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New York City had been, arguably, the birthplace of punk rock with the Ramones and the scene at CBGB in the mid to late-1970s, but while the next generation of punks emerged in the hardcore scenes in places like Washington DC and Los Angeles in the early 80’s, NYC was initially quiet. A few bands like The Mad and The Stimulators hinted at a new direction. The Stimulators featured Harley Flanagan on drums and attracted some of what would become the NYHC scene to their shows. The Stimulators and the Mad also made friends with Washington, DC’s Bad Brains, and gave the latter places to stay in town.

New York City would come to play a central role in the development of hardcore. An important scene finally emerged in 1981 with the emigration of the Bad Brains. Roger Miretof Agnostic Front asserts that “We started using the term ‘hardcore’ because we wanted to separate ourselves from the druggy or artsy punk scene that was happening in New York at the time … We were rougher kids living in the streets. It had a rougher edge”.The early scene was documented on the 1982 New York Thrash compilation.

Beastie Boys were an American hip hop group from New York City, formed in 1981. For the majority of their career, the group consisted of Michael “Mike D” Diamond(vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar).

Originally formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, the Young Aborigines, in 1978 by Diamond (vocals), John Berry (guitar), Yauch (bass) and Kate Schellenbach(drums), the band appeared on the compilation cassette New York Thrash, contributing two songs from their first EP, Polly Wog Stew, in 1982. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz. After achieving moderate local success with the 1983 experimental hip hop 12-inch single “Cooky Puss”, Schellenbach dropped out and the Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip hop, releasing a string of successful singles. They toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album Licensed to Ill. The Beastie Boys have sold 26 million records in the United States and 50 million records worldwide, making them, according to Billboard, the biggest-selling rap group since the magazine began recording sales data in 1991.

With seven platinum or better albums from 1986 to 2004, the Beastie Boys were one of the longest-lived hip hop acts worldwide. In 2009, they released digitally remastered deluxe editions of their albums Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty. Their eighth studio album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, was released in 2011, and received positive reviews. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012, “just the third rap group to enter the Hall, after Run–D.M.C. (2009) and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (2007).”The following month, MCA died of cancer of the parotid salivary gland.In June 2014, Mike D confirmed that he and Ad-Rock would not continue the Beastie Boys, out of respect to MCA.

Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock and a subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle’s independent record label Sub Pop and that region’s underground music scene. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals.

Grunge was commercially successful in the early–mid 1990s, due to releases such as Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, Soundgarden’s Superunknown, Alice in Chains’ Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots’ Core. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself. Grunge was also an influence on later genres such as post-grunge (e.g.: Creed and Nickelback) and nu metal (e.g.: Korn and Limp Bizkit).

Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, such as the distorted electric guitar used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, a drummer and a singer. Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, apathy, concerns about confinement, and a desire for freedom.

A number of factors contributed to grunge’s decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as “the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest”, appeared unusually tortured by success and struggled with an addiction to heroin before he died by suicide at the age of 27 in 1994.