Nirvana – Pop Culture having another one of those “right place – right time” moments.
Leave it to the BBC to put together a radio documentary on something happening in our own backyard and give a much appreciated history lesson in the process.
This four-part documentary “Oh The Road To Nirvana” was produced in 2004 and follows the birth, flourishing and death of one of the more significant musical movements of the last half of the 20th Century.
In true BBC fashion, they are quick to point out Grunge didn’t happen overnight – in fact it took years to even make it to national attention. Instead, plodding along in various forms and incarnations ever since the late 70s when the American Pop music scene was still dominated by Arena Rock and Heavy Metal.
That musical hybrid, Grunge was the sole property of Seattle, a city that had it’s own musical heritage over the years, but as most things towards the end of the 20th century, movements were either quickly scooped up and homogenized by Mainstream Music concerns or were left to quietly die from neglect on the national level.
Much as it was true-to-form for Punk, Grunge produced a Do-It-Yourself ethic and Seattle became the place for musicians who couldn’t get arrested by the Sony’s of the world to at least have a platform.
But, as this documentary points out, things were happening all over the country, just not where you’d expect. Grunge, much as similar regional movements in New York and Boston, were quietly building fan bases in reaction to what many considered a stagnation of Pop Music in the 90s.
Even though the main focus is on the rise of Nirvana, it’s also a stepping off point for an examination of what the whole scene was going through during this time.
Two hours of total fascination – and if you missed it the first time, or weren’t even born then – have a listen and get some history to chew on.
It works – it really does.
