Tina Marie Bell: The Queen of Grunge
When people hear the name Tina Marie Bell, they largely are unfamiliar with the name. Those who are familiar with the famous Seattle music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s are often oblivious to the name of the woman, as well as her significance to the popularization of the Seattle sound. Much of this is a direct consequence of her sexual and racial identities.
Tina Marie Bell was born in Seattle, Washington on February 5, 1957. By all accounts, Bell devoted her life to music at a young age. In fact, Bell was a singer at a baptist church and first performed at a theater, both in Seattle. After meeting guitarist Tommy Martin, Bell soon married and gave birth to a son in 1979. In 1983, the couple formed a band named Bam Bam. This development was the beginning of something bigger and more majestic than Bell and any of her bandmates could have ever imagined.
With her small frame and low, unapologetic voice, Bell set the pioneering groundwork for what would become known as the Grunge Movement. Bam Bam became a well-respected band within Seattle’s local community during the mid-1980s. Even a teenaged Kurt Cobain, the future Nirvana frontman and generational icon, was a fan of the group. As a Black woman, Bell often faced racial and misygonyist attacks while performing on stage. However, Bell’s awesome charisma, talent, and fortitude shined through.
However, as far more popular grunge bands began to ascend in Seattle’s underground scene during the late 1980s, like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains to name a few, the band began to decline. Members left the group for more promising opportunities, and Bell made the risky decision to relocate the band overseas in London, with the hopes of better luck. The gamble failed, as Bell recognized that Bam Bam was not being received nearly as well as she had expected. And even more disheartening was Bell’s decision to walk away from Bam Bam and music entirely in 1990.
Under the colossal shadow casts by the Grunge Movement’s meteoric rise in the early 1990s, Bell’s personal life experienced great setbacks. After divorcing her husband in 1996, Bell fell into great obscurity. Severe depression and alcoholism consumed her later years. In 2012, Bell succumbed to a severe liver disease, before a planned documentary film and memoir on her life could be directed by her only child, T.J. Martin. The details of her death are heartbreaking to say the least. Her full career of creative work, and other personal belongings, were thrown away after her body was discovered weeks after her death. Martin would soon go on to win an Academy Award that same year, becoming the first black director to win an Academy Award for a feature-length film.
Despite the deep sorrow that surrounds her untimely death, today Bell is acknowledged by several successful grunge pioneers as one of the best that Seattle has ever produced. Matt Cameron, Bam Bam’s original drummer and also widely known for his work as a member of two juggernaut grunge bands in Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, has praised Bell for her talents as a singer and songwriter. Her story reminds us not only of the price that must be paid by the overlooked, but also of a humbling truth. That history is not always written by the victors.
