6 Songs From the ’80s That Influenced the ’90s Grunge Revolution

By the mid-1990s, it seemed that the entire world was wearing loose-fitting plaid. Overnight, it felt like grunge music from Seattle, Washington, had taken over culture completely from head to toe. But there’s a funny thing about creative movements: they don’t actually happen in a snap. They take time.

So, while grunge music felt like it was lightning in a bottle and that people like Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, and Layne Staley had just shown up in your favorite record store like that, the reality is that it took those artists and their sound years and even generations to bubble up and subsequently boil over.

Here, I wanted to examine some of the songs that inspired and propelled the global grunge movement. A half-dozen of somewhat obscure tracks that, were it not for them, we might not have had “Black Hole Sun” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

1. Green River – “Swallow My Pride” from Come On Down (1985)

In 1985, the world was not thinking about dark, brooding, over-buzzing sludgy songs. When it came to rock, it was all about Prince or Tom Petty or even sped-up punk music. But in the upper-left corner of the United States, Green River was inventing a new sound.

It was the equivalent of neon monotony, the grey banal electrified with a car battery. As a result, something exciting and new. Fronted by Mark Arm (we’ll get to him again later), the band also included future Pearl Jam members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. And “Swallow My Pride” comes from the group’s debut release.

2. Mudhoney – “Touch Me I’m Sick” from Superfuzz Bigmuff (1988)

Did somebody say Mark Arm? When Green River disbanded, he formed a new group. Mudhoney. And in 1988, they released their debut single, the delightfully off-putting-sounding, “Touch Me I’m Sick.”

In many ways, it was a combination of Green River and Mudhoney that got any momentum for grunge music going. Those bands walked so others could run.

3. Bam Bam – “Villains (Also Wear White)” from Villains (Also Wear White) (1984)

In the early-to-mid-1980s, Tina Bell was doing things that maybe no one else around her was doing. Much more recently, the world has rediscovered the artist, who never achieved the same status as others in the grunge scene did. Some historians don’t consider her music to be grunge. While others say surely it is.

Nevertheless, those who would become big—ahem, Kurt, ahem, Cobain—knew of her and followed Bell and her band Bam Bam around to shows. She was an inspiration to those after her, a candle that burned hot before going out. And this song, “Villains (Also Wear White)” teaches that not every bad element dresses in black.

4. Melvins – “Eye Flys” from Gluey Porch Treatments (1987)

Speaking of Cobain, he was once a part-time producer on a Melvins album (before he was fired). He was a longtime fan of this group, which formed in tiny Montesano, Washington.

Fronted by the mad rock scientist Buzz Osborne, Mevlins took the idea of sludge rock and made it even thicker and muddier. As evident from the opening song on their debut release here below.

5. Skin Yard – “Reptile” from Skin Yard (1987)

There’s a reason Skin Yard helped create the grunge sound. And that’s because its guitarist was Jack Endino, who was one of the first engineers recording grunge bands for the label Sub Pop.

His quick and dirty techniques combined with his ear for heavy and hefty rock sounds is what helped to literally define the genre in its early stages. And so his excellent band Skin Yard benefited from his talents, too. Just check out the opening song from their debut self-titled album here.

6. Mother Love Bone – “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” from Shine (1989)

While there is much to celebrate when it comes to grunge music, there is also a lot to lament. For example, several of the genre’s biggest names have died way too young, from Cobain to Staley to Andrew Wood, the former frontman for the band Mother Love Bone.

Wood, who was also once roommates with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, was beloved in Seattle and his band, which also featured future Pearl Jam members, was perhaps the next big thing to come out of the city. But all that was dashed just weeks before their debut LP, Apple, was to release. Wood died of a drug overdose. But their 1989 EP Shine features standout music, which you can hear here below.