Hype!

There is something immensely disorienting and also comforting about seeing a documentary about the early 90's explosion of bands from Seattle in 2026 at the age of 49. It was a million years ago, but it feels like I could open my closet right now and find my old Doc Martens and put that tattered digipak of Pearl Jam's "Vitalogy" into my CD player and thrash my long hair about. Hype (I'm omitted the !) is nothing new in terms of its presentation for a music doc. Talking heads and concert footage, you've seen it before. What makes Hype different from most is the shape of the narrative being told. Hype is an oral history of the Seattle scene by the bands who were there, and not just the big name success stories. Blood Circus, TAD, Hammerbox, Seven Year Bitch, Mudhoney, The Melvins, and so, so many more you've never heard of, all tell the story of the city and the music and the culture. In case you're curious, or perhaps scared, of the movie tipping over when it gets to a certain band in 1991 breaking big, nope. Yes, it does reflect on Nirvana's success, but only insofar as it related to what it did for the bands in Seattle and how the lifestyle they lived for labeled "grunge" and turned into a brand and a commodity. And the suicide of Kurt Cobain is also discussed in relation to the city and the scene. This is no single band's story, by any means. This is an oral history of a time and place by the bands who were there. That being said, this is definitely of a time and place. It came out in 1996, which is only 30 years ago as I write this, This doesn't touch on the deaths of so many others from that era like Layne Stayley or Chris Cornell, because those came long after. The presence of heroin is only mentioned in passing. The collapse of alternative music in the second half of the decade and replacement on the charts with bubblegum pop and nu-metal is, by virtue of when this came out, absent. So if you're looking for a complete history of alternative music and Seattle, this is not it. And if you're a big fan of the time and the music, you've likely read enough interviews and blog posts and seen enough TV to know the content in Hype, so there might be some redundancy. But there was value to hear the little bands that never could tell their stories. I think that's the value here, is getting the inside stories from the bands who have been forgotten by all but the most hardcore of fans. Its their histories that Hype exists to preserve, not the Pearl Jams and Soundgardens. Hype is far from an amazing documentary, but it's an important one, and an honest one, and that's more than enough to call it a success.