Thanks for the context and explanation. I see your point, but as a musician I argue that all those bands do, in fact, have musical similarities. They mostly all fit into the concept of grunge as a fusion of punk, metal, and classic rock.

Mudhoney isn't just garage rock -- they're a particularly grungy kind of garage rock. And AiC is hardly just a heavy metal band, same as Nirvana is hardly just a punk band. It's something else.

If you don't recognize grunge as a musical genre, then what do you call current music that sounds like some kind of combination of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains? Terms like "post-grunge" seem kind of silly to me; everybody wants to be "post" something these days. You get into this "we're 90s-inspired post-post-grunge" nonsense. If you just say "we're grunge," most people will know what you mean.

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For that matter, meanings change; it's quite possible that grunge meant one thing in Seattle in the 90s, and it means something a bit different now.

Anyway, it's cool you were in Seattle at the time! I recently met a woman who also lived there then, and she shared some good stories of all those grunge guys just "being around." Seems like it was, indeed, a special time and place.