Post-grunge

Post-Grunge
Stylistic origins	Grunge Alternative rock Hard rock Pop rock
Cultural origins	Early-1990s, Florida, Ontario, Southern California, Seattle, Georgia
Typical instruments	Electric guitar - Bass guitar - Drum kit - Vocals
Regional scenes
Central Florida, Chicago, California, British Columbia, Upper Midwest, Pacific Northwest, Southeast Texas, Southern Ontario
Other topics
Post-grunge bands

Post-grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged in the early 1990s as a derivative of grunge music. Generally, bands labeled as such are rock bands that are influenced by grunge. Their music may often incorporate the distorted guitar, angst-filled lyrics and "loud-quiet" dynamics of grunge, but produce it in a radio-friendly and commercial way.

While there are exceptions, many post-grunge groups do not explicitly refer to grunge bands as influences. Rather, they often cite as influences those bands that influenced the development of grunge itself, such as The Melvins and early hard rock acts such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. However those bands show less of a relation to these "influences" making them more of idols than the true influences they were for grunge bands of the early '90s.

The first huge "post grunge" albums were Sixteen Stone by British band Bush and Live's Throwing Copper. The albums are built mainly around hit singles and filler, a departure from the day's grunge artists Nirvana and Pearl Jam whose works was more album-oriented. Bands such as Everclear, Collective Soul, Silverchair and Candlebox were soon to follow.

By 1994 "post grunge", along with alternative rock in general, had overtaken grunge as the main rock format in America, while in Britain, Brit-pop (Britain's alternative rock scene) was becoming massively popular. However by the end of the millennium, with disappointing follow ups by most "post grunge" artists, few bands survived. Those that did were the bands that evolved, most notably Dave Grohl's post-Nirvana outfit, Foo Fighters, whose first two albums fit in with the rest of the "post grunge" pack. At the turn of the millennium the band shifted in style to more melodic, classic rock like songs. Notable exceptions (ie: bands which continued to be successful and were part of the first wave of Post Grunge bands) are Bush and Live. Today there are a number of post '90s bands still thriving commercially in this genre, most notably Nickelback, Three Days Grace, Puddle of Mudd, Seether, and 3 Doors Down, all of which currently have albums on the Billboard 200 chart.

Criticism

Post-grunge is often characterized as being less "dirty" and having a more mainstream sound than grunge. Some believe that the entire subgenre was actually created by music label executives as a way to repackage grunge as pop music and market it to mainstream audiences. This directly contrasts with the original "anti-corporate rock" ethic that had spawned grunge music during the late 80s. Thus, many grunge fans revile post-grunge and denounce these bands as sellouts. Many traditional rock fans also criticize post-grunge as they claimed it "killed" rock music, almost in the same way as many hip hop fans claim snap music and crunk "killed hip hop".

Traditional fans of the genre may criticize post-grunge as being derivative music that merely copies the influences of older bands, rather than creating genuinely new musical ideas. While there are exceptions, many post-grunge groups do not explicitly refer to grunge bands as influences. Rather, they often cite as influences those bands that influenced the development of grunge itself, such as The Melvins and early hard rock acts such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. However those bands show less of a relation to these "influences" making them more of idols than the true influences they were for grunge bands of the early 90's.

See also

• List of post-grunge bands