I remember being in college and one day my friend walked up to me in the hall and was very excited. He said, "Have you heard this? I don't understand one word of it, but it's amazing." After all this time, I still agree with my friends assesment of the record. I really do believe that it is overrated. Yes it is a great record and an enjoyable listen start to finish. Yes, it ushered in the Grunge movement (even though Neil Young got there first). But, couldn't we have all lived without the grunge movement? I like grunge music OK, but the two best bands to come from it are Pear Jam and Nirvanna, by that count Disco was far more prolific and influential.
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May 14, 2014, 2:15:52 PM
dean squishman - Regarding the grunge movement. For the many who had been and still are involved in the college radio/ independent / alternative music movement---the importance of Nirvana cannot be overstated. They in my mind represent the moment when " alternative " music was truly becoming mainstream. The whole idea of alternative music was that it was what ever mainstream radio would not play. The alternative movement has always strived to be a place where those who did not like what was being offered in the mainstream could go to find music and culture that they could relate to at a time when mainstream music and radio was undergoing unprecedented corporatization which only served to push the underground movement further underground. Nirvana changed all that---finally a real band from a real scene with a powerful sound and a poetic vision. How could anybody stop them? My remembrance of that blur of a year goes as follows---I heard some talk about the Seattle scene which I felt I could care less about as I was a fan of our own Chapel Hill scene ---but people seemed pretty excited about Seattle all of a sudden---A week later I am driving down Franklin street and there's Nirvana unloading their van in front of the Cat's cradle and the DJ on WXYC is talking about them playing that night and they might still have some tickets left----Then a week or so after that I see that Nirvana is the musical guest on Saturday Night live---and holy crap ---They kick ass !---Shortly after that these guys are rocketing up the charts and within that same year the cradle is having something called the Big record stardom music convention or something like that which was trying to really draw attention to the local scene---This was to be an event to bring in record execs and the like to come check out the scene and all the clubs were having bands every night for 3 nights in a row and ----my goodness ----with the exception of about 2 bands there couldn't have been more dis-interest displayed by all involved ---Which is actually the trademark of the chapel hill music scene--in my opinion anyway. But the year the Nirvana broke was the year that alternative music introduced itself as a mainstream thing---which is around the time people started calling the alternative music scene the independent music movement--seeing as there was nothing left to call alternative? Nirvana pointed to other bands in the scene (The Vaselines, and drew attention to the still tragically overlooked (at the time) Pixies ). Other bands Like Mudhoney and the Screaming Trees and Soundgarden got to tour nationally on the strength of being part of that scene. Sub Pop records became a label to be reckoned with and it was like the sleeping beast of rock and roll had awakened once again as a vital art form rather than the product commercial radio had pared down to manageable units so that the advertising would fit. Because after all---it should never be an alternative to listen to anything but good music. Nirvana opened a door and as much as I like Nevermind---I always go back to the live on MTV as my favorite---The passion in Cobain's voice is so strong ---that I have on more than one occasion found myself belting Penny-Royal TEEAAAAA while out driving my car.
May 14, 2014, 2:04:06 PM
Steve - Dean, I beg to differ. I think that the 'alternative' music scene would have still been there. In fact it was without Nirvana. What happened with Nirvana, IMHO was that suddenly the record industry realized that there was money to be made there. They worked to get as much money out of the scene as possible, which is the direct opposite that the movement was about. Even Kurt saw that. He hated what was happening to his band and the Seattle scene as a result of Nirvana's popularity. Pearl Jam as well hated the spotlight and the corporate presence in the scene. As much as you can say that Nirvana made the movement possible, you could also say they killed it. To me alternative became mainstream with bands like REM and U2. Probably a different 'alternative,' but those bands were at one point considered to be alternative and became mainstream as well. Make no mistake, I don't deny Nirvana's importance in history, I just think that the importance is overstated and Kurt's brilliance overrated. I really believe that if Kurt had lived they would have faded into obscurity and people would not look back at Nirvana in the same way. Just my 2 cents.