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About This Quiz
It was the sound of anger and alienation, and it galvanized listeners in the late 1980s and early 90s! Now, test your knowledge of this musical subgenre with our quiz!
The grunge sound is most strongly identified with which city?
Boston
Portland
San Diego
Seattle
There's a theory that Seattle developed a distinctive sound because it was, back then, relatively cut off from the big music scenes of the United States. New York and Los Angeles were constantly getting new talent, and sending acts out into the world -- but Seattle was a world of its own before it blew up, culturally, in the 1990s.
Grunge music was considered the sound of which generation?
Baby Boomers
hippies
Generation X
Grunge music summed up the attitudes of the then-youthful Gen-Xers, expressing themes of depression and disaffectedness. (All this while living in an era of almost unparalleled peace and prosperity).
millennials
Layne Staley was the lead vocalist for which band?
Alice in Chains
Staley, like other Seattle musicians of his era, struggled with drug addiction. He died in 2002.
Screaming Trees
Skin Yard
Pearl Jam
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Which drug is most associated with the grunge scene?
cocaine
ecstasy
heroin
While grunge musicians and fans certainly drank and smoked marijuana, grunge was uniquely associated with heroin. For example, the signature look of grunge culture -- thin, unkempt, underdressed -- became known as "heroin chic."
marijuana
The cover of "Nevermind" features a naked baby swimming toward what object?
a dollar bill
A baby boy swims toward, and reaches out for, the bill. A syringe probably wouldn't have flown on a major-label release, which "Nevermind" was (Nirvana's debut album, "Bleach," was through the smaller Sub Pop label.)
a fishhook
a pearl necklace
a syringe
Mike McCready is the guitarist for which band?
U-Men
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam apparently takes its name from Eddie Vedder's grandmother Pearl. Before that, they had the name "Mookie Blaylock," after a basketball player.
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
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What seminal record label brought out many early grunge recordings?
Decca
Lazer
Unfiltered
Sub Pop
Sub Pop was founded in the mid-80s and signed acts like Nirvana and Soundgarden. Later Sub Pop acts include Flight of the Conchords and Sleater Kinney.
For which group did Matt Cameron play drums?
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
both #2 and #3
The lineups of grunge bands were often in flux. For bands to share members, replace members, or break up entirely, was a fairly common thing.
Which band was started by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl?
the Cranberries
Foo Fighters
The Foo Fighters are considered a rock band; few would classify them as old-style grunge. The name comes from a WWII term for unidentified flying objects, which in turn is taken from the French word for fire, "feux."
Smashing Pumpkins
Silverchair
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Which group boycotted Ticketmaster venues in protest of price gouging?
Alice in Chains
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam refused to play Ticketmaster venues because of excessive fees added to tickets. Other bands didn't join the boycott, and Pearl Jam found itself sidelined at minor venues for several years.
Soundgarden
What is the name of the touring festival that gave a stage to many grunge bands?
Coachella
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza carries on today. It had never been reliant on one musical genre, which is likely why it survived the demise of grunge and alternative rock in the late 1990s.
Lilith Fair
the Traveling Wilburys show
Nirvana got their start in which town?
Aberdeen, WA
Aberdeen is a coastal town on the Olympic Peninsula. A city-limits sign there reads, "Welcome to Aberdeen: Come As You Are," a homage to Kurt Cobain.
Bellevue, WA
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
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Which band was derailed by the death of its lead singer around the time of their first release?
Green River
Mother Love Bone
Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose several days before the planned release of "Apple." That CD was released months later, but the band did not continue on without Wood.
U-Men
Skin Yard
On which album would you find "Rooster" and "Them Bones"?
Alice in Chains' "Dirt"
"Dirt" was Alice in Chains' second release. The album has gone quadruple platinum.
Pearl Jam's "Ten"
Nirvana's "Bleach"
Deep Six
Which of these grunge bands is not like the others?
Hole
Hole, is different from the other three groups in that it mainly has females in its lineup, headed by Courtney Love. This isn't to say that grunge has a sexism problem -- women have been more prominent in grunge music than in genres like, for example, rap.
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Skin Yard
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Mark Arm sang for Mudhoney and what previous band?
Green River
Arm was an early fixture on the grunge scene in Seattle. He continues to make music with Mudhoney.
the Melvins
TAD
U-Men
Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was married to which musician?
Melissa Auf der Mar
Courtney Love
Love has been a controversial figure for many Nirvana fans, who see her as having been bad for Cobain's mental health. But then, Love is no stranger to controversy; she has something of a reputation for punching perceived enemies in the face.
Kat Bjelland
Kristen Pfaff
Kim Thayil played lead guitar for which band?
Alice in Chains
Malfunkshun
Soundgarden
Soundgarden reunited in early 2010, with Matt Cameron also drumming for Pearl Jam. The future of the band is in flux with the death of lead singer, Chris Cornell.
Screaming Trees
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Temple of the Dog was a tribute band formed to honor which musician?
Andrew Wood
Temple of the Dog was the brainchild of Chris Cornell. It was he who wrote the songs "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven."
Kurt Cobain
Stephanie Sargent
Layne Staley
Which band was started by Thomas Arthur Doyle?
U-Men
Dickless
Skin Yard
TAD
"TAD" never broke through to mainstream success, but is highly regarded within the music community. Doyle, who goes by the name "Tad," can be seen in grunge documentaries like 1996's "Hype!"
Krist Novoselic played which role in Nirvana?
bass guitarist
Novoselic was Nirvana's bassist. The lead vocalist, of course, was Kurt Cobain.
guitarist
drummer
lead vocalist
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Which of the following bands is LEAST likely to be classified as grunge?
the Melvins
Screaming Trees
Sleater Kinney
Sleater-Kinney, a trio of female rock musicians, is not commonly classified as grunge. However, they are from Washington state. The band takes its name from Sleater-Kinney road in Lacey, Washington.
Soundgarden
In what year did Soundgarden break up for more than a decade?
1994
1997
Soundgarden's breakup is seen by some as the death knell for grunge. Nirvana had dissolved after Cobain's death, while Pearl Jam had retreated from the spotlight. This left grunge with no A-list band in the public eye.
2001
2003
In which year did Kurt Cobain die?
1994
Grunge peaked earlier in the 1990s than many people remember. Though it didn't end with Cobain's death in 1994, Nirvana's demise and the struggles of other groups -- many of them unwilling to deal with fame and fortune -- meant the grunge scene was already in decline by the mid-1990s.
1996
1997
2001
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Which album title was inspired by a public service message about drug use?
Pearl Jam's "Ten"
Hole's "Live Through This"
Mudhoney's "Piece of Cake"
Nirvana's "Bleach"
The title was inspired by a health-services poster. In it, drug users are urged to "Bleach your works" to prevent the spread of HIV.
Before Mother Love Bone, Andrew Wood started which band?
Gas Huffer
Girl Trouble
Malfunkshun
Wood formed Malfunkshun with his brother, Kevin, in 1980. Though grunge is associated with the 1990s, many of its important figures started playing in the early 80s.
Young Fresh Fellows
The Melvins were formed in ______.
Aberdeen, WA
Portland, OR
Montesano, WA
The Melvins were another early-80s grunge band. Founding member Buzz Osborne was a friend of Kurt Cobain, and takes credit for bringing Cobain to his first punk rock concert.
Tacoma, WA
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Which band was NOT on the compilation album, Deep Six?
Green River
The Melvins
Pearl Jam
Deep Six was released in 1985 to capture the Seattle sound. The six bands on it are U-Men, Green River, Soundgarden, Skin Yard, The Melvins, and Malfunkshun.
Malfunkshun
From what city is Eddie Vedder?
Aberdeen
Bellingham
San Diego
Yup! Belying the insular, everyone's-from-Washington aesthetic, Vedder came from the San Diego area. Bassist Jeff Ament is from Montana. For a grunge band, that's extraordinarily geographically diverse.
Tacoma
Which fashion designer did a grunge-themed collection for Perry Ellis?
Helmut Lang
Marc Jacobs
Jacobs was fired because of the collection, but it turned out to be a visionary move. Grunge had a huge influence on 1990s fashion.
Stella McCartney
Gianni Versace
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Greg Gilmore was a drummer for which band?
U-Men
Malfunkshun
the Melvins
Skin Yard
Skin Yard was one of the six groups featured on 1985's Deep Six album. Gilmore also played drums for Mother Love Bone, the short-lived group fronted by Andrew Wood.
Which of these is NOT a lesser-known grunge band?
Dead Moon
Gas Huffer
Girl Trouble
they all are
There were any number of grunge-sound bands in the Pacific Northwest in the 80s and 90s, each with a name stranger than the last. There's probably a "grunge band name generator" somewhere online. If there isn't, there should be.
Who is the most likely candidate for naming grunge "grunge"?
Mark Arm of Mudhoney
It's not clear who coined the "grunge" name. But Arm has a good claim. In a letter, he called his band's sound, "...pure grunge, pure noise, pure [expletive]."
record producer Jack Endino
Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
a Rolling Stone writer
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"The Rocket" is the name of a Seattle ______.
nightclub
record label
music magazine
The Rocket is a free music magazine based in Seattle. The editorial staff once received a package containing urine and feces, anonymously, but probably from Alice in Chains's Layne Staley, after implying that the band's manager had to "wipe and change" the frontman.
recording studio
You Got:
/35
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