The
U.S. state of
Washington includes several major hotbeds of musical innovation. The largest city in the state,
Seattle, is known most famously for being the birthplace of
grunge music, while nearby
Tacoma and
Olympia have also proven influential.
In the early 1960s, several garage bands[?] achieved regional and some national fame. Perhaps the most famous of these are The Wailers, whose regional fame was paramount for several years in the early 1960s and are often considered the fathers of Seattle's rock scene.
Another influential garage rock band,
The Regents[?], of Tacoma, were local icons, but the original incarnation never signed to a record label. The Regents are known for a technological innovation, after they fed the
rhythm guitar through a Leslie organ speaker during a concert at the
University of Puget Sound[?]; this gave them their original sound.
Another Tacoma band,
The Sonics[?], proved to be influential, and are still a cult favorite. Their name was inspired by one of Seattle's most important employers,
Boeing, an
aircraft manufacturer, and The Sonics' brand of aggressive guitar rock made them icons in the later development of music in and around Seattle.
Record producer Jerry Dennon[?] of Jerdon Records[?] was responsible for bring The Kingsmen[?] (of Portland, Oregon), best known for their national hit "Louie, Louie[?]," to the ears of northwest audiences. The Kingsmen soon found themselves embroiled in a rivalry with local favorite Paul Revere & the Raiders[?], who also released a version of "Louie, Louie". Local music fans were split between the two groups, and the city's music scene polarized as a result. The Kingsmen's version caught on nationally after a Boston radio station picked up the song and Dennon negotiated distributing rights with Wand Records[?] out of New York City. The song's supposedly suggestive lyrics led to it being banned in some localities, including Indiana.
In the late
1980s, a form of
alternative rock called
twee pop was popular in the
United Kingdom. A small cult following around bands like
The Orchids and
Heavenly formed in the US, centered around
Olympia's
K Records[?] and the band
Beat Happening.
Riot grrl is a form of
hardcore punk which arose in
Olympia, Washington in the 1990s and was led by bands like
Bikini Kill, known for their militant
feminism and raw, uncompromising sound. The genre never achieved much success and soon died out, though stalwarts
Sleater-Kinney did stick together and found themselves approaching mainstream audiences after the turn of the millennium.
Grunge music began as a mixture of
heavy metal and
punk rock, and arose from the
hesher[?] scene in Seattle during the
1980s. The earliest bands included
Green River,
The Posies[?] and
Soundgarden, among others, most signed to legendary
indie rock label
Sub Pop. By the late 1980s, several future stars had begun performing, including
Nirvana,
Alice in Chains, and
Mudhoney, while the death of
Andrew Wood[?] of
Mother Love Bone led to that band's disintegration and subsequent reformation as
Pearl Jam. In
1991 (see
1991 in music), Nirvana's
Nevermind, along with Soundgarden's
Badmotorfinger,
Pearl Jam's
Ten and
Alice in Chains'
Dirt brought grunge to the top of the national charts, where it stayed for several years, until
Kurt Cobain's suicide and the departure of several major bands.
The most famous
hip-hop star to come out of Washington state has been
Sir Mix-A-Lot[?], best known for "Baby Got Back", an early nineties novelty hit. He also had another, less well-known song, "Bremeloes" (referring to the women of
Bremerton, Washington), that achieved some fame. Later regional acts include
Source of Labor[?] and
Oldominion[?].