Garbage singer Shirley Manson discussed why she doesn’t believe Garbage is or was a Grunge band in a new SFWeekly interview.
“Our producer and drummer Butch Vig was absolutely enmeshed in the most glorious version of grunge that ever existed, which was Nirvana. When he came up for air after the success of Nevermind, he had been working on a bunch of remixes for other quite successful bands like Depeche Mode and U2, and he started to utilize a lot of the technology that was beginning to emerge at that time.
He was exploring that technology, and that really defined our sound more than anything else and removed us from the whole world of grunge. I know I’ve been described as grunge, but we were post-grunge. We were anti-grunge, almost.”
She later said, “I think rock music as we knew it doesn’t really exist right now. What I mean by that is a really provocative voice and a provocative thrust. I think there’s a lot of provocation that’s come from hip-hop and rap over the last 20 years, but even that seems to be subsiding quite considerably, and nothing as yet seems to have taken up that space. Historically, it has been rock music that’s done that, but that voice has been silenced a little, mostly because it doesn’t get played on mainstream radio because it doesn’t appeal to the masses.
And, of course, everything has become about how ingestible a song can be — how many people can we get to love this song? — and it’s all based on numbers and success and money. Of course, rock music has never really been about that. It’s much more about provocation and challenging the status quo, and therefore that’s not always popular. There’s huge value in it, but I think everyone’s too scared to tie themselves to that flag, because to do so would ensure that you’d never be successful in this climate.
But that’ll change. I think that people already have a hunger again for girls who are a bit dirty and a bit challenging. I miss Courtney Love so much. I want a Courtney. It was not only fun, but it was interesting. I feel like everything’s a little homogenized right now, but the revolution is upon us again.”
