Why Post-Grunge Was So Terrible

The worst rock genre?

Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash

When it comes to music genres that get a lot of hate, post-grunge definitely seems to be one people love to hate. It doesn’t take much to understand why, after all, when Creed and Nickelback, two of the most hated bands in history, are the most popular acts in a genre, it makes sense that people would, by extension, hate post-grunge as a genre in general.

Still, in terms of hate, people really seem to hate post-grunge in a way that seems almost like a parody, as if they’re acting out a hatred just for the sake of a comedic bit or whatever. I’ve seen countless videos and posts online from people declaring post-grunge to be the worst rock genre in history. You might assume that, given the apocalyptic levels of hate people have for the post-grunge genre, it would be uniquely terrible; however, I’m not so sure.

I think examining why post-grunge is so hated is definitely worthy of a piece here, especially considering we’re long past the late 90s, where post-grunge’s popularity on mainstream radio was at its peak, and it’s still a widely hated genre. With that being said, it’s also worth discussing its predecessor, grunge, in a little detail.

Grunge wasn’t really a genre as such. People might be confused by this, but the truth is, grunge was always more of a marketing term than an actual genre of music. If you compare the bands that are lumped in with the grunge genre- Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, etc.- none of them really sound that alike. While there may be some similarities here and there, this isn’t because of any genuine shared genre, but more an aesthetic than anything else.

At the end of the day, grunge was much more of an aesthetic and a reaction to the highly polished, over-the-top antics we saw during the glam metal era of the 80s. The glam metal era was full of fantastical bands whose music was highly produced and polished, featuring grand, expensive music videos, obviously incredibly talented musicians who’d spent years honing their craft, etc. Grunge was then a much more back-to-basics, do-it-yourself kind of approach.

This isn’t to say that the musicians within the grunge movement weren’t talented or anything; they absolutely were, but they took a much more authentic approach, which was in contrast with the highly produced and polished style and sound of the glam metal era. Everything became much more raw and stripped down, shedding the excess so common in glam metal.

Not only that, but grunge also became a genre in which musicians often wrote songs about much darker, more introspective subjects. Topics such as addiction and the struggles of life were consistently covered in song lyrics in a way you seldom saw in glam metal, which often featured overtly positive or outright hedonistic subjects where everything was all about having a good time.

When post-grunge started to emerge, there were similarities, especially among some of the earliest post-grunge acts, but most of it was pretty surface-level, often borrowing the genre's most obvious characteristics while disregarding any real substance. The heavily distorted guitars were kept, as were some of the darker lyrical themes, but that's where it ended.

A lot of early post-grunge acts drew influence from other, more mainstream genres, such as hard rock and even outright pop. Not only that, but the whole production and mixing process became much more polished in an effort to make things more accessible and less raw than we saw in grunge. An album like Nirvana's In Utero was noted for being extremely raw and abrasive, something that was completely disregarded by all post-grunge acts.

The key difference here is that grunge was a reaction to the highly polished, over-the-top nature of glam metal in the 80s. Post-grunge was, in turn, a reaction to the stripped-down, do-it-yourself attitude of grunge; however, it was largely manufactured by record companies that wanted to cash in on the grunge phase, and this is at the heart of why post-grunge became so terrible and why it’s still so widely hated.

Record companies and executives were desperate to cash in on the grunge craze, which had swept the music scene in the early 90s; however, by the mid 90s, grunge was basically gone. Nirvana had broken up after Kurt Cobain’s suicide; Alice in Chains were gone by 1996, as were Soundgarden. Even Pearl Jam were in a major spat with Ticketmaster, which meant they were largely out of the picture, and, as a result, companies needed acts to cash in on the rapidly slipping grunge craze.

Post-grunge acts started popping up all over the place by the late 90s, and you can clearly tell when you listen to a lot of these acts how blatantly manufactured they were. It became a joke during this time to point out how many bands were blatantly copying Eddie Vedder’s singing style to cash in on the popularity of grunge and Pearl Jam specifically. Creed are perhaps the most blatant example of this. Scott Stapp blatantly copied Vedder’s singing voice to such an extent that it was obvious that this was what he was doing rather than singing with his own “real” voice.

This blatant copying of some of the most surface-level aspects of grunge, or of certain acts, became a major point of criticism of the genre. The whole point of grunge was that it was a reaction to the excesses of the glam metal era, favouring a much more authentic sound and aesthetic, rather than the over-produced, manufactured sound and image we saw in other genres.

Post-grunge acts, or certainly the record companies and executives behind them, didn’t grasp this; instead, they tried to manufacture the grunge sound, but in doing so, they copied only the most surface-level aspects of the genre, ignoring the broader substance that made it popular in the first place. As a result, post-grunge became the very manufactured, overly-produced thing grunge was originally a reaction to.

Because of all of this, many post-grunge acts failed to garner significant critical acclaim, and many became outright hated, a trend that applied to the genre in general. So many bands from the post-grunge era and their music were frankly terrible because, as I explained, they took some of the more surface-level characteristics of grunge while disregarding the substance that made grunge appealing in the first place.

As a result, post-grunge became a hotbed for generic acts who were desperately trying to copy the grunge craze that came before them, but because it was so manufactured and so blatantly a product of corporate music culture and executives, it inevitably failed. So many of these bands were just creations of their record labels, executives, or even, in some cases, just the band themselves trying to copy their grunge forbearers.

I’ve actually seen people refer to post-grunge as AI music before AI existed, and that’s honestly a perfect way to describe it. You had a genre in grunge which had massive appeal, and then you had people, mostly corporate record labels and posers, trying to emulate that and copying grunge in the most blatant ways, inevitably failing in the process. What you were left with was a bunch of bands who tried to do what grunge did, but simply terribly because there was no genuine talent or authenticity behind it. This is closely parallel to much of the AI music today.

Now, to be fair, there were some good things to come out of the post-grunge scene. A band like Candlebox is unfairly maligned and characterised as post-grunge despite being from Seattle and having a lot of cred in the Seattle scene. The lead singer of Candlebox, Kevin Martin, actually knew Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone, and Candlebox would regularly rehearse at Mother Love Bone’s old place. As a result, I think a lot of the hatred directed at Candlebox is unfair, and even setting that aside, their first album is genuinely solid, with some great tracks.

Setting them aside, a band like Fuel, with their album Sunburn, and in particular, the song “Shimmer” is fantastic. Hell, even a band like Nickelback has some really great material in their discography. Songs like “Fly,” “Leader of Men,” “Too Bad,” “Never Again,” and many more are all really good songs. There are absolutely some real diamonds in the post-grunge genre, but they’re few and far between for the reasons I’ve explained.