Teenage Angst Has Paid Off Well
Many people would ask the question: Why in the world would Nirvana be compared to The Beatles? With just four albums Nirvana changed the world, and with just one riff Nirvana stood in the forefront of one of the fiercest movements in music history. A big misconception with Nirvana is that they were not the first “grunge” band and those who love to put down Nirvana use that against them. The problem with all the naysayer’s is that regardless of if they were or were not the first “grunge” band they were the first band to get it right. The Beatles weren’t the first rock band and Bob Dylan wasn’t the first folk singer but they changed the world because of their ability to get it right. Time is crucial for ones success and nothing stands truer for Nirvana’s success, everything was aligned perfectly at the time of their release, it was basically the perfect storm. Music was dry and the charts were dominated by people like Michael Jackson, teenagers had nothing to latch on to. One thing we can all conclude about teenagers is that they are dysfunctional, hormones are all over the place and angst is 95% of their personality. Nirvana gave a young generation exactly what they wanted with the perfect chemistry. Their first release “Bleach” was in no way going to reach the mainstream due to its trashy and rough sound but “Nevermind” was a completely different story. “Nevermind” was the perfect blend of a punk sound and pop music. One cannot deny the catchiness of Nirvana songs, at their heart they are pop songs with hard riffs serving as a façade. Everything on the album is catchy and connects with teenage angst through very relatable lyrics and rough and edgy sounds. Kurt Cobain is by no stretch of the imagination a great guitarist no matter what Rolling Stone wants to rate him (rated 12th by Rolling Stone.) Aside from his guitar playing ability his voice is phenomenal. He has a beautiful pitch to his voice yet he can turn the beauty into some of the roughest growls and screams to the point where it is unconceivable how his vocal chords were able to withstand that amount of torture. No matter what you think of Nirvana they were indeed the next Beatles, the time was right and the sound was spot on and Nirvana struck the world with all their might. In their later years they went on to produce easily one of my favorite albums “In Utero” if not my favorite album behind “Dark Side of the Moon” and my favorite live album “MTV Unplugged in New York.” Kurt Cobain is no God and was no martyr for Rock but his short life led to one of the most important movements and therefore should be credited properly. Nirvana saved rock when it was most susceptible to imploding…
posted by Jeff at 12:39 AM
6 Comments:
Rolling Stone magazine once said Kurt Cobain was the John Lennon of his generation. It's sad that music and Rock n Roll in general has been slumping in the past 10-15 years and a lot of it goes back to the day Cobain died in 1994. He led a revolution in grunge music he helped open the doors to such acts like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam in the early 90's. The Beatles did the same thing in the 60's opening the doors for the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and the Who. We are still waiting for the voice of this generation. Right now music is lacking serious direction and the bubble gum pop movement is killing music right now. This is the Brittany Spears/American Idol generation and all this is horrible. All you hear on the radio now days is this awful music.
Very good point, we seriously need some help right now and we need another Kurt Cobain to save the dying music. Right now I would say the closest to Kurt would be Jack White...It clearly doesn't seem that he is starting any movement though.
As someone who is not now, nor ever really has been a fan of grunge-- I hope you don't mind a more objective opinion on Nirvana...
While I never really got into grunge, I respect Nirvana and the impact they had on music. But I honestly believe it's far too soon to tell whether or not they were "the next Beatles."
History is generally a fair judge of political/social/cultural impact. And while I do believe Nirvana will be fondly remembered, I don't know that it will ever be in the same way or to the same extent as the Beatles (although we will find out within our lifettimes).
They WERE the poster-band for grunge, and they were THE definitive grunge band-- but grunge as a musical style was incredibly short-lived (perhaps only matching psychadelia in its brevity). It's impact may have been tremendous but it was also incredibly brief.
Jeff, excellent post and commentary. I have a headache or I'd say more.
I agree Perplexio, it is hard to tell if Nirvana's music will carry over into future generations but judging from the standpoint of now very few bands have had the social impact that Nirvana had. I feel in no way they will ever come close to having a Beatles status but I do think they are the closest to it and therefore I feel they are the "next" Beatles.
Also about their career being brief I think this only escalated their status because as we see Kurt seems to aquire much more credit than I believe he deserves although I do feel he is deserving of much of it. I feel that briefness of Nirvana sort of put an aura around them. I personally hope that their impact will cary over into future generations but as you said only time will tell. Thanks for the input!
One of my ex-girlfriends once said of Nirvana something to the effect of, they spoke incredibly loudly to a generation but were gone before any subsequent generations had a chance to enjoy or experience them in their prime.
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