Grunge~ Can it be considered heavy metal?

Watching the clips of Metal Evolution and they ask the question, can grunge be included as part of heavy metal? What's your opinion?

It depends. Similar to hair metal, grunge isn't a really defined genre like, say, hard rock or heavy metal, but has more to do with the looks and the location from which the bands came.
So, while Soundgarden and Alice in Chains definately are metal, most of the others, like Pearl Jam (who are more in the hard rock direction) and Nirvana (alternative rock), aren't.

I agree with The Duck. To me, AIC, Soundgarden, Tad are metal. Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees aren't. I think Nirvana falls somewhere between. Songs like "Teen Spirit" are metal to me but others like "Come As You Are" aren't.

I think all the grunge bands, including Nirvana, have some elements of what is considered metal, but all of them also lack some elements.

So we need a "Grunge can be metal" button.

way too subjective for my brain

i wouldn't say metal, but definitely hard rock. both scenes ended up borrowing heavily from one another, just as metal & hardcore do. hardcore isn't metal either.

Rock yes, but metal of course not. They didnt have the right attitude, the sound, the look etc....nothing to do with metal imo. They even hated all those great heavy metal bands.

I would say yes and maybe my idea of thinking of what metal is or isn't , is too broad, but a genre that can slide in both Bon Jovi and Cannibal Corpse, have them both labeled metal, can certainly include Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and dare I say even a band such as Nirvana (which were incidentally influenced by KISS, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, along with their non metal roots) and even Screaming Trees more arty type of hard rock.

krokus wrote:

Rock yes, but metal of course not. They didnt have the right attitude, the sound, the look etc....nothing to do with metal imo. They even hated all those great heavy metal bands.

I have no idea what the right attitude is but I know from reading interviews these guys were railing what metal had become, at least became in the mainstream presses eyes, Poison, Warrant, etc

manny wrote:

I would say yes and maybe my idea of thinking of what metal is or isn't , is too broad, but a genre that can slide in both Bon Jovi and Cannibal Corpse, have them both labeled metal, can certainly include Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and dare I say even a band such as Nirvana (which were incidentally influenced by KISS, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, along with their non metal roots) and even Screaming Trees more arty type of hard rock.

i wouldn't call Bon Jovi metal either. they would be hard rock as well imo.

mc666 wrote:

manny wrote:

I would say yes and maybe my idea of thinking of what metal is or isn't , is too broad, but a genre that can slide in both Bon Jovi and Cannibal Corpse, have them both labeled metal, can certainly include Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and dare I say even a band such as Nirvana (which were incidentally influenced by KISS, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, along with their non metal roots) and even Screaming Trees more arty type of hard rock.

i wouldn't call Bon Jovi metal either. they would be hard rock as well imo.

I probably wouldn't either, hell I don't even know how they were labeled metal in the first place.

When AiC, Sound Garden, Nirvana, etc started getting popular, they were labeled and sold as metal with the label of Gunge Metal. As the Seattle scene evolved, the metal tag was dropped from grunge metal. Alice In Chains was the opener for the original Clash Of The Titans tour. It was considered Metal and some of the bands can still be considered Metal. Even Nirvana hired a metal guy as drummer.

So, I answered yes. I look forward to watching Sam Dunn's take on Grunge.

manny wrote:

mc666 wrote:

manny wrote:

I would say yes and maybe my idea of thinking of what metal is or isn't , is too broad, but a genre that can slide in both Bon Jovi and Cannibal Corpse, have them both labeled metal, can certainly include Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and dare I say even a band such as Nirvana (which were incidentally influenced by KISS, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, along with their non metal roots) and even Screaming Trees more arty type of hard rock.

i wouldn't call Bon Jovi metal either. they would be hard rock as well imo.

I probably wouldn't either, hell I don't even know how they were labeled metal in the first place.

Well, they were labeled pop metal back the day.

Its a mixed bag. I think some of the heavier bands like Alice in Chains could be called metal,but not ALL grunge bands.

I would say that certainly some grunge bands are metallic but others aren't. I found most of it to be boring for my tastes but some I really liked. AIC is definitely a metal band regardless of how they were marketed at the time. Pearl Jam definitely is not. Regardless, they all worshipped Kiss and TKO and wanted to be them as detailed in a recent issue of Classic Rock Magazine.

I would echo that its hard rock but not metal.

Witchfinder wrote:

I would say that certainly some grunge bands are metallic but others aren't. I found most of it to be boring for my tastes but some I really liked. AIC is definitely a metal band regardless of how they were marketed at the time. Pearl Jam definitely is not. Regardless, they all worshipped Kiss and TKO and wanted to be them as detailed in a recent issue of Classic Rock Magazine.

Pearl Jam is 70's metal/hard rock repackaged. They are a hard rock band.

thejokeriv wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

I would say that certainly some grunge bands are metallic but others aren't. I found most of it to be boring for my tastes but some I really liked. AIC is definitely a metal band regardless of how they were marketed at the time. Pearl Jam definitely is not. Regardless, they all worshipped Kiss and TKO and wanted to be them as detailed in a recent issue of Classic Rock Magazine.

Pearl Jam is 70's metal/hard rock repackaged. They are a hard rock band.

Across the board from a music perspective, most "grunge" is 70's regurgitated. Funny how "grunge" applies more to a geographic region than any type of style or substance.

I would say that it isn't exactly "metal" but it has elements that appeal to a metal audience.

manny wrote:

mc666 wrote:

manny wrote:

I would say yes and maybe my idea of thinking of what metal is or isn't , is too broad, but a genre that can slide in both Bon Jovi and Cannibal Corpse, have them both labeled metal, can certainly include Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and dare I say even a band such as Nirvana (which were incidentally influenced by KISS, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, along with their non metal roots) and even Screaming Trees more arty type of hard rock.

i wouldn't call Bon Jovi metal either. they would be hard rock as well imo.

I probably wouldn't either, hell I don't even know how they were labeled metal in the first place.

Bon Jovi being called metal is just wrong.

I remember being really pissed off to see the scene in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (horrible movie from what I saw of it, too, BTW) and the scene where Dylan admits to "listening to metal" and the song they listened to in the flashback was "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. Ugh! Couldn't they have got some actual metal? I know one shouldn't expect it to be something by Kreator or something, but maybe some Maiden or something that is real metal.

I've actually read stories about how people admitted they were metal fans, and got "I love Bon Jovi!" responses. There are some bands who aren't metal that I can understand why they got labeled such (some may have some metal songs, but have more songs that fall outside of the metal spectrum) but Bon Jovi never did anything even remotely close to metal.

Grunge isn't metal...but neither are most of the 80's hair bands that get lumped as being metal.

There are only two grunge bands I really like - AiC and L7 - so I'm not sure, but grunge is more closer to hard rock or maybe punk than metal. Still it was influenced by metal a lot IMO.

Like other people here, I feel Grunge is more Hard Rock, but not Metal per se, even though some of the better bands like Soundgarden and AIC had more darker and metallic elements in the earlier recordings.

As much as I am not a fan of the style, I'm am curious to see the Metal Evolution program on grunge. Seems most of the band members they interviewed, at least on the clips, thought they were metal.