VH1 has this new show called “Classic Albums” or something along those lines. The Wifey and I were flipping through channels the other day and the episode on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” came on. Of course I watched the whole thing and picked up my acoustic guitar during the commercials, trying to see if I could still remember how to play any of the songs. Most of them did come back, but some more readily than others. Halfway through the show the Wifey said, “So, what was the big deal with Nirvana anyway?”
To be fair she didn’t say it in a dismissive tone. I think she was genuinely curious. When my friends and I were listening to Nirvana in Southern California in the early 90s, she and her high school friends in Western Massachusetts were listening to John Cougar Mellencamp and Led Zeppelin. (I don’t actually know this for a fact, it’s just a guess, considering that’s what people in Western Massachusetts are still listening to).
Anyway, her question got me thinking, and I think it all boils down to the following:
1) The music was genuinely good. “Nevermind” had a lot of great songs on it and it was a well-produced album.
2) Cobain had credibility. We all believed he was a miserable guy and he eventually proved us right. Teenagers pick up on this sort of thing, and respect people who really are what they claim to be.
3) There was so much anger and desperation in their music that lots of young people were naturally drawn in.
4) They came along at the right time. They provided a welcome relief (and shot of welcome authenticity) from the cartoonish big-hair metal bands of the 80s. Rap was gaining a foothold but hadn’t completely taken over pop music yet. I’ve always felt that someone who isn’t exposed to rap before the age of 13 is never really going to like it. In 1991 there were still a lot of music fans like that, a lot of them still young, who were never going to take to rap. Ergo, there was still an audience for guitar-based popular music.
I’m sure there are other reasons but I think that basically covers it. I know I’m not the only person to say this about a band they loved when they were young, but I can honestly say I don’t think there’s any band around right now that’s anything like them. And I find that sort of amazing, considering it wasn’t really that long ago when I was driving around the San Gabriel Valley in my 1989 Honda Civic, listening to “All Apologies” on the radio for the first time, thinking it was the greatest song in the history of mankind.
2 comments:
I think the opening riff for All Apologies was one of the first things you taught me. After Driver 8, of course.
I've mentioned this before, but think I'm officially at the point where I don't care -- at all -- about new music. In an attempt to get more up to date, I've been listening to KROQ and Indie 103.1 over the past few weeks.
KROQ is little more than a nostalgia machine. At least half their setlist is taken directly from 1992-1996. I turned it on the other day and you know what they were playing? Bush, "Glycerine". That song was a stale, 3rd-generation rip-off in 1995. You would think 13 years would be sufficient time to expunge Bush from the popular imagination, but lo, it is not.
Indie 103.1 is better, but it's populated with new bands I just don't care about. I hear the new Death Cab for Cutie single and I want to rip my stereo out and toss it onto the freeway.
The great thing about that era is that there was a movement/center to pop music: Nirvana and Pearl Jam were like the Beatles and Stones. Then you had all these subgroups and satellites playing off and around them -- lo-fi, the Epitaph bands, the Subpop bands, the Ska influenced bands, the Chicago indie scene, the East Coast indies, the various British bands, etc.
Nowadays, guitar-based rock lags WAY behind hip-hop/r&b not to mention teen pop and dance. And even just looking at rock, what's the dominant genre right now? Emo, probably. You really expect me to get excited about the new Fall-Out Boy or Panic at the Disco records?
Blame the internet for piracy and a moribund record industry. Blame the fracturing of pop culture due to the internet.
The good news is that there's TONS of "old" music that I know very little or nothing about. Maybe it's time to really leave the rock ghetto and really give other genres a concerted try.
Here, go check out the Billboard Hot 100 and see how songs you'd be even REMOTELY interested in listening to, let alone buying: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100
BTW, you're of course totally right in diagnosing why Nirvana was so great.
As you say, they were the right band at the right time. They took the sonic and emotion rawness of the punk underground and injected new energy into mainstream pop music.
Instead of merely inheriting heavy metal/hair metal from our older brothers/sister/cousins, we now had our own thing. And isn't that a huge part of pop music? Each generation wants bands to call their own.
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