Instead of being born in political resistance, Indie Grunge was invented and perpetuated by mood boards and consumerism. While the “Indie” in Indie Grunge suggests a counterculture element to it, the trend itself was no more counterculture than wearing last season’s clearance rack. Troublingly, this historically-inspired aesthetic was no longer representative of a larger social movement and was wholly depoliticized. Built on the mainstream nostalgia of these movements in the mid-2010s, Tumblr users made a return to Grunge in the form of Indie Grunge, a fashion movement inspired by dark colors, plaid patterns and army boots. ![]() This is evident in the rise of 2014 Tumblr’s Indie Grunge aesthetic. What is consistent across the decline of both the Beatnik and Grunge movements is a rewriting of history - a de-politicization of political fashion. By 1994, Grunge had lost all semblance of politics and was a purely consumeristic fad. Major fashion producers like The Gap began producing and styling Grunge clothing for the mainstream. In 1991, the quintessential Grunge band Nirvana signed onto a major record label and was featured regularly on MTV. And, just like the Beatniks, their heyday was spoiled by the media. They rejected fashion and mainstream aesthetics in favor of embracing anti-consumerism and social deviance. Like the Beatniks before them, Grunge politics rejected authority and sensibility. Del Close, an active participant of the movement, recalled to the Chicago Tribune in 1993, “What the first beat outfit was, and I know because I wore it, more like lumberjack shirt, Army boots and blue jeans.” Its parallels are seen very obviously in Grunge aesthetics of flannels, army boots and destroyed jeans. While many believe the Beatnik movement to resemble Hepburn’s sleek black aesthetic, participants of the movement reject this as misrepresentation. Then, in the late 1980s, a variation of the Beatnik movement was born again: Grunge. Shortly after reaching this status, the movement dissolved. By the late 1950s, the Beatnik movement became highly visible in the media, inspiring the 1957 blockbuster hit “Funny Face” starring Audrey Hepburn and earning its official name in the press in 1958. Rising consumerism to achieve the “American dream” inspired Beatniks to reject mainstream fashion and wear plain, flexible clothing that better reflected their ideal of a less rigid lifestyle. More than their actions, Beatniks also engaged in protest through fashion. These moral expectations pushed Beatniks to rebel in lifestyle by engaging in jazz, sex and drugs. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, born out of the post-war era, Beatniks took their stance in the United States as a counterculture to the United States’ Puritanical and rigid expectations of self and community. Martens, this begs the question: Where did Indie Grunge come from in the first place? And more importantly, is there any lesson to be learned from its revival? One Twitter user wrote, “the midnights cover really transports u back to 2014 american apparel, sky ferreira, grid print tumblr”.īefore we go back to lacing up our Dr. ![]() After the release of this album art, Swift fans began relishing in the potential implications of this “era,” declaring a revival of Indie Grunge. ![]() The album cover features Swift in choppy bangs and a shiny midnight blue smokey eye, staring into a lit Zippo lighter. Ahead of the release of Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album ”Midnights,” internet users are relishing in what is believed to be a renewal of 2014 Indie Grunge.
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