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In the mid to late '80s, around the time I was finishing up secondary and starting uni, there was a whole bunch of bands that were constantly being credited as 'Velvet Underground followers'. Now, that VU comparison might have been exaggerated, but I first read about Sonic Youth in the same context as The Jesus & Mary Chain, Jane's Addiction, The Pixies, Live Skull, Band of Susans, Sons of Freedom, The Plasterscene Replicas (whoa! that's a blast-from-the-past namedrop that just came out of nowhere!), The Spacemen 3, etc. I gradually started listening to all these groups around the same time. The only things I could hear and see that bound them together were sharp distorted notes, hair dangling in their eyes, army surplus jackets, and a penchant for sunglasses; still, these groups were often lumped together as some sort of genre or movement in the late '80s. Once grunge hit, the illusion of a genre seemed to disappear quickly. That's the way I remember it, from my Canadian perspective.
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