By HELCIO HERBERT NETO*

The helplessness of life in Seattle ran counter to the yuppies of Wall Street. And the disillusionment was not an empty performance.

1.

Loud, disheveled and covered in flannel, grunge shook the music industry by leaving behind the danceable pop of Michael Jackson and the hours spent at the hair salon of Guns 'n Roses. Gloomy and country-style, the rock of groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden was a counterpoint to the frivolity of post-Cold War America. The desolation of life in Seattle was in direct contrast to the yuppies of Wall Street. And the disillusionment was not an empty performance.

Of the four main bands of the movement, three experienced premature deaths of their vocalists. The exception is Eddie Vedder – who still tours stadiums with Pearl Jam. If for now the commercial benefit of the movement is evident, the gloomy atmosphere surrounding those sounds in the 1990s seemed like an obstacle to the effusiveness of the market, the joy in the country with the implosion of the Soviet alternative and the euphoria of globalization.

The grunge style marks this opposition, which precedes the appropriations that would appear later. Button-down shirts were worn by prominent artists on the eve of the 21st century: they were neither linen nor cotton. The fabric, in keeping with the cold in the region where the bands originated, was flannel. This material was associated with work that was brutalized by the climate and of low value. With the explosion of the scene – especially with Nevermind, Nirvana's second album – the piece became a trend.

The image of the rush of New York market agents dressed in thick fabrics, traditionally in the wardrobe of lumberjacks, is a caricature of this displacement at that time. But the trajectory of rock and the musicians who made up the plural movement in Seattle is also illustrative: the current contracts worth millions with ticketing companies and mega-festival producers, capable of controlling music in the world, relegate the dark atmosphere to photos of the past.

2.

Brazilian coverage was quick to identify the richness of local music in the same period in the wake of Nevermind. Offshoots of rock, as intense and creative as grunge, erupted in various parts of the country – in directions that even record companies had difficulty following. Media outlets around Editora Abril took charge of following these manifestations, especially the scene that emerged in Pernambuco. It was manguebeat. Amidst countless differences, there is a tenuous similarity.

In Seattle and Recife, the bands that were inserted into their respective scenes had few similarities in sound. The distance between Nirvana and Alice in Chains is equivalent to the distance between Chico Science & Nação Zumbi and Devotos do Ódio. Perhaps this was an offshoot of the fragmentation that was emerging with new technologies of communication and music production. It is true that, despite the proposal to found a universal music in the swamp, the aesthetics in Brazil were fraying homogenizing cosmopolitanisms.

It would be difficult to dilute the aesthetic radicality of Nação Zumbi. Imagining a day trader da Faria Lima dressed as Chico Science provokes laughter. The music industry was unable to replicate the amazement caused by the percussive arrangements in other groups. Anyone who watched the artists on stage would see a particular Brazil, elusive even for classification in regional music. This was definitive, with the relevance that the image assumed at the time in novelties such as cable TV packages.

The result was an attack coated in humor. Manguebeat was distorted and Recife even started to be called Cearattle. A term that was shameless in its own ignorance: Seattle is a city; the state where bands like Mundo Livre S/A emerged was Pernambuco; the capital of Ceará has its own characteristics, which cause confusion only to those who are fond of stereotypes; and the scene opened by the chords of that generation had more connections with the Brazilian psychedelia of the 1970s.

3.

One exception to the reckless commercialism has been Mudhoney. The musicians who make up the band have remained active, between the alternative circuit and some glimpses of the mainstream, since the advent of grunge. Not even the departure of the main faces of the scene could contain their desire to play: even with the oscillations to which this cultural label and everything that involves it were subjected, there were releases of new albums, international tours with greater proximity to the public. In short, there was a lot of music.

On March 22 (Saturday), Mudhoney will be at Circo Voador in Rio de Janeiro – on a tour of Brazilian cities, the band has adopted this relationship with Brazilians: in spaces that do not accommodate crowds, shows that electrify fans accustomed to the less stellar trajectory of these musicians from Seattle. Instead of the millionaire figures, the option was for something that the very concept of grunge has progressively abandoned. From the speakers to the dress code from the moment.

The coincidence is that the band used the Rio stage that is most closely associated with the alternative scene in Pernambuco and, consequently, with manguebeat. All of Recife's prominent names in the 1990s played at the venue in the city center and built strong relationships with the venue. Otto, Nação Zumbi, Mundo Livre S/A and Devotos do Ódio remained on the Circo Voador lineup, despite the changes that the bands from Pernambuco also experienced.

Time has been kind to us: the manifesto album From Mud to Chaos, led by Chico Science, was considered the best produced in Brazil in recent decades. By occupying the gap between emptied celebrities and the presence of music in everyday life, Mudhoney allows for nuanced interviews that, at the limit, can promote approximations with the adherence of manguebeat in this interval. Noises, dissonances and distortions aside, the only identity with grunge, in an ambiguous way, should only be the willingness to be different.

*Helcio Herbert Neto is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cultural and Media Studies at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). Author of the book Words at stake [https://amzn.to/4aaGzfF]

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