Grunger
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See also the Star Wars Expanded Universe character Grand Admiral Josef Grunger.
A grunger is a member of a UK youth subculture of '00s.
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Explanation
Grungers are not an organisation or other affiliation. Rather, they're a group of people connected by a common taste in music, clothes, shared interests, values, etc. Most are under 20, and in this was they can be compared to hippies or mods - however note the grungers are not similar in style to either of these earlier movements. Greebo is often used as a often derogatory synonym by people not involved with the culture: the original meaning of greebo stems from the bikers of the '70s and was used to describe particularly dirty bikers, though now is used to describe grungers in general.
The grunger subculture does not truly have one iconic figure above all others, a single individual who embodies everything that grunger culture is about. Whereaes the original grunge explosion had Kurt Cobain and lad culture had Noel Gallagher, grunger subculture does not as yet have an iconic figure.
Origins
Until the rise of Nu Metal in the late '90s the term "grunger" did not really exist. However with the sudden chart success in Britain of bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, young people who were not grungers themselves as well as the media invented the term to describe young people who, to various degrees, dressed like the musicians in these bands. Young people in Britain had actually been dressing in this fashion for quite some time, possibly 2 or 3 years before the Nu Metal explosion, but it was not until these bands achieved commercial success that the term came into existence.
Music
Grungers get their name from the Grunge music genre of the early '90s. Today the deities of Grunge such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam are still core Grunger territory, but many other genres are also generally considered 'Grunger music'. These include: Punk rock, Emo, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, and possibly Goth.
Clothes
The Grunger style is often mis-reported in the popular press. In truth it is defined by: 'skater jeans' and other baggy, hard-wearing jeans; baggy, hooded tops, often one solid colour with a bold logo/design - no zips; silver or black-coloured metal jewellery, chains etc.
Politics
Though it is a generalization, grungers do not tend to be as politically motivated as the punks and hippies were. Whereaes the hippies where motivated by love and a humanitarian desire for a utopian society and the punks where motivated by 'bomb the state' anarchism, grungers in truth do not really have any such motivations. An important factor in this could be because in Britain there is an undeniable apathy towards politics, a fact proved by low voting turnout at both local and national elections, and a general sense that all politicians are equally corrupt, a feeling shared by both the media and the general public.
Due to this, grunger politics tends to be focused on the individual rather than society at large, with lifestyles choices such as whether to be vegetarian or not or the constant effort to "be yourself" often being more important than the desire to change mainstream society. Sometimes this has negative effects, with some grungers becoming completely self-infatuated and self-obssessed to the point where they will talk about nothing but themselves and their problems.
Relations
Grungers are in many ways similar to skaters (skaters used in the sense of the specific culture that has grown up around UK skating in the past few years). In fact, 'Grungers' is sometimes used as an umbrella term for all those loosely involved in grunger-like culture, whether they skate or not. However, many who claim themselves to be Grungers are distinct from skaters - they have a 'heavier' style of music, different clothes etc.
In many UK towns and cities grungers and the like consider themselves opposed to groups like townies, who differ considerably in dress, musical taste, attitude, etc. Also, whereas grungers tend to be middle-class, townies are usually thought of as being from the working-class; although similar styles such as Rude Boys and Kevs are not necessarily.
The types of groups and people varies very much from place to place, although used extremely loosely the term 'Grunger' or 'Townie' can be used to classify many conflicting groups and styles in UK youth culture today.