In 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind, an album that would go on to become one of the 1990′s biggest and most influential records. To a then homeless Kurt Cobain, the massive exposure of grunge to the mainstream would be a dizzying few years. In fact, the grunge explosion that occurred following the record’s release really put Seattle on the musical map.
But Nirvana was far from the innovators of grunge. In fact, it was almost a decade earlier that the term “grunge” came into use, years before Nirvana was a band. Bands like Green River, Soundgarden and The Melvins enjoyed moderate local success, and some broke into the mainstream later.
So as for the history of grunge, a logical starting point would be in the early 1980s and the logical end point would be in 1994 with the death of Kurt Cobain.