Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music Paperback – April 1, 2009

If you weren't there, read this book. If you were there, read this book. If you know somebody who was changed by the "grunge movement", read this book. If you ARE somebody who was changed by the "grunge movement", read this book. What the heck, scratch all that: If you are a human, READ THIS BOOK.As a high school science teacher, I often think back to when I was the age of my students and wonder what got me to where I am today. If I were to start with "me now" and draw lines back through all of the decisions I've made that shaped the person I've become, there'd be many branches, but most of them would begin to converge around 1992 or 1993, when "grunge" finally swept through my little nook in rural Kentucky. I don't care if that sounds superficial. I was person A before, and I was person B after. Music has the power to change people, and that particular music, whatever you want to call it (and after you read this book, you'll understand why I put quotes around grunge above, and you may even understand that while it was packaged to the rest of us as "the Seattle Sound", it was really much, much more than that) changed most people for the better. All of a sudden, it didn't matter what kind of music you liked, it didn't matter what socioeconomic group you belonged to, it didn't matter what you wore, it didn't matter if you were "different"...nothing mattered. In this rural town, this music broke down those petty barriers.I still see this today, in the classroom of a semi-diverse rural high school. Maybe I live in paradise, and it would be different if I went somewhere else, but here, people don't fight over the kinds of things kids fought about when I was growing up. Things such as: you have ugly shoes, you're a geek, you dress funny, you like rap, you're a freshman, you're gay, and on and on and on. Kids still fight, but it's over things kids will always fight about: you're hitting on my girlfriend, you made my girlfriend cheat on me with you, you called me a bad name...things like that.So while Grunge is Dead, as the author says, and as those who were a part of that scene and were interviewed said, the attitudes and ideas that it spread throughout the rest of the country seem to have survived. And that's a good thing.This book is a fascinating look at how that "movement", for better or worse (which seems to depend on whether or not you were there when it all began), came to be.

Great to read

It's a great read if you're really interested in this topic. The only cons were: I got tired of flipping to the back of the book to lookup who a person was (this info could have been part of the quotes themselves). Also, large swaths of important folks from that era weren't interviewed, yet we get interviews w/ seemingly inconsequential folks labelled as "concert goer". I would have liked to see the Love Battery folks interviewed, ditto for Seaweed, the New Rage records fellas, etc.

As a late 30-something, the whole "Grunge Era" breaking into the mainstream coincided with me breaking out from high school to college, and that music became the soundtrack of my life. GRUNGE IS DEAD really brought those songs, bands, and whole era back to life. While Greg Prato covers everything from its origins to its collapse, the real meat is the late 80s-early90s heyday when the music of the Pacific North West surged out across the land and changed the landscape of Alterntive Rock forever, the golden years before before people started dying.That's kind of the story of any scene though. It's like a great party that you never want to end, but know deep down it has to at some point if it's to become one of those mythic moments in time that people will talk about for years to come, that younger generations will envy, and wish they could have been a part of it. The Grunge era is a Rock Myth, its participants, legends.Grunge Is Dead is an outstanding summation of a brief moment in time whem music did change the world.

I think that it is the best "grunge"-related book that you could find. No invention, no guesswork, - only the words of people who really know what they talk about. Absolutely authentic - you just feel it. It took me one night to read it to the end - I couldn't help to stop and to go to bed :)I love the fact that there is a lot of information not only about "the big four" (Alice In Chains, Nirvana, PJ, Soundgarden), but also about less, as to say, "commercially successfull" bands, and also about the bands which gave inspiration to so called "grunge".There are a lot of music, and there are personal stories of people you are interested in, too. Sad ones and absolutely hilarious ones.I want to mention that people who like Layne Staley, should read this book - you will find the story of one of the best rock singers ever, respectfully and frankly told and collected.Buy it, you won't regret.

Not only does Greg Prato give you the late 80s and 90s era of Seattle, he goes waaaayyyyy back to the roots of it all in the 50s and 60s. I was totally amazed at how much content he was able to squeeze from prior periods and recent events as well.The only thing you have to adjust to is this is a series of quotes and answers from the people that lived it without a lot of narrative from Greg to guide you. Its not the author telling you what happened its the actually artists and people involved...in short quotes or answers. Its hard to get use to at first but then you get used to it and can get through the book quickly and understand why Greg did it this way.I really enjoyed this book and pretty much anything Greg Prato writes. He did an outstanding book on Blind Melon you should read as well.

Enjoyed reading the book. Learned about a lot of band that I wasn't aware of before. But be forewarned that this book is just full of quotes from band members and fans that followed the bands from the beginning. If this isn't your thing find another book.

I thought this book did a great job at telling the story. I really dug the oral history style. A little disapointed with lack of some peoples info but overall good stuff. There is so much to that scene that I never knew that the book shows and its told from the people who were part of it. The author even wrote back to my email to answer some questions and comments.