(Credits: Zildijan)
Wed 1 October 2025 14:00, UK
When Bono was talking about grunge music, he spoke of the 1990s as if it was representative of a new era of punk rock.
“It’s important to remember that at that very moment in the early ’90s, there were a lot of people making kind of a new punk-rock music in short pants and plaid shirts,” he said, “The grunge movement was just getting off the ground. Nirvana had just released ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Pearl Jam were coming through with Ten [1991]. Primal Scream had done something similar with Screamadelica [1991].”
While Bono’s comments come from a good place, and he’s referring to the fact that grunge music pierced the mainstream but was originally an alternative genre, the truth is, there is a massive difference between grunge and punk. Sure, punk was an incredibly necessary genre, and it gave voice to people who previously couldn’t speak up for themselves, but it was a lot more one-dimensional.
When you listen to bands like Sex Pistols and The Clash, there is no escaping that they were able to tap into something within the public consciousness that generally leaned towards anger and frustration. Societal imbalances were often addressed with punk, and while it made for an exciting listen, the genre didn’t extend outside of these parameters.
Grunge, on the other hand, had range and could still certainly be used in a bid to deliver a political message, as we saw frequently with bands such as Nirvana. Kurt Cobain’s controversial ‘Rape Me’ took aim at sexual assaults with an unforgiving confrontation of the crime and anyone who would consider committing it.
“It’s about a young girl who was abducted, the guy drove her around in his van. Tortured her. Raped her,” explained Krist Novoselic when discussing the song, “The only chance she had of getting away was to come on to him and persuade him to untie her. That’s what she did, and she got away. Can you imagine how much strength that took?”
Different tracks are brought up for different reasons, because the genre isn’t one-dimensional, and therefore, the bands who make it aren’t either. Some Pearl Jam songs were political, but others were a lot more heartfelt and emotional, and the band have managed great longevity by injecting versatility, both in terms of being unafraid of tense lyrical topics and iconic instrumentation.
When discussing their music, Matt Cameron recalled hearing their classic track ‘Even Flow’ for the first time. Despite the fact that he has played that song more times than he can count, he still recalls hearing it for the first time, and attests that it’s their classic cut in every structural way, believing the public is right in their admiration of this track.
“When I was in Soundgarden and we were making Badmotorfinger, Eddie brought up the mixes to Ten and I distinctly remember hearing the chorus for ‘Even Flow’ and thinking that’s HUGE,” he said, “So hooky, it’s got a really rad Zeppelin huge rock feel to it. Although we’ve played it a couple of thousand times since I’ve been in the group, I think that’s the quintessential Pearl Jam song. Even though it gets played out, the nuts and bolts of that song are just amazing.”
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