Nirvana. Overrated?

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.

I wish there was another word for got the spotlight on you.  I don't feel influential is quite the word I want to describe it with.  They got the world's attention.  I need a better synonym   Then again, maybe if people's parents played them a lot of Nirvana growing up, we'll see resurgence of that raw kind of music.    Problem is, when I listen to radio, Nirvana gets the least air play of the big four seattle bands... I always thought that was odd....

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I see young kids at university wearing Nirvana t-shirts and adopting the grunge look. I'd say they are still influential.

goldrush said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I see young kids at university wearing Nirvana t-shirts and adopting the grunge look. I'd say they are still influential.

Ask them What their favorite album is. 

Nirvana let their logo and images of Kurt be sold at e.g H&M. Same with Guns N Roses. 

I would think alot of people just wear it as a cool design without knowing much. 

Like the thousands of Ramones shirts that you see everywhere. I'd be very surprised if half of the people wearing them knew who the Ramones were.

dankind said:

tempo_n_groove said:

pearljammr78 said:

Can’t we all just agree that the best album Kurt Cobain ever wrote was Hole-Live Through This. 

Good one!!!

Yeah. And Stanley Kubrick shot the moon landing on a soundstage.

pearljammr78 said:

I love Live Through This. Great album. I spin that more than any Nirvana album but that was a rumor that Kurt wrote it. And I don’t know who filmed it but I do believe the moon landing was faked. But we will never know for sure. 

Side note. That documentary that HBO did about Kurt I forget what it was called but the scene where he is nodding out while holding Francis and Courtney is laughing that he’s on drugs still makes me sick to this day. If only she could have died with Kurt. 

I watched maybe 1/3 of Montage of Heck and turned it off.

Not for me.