Question: where did the term plugging away come from

title: Grunge
text: `` Grunge ... became an anti-consumerist movement where the less you spent on clothes , the more ' coolness ' you had . '' The style did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion ; music journalist Charles R. Cross said , `` ( Nirvana frontman ) Kurt Cobain was just too lazy to shampoo '' , and Sub Pop 's Jonathan Poneman said , `` This ( clothing ) is cheap , it 's durable , and it 's kind of timeless . It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80s . '' The flannel and `` ... cracked leatherette coats '' in the grunge scene were part `` ... of the Pacific Northwest 's thrift - shop esthetic . Grunge fashion was very much an anti-fashion response and a non-conformist move against the `` manufactured image '' , often pushing musicians to dress in authentic ways and to not glamorize themselves . At the same time , Sub-Pop utilized the ' grunge look ' in their marketing of their bands . In an interview with VH1 , photographer Charles Peterson commented that members from grunge band Tad `` were given blue collar identities that were n't entirely earned . Bruce ( Pavitt ) really got him to dress up in flannel and a real chain saw and really play up this image of a mountain man and it worked . '' Courtney