3 UK Bands That Could Have Been Considered Grunge

The great genre of grunge was created in Seattle, Washington. Way up the Pacific Northwest, songwriters and musicians got together in garages, attics and old dingy rehearsal spaces to jam and make music that reflected both their moods and the rainy, grey environment. Little did they know that the sounds they were creating would change the world.

And while grunge music hit all corners of the globe, it is very much a Northwest notion. Still, though, there are bands from elsewhere outside of the Emerald City that could have passed for grunge groups. Here below, we wanted to examine three such projects from the United Kingdom that could most certainly be thought of as grunge acts.

Black Sabbath

In a recent book about Seattle music, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson made the point that there are a lot of similarities between Liverpool, England, and Seattle. Both are port cities, both are grey and cloudy. And while Black Sabbath doesn’t originate from Liverpool, per se, it makes sense that the Birmingham, England-born group offers fans a dark, brooding rock sound. In fact, Black Sabbath was likely a huge influence on many of the grunge groups of Seattle, as they came around a couple of decades before the likes of Soundgarden and Nirvana. For those reasons and more Black Sabbath earns an honorary grunge gold medal!

Radiohead

Cute: the Radiohead enthusiasts rolling their eyes. Perhaps no group of fans is more protective of their group than those who hold up Radiohead high. But that doesn’t mean that some of their music doesn’t give off grunge vibes. Grunge music, bold and brooding as it was, often was also self-deprecating (see: Mad Season’s “River of Deceit”). And in 1992, Radiohead released its hit single, “Creep.” That song fits right into the grunge catalog, both chronologically and subject matter-wise.

Bush

The London-born rock band Bush was all the rage in the 1990s, around the same time that grunge music was going global. Fronted by the handsome Gavin Rossdale, Bush often got comparisons to groups like Nirvana, which was led by the equally handsome Kurt Cobain. But beyond physical aesthetics, Bush wrote and released music that sounded buzzy and depraved. Songs like “Glycerine” and “Swallowed” resembled that feeling that makes you want to scratch at the walls or go a little mad. If Bush had been founded in Seattle they would assuredly be added to the grunge greats.