Grunge

Nirvana were an American Rock band that formed in Washington in 1987. The band was formed by Kurt Cobain, their lead singer and guitarist aswell as Dave Grohl who joined the band in 1990 being their longest lasting drummer. After Nirvanas sudden success within the alternative rock and Grunge community Kurt Cobain was actually referred to as the spokesman of a generation. Although Nirvanas run of success and fame unfortunately ended following the tragic death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, since the band were formed they sold over 25 million records in the United States alone and over 75 million worldwide and the band became the most influential in terms of this whole grunge genre and even the grunge lifestyle. 

It is most probably all down to Nirvana and especially Kurt Cobain that the majority of Grunge bands around today actually exist. Kurt set this trend that although ended badly for him, it definitely conjured lots of fame, money and popularity. Aspiring artists probably realised the potential that this kind of musical genre had in many different ways and the lifestyle and look that coincided with this Grunge genre was definitely one to keep up with. It was from here that 21st century bands such as The Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Green Day, Rise Against, Blink 182 and 30 Seconds To Mars realised this potential and followed suit with this Grunge trend.

Grunge

So we begin to realise that our 21st century is built upon the foundations of the past 50 odd years or so. Because it is so difficult to come up with a completely new design, concept, song, art movement or idea we are all heavily influenced by the past in the majority of things that we do or make. It seems that we take their trends that were set all these years ago and add a modern spin to them. This is generally the case for art, fashion and even music. In the mid 1980's a new musical genre came about, this genre was named 'Grunge'. This Grunge sort of era first emerged in the Seattle area of Washington, it was inspired by punk, heavy metal, indie rock and is generally known for its distorted electric guitars. Many of the musicians were also recognised for their unkempt appearances and mod rocker themes. Some of the bands that came about during this period include names like Nine Inch Nails, Janes Addiction, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and probably the worlds most famous Grunge band Nirvana. 

Modern Photography

Knowing that we had photographers back in the 1960's and 1970's like David Bailey and Brian Duffy its always admirable to see the likes of Nick Knight and other photographers of the 21st century. It's these kind of photographers that have obviously been influenced by David Baileys style of simple yet effective photography and gone one step further in our modern day world to create photographs that draw so much attention and possibly ignite controversy. Nick Knight was born in 1958 and is a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer and web publisher. He is also a director at Show Studio. As you can see the world of photography has drastically changed since the 60's but we obviously work off their similar sort of trends and ideas such as portraiture, landscapes, contrast. 

Photography

Moving on to the art form of Photography it is clear that trends and links have been set many years ago that have been rediscovered today. Back in the 1960's a man, who is now considered the best British Photography, named David Bailey discovered the art of Photography. David Bailey actually became a photographer for the world fashion magazine Vogue and helped to portray the 'Swinging London' of the 1960's. David Bailey has captured hundreds and hundreds of celebrities such as The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp. His work is generally so contrasting and daring almost, his key strength is portraiture. 

Dada/Surreal

Another trend I noticed a lot when discovering art movements and the links was this idea of Dadaism and Surrealism. The first artist that came to mind when researching into Dadaism was Hannah Hoch. I have always loved her work, she was a big member of the Berlin Dada Movement. Hannah created some very weird and wonderful pieces that mainly consisted of photo montage, the thing I love about all her work is that non of it is digital. Because it was around the 1920's she obviously didn't have the technology that we do today, everything was by hand, its nice to refer back to traditional methods sometimes as you notice the effort that has gone into pieces like hers. 

I personally think that the whole idea behind Dadaism is great anyway! The whole theme of it challenges authority, it pushes the boundaries on stereotypical art boundaries and questions why should we do what is expected? I love this and think there should be more Dada artists around! Aswell as Dadaism there is obviously a link with the art movement Surrealism also. The fore runner of surreal art today is still Salvador Dali of course who produced masterpieces in 1920 that still confuse people today and make them probably wonder why? 

Although I haven't yet come across any modern day artists that have produced work that has really made me question their sanity almost! I can see a lot of trends and links between the art movements dadaism and surrealism with a large number of musicians or artists of today, the main one being Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga is a very eccentric and outgoing artist of today, I'd say that if she created artwork it would definitely be in the style of Dadaism or Surrealism she may have even pushed the boundaries even more with her crazy style. Her outfits are often a big eye catcher on the catwalks and once she has even worn a dress made out of meat believe it or not.

Aswell as Lady Gaga a more recent artist that has been linked to this idea of dadaism and surrealism is the photographer and designer Oleg Duryagin. Oleg mainly works on human figures transforming them into alien-like beings with soft skin like porcelain, each with a strange and fascinating twist to them. This relationship between reality and obscur ideas makes his work so much more innovative than the many photographers and painters out there and I love how different it can be, its almost as if there is a hidden meaning behind each of his pieces. I like that about his very surreal photography. 

Whilst still on this idea of surrealism there is also an artist named Roger Dean who I feel as though people of today would've been inspired by and he would've set trends for years to come. He creates these fantasy themed landscapes with paint that you almost can't stop looking at. As soon as I looked at his work I figured that a lot of video and computer games designers of today would've especially been inspired by his work. The dreamy landscapes remind me of the now very detailed environments that are created for video gaming experiences. 

Geometric Abstractions

Aswell as this trend of Psychedelic Hippies, Peace movements and being at one with nature another trend was set for our world in the 1930's. This was created by a man named Piet Mondrian. Mondrian was a dutch painter who was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement. He evolved a non representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism, this consisted of white backgrounds containing grids of black linework and the addition of three primary colours. It was these kinds of paintings which Mondrian became most famous for. 

After this painting was made in the 1930's it has since then become a trend across the world! Many people have since been influenced by his bold, eye catching yet very simple style of painting. First of all in 2010 a very well known clothing designer named Sarah Schofield decided that she could not resist creating a swimwear line in response to Mondrians paintings. Aswell as this numerous designers have created a dress in the style of the painting, it reminds me very much of dresses in the 1960's so maybe they were inspired by the trend. Even the worldwide sports and shoe company Nike got involved with the trends when they actually created some sneakers with a very similar bold patterning!

Aswell as the links from Mondrian to fashion there has also been links in regards to album art and album covers. Mondrian influenced the creation of Paul Johns Jazz album cover which had a similar theme running throughout and I also recognised a similar patterning in the album cover for the band BeastieBoys. Although the colours did vary slightly a general geometric pattern was definitely present. Aswell as these influences I noticed that the singer La Roux who is a modern day artist also had a music video which contained the same white backgrounds, thick black lines and the same primary colour scheme. It seems as though this was a big trend to hit the nation from just a simplistic painting!

Art Nouveau

It was this psychedelic era back then in the 60's that has inspired the world of today in so many different ways. From this era we now have many festivals worldwide, it obviously began with the very first music festivals in the 1960's such as Woodstock, a very famous one. It was at these festivals that everyone came together in love and harmony, celebrated the love they all shared for the music being played and often took part in the taking of recreational drugs. We now have festivals in the UK which are Woodstock inspired such as Leeds Festival, Reading Festival and Woodstock Festival is still actually going. I do actually attend these festivals and I think its great how this is a trend that begun so long ago but is still being celebrated by thousands of people across the world. Even the fashion trends for the festival are still very very similar E.g, lots of tie dye prints, flowers in peoples hair and faces painted. These first two pictures show Leeds Festival back in 1975 and the two pictures below that are me and my friends at the festival in 2012. Its great to see the generations carrying on the festival spirit!