“Seattle… is currently to the rock ’n’ roll world what Bethlehem was to Christianity”
SPIN, December 1992
The documentary “Hype!” from 1996 is a perfect example of rising trends in music and how public relations have helped shape it. The documentary is about the punk “grunge” scene in Seattle, how it started, how it rose to fame, and what those within the scene thinks about the rise to fame.
Seattle Music History Prior to Grunge
You may or may not have previously known that Seattle was the “birthplace” of mainstream grunge music, but it was not always all about grunge. Before the first European settlers arrived in Seattle, the land was inhabited by the Coast Salish People, more specifically the Duwamish tribe and Suquamish.
In the early 1900’s, during a period of boosterism, Seattle adopted “Seattle, the Peerless City” by Arthur O’Dillon and Glenn W. Ashley as Seattle’s official song.
Seattle then became an important stop for vaudeville tours, classical, and jazz started circulating in the music scene there as the Whangdoodle Entertainers became one of Seattle’s first jazz bands, then Jelly Roll Morton, Vic Meyers, and E. Russell “Noodles” Smith rose in popularity in the jazz scene. By the 1920’s, there was more of an American folk scene as Woodie Guthrie would have lengthy stays there.
During the postwar era, rock, folk, and jazz music prevailed, but eventually all music scenes went quiet in the 1950’s due to local regulations on nightlife. By the 1960’s however, a dance scene started arising and the first pop hit in the Pacific Northwest was released by The Fleetwoods, while Seattle became one of the key places for recorded popular music in the region. Some rock music, namely surf and country rock, started to come out of the woodwork in the city around this time as well. However, the most influential rock music to come out of Seattle at that time was Jimi Hendrix. Then, by 1975, counterculture aka punk and glam, the inspiration of grunge music, started becoming popular and remained popular until grunge music took full force in 1985.
The “Grunge” Takeover
What is grunge you may ask? Grunge is an alternative rock genre and subculture fusing the elements of punk rock and heavy metal. Lyrics are typically angst-filled, with drums and bass while the electric guitar usually plays a raw, unpolished distorted sound without any added studio effects. Still don’t know what grunge is? I am sure you have heard these names before: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, The Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Pixies…. And many, many more. Would you believe that most of the names I just listed came from Seattle or the PNW?
So how did grunge come to be? In the movie “Hype!” graphic designer Art Chantry tells us that, “the Northwest is where flying saucers, the term “flying saucers” was coined. And the Northwest is where Louie Louie’s from, the Northwest is where… It’s the serial killer capital of the world. I mean, we have more unsolved serial killings up here than any other place in the United States. I mean, the Manson family used to vacation up this way. This place is weird. A lot of occult stuff. All this stuff is a factor in what happened in the music.”
And Jack Endino further explains that “when the weather’s crappy, you don’t wanna go outside. You know, you basically feel like staying in the house and, uh… it’s a very logical thing to wanna go down into your basement and, you know, make noise to take out your frustrations because you can’t go outside and do anything when it’s raining all the time.”
By 1980, bands stopped coming to Seattle, opting to go to San Francisco, LA, and other cities on the west coast instead, because of the lack of clubs to play at. And the clubs that Seattle had were small. Bands in the Emerald City began renting spaces to put on their own DIY shows.
In 1985, Green River released the first grunge record, then in 1986, a compilation record came out called Deep Six that consisted of tracks from six grunge bands, Green River included. Later that year, the most notorious grunge record label, Sub Pop, was started who would go on to sign Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney (former members of Green River) and more popular grunge bands and begin the spread of the grunge movement out of Seattle and to the rest of the world.
“People started looking for the Seattle sound, the same way that D.C., Boston, New York and LA, and all those places had this crazy little identity all of their own. Seattle started getting its own identity and Sub Pop decided to exploit that.”
The live shows in Seattle’s grunge scene were still low in attendance, so Sub Pop’s photographer, Charles Peterson, began taking pictures of the event that would make them seem like they were far more attended and livelier. Sub Pop then asked journalist Everett True, from British magazine, Melody Maker, to write an article on the Seattle grunge scene.
“Everett was a brilliant enough guy that he could piece together a story that essentially sold the world on Seattle.”
This article began a frenzy in England and other parts of the nation and world, as bands started flocking to Seattle to perform and record as a part of the scene. The original local grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden started getting courted by major record labels, eventually signing with them. By 1991, Nirvana had released their album “Nevermind” then their single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that really sent grunge music into popularity, as the song was being constantly played on MTV, selling 40,000 copies a week, and became number one on Billboard 200. Then other bands began replicating Nirvana’s success. In 1992, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Temple of the Dogs had albums listed in the top 100. In 1992, several grunge bands were in the film “Singles” that took place in Seattle, adding to the popularity of the scene even more.
Then grunge fashion started coming out. Seattle’s style, being a cold, rainy, laid-backed, logger town, was flannels, long johns, beanies and knit hats, thrifted clothes, converse, overalls, combat boots, oversized sweaters, unkempt hair, long skirts, etc. When grunge started becoming popular, the media took this “Seattle grunge scene look” and started selling it to the rest of the world as the latest trend. Stores began selling this look at upcharge prices. Grunge became something other than just a music scene, it became a subculture. Going along with the angsty counterculture nature of grunge, people began wearing things that were seen as anti-consumerist and anti-conformist from the manufactured image.
“…up here, because it’s logger territory, all these goon balls just wear flannel anyways and then that’s what became the stereotype here. I mean, you go around, you know, cities everywhere you see some real stereotypical grungies, you know, the Pearl Jam shirt, you know, with the stocking cap and the… you know, the really long johns with the shorts and then, and you just say “I spit on you!” It was our thing and then all of a sudden belonged to people who…You never thought you were sharing your music with. Like mainstream periodicals and fashion magazines…”
The grunge “hype” remained in popular mainstream with many more bands rising to popularity and record-topping albums being produced until around 1994, when it started to decline. Many are unsure why it began to decline, it could have been just a passing trend that was finally fading out, the fact that so many bands were breaking up, or the fact that so many popular grunge band members had fallen into terrible addictions with some even passing away, like Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Kristen Pfaff of Hole.
Grunge began as just kids that nobody knew, playing music with their friends out of their garages, letting go of their frustrations through their angsty lyrics and distorted sounds, and lucky to play a show for a small crowd to a sudden rise in popularity that they never saw coming. They began having to compete for audiences with other bands moving there or coming up through the woodworks matching their sound and style. And the small bands that were just playing for the music and the angst were now becoming famous, but some of them never wanted the fame, they just wanted the music and the money.
“I kinda figured you play guitar or drums or whatever, say, make a record, play a show, if people like your record, they like your show. Couldn’t really anticipate it becoming interviews and videos and photo sessions. In sort of the forefront of our mind, we knew that these were things that went along with the job. We never really, really can anticipate it ’til you’re there. It’s like, fuck. Do without the fame stuff and just give me the money.
Then their style became a commodity, something you could just buy or see in a magazine across the world. Suddenly grunge which was supposed to be this counterculture to the mainstream became the mainstream.
“Well, there’s a whole lot of people out there making money by selling the idea of the Seattle scene or grunge or whatever. It’s so profitable. It’s so profitable, and they’ll just keep taking and taking and taking and they’re… they just don’t know how to restrain themselves; you know, they’re frothing at the mouth over this. And the bands aren’t, I mean, the bands aren’t really in it for dough, I mean, they just aren’t. That would, if they were, that would… That would tip over the music. It’s like it already, it’s obvious to see the Seattle scene has become a marketed commodity…but that’s what makes pop culture so significant to all the little consumers out there. They have no interest in history or economics or science or art. They’re kind of interested more in gossip, the nature of celebrity and that’s not at all encouraging to find out that…You participate in that society. One way or the other.”
My PR Perspective
I feel sympathy for those musicians who didn’t want their scene to spread like it did, however I think that it was very beneficial for our society to share this music and scene with the world as it allowed others to express themselves, enjoy the music, and feel the angst as well. I believe Sub Pop is one of the main factors in the rise of grunge and I applaud their public relations skills. Hiring a photographer to make an illusion of a larger scene than it was and inviting a journalist from a major media company to write about it was a very smart move that I think everyone in the music industry or public relations industry can learn from.
From a commerce standpoint, the media and businesses that made the grunge scene a “style” and sold it were very smart as well. Seattle and grunge became a brand in its own way. And the bands that started all of this and the ones that rose to the top of the billboards also showed very good public relations skills.
The Deep Six compilation that came out in 1986 of multiple bands tracks was genius in launching grunge out of Seattle because if you had never listened to grunge before and wanted to get into it, you wouldn’t know which bands albums to buy. Having a compilation of multiple bands tracks would give you a taste of each band and then you could go buy the bands full album if you enjoyed them.
Overall, I believe the rise of the Seattle grunge scene was made possible not only by great music and culture, but also by great public relations moves with all involved and it is something we can all look back on and use for future music scenes waiting for their big break.
If you would like to check out Hype! (and I encourage you to watch) it is available on YouTube Movies, Amazon Prime, Tubi, Apple TV, Vudu, Google Play, Free vee, and Microsoft.
“I think we all became aware that there was a certain regional sound developing and nobody had a name for it… and that was grunge. The most noisy, The most absurd, The heaviest thing that was going.”
PNW music recommendation of the week:
Sources:
Hype! (1996)
Featured Image: https://moviemansguide.com/main/2017/09/review-hype-bd/
Emma Wright-Cloutier 
Leave a comment