Technically, punk never broke in 1991. Yeah, that makes me sound like some sort of rockist snob like Jack Black's character in High Fidelity, but I've always found the title of the documentary, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, curious. Looking back at the early 90s -- which is something I'm loathe, but compelled to do -- they weren't very punk unless you had access to a network of zines, mom-and-pop record stores, or college radio. For most of us, the underground was just that -- underground. I was well into my twenties before I'd heard of Sonic Youth, the subject of this doc which will finally be released on DVD in the next few weeks. Lots of 90s alt-rock stars abound, including Nirvana (who was "breaking" at the time), Babes in Toyland, and Dinosaur Jr.
I was only on the periphery of the 90s punk scene, grabbing little snippets on the lone, low-powered community radio station before the big RAWK! one picked up Nirvana and Pearl Jam (the latter I have no doubt would have fit with their playlist had grunge never happened), or weirdly enough, though the pages of fashion magazines peddling flannel and ennui as a fashion statement. It's easy to forget in the days before youtube, Facebook, and multi-tiered cable how hard it was to find music that fell outside the top forty, a term that's now become obsolete -- and meaningless.
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