The Bridge Digital newspapers Croatian edition 1990s | Page 34

P: - Well, what I can say are the things that my mom and uncles have told me
about how they lived grunge. In all the ways: ideological, artistic, etc. Directly
from their point of view, as I have said. From what I know, grunge wasn’t just
a few bands that liked distorted guitars, guttural vocal melodies or strong
batteries. Grunge was a way of thinking, of living, that had a meaning for an
entire generation of young people. It generated a great mass movement for
young people, who adopted the position of being against a consumerist society.
They didn’t have an interest in their personal image their interest was more
imposed by the thought and the ideologies that reject and ignore the physical
aspect that broke with the daily life of the society. My mom says that most of
the people her age were conformist and rebellious, that they rejected their
daily routine, and in general they showed disdain and lack of interest in society,
basically that is what grunge is based on. Grunge created a whole generation
of anticapitalistic and anticonsumerist adolescents.
I: - And about the grunge look?
P: - From what my uncles have told me, everyone their age – basically young
people – started to wear ripped jeans, XXL plaid shirts, disheveled hair …they
basically looked like a mess, just as Kurt usually dresses.
I: - Now that you mention it… Why do you think that Kurt, or Nirvana, became
so important for that generation?
P: - Cobain became the spokesperson of that generation. He founded a
movement that would give free rein to the anger and frustration of an entire
lost generation. Maybe, until then, they had been ignored, and they had been
in the dark looking for someone who could talk to them about their most
hidden emotions; or at least, this is how the people of that generation felt it.
I: - In your opinion, why did grunge disappear?
P: - The main leaders of the grunge movement were addicted to heroin, to
drugs in general; and started to disappear, but with the supposed death of
Kurt in 1994, everything decayed. As he said in his interview with the BBC, he
had to disappear because the society that made him famous was the one he
was against to. The movement that he created was against the consumerist
society that made him famous, and that was consuming him. Luckily he’s back
and I can’t wait to see him perform! Oh my god I’m really nervous!
I: - Yeah it shows, I can tell. Has it been very hard for you to get here?