Earlier this week, Mark Lanegan died and I was surprisingly upset about his death. I wasn't the biggest Screaming Trees fan, but Nearly Lost you was one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
The Screaming Tree were right on the cusp of making it big when the grunge wave ebbed and the Trees imploded. If I made up a top 10 list of Grunge singers, I would have put Mark Lanegan on that list.
But that's not the point of my story. So using the experts at Loudwire, I will expound on what I'm getting at. According to Loudwire, these are the Top 10 Grunge Icons, with my commentary following:
10. Mark Arm - My kid informed me, just yesterday, that the lead singer of Mudhoney is awesome and is still making great music. I will take him at his word. Arm is certainly not moving the cultural needle in 2022.
9. Andrew Wood - Dead
8. Jerry Cantrell - Still making great music with Alice in Chains.
7. Courtney Love - Dead (Inside)
6. Mark Lanegan - Dead
5. Scott Weiland - Dead
4. Eddie Vedder - Alive and prolific.
3. Kurt Cobain - Dead
2. Chris Cornell - Dead
1. Layne Staley -Dead
At its core, Grunge is simply rock and roll, just muddier. Grunge icons should be carrying the torch to the next generations and they ain't carrying shit because they're dead.
It seems like classic rock geezers are still touring into their 70's. Here's a headline from just this week: Paul McCartney Oldest to Ever Host Glastonbury
New media platforms that didn't even exist in the year 2000 are still touting the greats of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Classic Rock stations, who have played every song in the Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd catalog, should have been transitioning some grunge songs into their playlists to ensure their survival. Instead, they are going to play Eagles hits until they are forced to change formats.
Editor's Note: Slightly off topic, folk rock fossils are asking Spotify to take their music off of their platform. They should be begging Spotify to keep their irrelevant music on their platform.
Who would've thought the viral sensation of the Pandemic would be a member of King Crimson, for god's sake?
No one really talks of the lost generation of rockers due to opioids:
One theory on why rock is nearly dead today is because rock has turned into jazz.
Grunge didn't kill rock due to its content, but due to a gaping hole left in the late 90's and 00's in the terms of top tier talent.