'90S Gets Its Own Mood Music: Grunge Lite

It's a sick, sick world.

First there was flannel. Next came grunge.

Finally, diehard Seattleites looked on in horror as their beloved local bands and thrift-store clothes made their way onto the pages of Vogue and People magazines. The scene is dead, hipsters claimed, and immediately began looking for the next big thing.

But grunge is not dead. Now it's living and breathing in the form of . . .

Elevator music.

Yup, Seattle rock has sunk this low. And you can blame it on Sara DeBell, professional musician and cynic, recently transplanted from New York.

With tongue permanently stuck in cheek, DeBell noticed that when a trend dies, it usually lives a long afterlife in the world of easy listening music. "It's like entropy," she said. "It's real natural, that's how popular trends end up."

So DeBell wanted to beat the trends at their own game. The result is her demo tape, "Grunge Lite: Golden Tidbits from the Land of Mud and Honey."

Just read her press release. "Why did I do this? Because every authentic artistic and hormonal expression I've ever seen in my life has been, often improbably, bled dry and turned to an advertisement."

Consider Van Halen's "Right Now" being used for the clear Pepsi ads. Remember the controversy over Nike using the Beatles' "Revolution" for a commercial?

DeBell skewers such grunge classics as Tad's "Wired God," Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick," "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden, and

yes, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Truly frightening is how natural Pearl Jam's "Even Flow" sounds as an easy listening piece. Hey guys, need a fresh new sound?

DeBell began her piano career at age 5, banging out TV commercial tunes on the ivories. She graduated with a music degree in 1985 from Smith College and was in several bands, including a "Frank Zappa rude humor band" in the Northampton, Mass., area before moving to Seattle.

DeBell has attracted some attention for her beautiful music, including a spot on MTV. She's in the middle of turning "Grunge Lite" into a full-blown album.

And since she's got this beautiful music out of her system, DeBell plans to return to her own music.

"I'm afraid to turn this easy listening music into a career," she said. "I've gotten too good at it."