‘’Loser’’ – The Hero Of The 1990s
Grunge`s influence on European rock music, Schubert, Adorno & Hindemith, melancholic dissonance and is Grunge the most ‘’rewarding art of all’’?
‘’The inhumanity of art must triumph over the inhumanity of the world for the sake of the humane. Works of art attempt to solve the riddles designed by the world to devour man. The world is a sphynx, the artist is blinded Oedipus, and it is works of art of the type resembling his wise answer which plunged the sphynx into the abyss’’ -Theodor W. Adorno.
The early 1990s can be characterised as a depressive period when considering the stylistic and thematic elements within Seattle musicians and their work. This is something we discussed previously in Every Single Sound Speaks In The Plural: West Coast hardcore punk and grunge.
Even more anomalous is the fact that such pessimistic music had become the mainstream in the United States. Daniel Grassian argues that in the ‘’1990s, the media and popular culture exaggerated our natural inclinations towards narcissism and self-indulgence. Furthermore, the atmosphere of political correctness caused individuals to repress their own narcissistic tendencies’’(Grassian, 2003, p.35). This suggests that such pessimism was exaggerated, aestheticized, and fetishized, therefore minimising the importance and characterisation of it for Generation X. The mainstream had embodied and appropriated the underground energy for the first time, therefore, it's worth highlighting the meaning behind such pessimism; whether exaggerated or underplayed, it is significant for the decade.
While 1980s US rock musicians (not only from the underground format) were conscious of their art, mainstream bands such as KISS or Aerosmith conveyed traditional, theatrical 1980s ‘hair metal’ aesthetics and ideology (the ‘sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll’ cliché), an aesthetic and ideology that grunge aimed to dismantle. Krist Novoselic from Nirvana explains that:
‘’the old guard of big-hair bands touted a macho swagger packaged in a soft feminine look. Grunge was its symmetrical opposite. It broke through with sensitive introspection wrapped in aggression and facial hair’’ (Novoselic, 2004, p.22).
Whilst the forefathers of the alternative genre such as The Replacements and Hüsker Dü conveyed anti-hair metal and an anti-misogynistic mentality, they had not received the wide recognition of Nirvana. The movement from Seattle was given greater exposure for the American audiences than the Minneapolis alternative scene of the 1980s. Even more notable is the observation that Nirvana was the last “biggest band in the world’’ (Burnett III, 2013), as Zaron Burnett III explains, suggesting that no other band had received (or will receive) such acclaim in the contemporary.
The performance and aesthetic visions of Nirvana became a trend; sought after and accepted by mainstream audiences. Not only American mainstream audiences, but also musicians and audiences in Europe. Despite the fact that Europe was recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Nirvana expressed an aesthetic, musical and ideological vision which was more appealing than any other European or post-Soviet band. This can be identified in bands such as HIM from Finland, Mando Diao from Sweden or Dzelzs Vilks from Latvia, who have all discussed the importance of Seattle musicians on their art.
Check out this interview with Dzelzs Vilks frontman Juris Kaukulis - all about grunge and it`s influence in Latvia.
Likewise, Mando Diao covered Nirvana's song ‘’Come as You Are’’ (1991) and wrote their song ‘’Down in the Past’’(2004) to be: ‘’as easy like ‘Come as You Are’ or like a Nirvana song’’ (Rock Antenne, 2017, Mando Diao - Down In The Past - School of Rock). Their ‘’Song for Aberdeen’’(2007) suggests Kurt Cobain's hometown Aberdeen, Seattle with lyrics such as ‘’rainy days’’(Dixgård and Norén, 2007) referencing the rainy climate of Seattle. The song narrates the story of romanticism of a troubling relationship:
‘’She was an alcoholic artist,
With too much makeup round her eyes’’
(Dixgård and Norén, 2007)
The lyrics are depressive throughout yet create a romanticised and poetic atmosphere. More precisely, they romanticise the alcoholic artist in a way similar to the 1990s heroin chic-culture associated with the grunge scene indicating how fashionable and fetishized, in the US and in Europe, such an aesthetic had become within the grunge scene in the media.The fact that grunge figures like Kurt Cobain (suffering from drug abuse and depression) had become idolised in the mainstream outlets, demonstrates how desensitised Generation X had become when compared to their parent’s generation. The issue of drug abuse was glamorised through fashion houses who capitalised on the Heroin Chic aesthetic. Evident in Perry Ellis and Marc Jacobs’ collection of 1993. This is evident in grunge makeup trends such as the accenting of under-eyes to give the impression of lack of sleep and the celebration of ultra-thin body shapes and their references to heroin addiction. Popular and cult models such as Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Tyra Banks further encouraged the aesthetic as fashionable and acceptable.
Unlike hardcore punk, grunge did not promote a straightedge lifestyle. It did the opposite. Musicians such as Layne Staley, Chris Cornell, Andrew Wood, Mark Lanegan, Mike Starr, Kristen Pfaff, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain and Mike McCready all battled heroin and alcohol abuse. Staley, Wood, Starr and Pfaff died from heroin overdoses. Cornell and Cobain committed suicide thirty years apart. A United States Senate hearing before District of Columbia Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1990 reports that in Seattle, ‘’deaths involving speed balling of heroin or other opiates and cocaine have increased from 6 percent of drug related deaths in 1985 to 23 percent for the first quarter of 1988’’ (District of Columbia Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1990, 1989, p.155). NBC news reports stated that, by the late 1990s, Seattle had one of the highest heroin related death rates despite the ‘’$40 billion spent each year to combat illicit drugs’’ (Huus, 2001). Furthermore, in 1994 ‘’heroin-related deaths per 100`000 people in Seattle nearly doubled, hitting a total of 144 in 1998. The number of heroin addicts in the city rose to between 15’000 and 20’000…Seattle earned the dubious distinction of heroin capital of the United States’’ (Huus, 2001). When considering Seattle and the recession of 1981-1982, the rise of heroin popularity is partly attributed to the recession leaving a significant mark on Seattle. The unstable and sparse economic status was the catalyst for the depressive themes associated with grunge music.
‘’Well, its guys like me who get somewhere
Because everybody pity a fool’’
(Dixgård and Norén, 2007)
Other lyrics from the song address the 'fool' label, significant as the Seattle record label Sub Pop had celebrated the 'loser' mentality. Bands and artists in the 1990s released songs with titles such as ‘’Loser’’ (1994) by Beck, ‘’Freak Scene’’(1988) by Dinosaur Jr, ‘’Freak’’(1997) by Silverchair, ‘’Creep’’ (1992) by Radiohead, ‘’Creep’’(1992) by Stone Temple Pilots, ‘’Freak On A Leash’’(1998) by Korn, and ‘’Dumb’’(1993) by Nirvana. All of these songs originated from different regions, labels, and scenes and all indicated self-deprecation and a dose of insecurity, a lack of optimism or even self-worth.
Ronald Reagan highlighted the importance of being cool through his favouritism of preppy culture in the 1980s [in case you missed it, read and click HERE or HERE], stigmatising and encouraging the loser label to apply to anyone not following prepdom. The 1980s hardcore punk scene took on a macho element, advertising it as cool and contributing to rivalries in the scene, as discussed in one of the last posts. Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were marginalised in the hardcore punk community as they took the opposite route. Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould was openly gay and not afraid to criticise the hardcore punk community. The Replacements song ‘’Androgynous’’ (1984) was performed by Miley Cyrus, Joan Jett and Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!) for Happy Hippie Foundation which supported homeless LGBT youth in 2018. The Replacements were not afraid to make fun of themselves and frontman Paul Westerberg revealed that:
‘’If we would be in a different life we'd still be sort of like the outcast that didn't really fit into the mainstream…I guess everything comes in cycles, we don't use machines, we are not pretty, we are real’’ (Doug Doug, 2016).
The band, for example, sat with shaved off eyebrows for The Cutting Edge Interview in 1987. However, with grunge this sort of styling really came into fruition. Kurt Danielson from grunge band Tad noted ‘’the loser is the existential hero of the 90s’’ (Lasky, 2001, p.19). With this noted, 1990s celebrations of the loser label mark a façade in social groups, social constructs, and society, as once someone deemed as a loser in the 1980s (failure, unfashionable) became newly desirable.
Joe S. Harrington criticises the 1990s generation, explaining that ‘’literacy rate was declining in schools across America’’(Harrington, 2002,p.523). The youth was not disciplined but passed as ‘’pre chewed mush through a garbage disposal’’(Harrington, 2002,p.523). The generation described by Harrington contrasts high status preppy culture and fits the characterisations of a paradigmatic loser. Also, the declining literacy rate is stereotypically associated with the working class-lower classes. This suggests that, in the 1990s, not only did grunge aesthetically celebrate the working class by wearing clothing symbolic of such a class but also ideologically through the loser label (as the music suggests).
This becomes evident through the rise of idolised figures such as Kurt Cobain, who had not come from an educated background and faced heroin addiction. He achieved financial success, respect, and acclaim without following a established etiquette. He did not hold a music education but received musical acclaim. Cobain became the working-class hero. Instantly, he was relatable and inspirational for working class audiences as everyone could potentially achieve his success as it was not restricted by financial or educational privileges.This leads to the question of why audiences in different social classes of the United States found enjoyment in Nirvana and, more importantly, melancholic works?
One of the conclusions, whether it's The Replacements ‘’The Ledge’’(1987) or Soundgarden’s ‘’Blow Up the Outside’’(1996), is that the aesthetics, performance and presentation of the work, even if the moral of the lyrics appears pessimistic, results in the listening experience to become more emotional than productions with positive messages and optimistic visuals. The fashionable performance or aesthetic presentation make melancholic works more emotionally dynamic, similar to the filmmaking technique of soundtrack dissonance. Such technique highlights the use of musical compositions that juxtapose the visual image or sentiment of the scene. This is often seen in Hollywood productions. For example, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) in American Psycho (2000) in the infamous axe scene addresses the song ‘’Hip to be square’’ (1986) by Huey Lewis and The News and explains that: ‘’[the] song’s so catchy. Most people probably don't listen to the lyrics, but they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trend it's also a personal statement about the band itself ‘’ (American Psycho, 2000).
As the upbeat tempo of the song makes the scene light-hearted, Patrick murders a person with an axe. The contrast of the music and visuals make such a scene more disturbing thus generating a greater emotional response. Such dissonance fetishizes and undermines the moral wrong, making the consequences of such action non-existent and less significant for the spectator. They are able for a second to look at the murdering scene without experiencing only negative emotions as the contrasts make the scene humorous. Ultimately, dissonance is important and one of the most effective techniques. It provides the listener and spectator a wide emotional range which one-sided optimism or pessimism cannot achieve. In 1967, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz observed that:
‘’great composers often mix dissonance with harmonious chords to stimulate the hearer and to sting him, as it were, so that he becomes concerned about the outcome and it all the most pleased when everything is restored to order’’ (Anderson and Blayer, 2005, p.139).
It is worth highlighting the importance to 'sting' the listener with dissonance as this provokes emotions that in harmonious works would not be experienced as the pleasure from dissonance and the return to order would be lacking thus providing another layer of an emotional experience. The listener is able to experience a variety of emotions when such dissonance is used, however, when it comes to negative emotions, the emotional response is greater. Emery Schubert (2007) explains that ‘’most subjects in his study experienced reactions of greater emotional strength when listening to pieces expressing negative emotions than to other types of music, and that strength of the emotion elicited was a key factor in participants' liking for a piece of music’’ (Garrido, 2016, p.36). Music can be considered as an anxiolytic, which allows subjects to regulate their emotional states. Such influence naturally influences the subjects' actions and decision making. Schubert`s work suggests that melancholic works are perceived as the most rewarding for the listener, and Jared Levinson expresses that such art is the most ‘’rewarding art of all’’ (Garrido, 2016, p.36).However, when considering the desire for the subject to listen to melancholic music, Paul Hindemith's work argues against the idea that music evokes new emotions.
Rather than ‘’musical passages evoke in the listener merely memories or images of emotions that the listener has experienced in the past…listening to music becomes an occasion for a selective tour of one's gallery of emotional remembrances, with some sonata or symphony functioning as guide’’ (Robinson, 1997, p.219).
Ultimately, subjects utilise music in order to revisit past experiences. As he does not believe in the effectiveness of music to create new or foreign emotions for the listener, Robinson diminishes the effectiveness of music as just a sonic experience. However, in such a theory, Generation X and its spokesman Kurt Cobain indicate an even more troubled and complex generation indicating that the traumatic and dramatic themes expressed by Seattle musicians are memories of the 1990s American mainstream audience and the selective tour of their gallery of emotional remembrances.
If Hindemith's theory is used to justify the popularity of the Seattle scene's music, through his evaluation the mainstream listeners (predominantly Generation X) sought to revisit their gallery of emotional remembrances. The mainstream popularity of the grunge scene, suggestive of troubled upbringings throughout Generation X, reflects psychological rumination which causes distress. Ultimately, Hindemith argues that music evokes only previous memories in the listener. He suggests that all music always resembles previous musical works. As such, raising the question of what the listener experiences when listening to unheard works for the first time, especially if the genre has not been known before to the listener. If music evokes merely memories or images of emotions, nothing can be new to the listener.
The listener finds similarities in new music from previously heard music (sound wise or lyrically) and generates the same emotions. Therefore, if music evokes memories, it is relying on individualistic experiences of the listener which may differ between each listener. As such, this questions if music really speaks in plural form, like Theodor W. Adorno suggests. Also, if music does not evoke new emotions, from where do children generate their emotions from and what do they experience emotionally when first exposed to music? Whilst Schubert's, Adorno's and Hindemith's ideas contrast with each other, if all are used for social analysis of the 1990s scene and Generation X, they indicate that the popular music of the 1990s reflects the emotional wellbeing of society. In this case, from Schubert's theory, the 1990s listeners desired emotional strength.
