grunge was the foundation of my youth. i was ten years old when the first pearl jam/nirvana albums came out and it just made a lot of sense to me. i was not looking at that period of time philosophically when i was 10 years old, but when you look back now, a lot of it makes sense. so many of those bands were just not prepared for widescale, massive fame, especially in such a short period of time. they were basically local bands in a very self-contained scene that suddenly were being signed to major labels with major expectations. the common thread from eddie vedder, cobain, layne and the like is that they werent really comfortable becoming rock icons overnight. some of them handled it better than others, obviously. capitalism truly sucks the life out of everything it touches.
if anyone is interested, this season of the bandsplain podcast covered grunge/early 90s bands. the host, yasi, is an acquired taste for some (i love her and the vocal fry doesnt bother me) but she does incredible deep dives on the bands. she did 6 hours on soundgarden, 4 hours on the stone temple pilots, 5 hours on alice in chains, 8 hours on pearl jam, etc. lots of really interesting stories from the late 80s/early 90s on the formation of the bands, the scene in general, etc. it was really nostalgic for me.
