does any body else feel that "smells like teen spirit" revolutionized the music industry?

Question

before nirvana came out with this groundbreaking song, mtv and rock stations were polluted with schmucks such as Gun' N' Roses and Metallica who CLEARLY had no talent whatsoever. this song came out and the lyrics were so profound and thought provoking. it changed music forever and i truely feel that this industry would not be what it is today without them.

Answer 1

Each to his own. If you were an angst ridden teenage boy then yes maybe Nirvana were profound and thought provoking. For everyone else they were yet another rehashed rebellious anti establishment rock band. Not original at all in the grand scheme of things.

Answer 2

For one, Guns'n'Roses and Metallica sure as heck do have talent! But also, what Nirvana wound up doing (though it wasn't what Kurt had hoped would happen, as you can tell by listening to In Utero) is create a brand of pop music. It turned rock into commercialized pop, resulting in Green Day, Blink-182, Fall-Out Boy, All-American Rejects, etc. Don't try to say they're rock: they usually lack guitar solos, or really any amount of lead guitar, they have pop melodies, pop choruses, and are bred to maintain a certain image. Whether you feel that this is for the better or for the worse is entirely your opinion. However, as far as traditional, classic rock and roll is concerned, Nirvana and Smells Like Teen Spirit was the end of rock and roll and the beginning of power pop.

So you could say it revolutionized the music industry. All that is left is your own interpretation on whether that is for the better.

Answer 3

Ok, seriously, I love Nirvana and believe that they did revolutionize music, but how can you say that Guns 'N Roses and Metallica have no talent? Have you ever actually listened to them play?? Try out S&M by Metallica someday, it may change your mind.
And again, while I love Nirvana, I can think of many other musicians with thought provoking, profound lyrics that would put Nirvana to shame. I'm thinkin' you need to broaden your horizons a little bit.

Answer 4

Hmmm...that's a pretty tall order:
"i truly feel that this industry would not be what it is today without them."

I'll give you credit, in your summation on Guns N Roses.
But to say that Nirvana "revolutionized the music industry" puts them in a league beyond, say, The Beatles.

While I like a lot of Nirvanas' stuff, I wouldn't go THAT far.
What I DO think and "feel", is that Nirvana brought rock back to its garage-band roots: raw, unprocessed power.
But to be fair, there was some studio trickery in their recordings (and it's rare to find any group or artist that hasn't relied on special effects to enhance their recordings).

Yes, Nirvana spoke to the Gen-X'ers.
But their music was good enough to transcend just one sub-culture (I'm an old geezer and I think "Heart Shaped Box" is one of the best songs to come out of the 1990's).
Does that make them the gods of the rock world?
Hardly.
They didn't stick around long enough to leave a track record.
Had Kurt not lost his head, MAYBE they would have made legacy music.
We'll never know.
As Neil Young once sang: it's better to burn out than it is to rust".
Cobain and company never realized their full potential.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and its clear now that Dave Grohl had a lot of music within himself.
His style isn't exactly Nirvana, but we've got a lot of great material coming from his band, thanks to the end of Nirvana.

Answer 5

Smells Like Teen Spirit is the best Nirvana song ever....I also love Metallica and Guns N' Roses, which clearly DO have talent!

Answer 6

Nirvana was OK at best...but they didn't revolutionize anything except the grunge scene....If they changed the industry then there would be alot more Rock then there is...Incase you havent noticed Rap is ruling everything...There were many many many rock bands on MTV previous to Nirvana not just metallica...infact Metallica had the First Video of its kind on MTV....so Nirvana is cool....but there are alot of better bands out there.

Answer 7

No, I really don't share this opinion at all. I do think that Heavy Metal had far too many talented bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio, Queensryche, etc. that are more deserving of high praise than Nirvana ever was. I do think that Nirvana, even though it was indeed a good band has been overhyped way, waaay beyond what they deserved, while other, more talented and more dedicated bands have not received their due praise.

Answer 8

It pushed Grunge toward the mainstream...Alternative genres were more public after Nirvana broke onto the MTV scene...I think all of the the Seatle Grunge-rock bands of that time collectively made more of an impact than just one Nirvana song...

Answer 9

Music like Nirvanas already existed far back. Bands like Agent Orange, Government Issue, Iggy and the Stooges, Sonic Youth, Ramones, Sex Pistols...

Perhaps it revolutionized punk/alternative to mass marketing.

Answer 10

Nirvana we're pap, The Pixies should have sued Cobains. Nirvana were no more profound than the B-52's its just they had an enigmatic leader singer and a great image that appealed to the great unwashed.

Answer 11

wow.wow.by saying GNR sucked and have no talent kurt cobain is rolling over in his grave.nirvana was a mix of GNR and hard neil young.grunge is what nirvana was.


besides the fact u said GNR sucked "smells like teens spirit" broke college rock/alt rock into the mainstream and atracted so many more fans.without nirvana we wouldn't have countless other alt bands like built to spill or white stripes