Are we talking about relevance on the business end or the creative end?
Foo Fighters is an interesting case. Started by Dave Grohl of Nirvana after Cobain died, he also got former Nirvana touring musician Pat Smear to join in at the start. The Wiki page for Foo Fighters calls their genre “Post Grunge,” “Alt,” and “Hard Rock” which is a pretty good descriptor.
I like them because of the blend of melodic style and hard, drum driven power surges (for lack of a better term).
Until I looked up this Wiki page just now, I hadn’t seen a genre label of Post Grunge.
Nickelback and Creed probably qualify, although Creed was kind of a throwback. Grunge with better songwriting and musicianship.
Interestingly, looking at the album charts, the #1 rock act is Avenged Sevenfold at #10. Opeth is at #19.
Is anyone still listening to Ska?
Nah, there was a good deal of great chops in grunge bands. See Soundgarden and Alice in Chains for instance. Pearl Jam would qualify, as well. Soild songwriting as well. I certainly wouldn’t call Creed better songwriters and musicians than these bands. But my response really isn’t about Creed, but rather that people forgot just how good the musicianship in these bands was. (Especially the drummers. Matt Cameron and Jack Irons in particular.)
Soundgarden certainly. Alice in Chains I haven’t heard enough of, but metalheads today seem to still like them. Pearl Jam I’ve heard some impressive stuff live, especially the long guitar solo they bust out at the end of Evenflow. Nirvana was just a mess though. So was Blind Melon.
BTW, would Faith No More be considered a similar category to Soundgarden? I know Faith No More had their heyday in the late hair metal period but they seemed to still do quite well during the grunge years.
Faith No More was at their commercial peak in 1991 with “Epic,” which is very grungy. I think they qualify.
Don’t forget NIN
Trent Reznor IS Nine Inch Nails
Wiki pages are interesting in this discussion. It lists genres for the acts. NIN being listed as “Industrial Metal,” and “Alternative.”
Of course, you can’t take everything on a Wiki at face value, but it’s still an interesting look at the music scene we’re discussing.
I think Nirvana’s musicianship was decent, and their songwriting excellent. Blind Melon I don’t really consider “grunge.” They weren’t bad musicians, but their work wasn’t really my cup of tea. Faith No More is maybe grunge-by-association, perhaps like Smashing Pumpkins, but I wouldn’t consider either of these bands “grunge.” Faith No More is more associated with metal in my mind.
NIN were never considered “grunge” in my circles. “Alternative,” yes. “Industrial,” yes. “Grunge,” no. I’ll go back to Faith No More. I’m not even sure they qualify as “grunge by association.” “Epic” did not sound like anything I would call “grunge.” It had elements of metal and rap and perhaps funk in it, but not really grunge. It definitely was more associated in my mind to 80s music than the grunge that was appearing at the same time I associate with 90s music.
Still? Did anyone really listen to them in the first place in the US at least?
I’m not trying to sound snarky when I say that. My friends and I were big fans of the English ska bands like Madness, The Specials, English Beat, The Selector, but couldn’t find anything else except from those bands. All the albums we got were imports in the special bins at the back of the record store, nothing mainstream and nothing from US bands. This was in the early '80s. (third-wave ska is what I seem to remember it being classified as, but I could be wrong about that label.)
Ska started making a resurgence with No Doubt in the mid-90s, and then later with Reel Big Fish and Mighty Might Bosstones, but that was about it as far as I can remember…
I think in my circles that grunge appreciation overlapped industrial and even some thrash, EDM, and techno. One of the more popular acts for my later party crowd was Prodigy.
At that point, tho, we pretty much leave grunge in our CD players and go raving. ime, ymmv
No snark taken. My experience, too. The people I saw who LOVED Ska were sk8r boiz, all younger than us. A few acts had one song that was a good fun listen (like Squirrel Nut Zippers) but that was close to done as soon as it started.
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I"m not very familiar with ska, but wasn’t Sugar Ray during their pop phase incorporating ska into their music?
I would say, sure. The scene had also changed from Seattle down to San Diego acts. iirc
There was a third wave of ska that achieved some popularity. I was in college from '93 - ‘98 and ska was a fairly listened-to genre most of those years. I remember going to ska shows, but on “alternative” radio you’d hear more poppy or punky ska-influenced stuff than straight-ahead ska. Stuff like Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sublime, Rancid, Reel Big Fish, (you can probably throw in No Doubt for the real poppy/dancy side of ska.) This was also around the time where there was a big swing revival (remember that? Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers, etc.)
I think Faith No More would be along the lines of Red Hot Chili Peppers rather than the grunge bands. How about Stone Temple Pilots, why were they not considered grunge?
They were not real ska, but yes. Smash Mouth was another similar type band.