Nah, not metal at all. G n’ R was old school hard rock with a bit of punk added. Aerosmith Jr.
Come on, Appetite for destruction brought a certain maturity to the Van Halen crowd, with slightly more complex lyrics and sound, and is therefore a good milestone for the start of the Alternative era.
Exactly - it’s easy to look back on Guns & Roses now, and they fit better with hair metal than with what came after, but at that moment, Axl Rose wasn’t doing the permed up hair (sections of the Welcome to the Jungle video notwithstanding), and they were much more subdued and seemed like a rebellion against hair metal. At least image-wise. In retrospect, they’re more of a transitional fossil :).
Although this quote is about 1987, a few years prior to ‘Nevermind’ being released, it speaks volumes about how popular music was really starting to stagnate in the late 80’s. If Nirvana killed the 80’s, it was a mercy killing:
From Todd in the Shadows, Worst Pop songs of 1987
In the late 80s, the audience for metal and hard rock was fragmenting. People were finally bored with the overly slick glam/hair metal and wanted to hear something different so there was interest in different styles and hybrids. Guns & Roses was one such band that was doing something different and werely hugely successful as a result. The reason why we don’t think of them that way now is because when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, etc. came along, they were even more of a departure in terms of music and attitude.
I’m not sure they can both be the Velvet Underground, but I think you have the right idea.
At least in my area, the success of grunge led to “alternative” radio stations, which actually gave some 80’s new wave bands new life and airplay. the Smiths, The Cure, Souxsie and the Banshees all saw a resurgence.
The POPULAR narrative is that Grunge killed off Hair Metal (Ratt, Poisoin, et al), and that Punk killed off art-rock/prog-rock (Yes, ELP, et al.).
In both cases, the narrative is exaggerated at best. It’s a classic case of “post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” NO musical movement is ever “killed off” by any other movement. Rather, movements start to fade and die on their own, and something else invariably becomes popular with younger listeners.
Let’s say that “art-rock” began with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (that’s an oversimplification, too, but humor me). That album inspired bands like the Moody Blues and Procol Harum to use the mellotron and to adapt a symphonic/classical sound. King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, and other bands took those ideas to the next level, and then…
Well then the major art-rock/prog-rock bands started to run out of creative gas in the mid-to-late Seventies. And whereas the godfathers of heavy metal (Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple) inspired loads of young guys to start metal bands of their own, the art-rock bands just didn’t inspire many young musicians to play church organs or mellotrons.
Hair metal bands were often silly-looking, and were easy to mock, but many of them made some great music. Even so, a band like Poison or Motley Crue is BOUND to have a short shelf life. Fifteen year old boys don’t remain fifteen year old boys forever. A kid who loved “Nothing but a Good Time” as a high school sophomore wasn’t likely to keep loving it as an adult. After 5 years or so, a hair band’s fans grew up and moved on to something else. Meanwhile, a new round of teens was looking for something a little different.
A teen who loved King Crimson in 1974 didn’t decide in 1977 “Screw that, I like the Sex Pistols now.” Nor did a teen who loved Bon Jovi in 1987 become a Nirvana fan overnight.
This is my memory of it as well.
I remember the exact moment my favorite radio station switched from Top 40 to this new-fangled thing called “alternative”. One day it was playing Taylor Dane, Paula Abdul, and Michael Bolton. Then one morning my radio woke me up with"Behind The Sun" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, followed by These Are the Days" by 10,000 Manaics. My teenaged mind was completely blown away.
So in my memory, while Nirvana and Pearl Jam were something new, it wasn’t like they were the only force out there creating a new sound and aesthetic.
Around 1995, the mall-friendly, grunge-lite bands were commonplace, a few years after grunge hit the national radiowaves.
Beatlemania, a national infatuation with four “moptops”, hit in 1964 with the druggy Rubber Soul released the next year, but their message of love and drugs didn’t take hold at a widespread local level until 1967 Summer of Love in California nor on a massive, nationwide level until 1969 Woodstock. You didn’t see this attitude-adjustment, or change in hair lengths and clothes, in the general populace until a good 3-5 years after Beatlemania hit. It wasn’t until 1969-1971 that many high school prinicipals were wearing hair to their shoulders and bell bottom leisure suits.
And in the 90s in the midwest, the backwaters of American pop culture, acid wash denim could still be commonly spotted in public well into the late 90s.