← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
All Apologies Edition Part 1
01:08:36
Nirvana and grunge pulled alternative rock from the left of the dial to the center of the charts.
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- [00:01]
Chris Melanfi
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- [00:27]
Sponsor Voice
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- [00:57]
Chris Melanfi
Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show. Thirty years ago this month, in early May 1995, this band from York, Pennsylvania, who went by the rather prosaic name Live, climbed to number one on the Billboard album chart with their second CD, 30 Throwing Copper. One year earlier, Live were a mid tier band with a couple of very modest radio hits. By 1995 their hit Lightning Crashes had topped the modern rock chart and even went into high rotation at Top 40 radio which pushed their album to number one. This middling band was top of the heap.
- [02:51]
Song Lyrics
Oh my feeling coming back again Like a rolling thunder chasing the wind.
- [03:03]
Chris Melanfi
So how did Live wind up, for a moment, the top band in America? Simple. They were classified on the charts, on the radio and in record stores as well, alternative rock, anything with that tag was all but guaranteed to dominate in the mid-90s. Grungy guitars, growly vocals, quirky lyrics about fallen placentas, gnarly babies, or in the case of Beck's loser, chimpanzees and monkeys.
- [03:37]
Song Lyrics
In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey butane in my pains and mouth to cut the Chucky with the plastic eyeballs spray paint the vegetables dog food skulls with the beefcake pantyhose it.
- [03:50]
Chris Melanfi
Was a license to print money. The peak of Generation X on the charts was mainstreaming music that had previously been considered too marginal or weird for mass consumption.
- [04:04]
Song Lyrics
I don't mind the sun sometimes the images it shows I can taste you on my lips and smell you in.
- [04:14]
Chris Melanfi
My clothes from the butthole surfers to Smashing Pumpkins to screaming trees it was a good decade to let your freak flag fly. Rockers across the spectrum, even performers recording on independent labels, were making the charts and were emblazoned on the COVID of Rolling Stone. Of course, legend had it that one band from the Pacific Northwest was responsible for this sea change in 90s music. And sure, the breakthrough of Nirvana was seismic, but the grunge explosion had effects on the charts that were more nuanced than we remember today. Alternative rock didn't actually turn into grunge overnight. Nirvana wasn't actually grunge's top selling band, and other forms of alternative rock actually did even better on the charts than grunge. Moreover, Nirvana's frontman, may he rest in peace, couldn't possibly have foreseen that by the end of the decade, a raft of pumped up dude bro bands that critics and fans called post grunge would carry the mantle of his music forward. Or that so called alternative rock would become the new pop.
- [06:50]
Song Lyrics
Girls. I'm not listening when you say goodbye.
- [06:57]
Chris Melanfi
Today on Hit Parade, we will trace the decade when the underground went overground. When we went from guy liner to flannel, from sole patches to backward ball caps, from piercings to baby doll dresses. When irony became a genre and when alt rock became our weirdo top 40.
- [07:21]
Song Lyrics
The queerest of the queer the strangest of the strange the coolest for the cool. The name is not the lame the nervous stopping I hate to see you here but you'll find a smile A fake kind of feeling.
- [07:42]
Chris Melanfi
And it was all fueled by one indelible band that topped the charts in the early years of the decade. They were done before the 90s were even half over. Their frontman and primary songwriter knew he'd changed the culture, and he was pretty apologetic about it. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending January 22, 1994, when All Apologies became the last Nirvana 1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart during Kurt Cobain's lifetime. By then, everyone was rushing to adopt the mantle of alternative. But an alternative to what? When did the left of the dial become the middle of the road? How did we go from cracker to Creed? And what was Generation X's brief moment in the black hole sun where we feel as one all about? Were we really swinging on the flippity flop? Don't be a lame stain? Join us as we consider how alt rock got co opt and popified and somehow changed the game anyway, before we all, as Kurt sang, got married and buried, what else should we be?
- [09:17]
Song Lyrics
I wish I was like you easily.
- [09:23]
Chris Melanfi
Mused Stick around.
- [09:30]
Song Lyrics
Everything is my fault Take all the blame I receive from shame.
- [09:48]
Chris Melanfi
This episode is brought to you by Discover if there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a card that isn't widely accepted, but in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card this episode is brought to you by Defender. Naturally capable and expedition ready, the Defender 110 is a vehicle built for the modern explorer. The Defender looks tough because it is tough. With an exterior designed for optimum durability, the Defender has the endurance to take you further and tackle the extremes of with confidence. Its 3D surround cameras with clear sight ground view let you see underneath the vehicle and anticipate obstacles and rough terrain, while its clear sight rear view provides an unobstructed view behind the car, even when the back window is blocked. The Defender family also features the two door Defender 90, the Defender 110 and the Defender 115 30, which seats up to 8. Design your Defender 110 at land roverusa.com Visit land roverusa.com to learn more about the Defender 110. Explore the Defender 110 at land roverusa.Com.
- [11:48]
Song Lyrics
Let'S go, let's go.
- [11:52]
Chris Melanfi
Over the years of this podcast, hit parade has covered what is now commonly known as alternative rock under several names and numerous sub genres, we've covered punk from the likes of the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Post punk, which can mean anything from Talking Heads to Joy Division.
- [12:22]
Song Lyrics
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio.
- [12:27]
Chris Melanfi
New wave, which at first in the late 1970s meant American bands like Blondie or the Cars, Let the good times roll. But eventually new wave came to mean new romantic bands of the second British invasion in the early 80s.
- [12:47]
Song Lyrics
Look now, look all around there's no sign of light.
- [12:55]
Chris Melanfi
We've touched on what was commonly known in the 80s as College Rock, typically played on America's student run university campus radio stations led by collegetown rock gods REM as well as the neo folk movement, which we covered in our episode about the 80s Female artists who would eventually inspire Lilith fair in the 90s, including Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman.
- [13:33]
Song Lyrics
Don't you know Talking about a river du shun sounds.
- [13:40]
Chris Melanfi
We've gone deep on gothic or goth rock, From Bauhaus to the Cure.
- [13:46]
Song Lyrics
Let's move to the beat like we know that it's over.
- [13:52]
Chris Melanfi
And even indie rock, which in the 80s meant bands like the Smiths, would.
- [13:58]
Song Lyrics
You like to marry me? And if you like to come by the ring, she doesn't care about anything.
- [14:05]
Chris Melanfi
None of these sub genre names is precise or prescriptive. In fact, most of the acts I just mentioned could be filed under several subgenres. REM Were not only college rock, but indie rock early in their career, as well as punk. Post punk. Joy Division were post punk as well as new wave, and at times even proto goth. The Cure would prefer that you called them post punk rather than goth and so on. What we're trying to pinpoint in this Hit parade episode is when all of these disparate subgenres fused into alternative. Until the late 80s, most of these forms of left of the dial rock either were considered uncommercial commercial, like say, the Replacements, who recorded an actual song called Left of the Dial to celebrate the quirky music heard on low frequency FM stations. Or the music would be watered down or made more blatantly commercial to cross over to the mainstream. After new wave broke on the American music video channel MTV, 80s new wave veered toward danceable bands like Culture Club who were quite a distance removed from the music's punk roots. However, even after new wave went mainstream, there was still a strain of edgier rock that wouldn't get much radio play. Whether it was the American hardcore of bands like St. Paul's Husker do the so called cow punk of Phoenix Band the Meat Puppets, the experimental noise rock of New York's Sonic Youth, or the shrieking yet catchy indie rock of Boston's Pixies, who were later credited with inventing or at least codifying the quiet then loud sound of 90s alternative in the late 80s. Talking sweet about nothing.
- [16:48]
Song Lyrics
Cooking out picture.
- [16:58]
Chris Melanfi
All of these regional movements helped lead to the adoption of alternative as a descriptor by the turn of the 90s. Keep in mind, this music was not only an alternative to the pop music on Top 40 radio, it was called alternative rock because it was also distinguished from what got played on album oriented rock or AOR radio stations. The likes of Van Halen, Tom Petty and ZZ Top, as well as classic rockers like Eric Clapton or Pink Floyd, and heavy metal or even hair metal metal, which was at its peak in the mid to late 80s on rock radio, alternative rock was a legitimate alternative to all that. I want to be clear about this for any younger Hit Parade podcast listeners, because this idea may be lost in the 21st century when generations Y Z and Alpha play music across genres. There's now nothing particularly weird about a Def Leppard fan also loving Depeche Mode. But in the late 20th century, a listener's very identity was defined by what side of the mainstream versus alternative divide their tastes ran. And by the mid to late 80s it wasn't just tiny college radio playing alternative rock. Popular big city stations like KROQ in Los Angeles, Boston's WFNX and Long Island New York's WLIR were scoring sizable ratings playing everything from Depeche Mode to the Jesus and mary chain. By 1988, Billboard magazine decided they needed a chart to capture this kind of airplay, which was becoming too big to ignore and was even fueling record sales as bands like Remember the Cure and Depeche Mode were going gold. Since 1981, the magazine had had an Album Rock chart which captured airplay at AOR and classic rock stations. For example, the top album rock song of 1988 was this Van Halen hit, Finish what you started Come on baby.
- [20:00]
Song Lyrics
Finish what you started I'm incomplete.
- [20:07]
Chris Melanfi
But in the magazine dated September 10, 1988, right next to the Album Rock chart, Billboard introduced a 30 position modern rock chart. This, by the way, was the term of art in the radio business at the time. Modern rock or new wave wouldn't be replaced by alternative until the early 90s. And the first number one on Billboard's Modern Rock chart was this Susie and the Banshees single Peekaboo, which definitely sounded like an alternative to the likes of Van Halen. In the early years of the chart goth, post punk and jangly indie rock ATS formed the backbone of modern rock, most from either England or US college towns in addition to the gods of British goth rock and post punk, whom we discussed in our Lost and Lonely edition of Hit Parade, and the jangly American college rock of remote or the B52s who had gone from Athens, Georgia to nationwide hit making status. The modern rock chart also gave certain forefathers of punk, art rock and new wave their first major hit songs ever on a Billboard chart, including such legends as Elvis Costello, the Replacements, former Sex Pistol, Johnny Rotten, and even Lou Reed.
- [22:04]
Song Lyrics
He's gonna end up on the dirty boulevard he's going out to the dirty.
- [22:11]
Chris Melanfi
Boulevard he's going down. This was what alternative rock sounded like at the end of the 80s, before grunge emerged as a commercial force. What made grunge a term, by the way, that none of the bands tagged as grunge either liked or adopted, was how it fused punk and new wave into hard rock and even metal grunge would go the last mile to turn alternative rock into platinum pop. But the seeds were sown years before Nirvana. In fact, grunge as we know it was pioneered by a band that launched in the mid-80s and just this year got inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Soundgarden. Formed in nineteen nineteen eighty four, they named themselves after a local Seattle sculpture. It grew out of a band started by Chris Cornell, who both sang and at first played drums, and Hiro Yamamoto, who played bass. Yamamoto brought in his friend Kim Thale to play guitar. Eventually, after Cornell had shifted fully to vocals, Matt Cameron became Soundgarden's permanent drummer in 1986. Hiro Yamamoto would remain on bass until he went back to school in the late 80s. Ben Shepard would eventually take over as the band's bassist. One friend of the band, Bruce Pavitt, co founded the now legendary Seattle label Sub Pop Records. Sub Pop wound up signing Soundgarden to their first recording contract. In fact, for several years, Soundgarden's 1987 debut single Hunted down, served as Sub Pop's telephone hold music. Sub Pop released Soundgarden's first two EPs, Screaming Life and Thop, which helped codify the Seattle sound. They were a blend of punk, aggression metal, doom, sludgy guitars and here and there pop hooks. The title track of the fop EP was a cover of a mid-70s hit by funk band the Ohio Players. Guitarist Kim Thale said he wanted to turn it into something closer to AC dc. Truth be told, Soundgarden were not the first band described as grunge. Green river, another Seattle band formed around the same time, but who started recording first built a template of metal sludge plus punk speed that became associated with the Pacific Northwest sound. After Green river signed to Sub Pop, Bruce Pavitt described their second EP in a label catalog as ultra loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation. The genre name stuck, but Soundgarden refined the grunge template, honing their sound. After they left Sub Pop, they signed with the larger California independent label SST Records, which had issued albums by such 80s punk heroes as the Minutemen, Black Flag and Husker Dude. Soundgarden's full length 1988 debut album, Ultra Mega OK won praise from critics who described its sound as Stooges meets Sabbath crossed with 80s indie rock. Guitarist Kim Thale himself described it as Sabbath influenced pun. In 1989, Soundgarden left SST and signed to a major label, A and M Records, the storied imprint founded by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. Their second album and A and M debut, Louder Than Love, became the first grunge LP to make the Billboard album chart, where it reached number 108 in early 1990. Impressive for a band that wasn't on the radio and was still being marketed as a kind of metal. By 1990, the Seattle scene hadn't taken off and grunge wasn't a thing in the mainstream music press. At first, British listeners were more enamored of the Seattle sound than Americans were. England, after all, had given the world Black Sabbath in the first place. In 1990, a pair of Soundgarden singles made the lower rungs of the UK chart, including hands all over, which reached number 82. UK Ironically, as of 1990, alternative rock in America still sounded mostly British. The year's top hit on the modern rock chart was Cuts you up by former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy. However, a new band breaking on the charts that year would point the direction American alternative culture was heading. A psychedelic hard rock band from Los Angeles called Jane's Addiction, they scored a pair of modern rock number ones in late 1990 with Stop and Been Caught Stealing.
- [29:12]
Song Lyrics
Now Walk right through the dark I walk right through the door.
- [29:20]
Chris Melanfi
In 1991, just as Jane's addiction was preparing for an indefinite hiatus, Slash Breakup frontman Perry Farrell decided their final tour should be an ambitious last hurrah. He launched a novel traveling festival concert that he called Lollapalooza, smashing together Acts from all corners of alternative culture into one eclectic package. The first Lollapalooza included everything from UK goth gods Susie and the Banshees to funk metal superstars Living Color, We Are the Children of Kind to a new industrial artist named Trent Reznor, who recorded innovative, danceable, yet thrashing hard rock under the nom de band Nine Inch Nails. The first Lollapalooza in 1991 sold thousands of tickets across the US and showed the music industry that an edgier form of rock was poised to break wide and sell records in platinum quantities accordingly. The summer of 91 was when grunge began to break on the US charts. But it was a different Seattle band, not Soundgarden, that finally got grunge on the radio. Alice in Chains both epitomized and stood apart from grunge. What distinguished them was their more obvious heavy metal roots. While Soundgarden sought to fuse metal and punk, Alice was more tied to the doomy end of the metal metal scene. Vocalist Lane Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell both played in metal bands Prior to the 1987 formation of Alice in Chains, whose name was a portentous play on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Nonetheless, the two bands rose in tandem in the Seattle scene. Music managers Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver, who also oversaw Soundgarden, took on Alice as clients. They got Alice signed to major label Columbia straight away, without the years on indie labels that Soundgarden experienced. And even though Soundgarden made the album chart first, Alice scored a major radio hit sooner with the first single from their 1990 debut album, Facelift, the menacing man in the Box. In the spring of 91, man in the Box cracked Billboard's album rock chart, which, by the way, was another distinguishing feature of Alice in Chains. They were embraced by traditional rock fans more than alternative rock fans. Alice's songs wouldn't start making the upper reaches of the modern rock chart until well after Grunge broke. Still, man in the Box and Alice in Chains proved to be ambassadors for the grunge sound and the Seattle scene. In July of 91, while Lollapalooza was crisscrossing the country, making the case for alternative culture in general. Man in the Box reached a respectable number 18 on Billboard's album rock chart. By September, the Facelift album had gone gold, the first 90s Seattle scene album to do so, and it even generated a minor second hit, Sea of Sorrow, which reached number 27. 7 on the album Rock chart. But all that was just a warm up. Within weeks of Alice in chains going gold. As the summer of 91 turned to fall, the dam broke for the Seattle scene seemingly all at once.
- [34:12]
Song Lyrics
Once.
- [34:16]
Chris Melanfi
More in a moment, Mother's Day is around the corner. I'm already thinking about what I'll get my mom. And if you're looking to give a high quality, super thoughtful and affordable gift for the women in your life, check out Quince. Recently I bought my latest pair of jeans for from Quince. They were amazingly affordable and yet very high quality, the kind of denim you'd normally expect to pay twice the price for. And my Quince jeans instantly became my favorites. I've been recording Hit Parade episodes in them regularly, and that's just what I got for myself. If you're looking for a gift for Mother's Day, or any occasion, you won't go wrong choosing something from Quints. The best part? All Quint's Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. Thoughtful, Timeless, totally her Shop Mother's Day at quince Go to quince.com hitparade for free shipping on your order and 365 days returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com hitparade to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com hitparade.
- [35:47]
Sponsor Voice
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- [36:21]
Chris Melanfi
This episode is brought to you by Discover. If there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a card that isn't widely accepted, but in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card the last week of August 1991, the debut album by a new band that had been opening for Alice in Chains on the Facelift tour arrived in record stores. The band had risen from the ashes of the acclaimed Seattle band Mother Love Bone, who were on permanent hiatus after the overdose death of their lead singer, Andrew Wood. The new band, fronted by a part time surfer born in Chicago named Eddie Vedder, went by the name Mookie Blaylock, named after one of their favorite basketball players players. But by the time the band signed to Epic Records, Mookie Blaylock had changed their name to Pearl Jam. At first, Pearl Jam's debut album, ten didn't make much of a ripple. Hold that thought. A few weeks later, however, their friends in Soundgarden were back with an album of their own. Jesus Christ Pose was the first single from Bad Motor Finger, Soundgarden's third album. The album's release encountered a speed bump when the video for Jesus Christ Pose was banned by MTV for its imagery of a crucified girl, which the band argued was a commentary on sexism. The controversy and resulting lack of airplay for the single delayed the album's chart breakthrough by a few months, but it was soon forgotten when the album won near universal critical praise and Soundgarden redirected their focus on the album's second single, Outshine. But the album that wound up not only eclipsing Alice in Chains but also cracking open the charts to the whole Seattle scene arrived in September 1991 between 10 and bad motor Finger. It was from a trio that had previously released just one album on Sub Pop records back in 1989 and took more than two years to follow it up. It opened with a song the band derisively called a Pixies Ripoff. Their new label, DGC Records, a subsidiary of major label Geffen Records, expected that the LP would sell maybe a hundred. The album and that song did quite a bit better than that. We told the story of Nirvana's breakthrough in our December 2020 episode of Hit Parade. To recap, Nirvana were formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist, singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain and bassist Chris Novoselic on their debut album bleach, released in 89 by Sub Pop, Indie rock fans noticed that Cobain had a way with a tune. Songs like About a Girl had Beatlesque melodies underneath the grungy guitars. Between Nirvana's first and second albums, after a series of drummers cycled through the band, Cobain and Novoselic were joined by Washington D.C. based drummer Dave Grohl. It was like Ringo Starr belatedly joining the Beatles. The band's sound was complete. Grohl gave Nirvana a serious kick. After they signed with dgc, Nirvana recorded their second album and major label debut with producer Butch Vig, a Madison, Wisconsin based sonic craftsman who made his recordings sound both raw and sleek. Nevermind blended the menace of Seattle punk and metal with enticing hooks. Smells Like Teen Spirit, the song Cobain wrote as a Pixies homage and named after a brand of deodorant aimed at teenagers, was both anthemic and irresistible. That was what made Nirvana's breakthrough so galvanizing the pop sensibility that Kurt Cobain infused into the grunge sound. The same week Nevermind landed in record stores and debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at number 144, Smells Like Teen Spirit broke into the lower rungs of Billboard's Modern Rock chart. That was the only chart the song was on for the better part of two months, as it climbed into the modern rock top 20 by October, the top five by November, mainstream rock stations began playing it too. Around the same time, MTV took its indelible video of the band playing an anarchistic, thrashy high school pep rally and moved it from its late night alternative rock show 120 minutes into daytime power rot. Accordingly, Nevermind began to soar up the Billboard 200 album chart higher than any Seattle scene album had gone before. It broke into the top 40 in early November, the top 10 just before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, on the Hot 100 song chart, which averaged both radio airplay and singles sales, Smith Smells Like Teen Spirit finally debuted at the end of November, fueled by exceptionally strong singles sales. By mid December, Billboard reported that the song ranked only 73rd in radio airplay, but already ranked seventh in singles sales. Music buyers were pushing the song up the Hot 100. As we discussed in our previous episode, what Nevermind did before and just after Christmas 1991 was exceptional and unprecedented in chart history. Before the holiday, the album had gotten as high as number four, then fallen back to number six, stuck behind gift friendly CDs by MC Hammer, Michael Bolton, Garth Brooks, U2 and Michael Jackson. And then just after Christmas, with teenagers and college kids home from school, cashing in their music store gift certificates and choosing their own tapes and CDs, Nevermind leapt from number six to the top of the Billboard 200, knocking out Michael Jackson. The album with a naked baby on the COVID chasing a dollar bill on a fishing line with song titles like Lithium Territorial Pissings and Stay Away was Now the number one album in the as seminal as this moment was, grunge did not immediately overtake the radio. After Nevermind broke, for example, on the modern rock chart, Smells Like Teen Spirit did finally go to number one in late November 91, but it was only on top for one week, and it was bookended on either side by a pair of songs by College radio veteran U2 the fly and Mysterious Ways.
- [46:23]
Song Lyrics
It's All Right, it's all right it's all right she moves in mysterious ways.
- [46:32]
Chris Melanfi
And moving into 1992, British acts and veteran alt rockers continued to lead the modern rock chart on the regular from the Cure.
- [46:43]
Song Lyrics
When I see you the sky's a kite as high as I might I can't get that high.
- [46:53]
Chris Melanfi
To Morrissey, to Peter Gabriel. However, throughout 1992 and 1993, grunge gradually evolved into the defining alternative rock sound, shifting from the cutting edge to the mainstream. Helping that transition along was an uncannily prescient movie that, filmed in early 91, came out in 92 and caught the Seattle wave just as it was breaking. Talking here with Cliff Pontier. Cliff, any comments on the Seattle sound and Citizen Dick's place in it?
- [47:43]
Song Lyrics
Well, I don't like to reduce us just as being part of the Seattle sound. I like to think of us expanding more like we're huge in Europe right now. I mean, we've got records. A big record just broke in Belgium.
- [48:01]
Chris Melanfi
Singles, a rock romantic comedy from the director Cameron Crowe. It was his second film, and the follow up to say Anything was not only set in Seattle's grunge scene, it actually featured cameos by members of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and the then new Pearl Jam, who play members of Matt Dillon's fictional band Citizen Dick. Amazingly, Crowe shot the movie six months before all of those bands broke. Before Pearl Jam had even issued their debut album. All of them were on the movie's soundtrack, which, in an unusual move, came out three months before the movie. In the summer of 1992, thousands of fans picked up the soundtrack as a sampler of the Seattle scene, even even if they didn't bother seeing the film. By the time the singles CD peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum, all three bands on the soundtrack had gone gold with their own own albums. In fact, Pearl Jam's 10 was now double platinum, driven by the singles Alive and Even Flow. Both rock radio staples and Jeremy, whose harrowing cinematic video depicting an abused child taunted at school, became an MTV sensation. It would sweep the MTV Video Music Awards the following year. By the late summer of 92, both Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were so popular with new fans hungry for new material that a tiny side project they'd collaborated on back in 1991 called Temple of the Dog, a tribute to Andrew Wood, the late frontman of Mother Love Bone, broke into the top 10 on the album chart and went belatedly platinum. Temple of the Dog's self titled one off album even generated a top ten hit at both album and modern rock radio called Hunger Strike. Another band who appeared on and benefited from the singles soundtrack but were not from Seattle was the Chicago based Smashing Pumpkins, led by cantankerous mastermind Billy Corgan. Before singles, the Pumpkins managed to barely scrape the modern rock chart with their late 1991 single Rhinoceros, released on indie label Caroline Records. The dreamily psychedelic single from their acclaimed debut album gish reached number 27. Though Billy Corgan largely disavowed any association with grunge, the Pumpkins did appear on singles and their music was plenty grungy.
- [52:14]
Song Lyrics
Is it something someone said?
- [52:19]
Chris Melanfi
After the breakthrough of the Seattle bands, the Smashing Pumpkins graduated to platinum status. Their 1993 album Siamese Dream debuted at number 10 on the album chart, went multi platinum and generated a string of top 10 modern rock singers singles including Cherub Rock, Disarm and Today. What the Smashing Pumpkin's success reinforced was that grunge was a sensibility as much as as a scene. Throughout 92 and 93. Bands that were grunge adjacent, based nowhere near Seattle and previously had had difficulty scoring radio or MTV attention, began dominating the charts. For example, Cracker, led by Dave Lowery, former frontman of the mostly hitless 80s band Camper Van Beethoven, scored a modern rock number one in the spring of 1992 with Teen Angst, a song that poked fun at Generation X's Travails. Stereo Gum's Tom Bryan would later call Cracker's breakthrough hit quote the first real post Nirvana modern rock chart topper.
- [53:57]
Sponsor Voice
Is.
- [53:58]
Song Lyrics
A new kind attention cause the old.
- [54:02]
Chris Melanfi
One just bores me or Soul Asylum, a Minneapolis band who'd been releasing records since 1984 and had cycled through one indie label and two major labels. They dropped a new album in 1992 called Grave Dancers Union that generated a slew of hits, including the pop ballad smash Runaway Train and the modern rock chart topper Somebody To Shove and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Red Hot Chili Peppers on a funk rock LA band who'd been toiling in relative obscurity since the early 80s. Their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magic, which dropped the same day as Nevermind, quickly became the Chili peppers bestseller by 92. It even spawned a massive pop hit, the Hot 102 under the Bridge.
- [55:16]
Song Lyrics
I don't ever wanna feel like I did that day Take me to the place I love.
- [55:26]
Chris Melanfi
After that breakthrough, the Chili Peppers, by the way, would go on to become the most consistent performers in modern rock chart history. They have scored number ones on that chart in every decade since the 90s. Their latest number one on the Alternative chart Tip of My Tongue rang the bell in late 2022. Back to the 90s as Broie and Dude centric as all this seemed, it must be said the grunge era was one of the more woman friendly periods of alt rock. Whether it was the influence of the contemporaneous Riot Girl movement or the vocal feminist allyship of grunge stars like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder, women rockers and female fronted bands did quite well through the first wave of of grunge. These hit makers included LA punk rockers L7, whose acclaimed 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy spawned the top 10 modern rock hit Pretend We're Dead. Former Throwing Music and Breeders guitarist Tanya Donnelly formed her own band, Belly, and scored a modern rock number one in early 93 with the rustic grunge adjacent Feed the Tree. Speaking of the Breeders, that band, led by Kim Deal, formerly of the Pixies, and her sister Kelly Deal, scored a number two modern rock hit that fall with their loopy rocker Cannonball. Around the same time time, former Blake Babies frontwoman Juliana Hatfield's new band, the Juliana Hatfield 3, topped the modern rock chart with her heartfelt fuzz rocking tale of sibling rivalry. My sister, my sister, I love my.
- [58:13]
Song Lyrics
Sister she's the best yes, she's cooler than any other girl.
- [58:21]
Chris Melanfi
And though she did not generate alt rock radio hits right away, 1993's most acclaimed album was Liz Fair's indie rock classic Exile in Guyville, which topped that year's Paz and Jopp critics poll and generated such college radio favorites as Divorce Song and Run and Never said.
- [58:51]
Sponsor Voice
Nothing.
- [59:00]
Chris Melanfi
With hindsight, 1993 was also the final transition from British to American alt rock. At the start of that year, UK acts from Depeche Mode to Jesus Jones, Tears for Fears to Peter Gabriel were still topping the modern rock chart on the regular. In fact, the year's top modern rock hit was New Order's jangly alt pop banger Regret, a last hurrah for 80s spawned British Post pop park. But by the end of 93 the shift to grunge was complete. Nirvana came back with their hotly anticipated follow up album In Utero, which unlike Nevermind, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, the surrealist Heart Shaped Box, topped the modern rock chart. By October. Just weeks later, Pearl Jam dropped an even more hot lip anticipated album. Their debut CD 10 had spent almost two years climbing the chart, topping out at number two and selling 6 million copies. It's now certified for US sales of 13 million by the way. But Pearl Jam's follow up Versus opened to a stunning 950,000 copies in its first week, then a record for the largest opening sales in chart history. Pearl Jam would hold that all time album chart record for five years until country star Garth Brooks double live edged it in 1998. By the end of the 1993 holiday season, Pearl Jam's versus was already quintuple platinum and its single daughter reached number one on both the album rock and modern rock charts. Pearl Jam were now what mainstream rock sounded like.
- [61:42]
Song Lyrics
Don't Call me.
- [61:52]
Chris Melanfi
Going into 1994, Nirvana and Pearl Jam were the unquestioned biggest bands in America. Pearl Jam had already toured with Lollapalooza in 1992 and were now embarking on their own tour tour in which they would battle Ticketmaster in the press and in Congress over the ticketing services, monopolistic practices and junk fees. Some things never change. Eddie Vedder had appeared on the COVID of Time magazine as the voice of a generation. Nirvana had similarly commanded magazine covers like Rolling Stone, with Kurt Cobain sporting his now infamous handmade corporate magazines still suck t shirt. Nirvana had headlined England's reading festival in 1992, launched their own arena tour in 93 and were rumored to be in negotiations to headline the 1994 Lollapalooza. In late 93 they taped an acclaimed live performance on MTV's Unplugged in which Cobain creatively reimagined his his compositions, including Nirvana's early 94 modern rock chart topper All Apologies. Kurt Cobain was not handling fame well. He was suffering from chronic stomach pain, self medicating with heroin and other narcotics, and was disaffected by the massive aggressive audience who were now consuming his band's music. His bandmates, managers and loved ones were worried as he cycled downward in Rome In March of 94, his wife Courtney Loved found Cobain unconscious in a hotel room from a combination of prescription medication and alcohol the rest of Nirvana's tour was canceled. And then in April, I'm Kurt Loder.
- [64:11]
Kurt Loder
With an MTV News special report on a very sad day. Kurt Cobain, the leader of one of Iraq's most gifted and promising bands. Nirvana is dead and this is the story as we know it so far. Cobain's body was found in a house in Seattle on Friday morning. He was dead of an apparently self inflicted shotgun blast to the head. Police found what is said to be a suicide note at the scene, but have not yet divulged its contents.
- [64:32]
Chris Melanfi
Much has been written about the death of Kurt Cobain as a generational event. Certainly most of my fellow Gen Xers remember where we were when we heard Cobain's body had been found on April 8, 8th, 1994. We regarded it as the passing of an icon, but coming as it did right in the middle of the 90s, it also served as a cultural marker, a before and after dividing line. The rise of grunge had been surprising, organic, ironic. But knowing the post grunge era that followed, Cobain's passing would be frothier, more commodified, often more cynical, and yet also full of unexpected twists. With Nirvana, Cobain had sung sardonically, even ruefully, about how teenage angst had made him a star.
- [65:40]
Song Lyrics
I'm.
- [65:44]
Chris Melanfi
The truth was, Kurt hadn't seen anything yet. He thought teenage angst had paid off well. The wackiest moments of alternative rock's rise were yet to come. When we come back, a new wave of post Nirvana alt rock bands, from punk to ska to rap rock, would benefit more from the grunge explosion than the grunge bands did. How would the modern rock chart become our Bizarro Top 40? Get ready to experience alternative cultures, semi charmed life, foreign Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producers this month were Olivia Briley and Kevin Bendis. Our supervisor producer is Joel Meyer, and Slate's editor in chief is Hilary Fry. Check out Slate's roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way we'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.
- [67:51]
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