“What’s to explain about Grunge?”

Lately I see a question often posed by people in their 20s or early 30s: “What’s to explain about Grunge?” with an irritated tone for feeling treated as if they weren’t good enough to understand.

The point is it’s not that easy to explain what grunge represented for those who were teen-agers back in the days.

The 80’s was the quintessential hedonist decade: yuppies careerists, movies about steroid abusers fighting “the reds”, hair metal-hard rock bands celebrating money and success.

But then the magic happened.

A bunch of guys coming from Washington state dressed with ripped jeans, simple T-shirts and Converse shoes said enough with this shit, let’s talk about real people, real problems.

The “Losers” took over the “Successful ones”.

No more Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Europe and above all Gun’s N’ Roses.

Just drum, bass, guitar and distortion.

And anger expressed through art.

And us empathizing with them, feeling finally represented.

For a lustrum we were king.

That was it