Who do you think was the best mainstream grunge band of the 90’s? I’m not necessarily asking for the most successful, just who you personally think was the best of the bunch.
When I say mainstream I mean MAINSTREAM, like Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Soungarden, AIC etc…
I used to think that Soundgarden was the best, but not so much any more. Though I think Chris Cornell had the best voice of the bunch their songs all kind of melt together for me now.
Alice in Chains had some GREAT tunes, but also alot of forgettable tunes.
Smashing Pumpkins also has some GREAT tunes, but also alot of forgettable ones. Probably tied with AIC in 3rd place.
Nirvana is definitely a contender, but the timeline was pretty short and though they had alot of great tunes I think they are second to…
Pearl Jam. These guys have always been a great rock band first, grunge band second. Though their newer albums aren’t that great their first 3 or 4 are all classics and sound different enough so they take the crown.
My favorite band of the bunch you listed is Smashing Pumpkins. I never thought of them as grunge, but I guess they can reasonably be lopped into that category. Siamese Dream was packed to the gills with great riffs and songs, and Mellon Collie probably had as many great songs as Siamese Dream, but also as many filler tunes. Plus, yeah, Gish was great.
From bands I personally classify as grunge, I would call Soundgarden the best, although I really don’t listen to them much. Nirvana wrote some fantastic melodies and pop songs. Alice in Chains I don’t know enough about to judge. Pearl Jam were great for the first two albums, but I started getting bored of them after that.
So, for my personal listening pleasure, I’d rank them:
Smashing Pumpkins
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains
In terms of trying to rank them as objectively as possible, I’d say:
Soundgarden
Smashing Pumpkins
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
(Alice in Chains not ranked due to my relative unfamiliarily with them.)
I have to give the nod to Nirvana although I agree with all the other points.
While we’re here I’d also like to nominate The Afghan Whigs as the most underrated band of the era. They weren’t really that grungy for very long but they had an incredible set of songs and an amazing singer. Personally I would rank them near the top of that group of artists.
It’s a tie between Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, I think. They were mainstream, but always underrated compared to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Alice in Chains vocal harmonies were particularly underrated and ignored by other bands in the genre.
Nirvana, no doubt. They had the greatest sound and wrote the best songs. They also pushed a lot of sonic and stylistic boundaries and were a leader in the whole grunge movement. The only downside is that they didn’t last very long. I still imagine how awesome it would be if they had lasted another decade. At the time, I had such high hopes for the Foo Fighters filling that niche after their first album, but they’ve gone downhill since in my opinion.
Pearl Jam is a close second, although I think they get included in the “grunge” category more for their era and fashion than their music itself. Vitalogy was their grungiest, and in my opinion best, album.
I always preferred Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots to Nirvana. Never was a huge fan of the other grunge bands, although I liked some stuff from Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains and Temple of the Dog.
This might just be me, but I never considered Smashing Pumpkins to be grunge. I always considered them more of an alternative shoegaze band. Although that might be a distinction without a difference.
If they are considered grunge, I’d pick them based on Siamese Dream alone. Otherwise, Alice in Chains was my favorite grunge band.
I mentioned this above. I don’t consider them grunge, either. But I can see how they’ll get lopped into that category, given that the popularity of grunge did help their success (plus, they were featured on the Singles sountrack, which was grunge-focused.)
Smashing Pumpkins are an interesting mix of styles. I’d just put them in a general alternative hard-rock category. They did have a grunge elements in them, but their sound seems to be more of a mish-mash of genres, with shoegaze, dream pop, progressie rock, and psychedlic elements being present their in addition to the typical heavy metal and punk influences that defined grunge. I’ve always felt their music was a bit underrated. To me, they were the most musically interesting of all the bands mentioned above. I only put Soundgarden ahead of them for Chris Cornell’s voice. Although I think Corgan is a perfect fit for the Pumpkin’s music, it’s hard not to give Soundgarden a few extra points for the vocalist.
Close between Nirvana and Pearl Jam but while PJ was consistently good for a longer time, Nirvana put a number of tunes out that to me are simply beyond compare. I love all these guys. Thank goodness choosing is an exercise and not a requirement.
During the grunge period I did not like Nirvana at all. I think it mostly had to do with the hipster tactic of rejecting whatever is popular. Now that I look back and listen to them I find they are much better than I thought. Not the best of the generation, but certainly good in their own right. It is sometimes nice to listen to music without the context of the period.
A tie between Nirvana and STP with a shout out to the Pumpkins. (I don’t see any objective difference between the three category wise that wouldn’t also rule out PJ and others so I am counting them as the same genre.)
Re: Pearl Jam. Up until the 2000s, every decade had an artist that had such a huge exposure that you were bound to like some of their stuff even if most of it was mediocre or bad. Pearl Jam is that for the 90s (I like Black and Crazy Mary, and have a new appreciation for the solo in Alive from Rock Band, which doesn’t normally happen in RB.) (The artists for other decades are Elvis, the Rolling Stones, the Bee Gees, and U2, for those playing at home.)
Here’s how much music is categorized by its time: I once tried to create a scale to measure how “emo” a piece of music is, using criteria used both for generic whiny pop-punk and hardcore loud-soft melodic punk.
My conclusion: if released in 2002-2008, Smells Like Teen Spirit would definitely be considered emo.
Alice in Chains
The first three are very close in my esteem, and I think they are all great bands. STP is a solid group. Sorry, but Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are just also-rans.
As for Smashing Pumpkins being a grunge band, I would say definitely so. Just like the others they incorporate that quiet-then-loud signature grunge sound (lifted, by the way, from such earlier acts as The Pixies).
I used to hate Smashing Pumpkins. Mostly, because I never gave them any notice, untill we were bombarded night and day by the songs from Mellon Collie. A few years ago, I went back and listened to Siamese Dream, Gish and Pisces Iscariot and I can’t believe I overlooked them. Starla may just have one of the most mind blowing guitar orgasms I have heard from those years. (taking nothing away from Soundgarden who were beasts in their own right). I can clearly see how bands like Boris could have been influenced by this band. They are so worth a second glance for those early albums.
That being said, of the bands mentioned I think Soundgarden is way above the rest of the group. Cornell’s voice soars, Thayil shreds…I was worried they were going in a softer more homogenized direction, but they broke up before they could tarnish the stellar job they had done.
Alice in Chains should have been the best of the bunch. They started off strong and hit mainstream radio before any of them, but they fell off. Maybe it was that junkie Stayley’s fault…or maybe Cantrell thought he could do better. Who knows.