Wow... its been 20 years? I feel much older now. LOL. I remember the very first time the Radio station where i lived played Smells like Teen Spirit. I was listening intently for the Maiden Tix give away (which i actually one i might add) and while I was waiting the DJ said something to the effect of "here is a brand new band out of Seattle" I had no idea what was going on. It sounded so unlike something you'd hear on mainstream radio at that time. I was never a fan as i am more of a Prog Rock, classic rock and metal fan, but as one poster mentioned above, you simply cannot argue the fact that they absolutely changed the music scene of the time in much the same way the beatles did. The Entire sound of the 90s was shaped by that moment. For better or worse, love em' or hate em'.

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YMMV

Chont's Mustang Presets

In this case I need to quote my own post. I grue up in western Washington about 50mls. from Aberdeen and know it and the surrounding area very well. If ever there was a place most likely to cultivate a full blown case of manic Depression its Aberdeen and I have herd that he was a victim. In the summer months the entire State is sunny and Hot when you get within 5 mls. of Aberdeen it gets fogy and misty and cold. It Will stay that way for months on end with maby one nice day here and there. The town is old, Stinks, Dark, Dank, and most of its inhabitants are hungry and broke or on there way to the Ocean or back home again. It's a real hell hole. Tacoma is about 70 mls. and Seattle is about 100mls. both in the same direction. Olimpia about 30mls. Is the Capital City of the State, Has little to offer aether so If your a kid stuck growing up in aberdeen your chances for success are next to none at best. And Nirvanna overcame all that. for a while
----Danny,

Okay, here's my two cents: I certainly think Nirvana were an important band in the history of rock 'n' roll. There is no question that they connected with lot of people and set the stage for what rock music would sound like for the next ten years. Like the Sex Pistols back in the late 70s, they opened the door for a whole lot of music that might otherwise not have found an audience.

I was in high school when Nirvana first got big but it took me a while to warm up to them. I was of the opinion (and still am, for that matter), that many of their peers (namely, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains) were doing music that was simply more interesting.

Nirvana fell victim to an awful lot of hype after 'Teen Sprit' came out. After Cobain's death in '94, the band was practically elevated to sainthood. They were overhyped, overplayed and generally given a bit more credit than they deserved. It took me many years before I recovered enough from 'Nirvana Burnout' to actually listen to them again.

I decided to pick up a copy of Nevermind a few months back and tried to listen to it with fresh ears. I've come to the conclusion that it's a very solid album, well-crafted, honest, and in many cases, quite catchy. I think it deserves to be ranked among the great albums, if, for nothing else, the impact that it had on all the music that followed it.

Ultimately, I still believe Cobain's untimely death caused the band to be mythologized to a point somewhat beyond what they would have seen had he lived and continued to make music.

It would be quite interesting to see what people would think of the band if it were still active today.

Bang on. I recently completed a dissertation for university on grunge, and had a similar view by the end of it. I've always thought that Nirvana, like Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Buckley, benefited from an untimely demise. Who knows what they'd be like now... if you poke through the grunge bands of that era, there are so many that have fallen by the wayside- I think that Pearl Jam are the only surviving, pretty much intact band- but what is interesting is how many are still involved with music. Obviously, you've got Mark Lanegan, originally with Screaming Trees, now with fingers in pies regarding QOTSA... Dave Grohl, say no more... Chris Cornell with the whole Audioslave thing, and now Soundgarden have reappeared... Alice in Chains exist again, albeit minus their original bassist and lead singer... it's nice to see they're all still there.

Grunge, and particularly Nirvana, assisted alternative music to be accessible to many more people... OK, so it ended up as a big festering mess thanks to being exploited out of the $@!, but I think it's better that happened, as opposed to it never existing at all... that would be a tragedy. Whenever I pick up a guitar, I'll be inclined to play a riff on it from any of the major grunge bands. I wasn't around to see any of it (I was only 2 when 1991 came around with all the major grunge releases, and a gleam in the milkman's eye when it all started kicking off) but I've retrospectively explored it and loved every minute.

It's difficult to attribute one band with the whole accolade of allowing people to explore into alternative music though. I certainly wouldn't put Nirvana as the pinnacle of grunge- Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, in my opinion, were doing a lot more in the way of great music and their album sales surpassed Nevermind's in the following years. But without all of them, it would be a different thing to experience altogether... just my $0.02.

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'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

[quote="TimDrakeMusic"]I blame Nirvana for helping people realize that to make money in music, talent doesn't matter.[\quote]
That was going on looooong before KC and the Nirvanas came along.

Just look at 90% of the pop from 1960 to 1985...disposable music made by disposable artists...at least Cobain was a good songwriter, and whether you like his guitaring or not, he at least had his own style; although you can hear his influences he really didn't play like anyone else before him.

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Screamin' Armadillos
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I think there's little doubt that grunge was the most significant movement in rock music over the last 20 years or so. So much of what occurred in its aftermath was either an imitation or a reaction against it.