Grunge question - Nevermind

[NORTHCOAST]

Can you please give the definition of what Grunge is/was, what made it unique, what bands epitomized it, etc. Listening to Nevermind and trying to pick out what makes it such a groundbreaking album. Thanks.

[Ragin]

NORTHCOAST said:

Can you please give the definition of what Grunge is/was, what made it unique, what bands epitomized it, etc. Listening to Nevermind and trying to pick out what makes it such a groundbreaking album. Thanks.

I don't think Nevermind really stands out as a groundbreaking album. I will say that it seemed or at least felt like the hardest stuff ever accepted on pop radio.

I'm not sure it really was the true start to the craze since The Cure and others were there first, but it seemed to usher in the age of depression filled music being accepted as the only lyrically driven music.

[jimmy74747]

Perhaps the most overrated album of the 90's.

Kurt Cobain wrote a catchy hard rock song that turned kids from hair metal to "depression filled" music (thats a good term to describe it).

Hair metal was being played to death with 10 bands on pop and rock charts sounding somewhat similar. Bands like Winger, Slaughter and Trixter were overkill. Kinda like teen pop in 2001 where every label needed an act. Nirvana just happened to come in at a time when music needed a change. Thats all.

[halo19]

That is easily their most commercial album released. You're right though about it not being completely groundbreaking. Even the big hit single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was basically just The Pixies doing the guitar riffs to "More Than A Feeling" (by Boston). Then there's "Come As You Are" which took the guitars from "Eighties" by Killing Joke. Plus, it was Sonic Youth who inspired them to sign on DGC.

It's not as groundbreaking as the people want you to believe, seeing as it was neither the first or last grunge album.

It's basically music that mixed punk rock and hard rock, modernizing the stuff, and it was groundbreaking at the time because indie bands were starting to be "metal" (I think it's a stretch). Then it hit the mainstream as SLTS went on the pop charts, as well as spending 20 weeks on Billboard's modern rock tracks chart.

Bands that epitomized it were Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney (most true to the scene), Alice In Chains (though they also had many prog-metal fans), Hole, Melvins (from the town Cobain was raised in), early Smashing Pumpkins, bands who generally had dark lyrics that got depression popularized. That's how I'd describe it.

[NORTHCOAST]

Thanks for the information. Rolling Stone's Top 500 Album list has Nevermind at #17. Where would you put it on the scale of 1 to 500? Did Cobain's suicide mystify this album to the point of making people rank it higher than it deserves? I think the RS list was compiled by music industry and artists types who voted their personal Top 10.

Regarding grunge in general, is it dead? Does any band label themselves grunge anymore or is it passe?

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I'd say any band that labelled themselves grunge these days would be booed off stage.

[Miguelín]

NORTHCOAST said:

Thanks for the information. Rolling Stone's Top 500 Album list has Nevermind at #17. Where would you put it on the scale of 1 to 500? Did Cobain's suicide mystify this album to the point of making people rank it higher than it deserves? I think the RS list was compiled by music industry and artists types who voted their personal Top 10.

Regarding grunge in general, is it dead? Does any band label themselves grunge anymore or is it passe?

Yes, The fact of the death of Kurt Cobain makes Nirvana be an overrated gruop. The same happens with Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison or Lennon.

Is there any artist as great as these??? yes, but they are death, and now it's time to put them higher, than they will be if they were alive.

Note: I like Nirvana... but its too depressing