A
grunger is a member of a UK youth subculture of '00s.
Grungers are not an organisation or other affiliation. Rather, they're a group of people connected by a common taste in music, clothes, shared interests, values etc. Most are under 20. In this was they can be compared to hippies or mods - however note the grungers are
not similar in style to either of these earlier movments.
Grungers get their name from the
Grunge music genre of the early '90s. Today the deities of Grunge such as
Nirvana and
Pearl Jam are still core Grunger territory, but many other genres are also generally considered 'Grunger music'. These include:
Punk rock,
Emo,
Heavy Metal,
Thrash Metal, and possibly
Goth.
The Grunger style is almost painfully mis-reported in the popular press. In truth it is defined by: 'skater jeans' and other baggy, hard-wearing jeans; baggy, hooded tops, often one solid colour with a bold logo/design -
no zips; silver or black-coloured metal jewellery, chains etc.
Impossible to just generalise, but Grungers are notably from middle-class backgrounds, and are less into fighting and stealing things than townies (see below).
Grungers are in many ways similar to skaters (skaters used in the sense of the specific culture that has grown up around UK skating in the past few years). In fact, 'Grungers' is sometines to used as an umbrella term for all those loosely involved in grunger-like culture, whether they skate or not.
However, real Grungers are distinct from skaters - they have a 'heavier' style of music, clothes etc. (and are possibly deeper, more intense people).
In many UK towns and cities grungers and the like are opposed to groups like townies. Townies are a subculture very much opposed to Grungers in most aspects, and its members are usually from the working-class; although similar styles such as Rude Boys and Kevs are not necessarily.
The types of groups and people varies very much from place to place, although used extremely loosely the term 'Grunger' or 'Townie' can be used to classify many conflicting groups and styles in youth culture today.