Can someone explain Nirvana to me? Not trying to start shit...

Can someone explain Nirvana to me? Not trying to start shit, I just don't get how they're one of the best selling bands of all time.
The radio station I listen to at work play their songs somewhat often and they're so average (Smells Like Teen Spirit is a drag though) and kind of boring.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/F-6QcRZqhOk
youtu.be/pkcJEvMcnEg
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

They were in the right place at the right time, and their sound was less heavy than a lot of the other major Grunge bands so they crossed over easier into a mainstream audience. They are good though, but stuff like Smells Like Teen Spirit has been played to death.

Nirvana made Grunge cool and obliterated glam rock overnight. Kurt's unique voice, lyrical writing, and the bass/drummers all added into their style that made them stand out from other punk/grunge bands. Although Nevermind is good, it's pretty overrated and more commercial, with Smells like Teen Spirit were more for normies to get into.

I suggest looking into Incesticide, Unplugged, Bleach, and In Utero to get a sense of what Nirvana did. If it's still boring, than it's maybe just (you)'re taste.

Nirvana is just a good mix of noise rock & pop.
Listen to In Bloom: heavy intro riff, tension build up during the verse, melodic pop chorus, noisy solo. The songs on Nevermind are good but butch vig's production is not that great (on Lounge Act when the distortion kicks in the 2 guitar tracks sounds like garbage, shit overdrive on the left side and shit fuzz on the right side)

old guy schooled me on them
imagine no internet at all. okay?
only access you got to music is the radio and hanging out at record shops. most kids just got fucked over hearing hair metal 24/7 and even back then ppl knew it was shit.

so nirvana comes along and finally gives ppl access to some decent shit thats on the radio and it doesn't suck. kurt prolonged it because it was a cool mothafucker who was pretty humble also

>hair metal was shit

Uh-huh. Because grunge wasn't oh so revolutionary angsty pop punk with the occasional power ballad with less melody and 90% more angst. It's revisionist faggots like you that ignore the fact that so called "shitty hair metal" (Def Leppard, Firehouse etc.) was still big and booming in the 90s.

>It's revisionist faggots like you that ignore the fact that so called "shitty hair metal" (Def Leppard, Firehouse etc.) was still big and booming in the 90s.
yeah for the older ppl of those times. but for the kids or young adults nobody wanted to hear that shit anymore.

actually andy wallace mixed nevermind, who is considered a legend in that field (he mixed RATM's self titled the following year) and compared to butch vig's mixes i think he did a great job. nothing sounded like nevermind in 1991 and its sound obviously influenced the sound of all 2000's rock (really heavy compressed drums and layered power chord guitars).

just listen to smashing pumpkins' gish that was released like 4 months prior to nevermind in 1991 and produced by butch vig, sounds nothing like nevermind

> that ignore the fact that so called "shitty hair metal" (Def Leppard, Firehouse etc.) was still big and booming in the 90s.

At the time people were getting shit of it's shit. Just like Green Day got over exposed and played Holiday almsot 24 hours a day, people got tired and wanted something more. Grunge offered that, made music and emotion matter in songs, while also simultaneously killing fag rock in the process(which is a good thing).

I missed out on Nirvana, born in 1991.
But even I get them, I used to think Metallica were good until I heard Nirvana.
They just are man.
MTV Unplugged is the greatest rock album ever recorded.

for such a popular band, they do have a lot of raw energy in their songs. I think they do deserve their iconic status

This.
Never judge an artist by their popularity.
Most popular music is garbage, but some of the best music was very popular.
Kurt didn't like Nevermind because he felt it was over produced, and their later albums prove it.

nah nevermind is their best.

My bad, i mixed up Wallace and Vig, my brain farted. I hate both the recording process by Vig (the vocal double tracking, the two guitars tracks, what the fuck was he thinking?) and the mix by Wallace. But I can agree that Wallace did what he could with what he had.

To appreciate it as much as some people you have to go down a certain rabbit hole of their songs, i started with drain you, and more poppier songs, went to in Utero, then bleach, and now i favor the songs they didn't use like 'opinion' and their demos

What fucking emotional matter? If anything grunge was commercially perfect for pleasing the younger idiot teens going through their angsty phase. Fag rock as you retards call it at least maintained a positive attitude. Grunge gave birth to glam's faggot cousin buttrock who mostly complains not to mention their smaller cousin indie who get off to self pitty even further most of the time. As for the retard who said Nirvana was oh so energetic The Stooges did it before and were a huge influence on mr guncontrol. The difference? They weren't such crying pussies.

How could you be this wrong

In my opinion, because the sound Nirvana pioneered become so common place and really over saturated in the years after Nirvana, it's hard to imagine now just how ground breaking it was back in 1991

You'd had to have been around in the 1980s and the abyss between the 'mainstream' and the 'alternative' which was taken for granted back then. Smells Like Teen Spirit was basically the first 'alternative' single which really broke into the mainstream and the normies of the day started buying it.

During the 1980s the only rock and roll music normies listened to was U2, Bruce Springsteen, Guns n Roses and John Cougar Mellencamp.

hair metal ran out of ideas in like 3 days though

>let's write a ballad
>let's add a guitar solo
>let's have an image of partying and getting laid but show an emotional side

the best thing to come out of hair metal was Ozzy's solo shit, and even that got pretty embarrassing sometimes

It's pretty much the same reason The Strokes exploded ten years later. Because mainstream rock had become so bloated and full of the same sounding buttrock bands, and then they came along with music that was both raw but accessible at the same time.

He was happy to work with Butch Vig at the time, but on his spiral I believe he said he prefered the production of the harder edged early productions, although it's your call if that means anything. Some of the riffs off of Nevermind are fucking monolithic as they are

>kind of boring.
What would make them more interesting?

not really. pixies, sonic youth, REM, dinosaur jr, husker du, minutemen etc all were making "alternative" music pushing creative boundaries on a fairly widespread scale before nevermind got huge. in fact, if you were a real record store kid you probably had heard bleach and weren't all that impressed by it.

>Le 80s music was bad meme

The Smiths, The Stone Roses, N.W.A., Black Flag, Pixies, Public Enemy, Minor Threat, New Order, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, The Cure, De La Soul, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica in their prime. There was a shitload of great music. Hell, even the most mainstream of pop artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson were putting out great songs.

80s was the GOAT decade for music after the 90s.

Bruh, listen to yourself right now

>the Seattle Grunge scene birthed indie

What the fuck are you talking about? Kurt openly admits his worship to bands like the Pixies and Sonic Youth

I well aware, that era of alternative music is actually my favorite time for music period but the average music listener in 1990 didn't know shit about the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. etc., and sure as shit never listened to Bleach, which I enjoy more than Nevermind
Even though that music was around it had no mainstream exposure until Nevermind

>pixies, sonic youth, REM, dinosaur jr, husker du, minutemen
None of these guys were able to successfully assimilate the indie/DIY/punk ethos into pop music as successfully and powerfully as Nirvana (unless they themselves copied Nirvana [see: Monster, Washing machine]). All those artist would agree as well.

Literally none of those top artists were close to popular and radio-friendly in America around 1990, it was hair metal and Madonna clones for days. NWA only really got airtime in small urban circles and the indie fathers/punks were cult following only

>The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Pixies, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, and Metallica
Werent mainstream, although Metallica were kind of approaching mainstream at the time
>R.E.M.
College rock, niche music
>N.W.A., Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, De La Soul
Hip hop
>New Order
Dance music
>The Cure
All their hits were pop, and kind of niche band in its own genre anyway

Nirvana was part of the 'alternative' scene but broke to suddenly becoming the biggest band in the world. They were so committed to some stupid notion of 'alternative' that Cobain more or less killed himself because he felt he sold out or some retarded shit like that

Since it's Euro time, I don't think it can be understated how much of a different path American and British radio/popular music culture took starting with the Stone Roses/britpop and then Nirvana, even though it ended up being similar shit under a different attitude. There was crossover but certainly a distinct difference, it was there even from the 80s

* and also because he got hooked on heroin and married a poisonous bitch I guess

If you watch the Montage of Heck doc (the only one his daughter signed off on), they quit together and he was the one who wanted to go back to the junkie lifestyle because he wanted an out and couldn't deal with his depression.

I've always found the scene where she talks about how she almost cheated on him on tour interesting, apparently she told him and his response was to down a bottle of xanax and land in the hospital

lol his daughter who was a baby when her dad died. there are 65 year olds that know more about kurt's life than she does

u mean the girl who fucked her daddys look alike

Kurt's amazing voice and talent to make catchy songs basically. Literally every song on Nevermind is catchy and good, In Utero also.

I can't listen to Pennyroal Tea, In Bloom, On a plain... because my brain becomes addicted and gets me in a depressed mode.

Nevermind is popular amongst kids of 2017 that wear Nirvana t-shirts because the production was so ahead of its time. Now with the internet Nirvana will still be heard in 1000 years and young people will be able to get into it because it just never ages as far as "guitar music" goes. Just like I think modern trap shit will never really age because the production is insanely clean and sharp.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't like Nevermind's production. It's too polished and it sucks the energy out of a lot of the songs.

isn't it notoriously brickwalled by albini though

oh that was in utero, my mistake

>notoriously brickwalled by albini
What?

Kurt was cute, hence fame.

Then his pretty face exploded, hence legend.

Plus, right place, right time.

Nah, the music was good. Listen to 'Come As You Are', and other selected songs from their discography and tell me that he wasn't talented.
He was talented no doubt, and the rest "fell in to place"... meaning record labels pushing at the right time just as the "movement" was boiling, causing it to explode globally. It was "something" and people who were into it were into it massively, and that made it easier for label to push on to the world.

It was the perfect time for it, and record execs pushed it to become what it is today. Without marketing they would have been nothing.

You can watch shows where Nirvana played songs like In Bloom and Smells Like Teen Spirit before they blew up, and it's actually strange as the crowd doesn't scream, the music sounds worse/not as polished as you came to know it, and the whole thing just seemed amateur/not that great.
It's not until you pile on the folklore and legend and nostalgia, etc, and when they started playing huge stadiums that it becomes something else. They became a great band through all of this. It's elevated by just how popular it got. Probably something to do with psychology and popularity, etc.

It's probably going to happen again anyway... Rap and trap is now the edgy shit that people listen to, but that will get stale too and eventually it will swing back to more punk-ish guitar based music, and repeat.

But yeah, watch Nirvana playing their early shows in like 90/91, etc, before they were well known... you'll understand what I mean.

Nirvana is nothing but Nu-Dadrock.

I watched all of them and it was the most brutally honest one desu, Courtney Love knows she's a piece of shit. She doesn't try to defend herself when they ask her about being a pregnant junkie. It has none of the conspiracy shit some of the others do either, they just talk to his mom, band mates, Courtney, and a few other people. They animate some of his sketchbook art, it's neat.

>nothing sounded like nevermind in 1991
Exce0t the pixies and mudhoney of course

Not really.

Kurt admitted he ripped off the pixies to make nevermind. Bleach resembles Melvins and In utero was Steve albini and REM worship

>ripped off the pixies to make nevermind
How so?
>Bleach resembles Melvins
Except we're talking about Nevermind, not Bleach

Also show me a Melvins song that soudns like About A Girl
>In utero was Steve albini and REM worship
Show me an REM song that sounds like tourettes

>Kurt didn't imitate the Pixies

He had his own voice but what are you saying? He totally grafted their whole "explode on the chorus" dynamic into his music. I still love Nirvana for embracing that late 80s noise rock crowd like Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard, as well.

youtu.be/F-6QcRZqhOk
youtu.be/pkcJEvMcnEg


Just made this Minutemen crop, gonna use the shit out of it

O shit was thinking of Butthole Surfers when I said Jesus Lizard

>"explode on the chorus" dynamic
That's just dymanics, Pixies didn't invent them. Bands have been doing that for 50 years
>late 80s noise rock crowd like Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard
Like on Lounge Act ro Come As You Are?
No not at all.

Not the user you're talking to, but kurt admitted to trying to write a pixies rip off song with smells like teen spirit. And the pixies obviously didn't invent dynamics, but they were pushing the soft verse loud chorus idea in the late 80's when few other bands were

>haHAA my two cherry picked songs don't fit into your closed box of some of his influences!

Kurt Cobain on "Smells Like Teen Spirit":

"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard."

>Kurt Cobain on "Smells Like Teen Spirit":
Nice backpedaling

For the rest, see See above

Surely you're being dense for the sake of it. He said that he wanted the record to sound like Black Sabbath, too- there is a network of influences that go into every song by anyone

>He said that he wanted the record to sound like Black Sabbath
But does Nevermind really sound like Black Sabbath?

You are surely being dense if you think it does.