The Swag: Rock Posters of the ’90s

Exploding with color, Swag is an introduction into the world of concert poster art from the past decade, and a look at the cutting-edge music for which it was created. Sandwiched between the glitz of glam rock and the bombast of bling-bling, rock music in the 1990s sounded off against record-industry commercialism in favor of a new stripped-down, do-it-yourself aesthetic. Disenchanted by the over-produced pop sensations of the 1980s, bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sebadoh, and Sonic Youth began to emerge from relative obscurity into the limelight of music videos, magazine covers, and festivals with their raw amped-up sounds that only bass, drums, and guitars could make. It was a time when, on many levels of popular culture, the underground seized control of the mainstream. In alternative arts communities from Seattle to New York, it seemed that nearly everyone was in a struggling band or lending a hand to one. Meanwhile, that same DIY spirit was driving those whom had been enlisted - budding graphic artists, band members, among others - to create the concert flyers, posters, and other promotional materials that directed the fan bases to the plethora of performances. They too were stripping away the gloss, reducing the methods and the medium until only the essentials were left. A new kind of rock poster had emerged and it broke at least as many established rules as the bands it was designed to promote.