Is Nirvana an overrated band? (and other ones)

[Khor1255]

That's right. But there are objective standards even in pop drool.

Can I compare Beiber with Adele or even McDonna? Of course I can because there are varying levels of talent and expression involved. When all is said and done I still might LIKE Beiber better than someone who actually has a little musical talent but that is taste which is separate from any objective music standard.

Is that more clear?

 

[TheYoungMan]

Key. That's hat happens to me. I like Nirvana. But I don't think they're great,

 

[Khor1255]

Yeah, that's right. I like Kiss a lot too but I don't try to claim they were musical geniuses or anything.

 

[Aero]

I think Nirvana were a great band but they spawned a whole lot of crap that came after them. They were also somewhat responsible for taking the guitar solo out of music that had been so prominent in the 70s and 80s and I hate them for that.

However, they were far and away the best grunge band of the 90s because Cobain was such a brilliant songwriter and they made good music.

 

[Khor1255]

I can see where anyone could say that. Their 'hooks' are absolutely undeniable. I'll love what I love from Nirvana till the day I die but I think in terms of music that really speaks to me I dig Alice in Chains a little more (they are truly 3rd generation metal and I am at heart a metalhead) and I like Screaming Trees significantly more than either (that is - the little bit of Screaming Trees that was both well thought out and had a lot of heart).

However, such things as their unplugged recording makes me think that live Nirvana would have likely been something that changed my rating of them (much like Screaming Trees when I saw them in a little club shortly after their breakthrough).

 

[TheSound]

I never bought into the Nirvana mythology to be honest, they made 3 records, and the only Nirvana album I ever liked is Nevermind, which is an OK record, and for me their whole status is massively inflated by this (perceived by many) rebelious rock ' n roll suicide romanticism of Cobain shooting himself dead at the age of 27 after years as a heroin junkie, so it's like that whole James Dean thing (who was a lousy actor who made a few mostly pretty terrible movies that gained huge appeal after his death) and John Belushi (for me a modetrately talented comedian) and Sid Vicious (who never had a single musical bone in his body) - you wonder if guys like this had lived they'd all by now be living in disgraceful middle-age, and starring on celebrity ballroom dancing reality shows?

I never even understood what 'grunge' is - Pearl Jam are my favourite band these days, but they were never to me a 'grunge' band even remotely, I can't hear what that even is, just because they come from Seattle? So them and Alice and Soundagarden and the rest are just rock bands, plain and simple, they would have made the same music and sounded the same even if they'd come Portland, Oregon, or Edinburgh, Scotland, so to me 'grunge' is a ridiculous pidgeon-hole that I can't even hear.

 

[Riff Raff]

Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are grunge rock bands whether you buy into the whole term or not. Maybe you can't hear it but doesn't mean others are the same. lol Basically a mix of metal, alternative, punk rolled into one with a distorted guitar sound, dark lyrics. And yes Pearl Jam are grunge too. I may despise that band but doesn't take away the fact they are grunge. Grunge is basically a movement that happened to have Seattle based bands in it. The location doesn't make the sound but the way they made their music a bit darker and heavier is really what it is.

 

[TheSound]

Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are grunge rock bands whether you buy into the whole term or not. Maybe you can't hear it but doesn't mean others are the same. lol Basically a mix of metal, alternative, punk rolled into one with a distorted guitar sound, dark lyrics. And yes Pearl Jam are grunge too. I may despise that band but doesn't take away the fact they are grunge.

Like I said I simply can't hear it, so therefore - by definition - to me at least it simply doesn't exist, at least in aesthetically musically terms...the whole grunge thing was just a media rock-fashion invention, it was more about lumberjack flannel shirts, work boots, and long dirty hair, than anything of much lasting musical importance. It just happened to be that there were a lot of bands making noisy records in Seattle at the same time, and they all got signed.

 

[Sharp Dressed Man]

As far an influencing a generation goes, I guess you can't call Nirvana overrated, but musically they are. I always shake my head in disgust when Kurt Cobain pops up on lists of best singers, best guitarists etc! Needless to add, most of the bands who are thrown into the grunge box (Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden etc) are vastly superior imo.

As for Kiss, well, they are perhaps not technically brilliant like some bands, but they do have a talent for writing good catchy songs and have done so during a long career. So although their image has a lot to do with just how big they became, I still wouldn't call them overrated!

 

[Khor1255]

I always thought grunge was a stupid term. But at the time it was coined metal was considered to be shit like Winger and Cindarella (Bon Jovi etc etc) so it would have been an anachronism to name it what it really is.

Punk?

Please, these guys sight these bands for much the same reason everyone did in those days.
Alternative?

Do they sound like U2? REM? Sugar Cubes?

These bands are 3rd generation metal. Period.