Grunger

A grunger is a member of a UK youth subculture of '00s.

Contents

1 Explanation 2 Use & Misuse 3 Music 4 Clothes 5 Attitude 6 Relations

Explanation

Grungers are not an organisation or other affiliation. Rather, they're a group of people connected by a common taste in music, clothes, shared interests, values, etc. Most are under 20, and in this was they can be compared to hippies or mods - however note the grungers are not similar in style to either of these earlier movements. Greebo is often used as an alternative label, though grunger and greebo are exactly the same thing. The original meaning of greebo stems from the bikers of the '70s, and was used to describe particularly dirty bikers, though this has changed and now is simply used, mainly by young people, to describe grungers. For sake of simplicity, grunger will be used here unless it is necessary to point out differences between grunger and greebo.

Use & Misuse

Until the rise of Nu Metal in the late '90s neither term really existed. With the sudden chart success in Britain of bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, young people who were not grungers themselves and the media invented the term to describe young people who, to various degrees, dressed like the musicians in these bands. Young people in Britain had actually been dressing in this fashion for quite some time, possibly 2 or 3 years before the Nu Metal explosion, but it was not until these bands achieved commercial success that the term came into existence.

Of the 2 terms, greebo is often used in a derogatory fashion by young people who are not in an alternative subculture themselves, and are more interested in mainstream/popular culture. Due to either ignorance or a lack of understanding, these mainstream "greeboes" almost universally believe grungers to be weird and "different." This is usually because of grunger fashion, as it is the first thing about them that they notice. The media gets it wrong more often than not, leading to even more misunderstanding amongst young people, though the media are not really that interested in it anyway.

This is because the grunger subculture does not truly have one iconic figure above all others, a single individual who embodies everything that grunger culture is about. Whereaes the original grunge explosion had Kurt Cobain and lad culture had Noel Gallagher, grunger subculture does not as yet have an iconic figure. Far from being disappointed at the lack of interest, most grungers are happy that their culture is being left alone to grow on by itself.

Music

Grungers get their name from the Grunge music genre of the early '90s. Today the deities of Grunge such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam are still core Grunger territory, but many other genres are also generally considered 'Grunger music'. These include: Punk rock, Emo, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, and possibly Goth.

Clothes

The Grunger style is almost painfully mis-reported in the popular press. In truth it is defined by: 'skater jeans' and other baggy, hard-wearing jeans; baggy, hooded tops, often one solid colour with a bold logo/design - no zips; silver or black-coloured metal jewellery, chains etc.

Attitude

It is impossible to generalise, but Grungers are notably from middle-class backgrounds, and are less into fighting and stealing things than townies (see below). Grungers dress sometimes like an American cutter. They wear baggy jeans, chains, loose t-shirts (there are no real "grunge brands" due to the nature of grunge), hoodies and skate shoes.

Relations

Grungers are in many ways similar to skaters (skaters used in the sense of the specific culture that has grown up around UK skating in the past few years). In fact, 'Grungers' is sometimes used as an umbrella term for all those loosely involved in grunger-like culture, whether they skate or not.
However, real Grungers are distinct from skaters - they have a 'heavier' style of music, clothes etc.

In many UK towns and cities grungers and the like are opposed to groups like townies. Townies are a subculture very much opposed to Grungers in most aspects, and its members are usually from the working-class; although similar styles such as Rude Boys and Kevs are not necessarily.

The types of groups and people varies very much from place to place, although used extremely loosely the term 'Grunger' or 'Townie' can be used to classify many conflicting groups and styles in UK youth culture today.