The movie soundtrack that helped mainstream grunge

Listen to the 'Deep Six' compilation, one of the first collections of grunge

In the '80s, "grunge" was still not a widely used term, though there was a distinct sound coming from Seattle, one that blended punk and metal. C/Z Records decided to document the emerging sound in 1985 by releasing a compilation with six of the city's cutting-edge bands, including Green River, Melvins, and Soundgarden.

The news feature that broke grunge

The Sub Pop label paid for journalist Everett True, then writing for Melody Maker, to fly to the sleepy northwestern city to check out the scene, which was breeding a curious mix of punk rock and heavy metal. The gambit worked. "The most vibrant, kicking music scene encompassed in one city for at least 10 years," Everett wrote.

The best grunge albums of the 1990s

The best way to understand the music is to immerse yourself in it. This list compiles the definitive albums from the subgenre's peak period, featuring records from the big names associated with the scene (such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden) alongside less obvious picks that released grunge-adjacent classics (including Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, and PJ Harvey).

Why Neil Young is sometimes called 'the godfather of grunge'

The legendary singer-songwriter's work with his band Crazy Horse, especially "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Ragged Glory," married infectious melodies with overpowering guitars, a formula that many grunge acts would replicate. Young would go on to perform with Pearl Jam (like in the performance of "Rockin' in the Free World" below) and record the 1995 album "Mirror Ball" with them.

Nirvana's 'Nevermind' brought punk (and grunge) to the mainstream

The Seattle band's second record, its first on a major label, went to number one four months after it was released in 1991. At one point, it was selling 300,000 copies a week. The band's lead singer, Kurt Cobain, believed in punk's countercultural aims and felt deeply conflicted about the band's success and its ties to the success of "grunge," a subgenre he felt ambivalent about.

​Why heroin became associated with the grunge world

The drug was popular with several Seattle acts in the early 1990s, with artists like Hole's Courtney Love even publicizing her use in a magazine profile. A 1992 New York Times story on Seattle said the city's principal drugs were "espresso, beer, and heroin."

Eddie Vedder's humble gas-station attendant roots

The singer was living in the San Diego area when a friend mailed him a demo tape recorded by Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard that lacked vocals. Vedder wrote lyrics for the three songs (one of which would later become the hit "Alive") and tracked his own vocals on the tape, then mailed it back to the band. Two weeks later, they invited him to move to Seattle to join the band.

Before he was Soundgarden's singer, Chris Cornell was the band's drummer

Cornell was the band's first drummer, but got out from behind the kit in 1985 so he could focus on vocals. That foundation, though, is what his bandmate Kim Thayil claimed gave Cornell his unique singing style. "Chris has an amazing way of writing melody around these odd time signatures that a lot of people have a tough time doing," he said. "It's very natural for Chris, though, because he was our original drummer, so he can think in those terms."

'Purple Rain' was a massive hit, in theaters and on radio

The semi-autobiographical film featured a first-time director and an amateur cast, yet it became a box-office hit, grossing over $70M. Likewise, the accompanying album was a huge success, with four songs reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was a watershed moment for Prince, who became a bona fide pop superstar.

Lisa Loeb was the first unsigned artist to top the Billboard chart

The singer-songwriter's single "Stay (I Missed You)" was included in the film "Reality Bites" and included on its soundtrack. Due in part to the success of the film, the song quickly raced up the Billboard Hot 100.

Whitman's words have appeared in numerous shows and movies

Whitman's poems have had significant screen time in movies like “Dead Poets Society” and television shows like “Breaking Bad.”

An indie film helped launch Basquiat's art career

Basquiat starred in “Downtown 81” as a struggling artist, which was not far from reality. In fact, the paintings that he carries throughout the film are some of his earliest works. The production gave him canvas and paint, which he used to create other paintings.

Country musicians grappled with the outlaw archetype on screen

As country grew more popular, some of its biggest stars leapt to the silver screen, with Johnny Cash in "Five Minutes to Live," Kris Kristofferson in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," and Dolly Parton in "9 to 5." Kristin Hunt notes that all of these films featured country stars toying with the outlaw archetype, a prevalent theme throughout the history of country music.

'Streets of Philadelphia' won an Academy Award in 1994

The song was written for “Philadelphia,” a 1993 film starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and narrates the emotional journey of Hanks’ character, a gay man who’s fired after his employer learns that he has AIDS. The song won the Oscar for best original song the following year.

'The Jazz Singer,' the first film with synchronized sound, changed Hollywood

Movies changed forever in 1927, when Warner Bros. released "The Jazz Singer," the first feature film with integrated dialogue. Based on a Broadway musical, the movie starred Al Jolson as the son of a Jewish cantor who wants to be a popular singer.

Broadway hit 'Stereophonic' was inspired by Fleetwood Mac

The show follows a 1970s rock band while they're in the studio, tracking a new album, and mirrors many of the internal conflicts that led to Fleetwood Mac's 1977 record, "Rumours." The play was a massive hit, earning 13 Tony nominations (the most ever for a play). It won five, including best play.

Rob Reiner fell in love while working on the romantic comedy 'When Harry Met Sally'

The director was divorced when he began shooting the movie, which was loosely based on his own experiences dating. He was introduced to his eventual wife, Michele Singer, by a cameraman on the production, who told Reiner that he and Singer would wind up married.

Every city has a song: Music writers identify one tune that represents their hometown, from Chicago to Buenos Aires

Staffers from SPIN magazine wade into the contentious waters of official anthems, making the case for their chosen track, from Chicago's "Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins to the Bobby Bare rendition of "The Streets of Baltimore."

Why so many movies are filmed in Vancouver

Vancouver, a major city in British Columbia, is a hugely popular filming location. The Canadian metropolis hosts film sets for movies based in New York City, Seattle, Kansas, and even India. Filmmakers seek out Vancouver for a number of reasons, mainly boiling down to tax breaks and the area’s diverse array of landscapes and city settings. Watch this Vox video for an in-depth breakdown of the rising interest in using Canada as a film backdrop.

Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is based on a fake graduation speech

The 1997 song, which was a chart-topping hit in Australia and appeared on the Billboard "Hot 100" in the US, is based on a fake commencement speech written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. For a time, many people erroneously believed Kurt Vonnegut gave the speech at MIT's graduation ceremony.

‘Twin Peaks’ was David Lynch’s ode to the soap opera

In the 1980s, David Lynch was primarily known as the director of art films like “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet.” But “Twin Peaks,” his primetime ABC show with writer Mark Frost, was a take on the soap opera, leaning into the genre’s tropes: stilted dialogue, affairs, missing person, and melodrama.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

A television show helped popularize sushi in the US in the 1980s

"Shogun," a miniseries released in 1980, followed a British sailor's journey through 17th-century Japan. Nearly a third of American households watched its five installments, and it was used as an instructional text in classrooms throughout the '80s, inspiring a wave of American interest in Japanese culture, including sushi.

Breaking down the music theory of Hitchcock's 'Psycho'

One of the defining features of Hitchcock’s film “Psycho” (1960) is the music, especially the sounds you hear during some particularly grisly scenes. This analysis from The Music Professor analyzes how that music complements the film, highlighting the way strings match the intensity of the film’s screenplay and black-and-white cinematography.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

'The Big Lebowski' slowly spawned a cult following—and a religion

When it was released in 1998, the Coen brothers' film didn't garner overwhelming critical praise or generate impressive ticket sales. Over time, though, it's become one of the defining cult movies, with midnight showings where audience members dress as Jeff Bridges' "Dude" and drink White Russians. It's even spawned its own religion: dudeism.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.