Garbage (band) - Musical Style

Musical Style

Garbage's sound has often been described, not only by the band and fans, but also by critics, as being alternative rock, post-grunge, electronic. During the early days of the band, some songs such as "Only Happy When It Rains" and "Stupid Girl" were described as grunge, whilst some disagreed. The biggest target was to make pop-like songs which mixed a variety of genres, with Steve Marker saying that the band wanted to "take pop music and make it as horrible sounding as we can." Shirley Manson has stated that the band itself "used to describe as sci-fi pop, because we felt it was taking a futuristic approach." Vig has said the crossover-heavy sound was inspired by the band's background with remixes, where songs would be rearranged to every musical style to which they held interest, and also that he "grew up listening to everything from pop radio and opera to country music and polka, so I really thought that Garbage would be an interesting and eclectic thing to do."

Garbage have been inspired by Roxy Music, The Pretenders, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Blondie, The Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine.

The first four Garbage albums were composed and recorded at the band's recording studio, Smart Studios, located in Madison, Wisconsin, and produced by Butch Vig. Other bands to record at Smart Studios include, among others, The Smashing Pumpkins, and demos for Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind. Since Smart closed in 2010, 2012's Not Your Kind of People was recorded in various studios in Los Angeles, where both Vig and Manson reside.