后垃圾摇滚Post-Grunge

西雅图Grunge音乐对美国主流音乐产生影响不久，就出现了一批所谓Post-Grunge风格的乐队。他们与西雅图Grunge音乐的主要区别在于：西雅图Grunge音乐坚定地追随了80年代的地下另类摇滚乐风格，而Post-Grunge音乐则更多地被概念上的Grunge音乐风格----内在形式广泛流行的，思想严肃的重摇滚----所影响。所以很多Post-Grunge风格的乐队只是简单地模仿了Grunge音乐的风格表达，却不具有最初Grunge艺术的独立特质。

Post-Grunge乐队承袭了典型Grunge音乐中充满焦虑，冷静自省的音乐风格，并将其看作是Grunge艺术的必要元素。即使处于低蘼时期，Post-Grunge乐队们也保持了十分严肃清醒的态度对待自身的存在，最终，Grunge音乐的独特元素成为了正统音乐本质上不可或缺的成分。

Post-Grunge风格几乎影响了整个90年代的主流成熟的重摇滚音乐。虽然音乐中包含了另类的元素，Post-Grunge依然是一种主流商业音乐----其浑厚流转的Grunge吉他演奏是音乐优美流畅，脍炙人口。很多乐队在风格上十分相似却又不完全相同；除了旧式Grunge音乐，Post-Grunge还借鉴了80年代初期的喧闹流行，朋克流行，复兴斯卡乐，另类金属和古典纪念摇滚等音乐风格。此外，一部分怪异的Post-Grunge风格的物品还因其黑色幽默而非低调忧郁而大受欢迎。

Post-Grunge音乐在旧式Grunge音乐产生不久后就已经浮出水面；代表旧式Grunge风格的nirvana乐队于1992年初进入巅峰时期，短短几年后，Post-Grunge风格的bush乐队和candlebox乐队也获得了巨大的成功。旧式Grunge音乐最初的的鼎盛时期过去后，Post-Grunge风格开始兴起，90年代中期到末期涌现出一批新生乐队；其中一部分持续走红，而另一些则昙花一现。

时至今日，Post-Grunge风格仍然兴盛不衰，creed和matchbox20是美国最受欢迎的两支该风格乐队。

Post-grunge is a derivative of grunge and a style of alternative rock and hard rock that began in the 1990s. Originally, post-grunge was an almost pejorative label used to describe bands that emulated the grunge sound. During this time, bands like Bush, Candlebox and Collective Soul were viewed as post-grunge. In the late 1990s, post-grunge morphed into a more clearly defined style that married the sound and aesthetic of grunge with a more mainstream approach.

Post-grunge rose to prominence in the 1990s and continued to remain popular in the 2000s. Post-grunge bands such as Foo Fighters, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, Nickelback, Creed and Matchbox Twenty all achieved mainstream success. During the 1990s, a post-grunge sound emerged which emulated the attitudes and music of grunge, particularly its thick, distorted guitars, but with a more commercially accessible tone.Unlike a lot of early grunge bands, post-grunge bands often worked through major record labels and incorporated influences from a variety of musical genres including: jangle pop, pop punk, ska revival, alternative metal and classic rock. Post-grunge music tends to be in mid-tempo and is noted for having "a polished, radio-ready production".

Grierson of About.comwrote that musically, post-grunge bands "split the difference between plaintive ballads and aggressive rockers, resulting in songs that combine the two extremes into a sad-eyed, propulsive middle ground".Post-grunge tends to feature the "...same kind of melody as...bubblegum pop" and pop song structures. Sometimes post-grunge music features both an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar playing simultaneously.

Post-grunge tends to have production quality that is much higher and cleaner than grunge. A "major rift" between grunge and post-grunge is in the lyrical substance of the music; grunge expressed emotion through loose metaphors or third-person narratives, while post-grunge was known for being direct and blunt. While describing lyrics that are common in post-grunge, Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound wrote that post-grunge "plunged directly into the "I." " Geffen wrote that most post-grunge songs that achieved mainstream success "call after a prospective or past companion in the first person".

Post-grunge lyrics also tend to be about topics such as relationships, romance and drug addiction. According to Geffen, "grunge's frontmen posed with their addictions; post-grunge's songwriters sought redemption for them". Geffen states that post-grunge songs "fit the mold of songs made for...teenage and pre-teen girls" who were "longing for a distant someone", and the songs "wore signs of femininity" which she posits may be why the "...post-grunge moment pissed off so many angry dudes."

According to Geffen, artists such as Alanis Morissette, No Doubt and Sarah McLachlan all "crystallized the songwriting strategy that would form the emotional core of the post-grunge moment". Post-grunge is a derivative of Grunge that emerged in the mid-1990s with bands such as Live, Bush, and Foo Fighters.

Although it adopted the vocal style, angsty lyrics, and "dirty" guitar sound of grunge, the songwriting placed more emphasis on pop hooks and conventional song structures. It became one of the leading popular music genres from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, particularly following the death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain in 1994.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the genre reached its peak in popularity with the rise of such bands as Creed and Nickelback.