Nirvana was an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. It was founded by lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting and best-known being Dave Grohl, who joined in 1990. Though the band dissolved in 1994 after the death of Cobain, their music maintains a popular following and continues to influence modern rock and roll culture.
Grunge is a rock music genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed Northwestern punk rock shrewdly and the media was encouraged to describe it as "grunge", which came to mean a punk and metal hybrid style of music. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals.
Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
Stormtroopers of Death were an American crossover thrash band formed in New York City in 1985. They are credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal into a style sometimes referred to as crossover thrash. The band is also known for reuniting Anthrax members Scott Ian (guitars) and Charlie Benante (drums) with their former bassist Dan Lilker. Their instrumental song "March of the SOD" from their 1985 debut album, Speak English or Die, was the Headbanger's Ball intro anthem for many years. Another song from the same album, "Chromatic Death", was also used during the show as a segue between ads and videos.
Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His first band, in Amherst, Massachusetts, was Deep Wound. Barlow was born in Dayton, Ohio and raised in Jackson, Michigan and Westfield, Massachusetts.
Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist and played drums and guitar on other projects. His most recent solo album, Elastic Days, was released in November 2018. He was ranked number 86 in a Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists", and number 5 in a similar list for Spin magazine in 2012.
Tad was an American grunge band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1988 by Tad Doyle. Among the first of the many bands that came out of Seattle in the grunge era, Tad was notable for the fact that its music was inspired far more by 1970s metal than the punk that influenced many other grunge bands.
Deep Wound was an American hardcore punk band formed in 1982 in Westfield, Massachusetts. They released one self-titled 7" and contributed two songs to the compilation LP, Bands That Could Be God, both of which are sought after by fans and record collectors alike. The band influenced the Massachusetts hardcore scene and the development of grindcore.
Sodom is a German thrash metal band from Gelsenkirchen, formed in 1981. They have gone through many line-up changes, leaving bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper as the only constant member. The band is currently composed of Angelripper, guitarists Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik and Yorck Segatz, and drummer Stefan "Husky" Hüskens. Along with Kreator, Destruction and Tankard, Sodom has been referred to as one of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal. While three of those bands created a sound that would influence death metal and black metal, Sodom's early music style would greatly influence many late 1980s and early 1990s black metal bands more than others.
Crowbar is an American sludge metal band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1990. Through infusing a slow, low-keyed, brooding doom metal sound with the aggression of hardcore punk, they pioneered a style known as sludge metal alongside other bands of the New Orleans heavy metal scene such as Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Acid Bath, and Down.
Headbangers Ball was a music television program consisting of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV, MTV2, MTV Australia, MTV Rocks, MTV Adria, MTV Brand New, MTV Portugal, MTV Finland, MTV Arabia, MTV Norway, MTV Sweden, MTV Denmark, MTV Greece, MTV Türkiye, MTV Israel, MTV Hungary and MTV Japan. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal and hard rock music videos late at night, from both well-known and more obscure artists. The show offered a stark contrast to Top 40 music videos shown during the day.
The U.K. Subs are an English punk band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the first street punk bands.
Buffalo Tom is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer.
Paw was an American alternative rock band from Lawrence, Kansas, that was formed in 1990. The band's original lineup consisted of vocalist Mark Hennessy, guitarist Grant Fitch, bassist Charles Bryan, and drummer Peter Fitch. They released two studio albums – Dragline and Death To Traitors, the B-side and outtake collection Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself and the EP Home Is A Strange Place before disbanding in 2000. On two occasions they have reunited.
Gruntruck is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Seattle, Washington by vocalist Ben McMillan and drummer Norman Scott, both previously from early Grunge pioneers Skin Yard. While in Skin Yard, Norman also briefly joined Soundgarden, and collaborated with Chris Cornell on a lesser-known band, the low frequency power trio Bass Truck. Lead guitarist Tommy Niemeyer from metal thrashers The Accüsed and bassist Tim Paul, previously of Portland hardcore punk band Final Warning, rounded out the initial, classic line-up. Their sound is described as grunge, and the band focuses more on the metal side of the genre.
Metal Forces is a British publication founded in 1983 which promotes the music genres heavy metal and hard rock. Metal Forces was well known for its coverage of unsigned bands through its Demolition feature and championed the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, HellsBelles, Overkill, Death and Poison long before they had secured record deals. They are credited as contributing in this fashion to the success of the band Anacrusis. Dave Reynolds, a former writer for Metal Forces, has claimed that the magazine was the first to coin the terms thrash metal and death metal. A Metal Forces compiled vinyl album, Demolition - Scream Your Brains Out!, based on the magazine's popular Demolition column, was released in 1988 through Chain Reaction Records featuring Anacrusis, Atrophy, Hobbs' Angel of Death, Aftermath and the Chris Barnes fronted Leviathan. In addition to metal acts, the magazine also featured interviews with alternative rock acts such as Nirvana.
Treat is a Swedish hard rock/heavy metal band from Stockholm. Created in 1981 by singer Robert Ernlund and guitarist Anders "Gary" Wikström, the band had national and as international success with songs like "Get You on the Run", "World of Promises", "Party All Over" and "Ready for the Taking" in the second half of the 1980s.
New Radiant Storm King was an indie rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1990. The group released nine studio albums over its 20-year existence.
Tim Aaron is an American musician, composer, and sound designer. He is a multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a guitar player, and is active in indie rock and post-punk revival through performance and the establishment of the music label, Missing Records. As a founding member of the band GobbleHoof, he played a role in the psychedelic punk grunge scene in early-1990s. He also performed extensively in other music groups, including Skunk, Model/Actress, Merrick, H.P. Zinker, and for Lisa Marie Presley. He is currently the frontman for the Los Angeles band, The Brite Sides.
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble which performs rock music, pop music or a related genre. The four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. Before the development of the electronic keyboard, the configuration was typically two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. Another common formation is a vocalist who does not play an instrument, electric guitarist, bass guitarist, and a drummer. Instrumentally, these bands can be considered as trios.
