Nirvana. Overrated?

pjhawks said:

you can never take away the greatness of Nevermind and the effect it had.  Unplugged was great. I loved both Ten and Nevermind and played both pretty consistently at the time. But to me VS. blew away In Utero and is what landed me so much more in the PJ camp.  Even if Kurt hadn't killed himself they were destined to implode anyway.  Don't think Dave Grohl was long for the band.

Merkin Baller said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Zod said:

DewieCox said:

You guys have to be joking right? Nirvana’s Unplugged has proven to be the quintessential of the era. AIC’s is quite a thing to witness and really highlighted how much depth their music has and PJ is great but offers nothing beyond a great band playing great songs. Nirvana’s was a perfect display of why they’re still the most celebrated band of the early 90s. 

Nirvanas influence isn’t just a surface aping of certain aspects, though that happened plenty too, but completely changed the landscape on the arrival of Nevermind and their approach embedded into the culture and was felt for generations after.

The only other early 90s band they comes close is Alice In Chains. Quite a few bands grabbed onto the downtuned, harmonized, dark subject matter and it inspired some pretty decent bands. 

Pearl Jam’s effect on any musically stylistic choices was delegated the the near immediate aftermath and has had virtually no lasting impact. 

I agree a lot with what you say... just struggle with the influence one.   The tangent of music that Nirvana put the spotlight on lasted about 4 or 5 years.   Then the world forgot.   Some musicians say they are influenced by them, but you can't hear it. 

I love Nirvana's music, especially the more raw stuff.   I only argue that their biggest contribution was the spotlight they put on rock music in the early 90s.  Long term wise, rock music started to die after the early 90s.  All the watered down safe rock kind of killed it.   Not really a legacy in the wake of Nirvana.

They influenced the whole music industry.  They made the term "Alternative" an all encompassing genre.

You'll find a lot of influences in the more recent bands that are around.

Hell, Teen Spirit lyrics are even in a modern day rap song by some dude named Jay Z.

I'm going to contradict myself, because earlier I said I didn't disagree with @Zod's take, but the more I think about it, I do disagree with it:

In addition to Stone's comments from PJ20 and the Eddie Van Halen story, there's also the scene from the HBO documentary The Defiant Ones where Dr. Dre is cranking Breed & goes on to talk about how much admiration he has for Cobain and what he was able to accomplish.

Nirvana was influential AF and turned the whole industry on their ear. You can argue that if it wasn't them it would have been someone else to kick the door open for alternative, but it WAS them, and as a result, they'll always be that band.

Spiritual_Chaos said:

HesCalledDyer said:

I loved them as a teenager.  Now I go back and listen and it's no wonder my parents thought I was on drugs in high school.  Aside from Nevermind, their shit is just flat out unlistenable.

In Utero > Nevermind

tempo_n_groove said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

HesCalledDyer said:

I loved them as a teenager.  Now I go back and listen and it's no wonder my parents thought I was on drugs in high school.  Aside from Nevermind, their shit is just flat out unlistenable.

In Utero > Nevermind

I agree w u here.  You are way off on your Metallica Albums assessment though.