The 1980s era of rock music never appealed to Eddie Vedder: “It’s so vacuous”
Every genre or subculture is born out of cultural circumstances; more often, it can be the case of taking inspiration from another scene. However, like with grunge, it can be kicking back against the musical status quo.
Similarly to the punk movement, it was a way of offering an alternative to what was presently on offer, which they felt wasn’t representative of their generation. Both were offering an unpolished, raw and authentic brand of music, which naturally appealed to fellow like-minded souls that were disillusioned with the rock bands of the day.
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder didn’t have the luxury of simply avoiding the existence of glam metal when it was all the rage during the 1980s, which only made his hatred of it grow stronger. Vedder worked at a local venue in San Diego, which meant he was often spending his evenings watching bands that he detested.
Of course, this job was magical, in some ways, for Vedder because it allowed him to watch live music for work, picking up the art of live performance from those who already do it for a living. While many shows likely informed the type of artist he wanted to be, it also reinforced who Vedder desperately didn’t want to be.
He worked at The Bacchanal during the late ’80s and early ’90s, before grunge revitalised the rock world. After seeing more hair metal bands live than he’d wish on his worst enemy, Vedder knew that something needed to change, fuelling him to play a part in the fightback.
At this time, Vedder was also working a myriad of other jobs while balancing his music career, which was going nowhere fast. Seeing all these bands, who he viewed as talentless, make it as touring musicians while his own career, while he couldn’t escape the local circuit, was enraging.
Opening up on this chapter of his life with the New York Times, Vedder reminisced: “You know, I used to work in San Diego loading gear at a club. I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to — bands that monopolized late-80s MTV. The metal bands that — I’m trying to be nice — I despised. ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ and Mötley Crüe: Fuck you.”
Vedder then explained his specific contentions with the misogynistic brand of outdated rock, “I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous. Guns N’ Roses came out and, thank God, at least had some teeth.”
On the flip side, it made Vedder more appreciative of the magical scene they later had going on in Seattle. It was a safe space that everybody could participate in, and people were free to be whoever they wanted rather than follow gender conformities.
Vedder added: “But I’m circling back to say that one thing that I appreciated was that in Seattle and the alternative crowd, the girls could wear their combat boots and sweaters, and their hair looked like Cat Power’s and not Heather Locklear’s — nothing against her.
They weren’t selling themselves short. They could have an opinion and be respected. I think that’s a change that lasted. It sounds so trite, but before then it was bustiers. The only person who wore a bustier in the ’90s that I could appreciate was Perry Farrell.”
From Vedder’s perspective, hair metal was a cancerous stain on music. However, it was a product of the times and was a reflection of where society was during that period in history, which the youth wanted to fight back against.
While grunge was imperfect, it was necessary in the early ’90s, providing rock with a much-needed facelift that championed inclusivity and represented Generation X regardless of their gender.
