In the first issue of "The Death of Hard Rock", I finished by noting how by 1988, hard rock was ruling the music scene.  Let's look at what came in the next set of years:

1989
- Tesla--The Great Radio Controversy
- Skid Row--Skid Row
- Motley Crue--Dr. Feelgood
- White Lion--Big Game
- Kingdom Come--In Your Face
- Scorpions--Best of Rockers n' Ballads
- Extreme--Extreme

1990
- Firehouse--Firehouse
- Extreme--II - Pornograffiti
- Trouble--Trouble 
- Five Man Acoustical Jam
- Queensryche--Empire
- Pretty Maids--Jump the Gun 
- Slaughter--Stick it to Ya
- Alice in Chains--Facelift
- Nirvana - Bleach

Now, there are some great rock records in there, like the Tesla and Skid Row records, but you're also starting to get the second-rate hair bands with more of an emphasis on pretty-boy looks and image than making great songs.  You know, the ones with the double letters at the end of their name that eventually became cannon fodder for Beavis and Butthead. You had bands like Winger, Firehouse, Extreme, Slaughter, Autograph, Tora Tora, and Danger Danger played along side Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and other thrash bands on Mtv.  Old-school metalheads were making up whatever terminology they could to distance themselves from an association with these bands.  We called it chick-metal back in the day cause only chicks followed most of those bands or poseur-metal cause all the guys did was pose--on stage and as heavy metal.

Did you note the release of "Facelift" in there?  I hope so, because even though Nirvana and Soungarden were making records, I think it was "The Man in The Box" who helped started the swing of the axe that fell on the hair bands.

1991
-Skid Row--Slave to the Grind
-Tesla--Psychotic Supper
-Ratt--Ratt N' Roll 81-91
-Ugly Kid Joe--As Ugly As They Wanna Be
-Ozzy Osbourne--No More Tears
-Badlands--Voodoo Highway
-Guns N' Roses--Use Your Illusion I
-Kix--Hot Wire

With the exception of Gn'R and the Skid Row, things are looking pretty scary for the scene. 

Then came Nirvana.

Original release date: September 24, 1991 Nevermind ~ Nirvana (10 million sold)

I can remember first seeing the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video on Mtv's "Headbangers Ball" and smiling to myself.  It was aggressive, ugly, commercial and the antithesis to all the sweet-singing, pouting poses of the pretender bands.  I waited weeks to record the video and went out and bought the cd.   Eventually, I got tired of it and traded it but no matter, Nevermind and Kurt would cast a influential shadow on the music biz that may not have been done since John Lennon died. 

"Nevermind and Kurt would cast a influential shadow on the music biz that may not have been done since John Lennon died."

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" may be the most hated song of Nirvana purists, but I think its catchiness and the video presentation of average kids rocking out to a band that looked like them is what helped catapult the band to the top of the charts initally. Pearl Jam's "ten" came later that year and if Alice in Chains "Facelift", along with some other bands like Mother Love Bone and Green River, started the ax swinging on the hair bands, it was Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Pantera (ironically, because of commercial success) who set it crashing down onto their scrawny, pencil necks.  The industry that had choked on a hairball for the last half decade was finally able to cough up the ugly mass and give it a new name--Grunge. 

grunge (grnj) n. Slang - filth; dirt.

I don't know what the agreed upon definition for Grunge is, but I guess I can say what I think it was. 

1. The bands looked like they shopped at the Salvation Army and rarely bathed thus were "grungy".
2. They played grunge-sounding chords (ask your local guitar hero about that).
3. The lyrics usually exhibited nihilism, dissatisfaction, or apathy.
4. Seattle-area base.

Now, going by my own definition of Hard Rock as featuring stronger guitar playing with an edgier sound that was generally blues-based and somewhat distorted; other than being less blues-based and usually called alt-rock, I'd still consider grunge a part of hard rock.   Sure, the guitar styling was done before; sure, many alternative bands looked unkempt for years; sure, many indy bands sounded grungy and raw, but it's not about who's done it before; it's about who did it and when.

1992
-Lynch Mob--Lynch Mob
-Pantera--Vulgar Display of Power
-Lillian Axe--Poetic Justice
-Saigon Kick--The Lizard
-Warrant--Dog Eat Dog
-Trouble--Manic Frustration 
-Ugly Kid Joe--America's Least Wanted
-Kik Tracee--Field Trip E.P.
-Alice in Chains--Dirt 
-Stone Temple Pilots--Core
-Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
-Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

How many of you bought Dirt or Vulger Display and how many of you own the Warrant or Kik Tracee cds?  I thought so.  I think that the commercial hard rock scene from then on descended from the grunge band scene into the current post-grunge scene while metal went the route of Pantera, Marilyn Manson and eventually the rapcore scene.

Chris Cornell from Soundgarden showed up on "Headbanger's Ball" with his hair cut short; then L.A. Guns did, then Rikki Ractman and a bunch of others.  The days of watching teased-hair, beer-drinkin, party-all-night rock stars with a blonde on one arm, a brunette on the other and a redhead between their legs was coming to an end.  Rock stars now looked like your depressed college roommate and most of all--they didn't want to be rock stars.

"I'm eighteen / and I don't know what I want / Eighteen / I just don't know what I want / Eighteen / I gotta get away

I gotta get out of this place / I'll go runnin in outer space / Oh yeah"

Alice Cooper wrote about teenage indecision and angst twenty years before Nirvana did, but by now you had a new generation that is 18 and they DON'T seem to like it.

But many good hard rock albums came out at this time. The early 90s almost seemed like the cream of the crop for Hard Rock, and a much needed resurgence of rock and roll. But the label execs weren't buying it, and with no label support the bands had to self finance the releases, and with no internet exposure the bands just came and went. Great albums like these were completely ignored:

-Bloodstone--Fight For Jerusalem
-Collision--ST
-Parriah--To Mock A Killing Bird
-Pink Cream 69--One Size Fits All
-Skitzotik--ST
-Sledgehammer Ledge--ST
-Thunderhead--Killing With Style

--EC

Next Time: The Rise of Rap and Hip Hop