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Originally Posted by tjtech12
Can someone explain to me why Nirvana was so great, besides that I'm an idiot if I don't think so? They were a boring, generic "rock" band that MTV decided to popularize as "revolutionary". It's just slowed-down pseudo-punk.
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i'm going to blatantly lift another post i made on another forum about this...
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Originally Posted by one of my alter egos
it boils down to this - there are 2 ways to look at the band. 1 - three guys who played sloppy power chord rock. 2 - the last really big thing to shake up the mainstream before the internet changed how people directly related to music.
if you stick with comparing their songs to other band's songs then yeah they're going to come off as overrated. from a technical standpoint they weren't that great. while they were all talented none were virtuosos.
on the other hand nirvana as a cultural influence was massive. whether you like their music or not shouldn't be a factor in recognizing this.
best band ever? - hardly
the last really significant band to happen to rock music? - absolutely.
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crowquill - i'm not even sure what we're going on about anymore - the only point i tried to make the other night was that nirvana was a risky proposition for a major label during that time. not that they were treated like crap (as you claimed), but that they were treated as well as their probability for success in the market at that time was.
in retrospect every label on the planet 'should' have been bidding to get nirvana into their roster of artists, but we all know they weren't commercially viable until nirvana actually changed the market. not because MTV 'chose' to parade them but that smells like teen spirit captured the essence of a generation when cobain screamed 'HERE WE ARE NOW! ENTERTAIN US!'. it was the first time my generation actually had a voice that sounded like its own. there was no facade, no air of decadence, no poofy hair, no spandex, no contrived rehash of a 70s boogie rock tune with a generic party anthem chorus for our older brothers and sisters.
it was raw, it was emotional, but most of all it was ours. WE were the ones who chose to have that song played over and over again, because it was the first time most of us heard something that sounded like US in mainstream media. there's a reason most 30 somethings can tell you exactly where they were the first time they saw that pep rally turn into a riot and watched the dancing janitor.