Twenty years ago, grunge exploded in the Pacific northwest, propelling Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others to dizzy heights of sometimes unwelcome superstardom. The following year, Q's Martin Aston profiled Seattle's Sub Pop Records and tried to make sense of it all--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages
Seattle, in the top left-hand corner of America, is famous for its once-thriving post-war aerospace industry, for its breweries and coffee, pine forests and clean air, for Jimi Hendrix - and rain. And rock'n'roll, as Bono recently announced from a Seattle stage, likes rainy cities.
Since 1989, the city has become increasingly known for scuzzy, long hair-tossing grunge'n'thrash'n'roll, with attitude on the side. Air guitars at the ready, if you please, for Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, L7, Tad and, resplendent at the pinnacle of the piney tree, the multi-platinum phenomenon that is Nirvana.
And whenever Seattle is mentioned, so is Sub Pop, the label most
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