Born in Seattle.

Characterized by distorted guitar sounds and dispirited vocals, the grunge sound emerged in 1991-1992 from the Seattle music scene, where it had been popular for most of the 1980s. As Clark Humphrey has written, it was an "angry, disheveled" version of rock, "stories complete with misconceptions and more than a few downright lies." The grunge movement was supposedly authentic street rock — not a bunch of packaged bands hyped by major music record producers. The bands that succeeded, however, did so because they signed with major record labels, leaving behind other local talent. As Humphrey insisted, "There is no singular 'Seattle Sound,' but there is a common Seattle attitude. We believe in making great music and art, not in the trappings of celebrity."

National Celebrity.

The record company most responsible for introducing grunge to a national audience was Seattle-...