''Hype!'' ( 1996) is a documentary directed by

Doug Pray Doug Pray is an American documentary film director, cinematographer, and editor who often explores unique subcultures in his films. His work includes ''Surfwise'' (2008), a portrait of the nomadic, 11-member Doc Paskowitz family (often referred to ...

about the popularity of grunge rock in the early to mid-1990s United States. It incorporates interviews and rare concert footage to trace the development of the grunge scene from its early beginning in neighborhood basements to its emergence as an explosive pop culture phenomenon. ''Hype!'' attempts to dispel some of the myths of the genre promulgated by media hype by depicting the grunge subculture from the point of view of people who were active in the scene. The film generally portrays this

mythos Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

in a satirical way while acknowledging that it was media hype that helped propel some of these obscure bands to fame.

Release

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1996. It opened to general audiences on November 8 of the same year.

Reception

The film holds a 93% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 27 reviews with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 7.5/10.

Appearances

''Hype!'' includes interviews and performances from bands (primarily oriented with the

Sub Pop Records Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

axis) such as TAD, Blood Circus, Mudhoney,

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

Soundgarden Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil (both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band), and bassist Hiro Yama ...

Coffin Break Coffin Break was a hardcore punk band from Seattle, Washington. History Coffin Break was formed in Seattle in the late-1980s, at the start of the grunge era. The group released its first two full-length albums and a compilation on C/Z Records. S ...

The Gits The Gits were an American punk rock band formed in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1986. As part of the burgeoning Seattle music scene of the early 1990s, they were known for their fiery live performances. Members included singer Mia Zapata, guitari ...

Love Battery Love Battery was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. History Love Battery was formed in 1989 by former rock band Room Nine leader Ron Nine (b. Ron Rudzitis), guitarist Kevin Whitworth (ex-Crisis Party), bassist Tommy "Bonehead" S ...

Flop In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

The Melvins ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Some Velvet Sidewalk Some Velvet Sidewalk was an experimental lo-fi rock band from Olympia, WA on the independent label K Records. History Some Velvet Sidewalk was formed in Eugene, Oregon in 1987 by Al Larsen (vocals/guitar) and Robert Christie (drums). Their fir ...

, Mono Men, Supersuckers,

Zipgun ZIPGUN (stylized in all-caps) are an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington, United States, primarily active from 1991 to 1994. The original founding members were: guitarist Neil Rogers (The Derelicts, Glazed), singer Robb Clarke (Trid ...

, Seaweed, Pearl Jam,

7 Year Bitch 7 Year Bitch was an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington. The band was active between 1990 and 1997 and released three albums over that time. The band formed at the same time as the emergence of the riot grrrl sub-genre, which is ...

, Hovercraft,

Gas Huffer Gas Huffer was an American garage rock band from Washington. They were known for their informal and comical lyrics and their antic-laden stage presence. History Gas Huffer classified themselves loosely in the garage punk genre. The band cre ...

, and

Fastbacks Fastbacks were a Seattle, Washington, punk rock band. Formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960), and friends Lulu Gargiulo (guitar and vocals, born October 12, 1960) and Kim Warnick (bass and vocals, born April 7 ...

. It also features interviews with band manager Susan Silver, record producers

Jack Endino Jack Endino (born Michael M. Giacondino; 1964) is an American producer and musician based in Seattle, Washington. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands including Mudhoney, ...

and

Steve Fisk Steve Fisk is an American, Washington-based audio engineer, record producer and musician. As a musician, he has been in bands such as the instrumental alternative/indie rock band Pell Mell and the electronic band Pigeonhed. He has long been as ...

, and photographer Charles Peterson. Along with the DVD that comes with Nirvana's ''

With the Lights Out ''With the Lights Out'' is a box set by the American rock band Nirvana released in November 2004. It contains three CDs and one DVD of previously rare or unreleased material, including B-sides, demos, and rehearsal and live recordings. The title ...

'', it is one of the few films to contain video footage of Nirvana's first performance of their breakthrough hit, "

Smells Like Teen Spirit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled ''Neve ...

". In the film, Seattle producer/engineer

is humorously referred to as "the godfather of grunge."

Soundtrack

Sub Pop released a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

to the film in 1996 on CD and a limited box set on colored 7" vinyl. AMG entry

Charts

Award

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

1996 : Best Documentary

References

External links

* * *
Doug Pray Interview
1996 films Grunge Rockumentaries Films directed by Doug Pray Documentary films about Seattle 1990s English-language films {{music-documentary-film-stub