Grunge used to be my favorite genre of music. It’s something I agreed with, but nothing I tried to be. I had my eight hole Doc’s, thermal undershirts, long hair and mysterious attitude. To top it off, I was in college at the height of it all. Kurt Cobain was a big influence, along with Pearl Jam, the Seattle scene, Singles, Alice In Chains, Sound garden and Temple of The Dog. That was all me, and it fit my demeanor. I wanted to be a part of something as cool and my mystical as the grunge scene so bad. I loved the music, it was dark and cloudy all the time with that music, but I liked it. I love the rain, and the clouds are even more exciting.
I had a distant friend too, who left our hometown to go school in Oregon and become part of the scene there, learned about raves and experimented with all that grunge had to offer. He eventually ended up back home, and in rehab, back and forth from Seattle and Oregon, until we just lost touch. He opened my eyes to the idea of freedom. I still recall the time I saw him walking on campus with his headset and candy-colored outfit shouting” the disco is back, man,”
That was something I never heard much about while lost in my grunge stage. I changed into my artist stage and head for the university. Up north, or the beach I thought. It seemed picturesque, yet shadowy and dreary towards the North and I needed something different. I choose the beaches of Southern California and finished school here.
My grue phase had long since subsided and surf punk and rap metal became the guise. Until I began clubbing. Everything was recycled, I thought, dance was now and old school was eighties. And what about techno? That was just a novelty,something you hear in movies or on commercials. I was lost and confused.
A horrifying break-up drove me over the edge. I had done some reading, however, and stumbled upon an article about the island of Ibiza and how it was such a mystical underground paradise for the electronic music culture. Just the same, I stumbled upon a new station from LA called Grove Radio. Something new and inviting made me want to get out and experience the world again. But all the famous clubs were far away. London, LA,Miami, I had no contacts there. Yet, I found my fix in the middle of suburban Orange Country.
I found some places that played my music, late in the evening, even past last call. I lived for those nights, the DJ and his musical accomplices were my new focus. I wanted everything that went with that, I couldn’t get enough, I thought about all electronic music and how it related to a dance floor full of people going mad over it.
Where had all the time gone,even my sadness had subsided. My musical journey had taken a spin for the better and I always find something new within my newfound genre. I am now a DJ, an electronic musician whose aspirations stem from a love of all types of music.
In a way, grunge is still a part of me. The attitude, the style,the demeanor. Everything has just changed a little. Times are different, it has just changed a little. Times are different, It has been almost 15 years since that time and the world looks different. Yet,the world of the mystical grunge scene can never go away. In a way, it becomes an aura that travels with you and attaches itself to your lifestyle making you understand where you came from, and what you stand for. Even if the trends lead you to think that they have something new worth $200 ripped jean and already worn out duds; the grunger in me understand that these things are nothing new. They are pre-packaged fabrications of what once was a novelty of the past. So, what’s left? Suppose. Keep an open mind, and follow your feet. Absorb and transcend.
