Grunge
A rock style that emerged from the American northwest, combining sludgy distorted guitars, dropped tunings and an unpolished production aesthetic.
Grunge rejected the technical polish of the metal and hard rock that preceded it, preferring sloppy-sounding but heavily distorted guitars, quiet and loud dynamic shifts and songs that turned on a single repeating figure. Guitarists in the style often tuned down a semitone or dropped the lowest string for a heavier low end, and used fuzz and distortion pedals into an amplifier already breaking up. The aesthetic was deliberately unrefined, which is exactly what gave it its impact.
Example: A song alternating a quiet verse with a heavily distorted chord progression in a dropped tuning is grunge.
See also
Related
- PageDistortion
- PagePower chord
- PageDrop tuning
- PageAmericana
- PageBebop
- PageBluegrass
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley