Nevermind...The Best Decade for Music was the 90s

I love music. I can't play it worth a damn, but it is always on in my home, and has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember. You can ask me about any moment in my life, and I can tell you the songs that were part of my soundtrack. I was the friend who always made mixed tapes, spent every cent on concerts and new albums, and dreamed that someday I might be Mrs. Cobain/Vedder/Hewson/White/Kravitz/Harper.

I was driving home tonight...alone (that's a completely different post because I'm never without one of my kids or husband), and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on the radio. Despite the -21 temperature, I rolled down the windows of my van (no, the irony is not lost on me) and cranked the sh*t out of it. It got me thinking...even though I've always listened to music, at first it was my parents' LPs (Queen, Loverboy, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Steve Miller Band, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Supertramp), then it was whatever was on the radio (read: Pop flavours of the day). It was only in grade 9 and 10 that I really came into my own and developed my own taste. I remember the year: 1992. What a fucking monster year for music. I had "discovered" Nirvana, and my friend B had discovered Pearl Jam. On the next Friday night, we hung out at her place...she had bought "Ten" and I had bought "Nevermind." I remember being so excited! We truly didn't know where to start, so we picked #7. We would start by listening to the 7th track on both discs. "Oceans" and "Territorial Pissings". We were blown away. We had never heard anything like this before. I remember staying up until daylight, just listening.

The next time I went to my Dad's for the weekend, Nirvana was scheduled to perform on SNL. My Dad, Stepmom and I stayed up and watched the performance together, and our jaws were collectively on the floor - but for VERY different reasons. I think we had come to a fork in the road. My parents thought it was ridiculous, and loud, and garbage (no pun intended with the reference to Courtney Love's band), and I thought they were gods. Cobain, Novoselic, and Grohl owned that stage (and literally destroyed it after playing 'Territorial Pissings'), and I was almost in tears. This was MY music. This was for MY generation...and it was BRILLIANT! They were speaking to us...the lyrics, the grunge, the anger...it was incredible. The music really freed me and validated my emotions. At dances when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on, a mosh pit almost always instantly formed, and I was right in the middle of it. We could crash and body check each other with no hard feelings...it was almost like we were at our most primal levels for those four and a half minutes. Being a teenager in the early 90s was incredible. I don't know that every generation is lucky enough to have that experience...I'm not talking about the interchangeable pop music (which I also love...but it's not life changing, let's be honest). What came out of Seattle during that time is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. I did a ton of things for the first time during that decade, and while the people and places have come and gone, the music remains with me and creates an almost tangible, bittersweet time capsule that allows me to relive some of those moments in my mind.

For that, I am, and will be, forever grateful.