Remember grunge? Well in the 90s it was one of the most noticeable styles when it came to music and to clothing fashions. If you lived in the Pacific Northwest then you were in on the ground floor of the grunge movement in mid-1980s since that was when it really started to take off. The Don Johnson look and the other 80s fashions soon gave way to a style of dress and music that was dirty in appearance and sound since they blended so many other styles together to form what would eventually become the identity of a generation. Grunge became a way for those growing up and reaching adolescence or their early adult years in the 90s a way to identify with each other and to share the kind of experiences that were so prevalent in this decade. While a lot of people still didn’t understand it, there were more than a few movies that really took up the grunge style and made it work.
Here are some of the 90s movies that really made grunge look cool.
5. Clerks
This was almost an example of hip hop and grunge coming together since both styles were represented quite a bit in this movie. Jay and Silent Bob had their own style that pulled from different fashions while the other cast members had their own thing going as well. The movie itself was something that could be attributed in part to grunge since the attitudes of the cast were on the same level with many young folks back in the day. There wasn’t a lot of drive to do what they didn’t want but there was a huge desire to do anything and everything they wanted or weren’t supposed to do, which could have been one and the same.
4. Encino Man
Pauley Shore probably wouldn’t have called his style grunge but the manner in which Brendan Fraser was done up could easily be called grunge. The movie itself was about a caveman that had lain frozen for an untold number of years and was then dug up by Dave and Stony while Dave was digging out a hole for a pool. When Link came to the guys quickly made a friend out of him and started to teach him how to get by in modern times since he looked like a run of the mill teen when they’d finally cleaned him up. How they decided to dress him is odd however since it doesn’t reflect a lot of their own personal styles.
3. Wayne’s World
Wayne’s World is all grunge since the guys are basically big kids that decided to never grow up, which explains why Wayne still lives with his parents. The movie was one of the more hilarious ones to come out during the 90s and was based on a popular SNL skit that Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey had been doing for a bit. Bringing it to the big screen was a great idea since it highlighted just how entertaining the duo was. A lot of adults just rolled their eyes and shook their heads, while still laughing, but kids absolutely loved this movie since it kind of catered to their level of thinking and entertained their sensibilities.
2. Airheads
A movie that’s all about grungy, wannabe rock stars trying to get their demo on the air seems like it would be a rather silly and doomed movie. To be honest Airheads didn’t get a lot of love and it didn’t do very well at the box office. But it did gain something of a cult following after going to video since people did enjoy it and were able to see and relate to the band’s plight in a way since a lot of folks are just wishing that people would take the time to understand them instead of judging them at a glance. Honestly the three main characters could be rightly judged at a glance but as the movie went on they managed to develop quite a bit.
1. Singles
Generation X has been through just about as much as Millennials have and while the two generations go at one another the Gen Xer’s were the ones that, in the 90s, were trying to find themselves the most it seems. In Seattle, when grunge was at its height and not yet seen as a fading fad, Singles was the type of movie that managed to pick up on the weft and weave of the trend that had come to dominate so much of the northwest. The group of people looking to find themselves and one another were the types that seemed typical in this time period and were indicative of the decade in many ways.
Grunge isn’t quite dead but it’s been greatly diminished ever since the 90s ended and the 2000s started. It could come back, since everything comes in cycles.
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