Nirvana...overrated or what? (sang, hardcore, Doors, 1960s)
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At least from my personal experience growing up in NE Ohio, it seems like Nirvana was the end point of a progression of music that occured over a period of a few years. I am speaking from the point of view of having been a fairly mainstream teenager at that time, neither a hard core metal head nor an alternative music listener. The first change happened in late 87, early 88 when Guns and Roses hit it big. Before that, most of my friends listend to bands like Motley Crue, Ratt, maybe Bon Jovi if they had a girlfriend and were a little bit of a wuss. Guns and Roses opened us up to a little harder sound, and made those other bands seem like wimps. Liking GNR led a lot of us to explore harder bands, so that by mid 88 alot of us were Metallica fans. By the end of 88, early 89, alot of the hair metal bands were already staring to die out, with some exceptions, like Motley Crue, Skid Row (who came along a little later), and a few others. Poison was already starting to be a joke, along with Warrant. Ratt came out with an album that tanked, and I remember going to a Ratt concert in 89 that was half full.
When Nirvana came out with Smells Like Teen Spirit, the tide completely turned - just like when we all first heard Welcome to the Jungle, having a good song in a style that we had not heard before (those of us who were not already into alternative music) was all it took to change the music world. Nirvana came along at the right time with a great song, but the stage was already set. IMO, they were just the straw that broke the back of hair metal, albeit with a really great album.
OhioNative nailed the period. I was a working guitarist, going to college in the late 80's. G'n'R and Metallica, two completely different bands in terms of style, really started the mass abandonment of the big-hair, glam metal bands IMO. Some of these revisionist, VH1 shows will try group them (atleast G'n'R) with the hair-metal bands. Take it from someone that lived the period, nobody confused GNR with Poison. I'll give props to Nirvana, as they finished the job abruptly, love'em or hate'em.
Is Nirvana overated? I'd say historically, they haven't been underated. I'd agree from a musical standpoint, some of their peers have a better back catalogue. For better or worse, they did have the biggest impact on masses vs. the other grunge acts.
OhioNative nailed the period. I was a working guitarist, going to college in the late 80's. G'n'R and Metallica, two completely different bands in terms of style, really started the mass abandonment of the big-hair, glam metal bands IMO. Some of these revisionist, VH1 shows will try group them (atleast G'n'R) with the hair-metal bands. Take it from someone that lived the period, nobody confused GNR with Poison. I'll give props to Nirvana, as they finished the job abruptly, love'em or hate'em.
Is Nirvana overated? I'd say historically, they haven't been underated. I'd agree from a musical standpoint, some of their peers have a better back catalogue. For better or worse, they did have the biggest impact on masses vs. the other grunge acts.
Except GNR was really the last truly great american rock band, while metallica went downhill when they lost cliff burton in 1986, although and justice for all was their last good album, they certainly wasn't the same after that bassist died.
But Nirvana will never be forgiven, because they not only killed the hair bands off, it also inadvertently killed the careers of Megadeth, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and some others for years.
Yeah Nirvana finished the job by killing off the hair bands, they also paved the way for nu metal, pop punk, emo and others and because of that I Blame them for this.
Those genres are just as bad, if not worse than hair metal, at least the big hair metal bands had musicianship, nu metal does not.
and that's why Nirvana pretty much sucked.
Agreed, I should have noted their(Nirvana) impact really wasn't necessarily for the better. At the time, I have to admit I wasn't sorry to see the glam-bands go (never could relate to them). Nowdays, speaking as a guitarist, I miss bands that can actually play the instrument at a professional level.
Agreed, I should have noted their(Nirvana) impact really wasn't necessarily for the better. At the time, I have to admit I wasn't sorry to see the glam-bands go (never could relate to them). Nowdays, speaking as a guitarist, I miss bands that can actually play the instrument at a professional level.
Yeah, that seems to be a COMMON problem! You just don't have to be that good anymore to make it! They aren't fooling anyone with taste!
Except GNR was really the last truly great american rock band, while metallica went downhill when they lost cliff burton in 1986, although and justice for all was their last good album, they certainly wasn't the same after that bassist died.
But Nirvana will never be forgiven, because they not only killed the hair bands off, it also inadvertently killed the careers of Megadeth, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and some others for years.
Yeah Nirvana finished the job by killing off the hair bands, they also paved the way for nu metal, pop punk, emo and others and because of that I Blame them for this.
Those genres are just as bad, if not worse than hair metal, at least the big hair metal bands had musicianship, nu metal does not.
and that's why Nirvana pretty much sucked.
I beg to differ here...
Bands like Korn, Faith No More, Biohazard, and even Pantera paved the way for nu metal.
Green Day, Blink 182, and The Offspring triggered that mainstream pop punk movement in the 90's that later led to "emo".
People say that Nirvana's "Nevermind" killed hair metal. But, as a dude who remembers that period well, I'd say it was Metallica's Black Album that really killed it.
I beg to differ here...
Bands like Korn, Faith No More, Biohazard, and even Pantera paved the way for nu metal.
Green Day, Blink 182, and The Offspring triggered that mainstream pop punk movement in the 90's that later led to "emo".
People say that Nirvana's "Nevermind" killed hair metal. But, as a dude who remembers that period well, I'd say it was Metallica's Black Album that really killed it.
I remember that period well too and don't think so. Kurt hated Metallica too! Pantera was lead by Dimebag and he was a big Eddie Van Halen FAN. So I don't think so on that one ether. As a matter of fact he is buried with one of Eddie's famous guitars that Eddie gave to him. Zakk Wylde and Dimebag were friends as well. Guess what? Kurt hated them too!
Kurt did have a hipster snob attitude that I didn't agree with. Like when Van Halen came backstage and he snubbed them. That was not cool. A band like Nickelback is one thing, but VH I would say, ok guys we are a little different, but thank you for enjoying what we do. I also never got into the Nirvana-GNR feud. Very childish.
Nirvana IMO was a good band but not a great one, mainly because they had too strong of a Black Sabbath (via the Melvins) influence in their sound (and it's not like I dislike prime Ozzy-era Black Sabbath, I'm just not a huge fan of Sabbath though I do like a few of their songs).
The biggest positive about Nirvana, as someone who was in my early college years when they hit, was that, as has been noted above, they swept away the whole hair metal nonsense that was at its peak during my high school years. Even the good pop metal bands, i.e. the ones whose songs (or at least some of them) now sound good to my ears, like Def Leppard and Motley Crue, were way, WAY overplayed in the late 1980s. (For most of 1989 and 1990, you couldn't escape hearing songs from Def Leppard's Hysteria on the radio.) When you add in the crappy hair metal bands who got tons of airplay, like Bon Jovi and especially Poison, rock radio was pretty terrible in the late 1980s/very early 1990s.
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You just don't have to be that good anymore to make it! They aren't fooling anyone with taste!
