Nirvana - Were They Really That Special?

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MadForIt

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Sorry if there was a Nirvana thread but i searched and could not find it

I have listened to Nirvana a bit recently. I thought i'd give them another go

Here are my thoughts

1) They have never appealed to me as i feel uncomfortable listening to the music of a guy who killed himself, as i think thats a terrible thing to do. I guess it has clouded how i see their music. If i was old enough to like them at the time perhaps i would have felt differently. I find their music so dark and depressing. It just makes me feel odd. The whole Cobain death thing i cannot disassociate from the tunes.

2) I dont like how the death of Cobain has been glorified as it if is was a great act. This maybe from personal experience but when i was at school kids as young as 11 wore Nirvana hooded tops. To me i thought why? You probably dont even know another song past Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was always the emo/goth/middle class kids trying to act rebellious wearing these tops. When i spoke to them they always seemed so depressed. And listening to this band would not have helped. I dont like how someone who completely lost control of their life is revered so well

3)I have never liked grunge. I can only digest about 5 Smashing Pumpkins tunes and i need to give Pearl Jam another go, but once again from what i have heard i find it dull. Perhaps its an American thing? Just like some American dont get British bands i dont get these bands at all. I like my music to be more uplifting and jolly!

4) Being the cynic that i am i feel as though if Cobain was still alive, Nirvana would not have such a big legacy.

5) Now concentrating on the tunes, i am not very impressed. I find their music to dark (those bass lines freak me out). I can only digest these songs, About A Girl, In Bloom and sometimes Heart Shaped Box (just as it sounds ok, when i concentrate on the lyrics it puts me off, and the video is weird) Lithium sounds ok to but once again the lyrics are to dark. But as a general rock tune, its not bad.

If i had kids, i'd ban them from Nirvana

6) I dont get Cobain's sense of humour
This is dreadful

YouTube - Nirvana-I hate Myself and Want To Die Lyrics

Now its you turn to speak (I expect a backlash)
 
Were they that good? No. But as the most visible of that big wave grunge bands (mostly thanks to Cobain's celebrity), their cultural importance outweighs their actual music. I don't like any of their stuff, but I understand why they're so heralded.

But yeah, they were better than Oasis.
 
i feel as though if Cobain was still alive, Nirvana would not have such a big legacy.

This is ridiculously true, but you need to bear in mind that this isn't Nirvana's (or Cobain's) fault. It's just how things go. I mean, does anybody remember that by the time Hendrix died, he'd already gone years without actually recording any great music? No, because he died. So it goes. Lennon spent what wound up being more than half of his own career (in terms of years, not output) churning out pretty intolerable stuff, too. Death is a strange thing to deal with, when it comes to fame and/or notoriety.

Anyway, as far as the bigger picture goes, I don't think that Nirvana was a great band. I do, however, think that Nirvana was a pretty good band which had moments which went beyond greatness. I also think that this pretty good band released one fantastic, and fantastically important, record (Nevermind).

Nirvana gets way, way, way too much credit for a lot of things, and Cobain didn't actually do very much for me (other than introduce me to Daniel Johnston, Shonen Knife, The Pixies, and The Shaggs, aka Worst Band Ever) or for the "art" of guitar playing, but Nevermind holds up remarkably well, about two decades later, and it's not like The Beatles were shredding up a storm, either, back in the day.
 
In Utero was a very unique and interesting record. Nevermind has some truly great moments but mostly just feels bland to me. The little I've heard from Bleach did nothing for me.

So overall, yeah, I'm not much of a Nirvana fan. I'll just leave it at that.
 
Nirvana: I think was a great band. But NOT the gods they are often made to be these days.

I do think they often get too much credit for killing hair metal bands and starting the "grunge" movement. I think they were part of something great, they just happened to be at the right place at a slightly better time.

That being said they took the best parts of 70's rock, punk, and pop sensibilities and made some great songs and good albums. Cobain himself in interviews talked about how a good melody or hook was important and something people connect to, which was a little out of step with his art rock and punk influences, but I think that was part of what stood them apart.

Kurt obviously made some bad choices, but it would have been interesting to see what he could have done. Would Nirvana have stayed together awhile longer, would they evolve, there were rumors that he wanted to make an album with Michael Stipe, we'll never know.

RIP
 
Everybody imitated Nirvana and that grundge guitar style so the entire sound was driven into the ground so people couldn't hear it anymore.
 
Nirvana: I think was a great band. But NOT the gods they are often made to be these days.

I do think they often get too much credit for killing hair metal bands and starting the "grunge" movement. I think they were part of something great, they just happened to be at the right place at a slightly better time.

That being said they took the best parts of 70's rock, punk, and pop sensibilities and made some great songs and good albums. Cobain himself in interviews talked about how a good melody or hook was important and something people connect to, which was a little out of step with his art rock and punk influences, but I think that was part of what stood them apart.

Kurt obviously made some bad choices, but it would have been interesting to see what he could have done. Would Nirvana have stayed together awhile longer, would they evolve, there were rumors that he wanted to make an album with Michael Stipe, we'll never know.

RIP

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. I honestly don't get the Nirvana hatred that seems so rampant around this forum. Maybe it's one of those phenomenons you had to live through to experience. That said, I definitely think that the circumstances surrounding Cobain's death led to their current mystique, which takes focus away from the music, sadly.

As far as hooks and melodies go, big agreement there. I remember reading that he was a huge Beatles fan - very mainstream for an alternative guy, but there you go. It shows where some of his pop sensibilities came from. Listen to Nirvana's About a Girl, and The Beatles' Things We Said Today back to back. There are a lot of similarities.
 
I don't want to regurgitate the same thing that's already been said here numerous times, but yes, all celebrities get blown out of proportion by dying early. Similar to what Shouter was saying, even Nirvana themselves were already releasing some (debatably) forgettable material in the later years.

That all said, though I haven't listen to it in ages, Nevermind is fantastic, and completely ruled me musically for a year or two when it came out. While it has been overhyped, you still have to give it some credit. Anyone who is old enough to remember its release probably owned the album, or has some sort of story about it. I can even remember my mom's response to seeing me open the album in the car on the way home, notice a naked baby on the front, and I flip the cover open and Kobain is there flipping me off. Surprisingly, she laughed.
 
Quality band of undeniable importance. I reckon they defined what "rock" was gonna sound like in the 90's and for at least until 2003, yet Nirvana's legend is probably unfairly greater than Pearl Jam's (because of Cobain), even if their music isn't necessarily as good as Pearl Jam's.

For better or worse, without Nirvana there would probably be no giants such as Nickelback, Creed, Matchbox 20, Linkin Park, Live. Hootie, Blink 182, Green Day, Foo Fighters (obviously). Nirvana made "jam" rock fashionable again, commercial again, rock for the fun of it, not to be bombastic (Gunners, BonJovi) or over-conscious urgency to adopt an image. Out with the synth and and in with more guitars. Down to earth rock for rock's sake...

Oasis did the same in the UK.

Nevermind is a bloody solid album. Come As You Are is a bore, but the rest is top-notch.
Lithium, Lounge Act, Teen Spirit, Drain You :drool:

Overated by some maybe, but they are still cherished by many millions of people...
 
Nirvana was one of the best things that happened to music.
Kurt Cobain R.I.P.

Anyone who wants to know my thought on why I feel this way, just ask.
 
they kinda ruled during the Grunge era, esp with Kate Moss and all.

:up:

thing is, I was pretty young when Cobain died, I just remember the late stuff like 'Smells Like'. the video was so rebellious back then. I loved all those 'who-gives-a-fuk!' type videos (like Happy Mondays, etc).
 
nirvana is still largely responsible for the shitty mainstream rock radio sound inflicted upon innocent ears the world round.

they had a few decent songs, but by in large were dramatically blown out of proportion. cobain in particular.
 
For better or worse, without Nirvana there would probably be no giants such as Nickelback, Creed, Matchbox 20, Linkin Park, Live. Hootie, Blink 182, Green Day, Foo Fighters (obviously). Nirvana made "jam" rock fashionable again, commercial again, rock for the fun of it, not to be bombastic (Gunners, BonJovi) or over-conscious urgency to adopt an image. Out with the synth and and in with more guitars. Down to earth rock for rock's sake...

Ok, I have to go with a big WTF here...

I'll give you Nickelback maybe, but Hootie and Matchbox 20 seriously? I think you just made Kurt roll over in his grave...

Plus, Live and Green Day started before Nirvana came on the scene.

You may want to rethink this one.
 
Short answer - Yes. They were special.

I'm very fond of the band and what they did, especially Kurt. I think he was a fascinating individual...an excellent songwriter with a powerful and unmistakable voice. Nevermind is one of the best and, yes, most important albums of the last quarter century. The songs are still great, heavy and melodic, and Dave Grohl's drumming on the album is easily the best thing that dude's ever done in his career. There's also some really cool stuff from the now-famous MTV Unplugged session. Especially the covers of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World", the Meat Puppet's "Lake of Fire", and Lead Belly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"...the vocal on the latter track being pretty close to transcendent.

Anyway, yeah, they kicked ass.
 
I love Nirvana and don't see them as being overrated at all. They introduced me to that whole 'sound' and In Utero's got to be one of my favourite albums of all time :up:
 
Listen to Nirvana's About a Girl, and The Beatles' Things We Said Today back to back. There are a lot of similarities.


Thats why i like that tune!

I dont just dislike Nirvana. I dont get the genre. I dont see how he was a genius. I dont like that kind of rebelliousness.

If i was an American in Seattle perhaps i could see the meaning of what Cobain was on about

To be fair i dont listen to many non UK bands (U2 are British Isles which is near enough)
I dont get Greenday also. I think they are terrible.

Death does strange things to legacy's as i dont think Jeff Buckley is anything special yet all my friends go mental if i say anything against him

To grunge/emo fans Cobain must be the modern day Jesus
 
I think they're incredibly overrated. I can name 5 bands (The Smashing Pumpkins, for one) who were around at the same time and were much more musically talented.

The only Nirvana song I've ever liked was that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" song. Other than that, there wasn't very much to get excited about.
 
This is meant to be about Nirvana, there are no other threads about them!

We've actually had plenty of Nirvana threads over the years and it's always the same thing. Half of the posters think they sucked and half of them don't.

Why on earth the original poster would ban their kids from Nirvana is beyond me. Kids should grow up with music -all kinds of music.

Music all day long, every day, from every room in the house.
 
For better or worse, without Nirvana there would probably be no giants such as Nickelback, Creed, Matchbox 20, Linkin Park, Live. Hootie, Blink 182, Green Day, Foo Fighters (obviously).

I don't think there's any "for better" about that.
 
i respect Nirvana's impact on the music industry. not a big fan of their music though. i just never really saw what the big fuss was about.
 
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