The Day that Grunge Died

Although the medical examiners believe he passed away 3 days earlier, today marks the 20th anniversary of the day that grunge officially died.  It was April 8th, 1994.  I remember it vividly.

It was my senior year of high school.  Like most of the rockers my age, I discovered Nirvana when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" swept the country two years earlier.  It hit us like a tidal wave...and later opened the floodgates for the Seattle sound.

I had just returned from a safety meeting in the parking lot, when the hottest chick in school approached me.  I knew Farrah Rowe, but not well enough for her to walk up to me and engage me in conversation.  She was looking so hot, I could barely pay attention as she delivered the news that Kurt Cobain had been found dead.  As I stared at her incredibly short, cut off jean shorts, the bombshell slowly sunk in.

At first, I questioned her sources.  I must admit, in addition to being skeptical, I would have done anything to console Farrah Rowe during such an emotional time.  She had just seen Kurt Loder on MTV news.  And, of course, if Kurt Loder reported it, it must be true.

At the time, it hadn't been ruled a suicide.  And in those days, we couldn't get news updates on our phones.  As the details slowly emerged that day, the collective sadness of the rocker kids turned into confusion.  So we did the only thing we knew how.  We gathered in the parking lot and got stoned.

We didn't realize it at the time, but it was a turning point for pop culture.  In the past two years, all the cool kids had gone from wearing Bugle Boy jeans and IOU sweatshirts to rockin' ripped up pants with dirty flannel shirts and Doc Martins.  Even the preppy kids were grungy.  It wasn't long before that trend gave way to even more embarrassing fashion choices...and the music was never the same.

I often look back on that day and reflect on all of the promise of my generation.  A lot of which was wasted.  Can you just imagine what music would have been like if Kurt Cobain, Brad Nowell from Sublime, Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon and countless others were still alive?  I blame Nickelback on them (seriously).

In fairness, the musical heroes of that era weren't the only ones who wasted their potential.  They came from the same generation that harnessed the power of the internet...which you are now using to read crappy blogs from some idiot radio DJ.