Post-grunge
Post-grunge (sometimes also called nu-grunge) is a subgenre of grunge music.
Post-grunge developed out of the grunge music scene in the early to mid-1990s after the mainstream success of many bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Some of the earliest post-grunge bands to achieve success were Silverchair and Bush. Although the height of the genre's popularity is often cited as the mid-1990s, many later bands such as Creed and Nickelback continued to achieve mainstream success late into the decade and through the early 2000s.
Post-grunge is often characterized as being less "dirty" and having a more mainstream sound than other grunge subgenres. It is often believed that the entire subgenre was actually created by music label executives as a way to repackage grunge as pop music and market it to mainstream audiences. This directly contrasts with the original "anti-corporate rock" ethic that had spawned alternative music during the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, many hardcore grunge fans revile post-grunge and denounce these bands as sellouts. Some go even further to blame post-grunge as partly responsible for the overall decrease in popularity of grunge in the late 90's.
Post-grunge bands are also more generally criticized by all traditional rock fans as being derivative music and merely copying the influences of older bands rather than being creative and coming up with new ideas. The band Creed, for example, is often derided as a "knockoff" of Pearl Jam. Other newer music subgenres such as nu metal (to metal) and pop punk (to punk) are also criticzed for similar reasons. Detractors occasionally use the umbrella term "nu rock" to describe all of these genres (However, the term "nu rock" is not necsarily pejorative; many fans and rock radio stations use it as well).
Prominent bands
- Bush
- Candlebox
- Collective Soul
- Creed
- Days of the New
- Godsmack
- Nickelback
- Puddle of Mudd
- Silverchair
- Staind