Did the murder of Mia Zapata spell the end of grunge?
Every piece of the Seattle grunge scene has been marred by some sort of tragedy. As much as the landscape was about music fans getting together to create songs that were far purer than the hair metal of the 1980s, the tremendous amount of casualties it brought with it cast a dark cloud over the city that many have yet to recover from. Even though major artists like Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain may have been among the many famous losses in the community, the murder of Mia Zapata ended up being the first significant blow.
Before discussing the tragedy, it’s important to note where Zapata fits in the grunge story. Throughout the mid-1980s, some of the first grunge outfits featured artists who were taking different genres and putting them together into a strange collage. Among bands like Melvins putting their Frank Zappa-esque spin on heavy metal, Zapata got her first break working in The Gits.
Formed around the same time that groups like Bikini Kill were becoming mainstream players, The Gits were responsible for bringing different feminist beliefs into rock and roll. While they may not have been around long enough to become leaders of the riot grrl scene, Zapata was practically writing the playbook for every young woman that came after her, sharing the stage often with fellow hardcore act 7 Year Bitch.
Even when making their first album, Frenching the Bully, Zapata was already a superstar frontwoman in the making. Taking the same cues from artists like Janis Joplin, Zapata let her soul come out through her voice and refused to give a shit about what anyone else thought, practically overshadowing the band due to how ferocious she could be behind the microphone.
Although the outfit seemed to be making a name for themselves around the same time that Nirvana was about to blow up, Zapata wouldn’t live to see her legacy. After hanging out at the Comet Tavern on July 7th, 1993, she was captured on her way home, after which she was horrifically sexually assaulted and killed by an unknown assailant.
While the trial would eventually be reopened, and her killer would be found years later, the damage had already been done. Since there was no one looking out for where she was, it would be a few days before the rest of The Gits even knew what had happened, leading to guitarist Steve Moriarty getting a call from the coroner’s office in Seattle to identify the body.
Even though the Seattle scene had lost many of its own along the way, like Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone, this was very different. After bringing people together to create music that everyone could enjoy, seeing one of the most promising young stars of the genre be taken away so viciously wasn’t lost on the biggest names in the city.
While the band would eventually release Zapata’s final recording in 1994 with Enter: The Conquering Chicken, their biggest contribution to the grunge scene was making the Home Alive compilation record. Founded by various members of the community, the record would include Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, with all of the proceeds going to the Home Alive foundation, which helps fund self-defence classes for women to combat any form of sexual violence.
Even though Zapata’s killer would eventually be brought to justice a decade after the murder, her legacy remains in the millions of women who came up in her wake. From the beginnings of riot grrl punk to Hole taking the music mainstream with the album Live Through This. Zapata may have helped shine more light on what women can do in rock, but her death left a gaping hole in the Seattle scene that was never going to be filled again.
