Place and Punk: The heritage significance of Grunge in the Pacific North West

Academic institutions and the heritage industry are now actively seeking to understand the wider
social, cultural and economic processes which surround the production and consumption of
popular music histories. Music is a local creation; it is created through a flux of internal and
external influences, and is bound up in questions of economy, networks, art, identity and
technology. In the early 1990s the Pacific North West of the United States of America gave birth
to what became known as the musical genre of ‘grunge’. It developed into a distinctive genre,
presenting a style and sound which propagated within the confines of a specific time and place. As
construction sites continue to emerge throughout the Pacific North West, the impact of music still
provides an essential contribution to the regions character and culture. Despite this,
countercultural pasts are vulnerable; not only to the passage of time but also the processes of
development, gentrification and marginalization.
This research explores the heritage significance of the Pacific North West punk scene. It presents a
historiography of punk and an appraisal of the scholarly discourse surrounding place. This study
utilizes artifacts, sites and oral histories to explore countercultural material and memories as well
as the form and function of punk. Themes such as geography and environment are enfranchised
into the discussion as ethnography and multidisciplinary approaches are applied to make a unique
contribution to what is an essential and timely discussion regarding people, culture, heritage and
place.