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Post-grunge is a diverse subgenre of rock music that emerged in the mid-1990s as a derivative of grunge music^[1] Generally, bands labelled as such are rock bands that are strongly influenced by grunge. Their music may often incorporate the sludgy guitar, angst-filled lyrics and "loud-quiet" dynamics of grunge, but produce it in a radio-friendly and commercial way. This has spurred the genre's mainstream popularity, but led to its rejection by many fans of traditional grunge music. Also many traditional rock fans reject post-grunge, as they claim it "killed rock".

Post-grunge developed from the grunge music scene of the early 1990s. The breakout success of bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam led to record labels becoming intensely interested not only in grunge, but also in alternative rock in general. By 1993 some of the first post-grunge bands (notably Bush, Collective Soul, Everclear, Our Lady Peace and Live) had been signed to major labels and were beginning to garner mainstream attention.

Most of these bands were not labeled "grunge" at the time; rather, they were lumped into the more general category of alternative rock with bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M., whom radio stations found unclassifiable at the time. In fact, some early post-grunge bands appear to owe more to traditional 1970s album rock than the underground punk and metal that inspired Seattle grunge bands .

During the next few years the key early post-grunge bands continued to meet with critical and commercial success, as did newcomers such as Better Than Ezra and Sponge. Although these bands and several others helped to spread the genre's popularity, their successes were eclipsed by the explosion of popularity that resulted from the Australian band Silverchair's debut album, Frogstomp, in late 1995. The album became a multi-platinum international hit and made the young band one of the highest grossing acts in the world.

During the rest of the decade, post-grunge continued to gain mainstream popularity and by 1998 it and pop punk (the two genres themselves having somewhat meshed together by this point were arguably the two most popular genres of American alternative rock^{[citation needed]}. Newer bands such as Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty produced some of the biggest hit singles of the latter 1990s.

Despite the increased number of post-grunge artists, no city or region ever emerged as a clear focal point for the genre. This was in stark contrast to original grunge, which was centered around Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps the closest focal point for post-grunge was the central Florida area, where an exceptional number of post-grunge bands emerged in the late 1990s, the most important of which being Creed and Matchbox Twenty. Silverchair's time in the limelight had begun to fade by the time that Creed's second album, Human Clay, was released in 1999. That album went on to surpass even Frogstomp in terms of sales and airplay, selling over eleven million copies and becoming the biggest commercial hit since Nevermind.

Although by 2000 post-grunge was still going strong, several other musical styles were gaining increased radio play, especially hip hop and boy bands and alternative rock began to lose the strong grip it had held on pop music in the US throughout most of the 1990s. At this point the genres within alternative rock had become so intertwined (most, although not all, of the newer post-grunge bands also incorporated equal parts of pop punk or nu metal into their music) that the term "post-grunge" fell out of favor and "modern rock" or "nu-rock" began to replace it as a catch-all term. This trend continues as of 2005 and the genre continues to be a serious influence in modern rock with bands such as Nickelback, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Puddle of Mudd, Chevelle, Staind, Seether, and 3 Doors Down enjoying immense commercial success. Several bands created by former members of notable grunge groups, such as Audioslave and Foo Fighters have also obtained great mainstream success.

Post-grunge is often characterized as being less "dirty" and having a more mainstream sound than grunge^{[citation needed]}. Some believe that the entire subgenre was actually created by music label executives as a way to repackage grunge as pop music and market it to mainstream audiences^{[citation needed]} . This directly contrasts with the original "anti-corporate rock" ethic that had spawned grunge music during the early-to-mid 1990s. Thus, many grunge fans revile post-grunge and denounce these bands as sellouts^{[citation needed]} . Many also criticize post-grunge as it claimed it killed "rock music", almost in the same way as many hip hop fans claim snap music and crunk "killed hip hop".

Traditional fans of the genre may criticize post-grunge as being derivative music that merely copies the influences of older bands, rather than creating genuinely new musical ideas.^{[citation needed]} While there are exceptions, many post-grunge groups do not explicitly refer to grunge bands as influences. Rather, they often cite as influences those bands that influenced the development of grunge itself, such as The Melvins and early hard rock acts such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. However those bands show less of a relation to these "influences" making them more of idols than the true influences they were for grunge bands of the early 90's.^[2][3]

• List of post-grunge bands
• Grunge music
• Alternative rock

1. ^ 'Description of Post-Grunge' by Rhapsody
2. ^ 'Band Q&A: Mark Tremonti' of Creed, from Creed.com
3. ^ 'Collective Soul - Disciplined Breakdown' review by C.M.Y., Atlantic Unbound. May 1997.