Will Nirvana Carry Over Into Future Generations?

A very knowledgeable reader of this blog Perplexio posted an objective view on what I thought about Nirvana which can be read three posts down. He went on to say this about Nirvana:


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.


A very interesting question to ask ourselves at this point in time is will Nirvana carry over into future generations? Their life span was short to say the least, they only lasted basically three years in the spotlight and five years from the release of their very first album "Bleach." I thought about this question for a decent amount of time and I do indeed think that they will carry over into future generations for several reasons. One reason I think their music and their legendary status will carry on is because I already hear their music being played on classic rock stations, every classic rock station I've ever listened to has sometime or another played Nirvana if not play them quite often. My mom who I would never suspect liking Nirvana can be found singing along in the car when they're on the radio and once something is labeled as classic rock on a classic rock station it remains classic rock forever. A second reason I believe that Nirvana will carry over is because I can see very young people listening to Nirvana and wearing Nirvana shirts. My brother who was born a year before Kurt died happens to love Nirvana and his friends also listen to them. Another thing I think to look at is the amount of historic bands who have this grand mystique around them that lived very brief lives. I think the two best examples are Hendrix and The Doors. Hendrix had an extremely brief career lasting only from 1967-1970, then The Door only went from 1967-1971. Both of which created revolutionary music and their front men died rather unexpectedly. Nirvana was just like these two, their music was revolutionary and at the same time their life was very short lived. Another thing playing in Nirvana's advantage is the way they are hyped up by critics, magazines like Rolling Stone worship Kurt Cobain and praise him as if he were a God. I feel as long as critics continue to aknowledge Nirvana as one of the greatest bands and or most important bands of all time then I think they will carry over. One final thing that I feel works out well for Nirvana is the mystery of Kurts death. Books and movies continue to be released based on the growing suspicion of how Kurt really died, whether it be by suicide or him being killed the clues don't seem to be sufficient to have a clear and definitive answer. This suspicion will only help the legendary status of Nirvana just like how it helps The Doors. Now in conclusion I don't feel that Nirvana will be remembered in the same light as The Beatles but I do think they will hold legendary status and will be considered as "The Next Beatles."