge, Siamese Dream onward was definitively exploratory alternative rock. Even they mixed in electronica later in their career. Incredible evolution.

Like is said, top-5 favorite band from the era, but quickly evolved passed grunge.