I would say grunge became mainstream in 1991, peaked in 1993 and was dead by 1995. So it lasted less than Disco. What’s even interesting is that Nirvana never had a number 1 hit at all, it was artists like Mariah Carey , Boys to Men and TLC that dominated the charts.
I personally would push this back more towards (early) 1992. But, otherwise, sounds about right to me.
I think Joy Division was never big, especially in 1991 considering Ian Curtis killed himself in 1980. From there the members formed New Order. Also Depeche Mode was already well know. Since early 80’s.
Well, of course POP will dominate the charts.
And I’m not saying Hair Rock wasn’t popular. Just an observation (from some 20 years removed) of what I remember as who actually claimed to like it. Early on in this thread, I said my posts were purely anecdotal.
I liked Motley Crue, btw. 
I was unable to edit this previous post of mine, but Depeche Mode were never rock
at all, more Synth pop/New Wave and were already established since the 1980’s so Nirvana was never a threat to them. In fact Mode has survived for very long . But I’m only 27 so do the math.
I think grunge had two long-term effects on rock:
The first was, IMO, a good thing: it established that it wasn’t necessary for male rock singers to sing so fucking high that the majority of male fans could not actually sing the songs properly. I idolize Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson, but I am not Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson. I’ve been enjoying the various styles of rock that have followed in grunge’s wake, because I’m pushing 50 and I can actually sing this new stuff without giving myself a hernia.
The second was, IMO, a bad thing: it killed the extended guitar solo (in the same way that stripped-down punk was, partly, a reaction to progressive rock, grunge’s disdain for long solos was a reaction to hair metal’s guitar theatrics). I’m a fucking bass player, but I love long guitar solos. I loved Disturbed’s first album, but they showed the grunge influence on rock by the fact that there wasn’t a single guitar solo on the entire album. What saved the album for me was David Draiman’s vocals and the sheer aggressiveness of the music. But I really wouldn’t have minded hearing a couple guitar solos in there.
Hair metal was one of those genres that only a few people claimed as their main favorite, but it appealed to a lot of people as their second or third choice. The teenage ladies were probably most drawn to it, probably by the power ballads, but the metalheads weren’t above taking in some Poison and Winger with their Megadeth and Ozzy, and pop fans will still break into “Living on a Prayer” to this day if you even mention the song. Basically, it had broad appeal, although it never really challenged pop music for the throne. Probably the only time rock n’ roll ever ruled the Billboard charts was in the 60s, but for awhile there the hair bands were making it close.
It was actually getting kind of ridiculous how much talent you needed just to be taken seriously by 1991. I think grunge in part was a return to the time when anyone could put together a band, and if your songs were compelling, you could be successful even if you weren’t amazing with your instruments. At first, this was true of heavy metal as well. Except for Tommy Lee, no one in Motley Crue is exceptional, but they play within their abilities and write some of the most well known songs in the genre.
I think when Dream Theater’s Images and Words came out, people were just like, “Aw, the hell with it, no one’s going to match that in terms of musicianship so it’s time to just dial it back a bit.”
But now Disturbed does guitar solos. 
Guitar solos have come back, and although we aren’t seeing Malmsteen-like heroics anymore in the mainstream rock world, there are some pretty rippin’ players out there giving us at least a taste.
The way I look at grunge is as sort of a left turn for hard rock. You had the 60s, and then there was a logical progression into the 70s, and that led into the 80s, and then grunge represented a sharp departure from the trends. I think rock has resumed its evolutionary course so to speak, while incorporating the aspects of grunge that were actually kinda cool(like downtuned guitars. Makes the sound much heavier).
For what it’s worth, I’m 48 now, and I never even heard of Joy Division until some years after I got on the Internet in 1996. But I was vaguely familiar with Depeche Mode, and had at least heard of New Order when I was a teenager in the 1980s.
The success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and other alternative bands was largely based on album sales which, during the 90s, comprised the vast majority of the recorded music market. In fact, during that time singles were almost an endangered species. Sales of singles were so low that Billboard dropped its requirement on its Top 100 Singles chart that only songs that were available for sale in single form could be included thereby allowing individual album cuts whose popularity could be measured only by airplay on the radio and MTV.
Also, it’s important to remember that the market for popular music has been growing increasingly fragmented over the last 50 years. People who listened to Mariah Carey were not that interested in Nirvana and vice versa.
But they were interested in Bon Jovi, at least a substantial percentage of them.
Heck, Mariah Carey has had a few hits covering 80s rock classics. The day she covers a grunge tune will be a sign of the apocalypse.
Actually, I will concede that at least a few listeners of Nirvana and Pearl Jam were interested in Mariah Carey–but just her videos and only if the sound was turned down.
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:D:p This made my day.
Heh. By that standard I’m a huge Mariah Carey fan.
But as the years have gone by I’ve come to appreciate just how amazing a singer she is. I just think she does herself a disservice with her song selection. But then what do I know, she’s had more #1s than the Beatles, hasn’t she? But after seeing her live performances on youtube, I have to say I have never seen a singer be able to pull off live what she does in the studio so consistently. I’ve literally never seen her phone in a performance or have a bad vocal day, at least not one that ever ended up on Youtube. The closest I’ve seen is her Live 8 performance where she was a little hoarse and if anything she sounded even better.
If she ever does a rock record I’ll be waiting in line to buy it.
What I’m surprised no one has mentioned is how grunge vaulted softer alt rock into the mainstream. Acts like the Spin Doctors and Soul Asylum had some nice success for a short time.
Yup, which is still the case today! Except you can add EDM music in there too these days.
The funny thing is, as a rock fan I’m noticing that rock is more and more being incorporated into genres of music that actually are popular. Disney sold millions of units during their tween rock phase with Hannah Montana and Demi Lovato. Sure, to the “true” rock fan, it’s an ungodly abomination, but I’ll take that music over what those two are doing now any day of the week.
Another thing I’m noticing is that R&B albums tend to have like no guitars, but live they tend to have the guitars front and center. Rihanna even hired Nuno Bettencourt as her touring guitarist. He’s from Extreme, for those who don’t know.
So I don’t think rock is totally dead, so much as it’s pieces are scattered all over the place. I imagine someone will figure out how to make hard rock have crossover appeal again, and the fact that pop artists are incorporating more guitar and real drums into their music than in the 90s and 00s is training pop fans’ ears to not be jarred by the presence of this kind of thing in their music. So hopefully rock has a bright future. After grunge ruined it.
I suppose a lot of it depends on who you hung around with in high school and/or college and what sort of music you were into. I mean keep in mind that there wasn’t any Internet back in the day. I didn’t hang out with much of an alternative crowd, listen to college radio or watch MTV’s 120 Minutes. Everyone I knew in high school pretty much listened to either Top-40 or classic rock (which at the time meant Zeppelin, Rush, Floyd, Sabbath, etc).
Of course rock is dead. Coldplay and Maroon 5 are considered “rock”. Foo Fighters are probably the last true rock band that is still somewhat relevant. And even they are a throwback to the post-Nirvana days.
People who quote Billboard charting starts miss the point of rock. As does “training pop fans ears to not be jarred by rock”. The whole POINT of rock was to jar your ears. Not to appeal to the masses. Rock was meant to appeal to pissed off, disaffected youths looking to channel their anger into drinking, fucking, drugs, telling authority to fuck off and other awesomely anti-social self destructive behavior.
Alternative rock like The Cure, Morrissey, and so on was for pissed off, disaffected youths who dress all in black and mope.
Nirvana and grunge marked the transition point where the former was no longer seen as “cool”. Or maybe it was seen as romanticizing fucked up behavior and more teenagers felt like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder painted a more accurate picture of their lives than Vince Neil or David Lee Roth did.
The point is, rock is dead and has been for a long time. The reason for that is kids these days don’t “rock”. At least not in the “lets rebel against everything” sense that rock did in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Kids these days are too obsessed with superficial media popularity. Which is why they like Miley Cyrus and her carefully crafted, focus-group approved acts of “rebellion” designed to generate “likes” and “tweets”.
Yeah, in 1991, you literally couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Two Princes” or “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” playing. It’s basically the go-to movie soundtrack song used as a shortcut to say “this scene is a flashback to the early 90s”.
But I would consider them a different sub-genre of alternative. Basically “jam bands” that would include Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, Dave Mathews Band, The Black Crows, Counting Crows, so on and so forth.
Sure, the point of rock is to jar you, but that’s underground rock. The rock that becomes pop music tends to be less of a jarring transition. Bon Jovi was probably the first hair band to achieve widespread pop success, and they did so precisely because pop fans loved them and rock affiicianados disdained them. They were certainly my gateway to heavier music.
Rock is dead commercially, but if you’re concerned about “relevance”, it seems to me that we’re living in the best time for rock ever. The metal scene is more diverse and productive than ever, ditto for the indie rock scene. The problem is that I wish these guys could quit their day jobs. Kinda annoying when your favorite band can’t tour because the bass player couldn’t get the time off.
I would hardly call that “relevance”.