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well, you can say grunge is, from my appreciation:
-soundwise: it's about sticking a lot of fuzz pedals basically. it's bands trying to ape the stooges but putting some more sabbath or mc5 in the mix, as well as some psychedelic rock.
-geographically: it's bands that come from seattle
-chronologically: it's moody power pop that started sometime in the mid/late 80's, boomed in the early nineties and got ravished in the late 90's/early 00's (with nickelback, creed, et al.)
-vocally: it's singers trying to mimic john denver.
-psychologically: it's downer rock with infectious hooks.
-aesthetically: it's every band who wears flannel shirts, jeans, faded t-shirts, combat boots, hippie necklaces, long ungroomed hair, facial hair, nose rings, long hippie skirts (for the ladies), green and orange hair dye.
depending on all these and more, you can count in and out so many bands it's not even worth mentioning. i've heard every band from candlebox to the butthole surfers be called grunge just because it was what you called rock on the radio in the nineties.
bottomline (what i'm trying to say): genres are lame, most bands who are worth anything defy genres and those who doesn't probably suck donkey cock. most bands on the poll are cool but why do you have to bring an mtv-jizzed word (like crib) just because you are told it's the "cool" music to listen to? furthermore, while yes, the boredoms and the butthole surfers were signed to major labels, how many hits did they have on the radio? 1 between the two, most bands on the charts were the bands with the cute lead singer and big singalong chorus with the eye popping videos e.i. what happened during the hair metal days, it's not like neurosis or the cows became radio staples or unsane and antioch arrow ever appeared on mtv, so how can you tell me that the "underground became the mainstream?". it became more of the same, the underground was the underground and the mainstream was the mainstream...sure, bands could get signed to majors but what good does that leave us? in fact, it was shitty because most records released on majors by experimental, difficult bands (read: underground) are now out of print. my point is living in the past sucks, the mainstream sucked back then (except for a couple of bands) and the mainstream sucks now (except for a couple of bands), there was no real revolution, it was just a a non-defined (or multiple-defined) buzzword and a lot of clones.
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