Editing Grunge (section)

====Decline in popularity and end of subculture====
A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. Critics and historians do not agree on the exact point that grunge ended.<ref>DiBlasi, Alex. "Grunge" in ''Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars and Stories that Shaped Our Culture'', p. 520–524. Edited by Jacqueline Edmondson. ABC-CLIO, 2013. p. 523</ref> Catherine Strong wrote that "at the end of 1993 ... grunge had become unstable, and was entering the first stages of being killed off"; she pointed out that the "scene had become so successful" and widely known that "imitators had begun to enter the field".<ref name="Strong, Catherine 2016. p.55">Strong, Catherine. ''Grunge: Music and Memory''. Routledge, 2016. p.55</ref> ''Paste'' magazine states by 1994, grunge "was fading fast", with "[[Pearl Jam]] retreating from the spotlight as fast as they could; [[Alice in Chains]], [[Stone Temple Pilots]] and hordes of others were battling horrid drug addictions and struggling for survival."<ref name="Danaher" /> In ''Grunge: Seattle'', Justin Henderson stated that the "downward spiral" began in mid-1994, as the influx of major label money into the scene changed the culture and it had "nowhere to go but down"; he states the death of [[Hole (band)|Hole]] bassist [[Kristen Pfaff]] on June 16, 1994, from a heroin overdose, was "another nail in grunge's coffin."<ref>Henderson, Justin. ''Grunge: Seattle''. Roaring Forties Press, 2016. Ch. 6</ref>

In Jason Heller's 2013 article "Did grunge really matter?", in ''[[The A.V. Club]]'', he stated that Nirvana's ''[[In Utero (album)|In Utero]]'' (September 1993) was "grunge's death knell. As soon as Cobain grumbled, 'Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I'm bored and old,' it was all over."<ref name=avclub>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/article/did-grunge-really-matter-105354 |title=Did grunge really matter? |last=Heller |first=Jason |date=November 11, 2013 |work=The A.V. Club |access-date=January 31, 2017}}</ref> Heller states that after Cobain's death in 1994, the "hypocrisy" in the grunge of the time "became ... glaring" and "idealism became embarrassing", with the result being that "grunge became the new [mainstream] [[Aerosmith]]".<ref name=avclub /> Heller states that "grunge became an evolutionary dead end", because "it stood for nothing and was built on nothing, and that ethos of negation was all it was about."<ref name=avclub />

During the mid-1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; Nirvana summarily disbanded. After Cobain's death, Bruce Hardy wrote in ''Time'' magazine that he was "the [[John Lennon]] of the swinging Northwest", that he had struggled with a heroin addiction, and claimed that during the last weeks of his life there had been rumors in the music industry that Cobain had suffered a drug overdose and that Nirvana was breaking up.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Handy, Bruce |date=April 18, 1994 |title=Never mind |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980562,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050120134611/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980562,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 20, 2005 |access-date=September 8, 2007}}</ref> Cobain's suicide "served as a catalyst for grunge's ... demise", because it "deflated the energy from grunge and provided the opening for saccharine and corporate-formulated music to regain" its lost footing."<ref name="Batchelor">{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/feature/148553-smells-like-mtv-music-video-and-the-rise-of-grunge/ |title=Smells Like MTV: Music Video and the Rise of Grunge |last=Batchelor |first=Bob |date=September 26, 2011 |website=popmatters.com |publisher=PopMatters |access-date=March 11, 2017}}</ref>

That same year Pearl Jam canceled its summer tour in protest of ticket vendor [[Ticketmaster]]'s unfair business practices.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Gordinier, Jeff |date=October 28, 1994 |title=The Brawls in Their Courts |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |url=https://ew.com/article/1994/10/28/brawls-their-courts/ |access-date=September 8, 2007 |archive-date=November 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040704/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304203,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Pearl Jam then began a boycott of the company; however, Pearl Jam's initiative to play only at non-Ticketmaster venues effectively, with a few exceptions, prevented the band from playing shows in the United States for the next three years.<ref>DeRogatis, p. 65.</ref> In 1996, Alice in Chains gave their final performances with their ailing and estranged lead singer, [[Layne Staley]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.casinoballroom.com/event-detail.php?event=94 |title=Alice in Chains – Sold Out |publisher=[[Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130054834/http://www.casinoballroom.com/event-detail.php?event=94 |archive-date= November 30, 2007}}</ref> who subsequently died from an overdose of cocaine and heroin in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/1470138/late-alice-in-chains-singer-layne-staleys-last-interview-revealed-in-new-book/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140428102355/http://www.mtv.com/news/1470138/late-alice-in-chains-singer-layne-staleys-last-interview-revealed-in-new-book/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 28, 2014 |title=Late Alice In Chains Singer Layne Staley's Last Interview Revealed In New Book |publisher=MTV |last=Wiederhorn |first=Jon |date=February 25, 2003}}</ref> In 1996, Soundgarden and Screaming Trees released their final studio albums of the 1990s, ''[[Down on the Upside]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/down-on-the-upside-mw0000647977 |title=Down on the Upside – Soundgarden |publisher=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> and ''[[Dust (Screaming Trees album)|Dust]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/dust-mw0000184238 |title=Dust – Screaming Trees |publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> respectively. Strong states that Roy Shuker and Stout have written that the "end of grunge" can be seen as being "as late as the breakup of Soundgarden in 1997".<ref name="Strong, Catherine 2016. p.55" />

[[File:Bush grsATX.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A rock band performing onstage|British band Bush were described by Matt Diehl of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' as "the most successful and shameless mimics of Nirvana's music".]]