Could Pearl Jam have become as popular without Nirvana?

Thoughts_Arrive

Touching on a similar thread....
Sure Nirvana kicked the door down and made Alternative rock accesible and mainstream

I do not know what to think here, who knows ay?

Dann2000

Nirvana certainly paved the way but, at the time, every Seattle band was offered a contract regardless of talent. Not too many still filling stadiums around the world nearly 20 years later.

Cream always rises to the top.

dimitrispearljam

Pearl Jam = The Best Band In The World...all the others are just words

Feiraco

It's nice to discuss, but the WHAT IF questions never are relevant. We'll simply never know.

We can't deny though that Ten was released before Smells Like Teen Spirit hit the radio, and only months later had an impact. The Seattle hype certainly helped. But in the end, if Pearl Jam hadn't been pure quality they wouldn't sell out stadiums 20 years later.

In fact, we all know the band basically did all it could in and after 1993 to temper their popularity by refusing interviews and making video clips. In this case, the WHAT IF question is whether the band would have become even more popular if they had cooperated with the business initiatives, and if they still would have been together today.

mawfordinks

And you can't dismiss the mighty Alice In Chains. Having the first gold record out of Seattle. Remember that was released in 1990. I think the movie Singles also did a lot for the bands. At the end of the day PJ worked their asses off and gave us a masterpiece in Ten.

Rubberbandman

in my opinion Nirvana kicked down the door shed some light on all those bands but Pearl Jam, Alice in chains and even Soundgarden are far superior to Nirvana and i think would have lasted like they have, unlike Nirvana

Brisk.

What i dont get is why was it Nirvana? They are more simple to understand i.e easy punk music? Because Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam are EASILY 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 times better than Nirvana.

Parksy

I highly doubt that Nirvana really affected Pearl Jam's popularity.

I think it was more of a timing thing. If Smell's Like Teen Spirit wasn't going to "break the wall down".. then I'm sure Jeremy, Even Flow, or Alive would have just the same. The Seattle explosion would have still happened with or without Nirvana.

PJFAN_seattle

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Pearl Jam = The Best Band In The World...all the others are just words

:roll: yes everything besides pj sucks

I dont think grunge would be as popular without nirvana
At my school i see tons of kids with nirvana t shirts, which means nirvanas music still speaks to teens, but i never see any with pj or aic. I personally like nirvana and pj way more than aic or soundgarden
But pj would have still been as popular Ten is a very solid record

MisterEtake2

Pearl Jam - yes. Courtney Love and Hole - no.

arq

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Pearl Jam = The Best Band In The World...all the others are just words

+1

The_Giant_Midget

PJ_kidd_9-21-22 wrote:

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Pearl Jam = The Best Band In The World...all the others are just words

:roll: yes everything besides pj sucks

I dont think grunge would be as popular without nirvana
At my school i see tons of kids with nirvana t shirts, which means nirvanas music still speaks to teens, but i never see any with pj or aic. I personally like nirvana and pj way more than aic or soundgarden
But pj would have still been as popular Ten is a very solid record

kids in my school wear nirvana t shirts and could probably only name like the 3 songs on rock band or whatever. it doesnt speak to them, they think its cool that kurt died so they buy the shirt at jc penny.

thefin190

Well I think the momentum was already building. Mother Love Bone probably would've gone big around the same time as AIC if Andrew Wood didn't die, but again, its another what if.

Niko80

Nirvana was no doubt very important. They brought all the attention up to Seattle for pj to take advantage of. PJ might have made it any case, but Nirvana definately made it alot easier for them.

Johnny Abruzzo

Brisk. wrote:

What i dont get is why was it Nirvana? They are more simple to understand i.e easy punk music? Because Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam are EASILY 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 times better than Nirvana.

+1

Yea!

andmak

I've had the debate time and time again with someone from a younger generation about where each band stands and the what ifs. I believe Nirvana was big but became more famous from the death of cobain. My younger cousin thought they were the greatest band "alive" until i introduced him to PJ, AIC, Soundgarden. He knew nothing of them and has realized that the latter mention bands have better quality music. I sense that Eddie and the band wish they didn't exclude themselves from the limelight now, but who knows???? PJ is by far the best lasting band around. ASK AROUND FROM PLP THAT WERE AT ACL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

dimitrispearljam

Johnny Abruzzo wrote:

Brisk. wrote:

What i dont get is why was it Nirvana? They are more simple to understand i.e easy punk music? Because Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam are EASILY 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 times better than Nirvana.

+1

Yea!

+1=2 hell yes

Dark Star

mawfordinks wrote:

And you can't dismiss the mighty Alice In Chains. Having the first gold record out of Seattle. Remember that was released in 1990. I think the movie Singles also did a lot for the bands. At the end of the day PJ worked their asses off and gave us a masterpiece in Ten.

Plus, Soundgarden had already won a grammy by that time.

thefin190 wrote:

Well I think the momentum was already building. Mother Love Bone probably would've gone big around the same time as AIC if Andrew Wood didn't die, but again, its another what if.

I don't think Mother Love Bone would of gone anywhere. Like a lot of bands, the newer sound of Nirvana/AIC would of made MLB fade into obscurity pretty fast. MLB was an extension of hair metal.

Niko80 wrote:

Nirvana was no doubt very important. They brought all the attention up to Seattle for pj to take advantage of. PJ might have made it any case, but Nirvana definately made it alot easier for them.

I think PJ would have been a pretty popular band in some circles, without a doubt. It just took Ten longer to reach the masses. Even kids who had never heard of Nirvana or Grunge loved Ten from the first listen. To what extent and how high they would have peaked is questionable, I'd guess that they wouldn't have ever gone #1 or been able to stay a band for 20 years.

Parksy wrote:

I highly doubt that Nirvana really affected Pearl Jam's popularity. I think it was more of a timing thing. If Smell's Like Teen Spirit wasn't going to "break the wall down".. then I'm sure Jeremy, Even Flow, or Alive would have just the same. The Seattle explosion would have still happened with or without Nirvana.

I don't think those PJ songs would of broke the wall down. They may not of even gotten much airplay on MTV is it wasn't for the success of Teen Spirit. The video for that song, and the song itself, was timeless, and it broke all the barriers.

Foriginal Sin

That's kinda like asking if Led Zeppelin would have been more popular then the Rolling Stones had they stayed together. Doesn't really matter, like one poster said "the cream always rises to the top" and it will forever. The worst part of the whole Nirvana debate is that in every Rolling Stone poll about best guitarists, band, singer, etc. always lists them in the Top Ten whereas Pearl Jam is rarely found. So yes Pearl Jam may not have been the biggest band on earth for a few years had it not been for Nirvana. Having said that, today Nirvana wouldn't be known for much more than releasing Smells like Teen Spirit unless a tragic incident took one of their members. Pearl Jam took the reins from Nirvana back in 1993 and galloped away.