In a recent interview with The New York Times, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder talked about the late ’80s and early ’90s, being asked if the alt-culture explosion from those times could be still felt today.

Vedder said:

“You know, I used to work in San Diego loading gear at a club. I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to, bands that monopolized late-’80s MTV. The metal bands that, I’m trying to be nice, I despised. “Girls, Girls, Girls” and Motley Crue: [expletive] you.

“I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous. Guns N’ Roses came out and, thank God, at least had some teeth.

“But I’m circling back to say that one thing that I appreciated was that in Seattle and the alternative crowd, the girls could wear their combat boots and sweaters, and their hair looked like Cat Power‘s and not Heather Locklear’s, nothing against her.

“They weren’t selling themselves short. They could have an opinion and be respected. I think that’s a change that lasted. It sounds so trite, but before then it was bustiers. The only person who wore a bustier in the ’90s that I could appreciate was Perry Farrell.“