Crusty
Though the term Crusty was only ever used half seriously by the British music press, as it is a very vague term, it is referred to by this term by the majority of the indie community. The scene began forming in the late '80's and achieved its biggest commercial success in the early 90's.
Unlike Madchester or Grunge music, there is no particular place from which the crusty scene evolved. Musically, the general sound of many of the crusty bands could be termed either Pop punk (though it is very different to the American equivalent peddled by bands such as Blink-182) or indie pop rock. However, because the scene itself was so small, some of the bands generally termed crusty are musically very different to this template. The Levellers, for example, music is more reminiscent of folk rebel/protest songs, and Swervedriver are are much more melodic than the crusty punk bands.
It is because of this musical vagueness that the the scene took its name from the image of the bands as oppossed to the music. Many of the bands had grungy, ratty hair (usually dreadlocks) and wore grungy, dirty clothes. They also toured in transit vans, playing literally hundreds of gigs each year but selling virtually no records (one of the hardest working bands, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, were dropped by their label due to a lack of interest).
The crusties did have a brief period of chart success during 1990/1991, mainly due to much coverage (some would say hype) in the New Musical Express and the Melody Maker as well as many other British indie publications. Due to the crusty scene and the shoegazing scene emerging at almost exactly the same time, the Melody Maker referred to both scenes as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself." This is because many of the London based shoegazing and crusty bands (as well as well as London based proto Brit-pop bands like Blur)went to each others gigs.
The crusty and shoegazing scenes died overnight when the Grunge music invasion came to Britain. With Nirvana's success, the crusty/shoegazers were deemed too bland by many, including the magazines that hyped them, and attention reverted back to America. Most of the crusty bands, like the shoegazers, managed to last into the mid 90's before calling it a day. Any hope of the scene regaining it's momentum following grunge was crushed when Brit-pop bands like Oasis took off in 1994/1995.
List Of Crusty Bands
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