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Which death impacted the music world more.. Kurt Cobain or Tupac Shakur?
- Thread starter Captain Zyrain
- Start date
SillyEskimo
Member
Cobain transformed music, so Cobain.
Random Painted HIghway
Member
Before his death, in my neck of the woods at least, Tupac was at best a second tier artist who was dividing his time as an actor. A bit of a side show with the thug life business and the incarceration but he was well below dre and snoop in my suburban white bread existence. Chronic and doggytle heavy heavy rotation with all my friends, very edgy at the time, so we weren't completely sheltered. Cobain and nirvana were far more ubiquitous. Death did far far more for Tupac legacy than it did for cobains. Whether that gave the overall title of more influential to Tupac, is a toss up, but in my book, it did not. Cobain and nirvana were just that different in the early 90s.
Fenderputty
Banned
They defined and entire genre, killed the solo and shaped the way rock moved forward (good and bad). This is a crazy misrepresentation of what they did.
No doubt
Man people forget Glam Rock was fucking HUGE. Bon Jovi, Posion, Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Def Leppard. They were selling TEN OF MILLIONS of albums. It was nuts.
For Nirvana to come in and kill it all was impressive.
I'm super biased as Nirvana was basically everything to my friends and I growing up and well into our adult lives. But they weren't alone, a bunch of people I knew where really into rap as well and Tupac was a veritable god to them in the same way. Biggie too for that matter possibly more so. Both were dead though before most of us really got into either, though I do remember the day I saw the news about Kurt's death and remember feeling that this was really big news even though I was only 7 and marginally familiar with Nirvana.
Just from my experience going in and out of different circles of people from all over through the years both had a tremendous impact on their respective genres and beyond and more importantly impacted the lives of millions of people all over the world for years to come. Trying to debate which was more influential seems rather pedantic. When you reach the heights both men did it's rather meaningless distinction.
Just from my experience going in and out of different circles of people from all over through the years both had a tremendous impact on their respective genres and beyond and more importantly impacted the lives of millions of people all over the world for years to come. Trying to debate which was more influential seems rather pedantic. When you reach the heights both men did it's rather meaningless distinction.
But his death had no impact on that. His work was already done.
The Nirvana logo shirt is probably one of the most popular shirts ever made. Go to any Hot Topic, you'll still find Nirvana shirts being sold. Hell, I've seen Nirvana shirts here in Korea being sold at Uniqlo. Never seen a Tupac shirt being sold there.
If you change the search result for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from being a Nirvana song to just the name in general, it's significantly more popular. Not even close. Who is going to google "Smells Like Teen Spirit" if they don't want the Nirvana song?
On Youtube, "Dear Mama" has about 113,000,000 views. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has 542,500,000 views. "Dear Mama" may have been a more #1 hit for a longer period of time, but I don't think there's any question as to what one is more of a hit now.
As someone who didn't grow up listening to rap, I've never heard of these. Smells Like Teen Spirit (along with Rape Me, In Bloom, Lithium, Come as You are, and most of their hits in general was all over the place in my circles growing up though (was born in 90, lived in Houston most of my life). Definitely couldn't name a Tupac song even if my life depended on it (although I guess I could now - thanks for that).
Am I doing this right?
The Nirvana logo shirt is probably one of the most popular shirts ever made. Go to any Hot Topic, you'll still find Nirvana shirts being sold. Hell, I've seen Nirvana shirts here in Korea being sold at Uniqlo. Never seen a Tupac shirt being sold there.
If you change the search result for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from being a Nirvana song to just the name in general, it's significantly more popular. Not even close. Who is going to google "Smells Like Teen Spirit" if they don't want the Nirvana song?
On Youtube, "Dear Mama" has about 113,000,000 views. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has 542,500,000 views. "Dear Mama" may have been a more #1 hit for a longer period of time, but I don't think there's any question as to what one is more of a hit now.
As someone who didn't grow up listening to rap, I've never heard of these. Smells Like Teen Spirit (along with Rape Me, In Bloom, Lithium, Come as You are, and most of their hits in general was all over the place in my circles growing up though (was born in 90, lived in Houston most of my life). Definitely couldn't name a Tupac song even if my life depended on it (although I guess I could now - thanks for that).
Try this with California love. Or changes.
He drew the comparison, because the guy he reacted to made that comparison. And SLTS was huge, one of the biggest hits ever made. Even my friggin' mom knows that song.
Edit:
Ordinaryundone
Member
When it comes to grunge? I wouldn't think you crazy if you said it (or Nirvana in general at least).
pretty done
Member
I mean, as a vocalist he's nowhere near as good as Staley and Cornell. If anyone tries to say otherwise I just imagine they're unfamiliar with AiC and Soundgarden.
More popular for sure though.
FlutterPuffs
Member
In the US it's probably Tupac.
but for most of the world it's probably Kurt Cobain. Hip Hop didn't really blow up a year or two after their deaths here.
but for most of the world it's probably Kurt Cobain. Hip Hop didn't really blow up a year or two after their deaths here.
This thread ended up being super interesting to me. I was 15 years old and super into grunge when Kurt Cobain died in 1994. I was kind of devastated by his death. I didn't really listen to rap (before or since), so Tupac's death barely registered for me. To read the back and forth in this thread, it's kind of eye-opening to realize to find out how much Tupac meant to so many people.