Angst

Angst is a Dutch and German word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe a more intense feeling of internal emotional strife.

Angst in contemporary music

Angst, in contemporary connotative use, most often describes the intense frustration and other related emotions of teenagers and the mood of the music with which they identify. Punk rock, grunge, emo, rock and roll, and virtually any Alternative Rock dramatically combining elements of discord, melancholy and excitement may be said to assert angst. There is an obvious connection to this music and the various subjugation of its proponent youth or racial or sociopolitical minority subculture.

Related Topics:
Teenager - Punk rock - Grunge - Emo - Rock and roll - Alternative Rock - Melancholy - Subculture

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Angst was probably first discussed in relation to contemporary music in the mid to late 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s "teen angst" was expressed in music to a certain extent in the rise of "punk", but the word "angst" is currently more associated with, and was probably first used in reference to, the grunge movement and the band Nirvana. Nirvana themselves seem to have been aware of this, as evidenced by the first line of Serve the Servants in which Kurt Cobain describes the success of writing songs dealing with the subject (Teenage angst has paid off well | Now I'm bored and old...).

Related Topics:
Nirvana - Serve the Servants - Kurt Cobain

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~