Grebo | |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Late 1980s – early 1990s, United Kingdom |
Regional scenes | |
English Midlands | |
Other topics | |
Cool Britannia |
Grebo (or grebo rock) [1] was a short-lived subculture and subgenre of alternative rock [2] that incorporated influences from punk rock, electronic dance music, hip hop and psychedelia. The scene occupied the period in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United Kingdom before the popularisation of Britpop and grunge. [3] The genre and its attributes were largely absorbed into industrial rock, which would emerge after the sub-genre's demise in the late 1980s, which then led to the development of industrial metal in the 1990s.
Derived from "greaser", [4] the word "grebo" began being used in the 1970s as a slang term for bikers with long hair. [5] [6] The word was re-fashioned by the group Pop Will Eat Itself that represented a brand of United Kingdom subculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, largely based in the English Midlands. [7] [8] [6] The scene particularly was centred on Birmingham. [9]
Influential bands in the scene were Pop Will Eat Itself (who had songs titled, "Oh Grebo I Think I Love You" [7] [10] and "Grebo Guru"), the Wonder Stuff, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, along with London band Carter USM and Leicester bands Crazyhead, the Bomb Party, the Hunters Club, Scum Pups and Gaye Bykers on Acid. [11] [12] The term has also been used to describe Jesus Jones, who enjoyed success in both the United Kingdom and the United States. [1] [13]
Although short-lived, the movement was a success and influenced several later bands. To a certain extent it was a music press invention, much like positive punk, a scene and style named by British indie magazines NME and the Melody Maker . [11] The music genre has declined rapidly since its popularity in the '90s, so the genre is only found in the underground scene.
Grebo bands drew influences from a diverse array of genres, including dance-rock, psychedelia, [14] pop, hip hop, [8] punk rock and electronica. [15] Pop Will Eat Itself adopted an industrial alternative rock style [16] that combined "heavy metal and hard rock guitar riffs, electro-dance rhythms, samples and rap vocals." [17] While Gaye Bykers on Acid's use of hip-hop and dance beats was considered as "a major innovation in mid-'80s alternative rock," [18] Ned's Atomic Dustbin focused on "the hyper punk aspect" of the movement, relying on "catchy hooks and a dual-bass sound." [19]
Grebo artists and fans sported long hair, dreadlocks and baggy shorts. [9] [14]
The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of music, ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom, and the DIY ethics, the culture originated from punk rock.
Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.
Gothic rock is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and the Cure.
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.
Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 NME compilation C86. Twee pop gets its name from the aesthetic of twee, which is known for its simplicity and childlike innocence. Some of its defining features are boy-girl harmonies, catchy melodies, and lyrics about love. For many years, prominent independent record labels associated with twee pop were Sarah Records and K Records.
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psychedelic rock", acid rock also specifically refers to a more musically intense, rawer, or heavier subgenre or sibling of psychedelic rock. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, distorted guitars and often contains lyrics with drug references and long improvised jams.
Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegaze, another noise-based genre that developed in the 1980s, drew from noise pop.
Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorporate sample-driven indie and industrial rock. Graham Crabb describes their sound as "electronic, punk, alternative hip-hop, hybrid music for fucking, fighting & smoking cigars". Their highest-charting single was the 1993 top-ten hit "Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!". After initially disbanding in 1996, and having a brief reformation in 2005, they issued their first release in more than five years in 2010.
God Fodder is the debut studio album by English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, released on 1 April 1991 by Columbia Records. After creating their own imprint following the success of several prior independent singles, the band recorded the album from December 1990 to January 1991 in London. Musically, God Fodder takes large influence from grebo, shoegaze, noise pop, and dance music, characterized by noisy guitars, complex drum beats, and its usage of two bass players, with Matt Cheslin playing regular bass lines and Alex Griffin playing harmonic bass lines. Lyrically, the album features communal efforts written by all the band.
Indie pop is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.
Are You Normal? is the second studio album by English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, released on 3 November 1992 by Columbia Records. It features the band's biggest American hit "Not Sleeping Around", which hit the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Miles Stephen Hunt is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He fronts the alternative rock band The Wonder Stuff.
Gaye Bykers on Acid (GBOA) are an English psychedelic rock band from Leicester, and one of the founder members of the grebo music scene. They later released both thrash punk and dance music albums under various aliases.
Crazyhead are an English garage punk band from Leicester, England. Though lumped in with the largely media-created grebo scene, they were more influenced by the garage rock of the late 1960s, as well as bands like the Ramones, The Stooges and Captain Beefheart. They have often described themselves as an "urban bastard blues band", and their songs range in theme from trenchant social commentary to the surreal, but always with an underlying vein of black humour.
Caligula are a band from Sydney, Australia, who produced electro rock music in the early 1990s. They released one studio album in 1994, Rubenesque, which peaked at number 13 on the ARIA album chart. Caligula toured with Depeche Mode, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Ride, and Headless Chickens. The band reformed in 2017 and started recording and releasing new material in 2021.
Brainbloodvolume is the third and final album from English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin with their original line-up. It was released in the United States on 21 March 1995 but did not appear in the United Kingdom until July of that year.
Ian Garfield Hoxley, known by his stage name Mary Byker is an English singer, record producer and DJ known for his work as the lead singer of Gaye Bykers on Acid, Pop Will Eat Itself, Pigface and Apollo 440.
Drill Your Own Hole is the debut album by British grebo and psychedelic rock band Gaye Bykers on Acid, released in 1987 on Virgin Records, becoming their first release for the label after signing to them in late 1986. After building up momentum through a couple of EPs in 1986, the band recorded Drill Your Own Hole with producer Alex Fergusson, mostly in South London. Seven of the songs on the album were also featured in an accompanying film, also called Drill Your Own Hole, that the band released alongside the album. The film was a parody of themselves and the music industry.
Ben Harding is an English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from London, best known for performing in the punk/rock bands Senseless Things, 3 Colours Red and Thee Faction. Louder Than War called him "one of the UK's finest rock guitarists."
Lumped in with the media created "Grebo" scene along with Pop Will Eat Itself, Gaye Bykers on Acid and the early Wonder Stuff, Crazyhead.../[Wonder Stuff] initially lumped in with contemporaries like Pop Will Eat Itself and Crazyhead under the music-press created 'grebo' banner/etc..
In common with Gaye Bikers on Acid (sic), Bomb Party, and Pop Will Eat Itself, [Crazyhead] were linked with the media-fuelled 'biker' or 'grebo' rock genre.