I love Nirvana and was a huge fan immediately… But…I think people overestimates their reach. Me and my altern-rock friends were marginalized at our school. I’d say less than 5% of the kids at my high school were into the grunge scene. Most of them listened to Eurodance and pop, hip-hop was starting to become mainstream. People kind of knew of them because of MTV, but most started to listen when Kurt Cobain died.
You think you were in the minority? My jam in high school was Devo, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Bingo and Laurie Anderson. That kind of music wasn’t very popular in Fayetteville, Arkansas…
Yep, I remember the same. It’s the same phenomenon as beatniks and hippies. They cast a large cultural shadow because of art and media that came from the subculture, but at the time it wasn’t that many people.
Also it’s easy today to forget about the reach of radio. Radio basically dictated what was popular, and even in the 90s there were still regional radio markets that were totally independent. I remember only the rich kids had MTV.
I love Nirvana and was a huge fan immediately… But…I think people overestimates their reach. Me and my altern-rock friends were marginalized at our school. I’d say less than 5% of the kids at my high school were into the grunge scene. Most of them listened to Eurodance and pop, hip-hop was starting to become mainstream. People kind of knew of them because of MTV, but most started to listen when Kurt Cobain died.
You think you were in the minority? My jam in high school was Devo, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Bingo and Laurie Anderson. That kind of music wasn’t very popular in Fayetteville, Arkansas…
You don’t seem too familiar with the concept of minority lol.
Yep, I remember the same. It’s the same phenomenon as beatniks and hippies. They cast a large cultural shadow because of art and media that came from the subculture, but at the time it wasn’t that many people.
Also it’s easy today to forget about the reach of radio. Radio basically dictated what was popular, and even in the 90s there were still regional radio markets that were totally independent. I remember only the rich kids had MTV.
Back then in the Seattle area the radio statios KISW and especially KNDD put grunge on heavy rotation.
They still exist but they’ve all been bought out multiple times and have been a part of the same conglomerate for at least a decade.
There were great local stations that played alternative and indie rock though. Especially if you were near a medium+ sized city or college town.
Now there are a few left and you can stream them, but unless you live in about 5 markets it’s all Clearchannel (I heart radio bullshit).
I grew up near Seattle, so pretty much everyone not into boy/girl bands was into Nirvana.
We didn’t even have a dedicated radio station in the 90’s. They would happily play Alt-Rock and then straight into death metal screaming.