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[Woggleman]

Yes Kurt was talented and yes they had some good songs but if you ask me they took the fun out of rock. Hair metal was bad but the cure was almost worse than the disease. They took almost all the sexuality, fun, joy and swagger from rock and replaced it with angst and depression. Rock has never fully recovered from it. Kurt was openly against the masculine swagger that almost defined rock and roll in past decades and the genre turning it's back on that deeply hurt.

It's no surprise that rap and hip hop really crossed over to white America in the 90s. While rock was busy being grungy, sexless and eschewing the things that made rock and roll in past decades so fun rappers openly embraced those things and they became the new rockstars. Even the last gasp of hard rock in the mainstream borrowed heavily from rap and hip hop. Today what passes as rock as softer than what we hear on easily listening stations.

Like I said Nirvana were a good band and they made some great music but rock suffered from following their lead.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Wow. That is one hell of a bad take. Lots of things ruined popular rock. Nirvana ain't even on the list.
Edit: And fwiw Dave Grohl is one of the few people that kept popular rock alive and meaning something. (I'm no FooFighters fan though).

 

[Thaedolus]

There’s been plenty of good rock post-Nirvana. Just listen to better music.

 

[Porcile]

Nirvana ruined guitar rock in so much that they were better and more authentic than any band that came after after them.

Anyway, Melon Collie and The Infinite Sadness was the real end point of introverted and depressing rock. As far the mainstream is concerned anyway. Don't think there was anywhere it could've gone after that album.

After that we got At the Drive-in, The Mars Volta and and Tame Impala so we still got some good bands. While some veterans put out some good stuff too, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers etc.

 

[gothmog]

Those hair bands ruined music all on their own. How many power ballads can you possibly want to hear?

 

[Northeastmonk]

I wish he hadn’t turned to heroine. I have a problem with listening to Nirvana when I am by myself. In public, it’s fine. I’ve had a problem with listening to Linkin Park too. It’s too much of a perfect circle. If that makes any sense.

 

[Nester99]

Sounds like a personal problem

 

[eddie4]

 

[Rival]

Listen to The Struts.

 

[YCoCg]

OP, you must have shit taste if you're blaming Grunge era and Seattle Rock for making Rap popular, there's loads of rock bands out there that have style and sexuality.

edit: Hell tis was my pre-game track for ages

 

[Badlucktroll]

Kiss are the Dr.s of rock

 

[DeepEnigma]

Pearl Jam was always far more talented than Nirvana. Hell, even Smashing Pumpkins were more talented instrumentally, Corgan's voice aside.

 

[KrazyKrelian]

Nirvana never even got super huge and mainstream until after Kurt died. The remainder of "grunge" music bands didn't really survive past the 90's.

 

[Scotty W]

If it keeps in raining, the levee’s gonna break. But one drop does not itself a levee break. AIC, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins were all working on their breakthru albums at the exact same time as Nevermind was being recorded, moreover, Metallica and Faith No More had already put out albums that were moving away the 80’s sound. The writing was on the wall. No matter how high you tease the hair, it must come down eventually.

 

[nightmare-slain]

You're entitled to your opinion but it's wrong.

Nirvana never even got super huge and mainstream until after Kurt died. The remainder of "grunge" music bands didn't really survive past the 90's.

Of course they got bigger after he died but how can you say they were never huge or mainstream when Kurt was alive?

What age were you in 1991-1994?

 

[Nydius]

Nirvana ruined rock? That's... certainly an opinion. Nirvana basically had only one and a half popular albums. So many people soured on them with In Utero, which was more in line with what they were about than Nevermind ever was.

It's funny because I hear modern day Foo Fighters and know that if Kurt could reanimate he'd absolutely slap the living shit out of Dave Grohl. Dave has become everything Kurt hated. Foo Fighters is exactly the kind of band Kurt railed against. Unoffensive trash pop-rock designed for radio play to sell albums. A bunch of throw away lines designed to play on the radio. Or a Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, one might say.

Personally, I think the grunge era saved rock because the end of the 80s was basically just hair band power ballad "metal". Thrash bands like Metallica and Megadeth only got one or two songs in regular rotation. If Grunge hadn't come around and pushed a darker, more cynical, more depressing form of rock into the mainstream, we would have been stuck with several more years of shit like Poison and Whitesnake singing the same cheesy songs with mildly different chords.

But I will never forget what an old stoner at one of my favorite record shops once told me:
"Nirvana is 'baby's first grunge' -- then you grow up and listen to Soundgarden and Alice in Chains."

 

[AJUMP23]

Thankfully Taylor swift saved rock.

 

[Mossybrew]

Popular "guitar rock" or dad rock or whatever you want to call it has always sucked hard, Nirvana was never one of my favorite bands but I appreciate how they were the death knell of hair rock or "metal"lol.

 

[Laptop1991]

Well rock isnt ruined, its eternal, it was just a period or phase called Grunge with basically just 4 chords and hardley any riffs or solos, but Nirvana didnt ruin Rock, all those songs going way back can still be listened to today and there are some good new bands as well

 

[PuppetMaster]

I wish he hadn’t turned to heroine. I have a problem with listening to Nirvana when I am by myself. In public, it’s fine. I’ve had a problem with listening to Linkin Park too. It’s too much of a perfect circle. If that makes any sense.

I used to love A Perfect Circle back in the day.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Is there any good rock band currently? The current music trend sucks with Daddy yanke.

 

[newtypepilot]

hahaha what's next? nickelback saved rock???

 

[sono]

When I first saw the thread title I read it as

Hot take but Nirvana ruined cock​

But my phone is only small

 

[CGNoire]

Those hair bands ruined music all on their own. How many power ballads can you possibly want to hear?

Thats Blasphemy you Heretic.

May the Dark Lords have Mercy on your Eternal Soul.

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

When people say Rock, I don’t even know what they mean.

 

[IDKFA]

 

[StueyDuck]

Millennials ruined rock.

Gen Z took it outback... mumbled which apparently is music, then shot rock between the eyes

 

[Spaceman292]

Thats such an awful take

 

[March Climber]

It's no surprise that rap and hip hop really crossed over to white America in the 90s. While rock was busy being grungy, sexless and eschewing the things that made rock and roll in past decades so fun rappers openly embraced those things and they became the new rockstars.

The current music trend sucks with Daddy yanke.

 

[Drew1440]

hahaha what's next? nickelback saved rock???

No, Lil Wayne saved rock and made it great again.

 

[Wildebeest]

It was Guns N' Roses and Metallica that killed hair metal. Nirvana came in and gave a teen angst version of pop influenced metal that was just a bit more punk, but they never directly targetted the people who would have been into hair metal and avoided being associated with acts like Guns N' Roses.

 

[Bartski]

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Yes Kurt was talented and yes they had some good songs but if you ask me they took the fun out of rock. Hair metal was bad but the cure was almost worse than the disease. They took almost all the sexuality, fun, joy and swagger from rock and replaced it with angst and depression.

Not a hot take at all, you are right. Bunch of early 20s mopping about singing about cruel life.

 

[Valonquar]

In the 90's I got dragged to a Nirvana concert. After like one song, Kurt Cobain took a sneaker to the face HARD from random mosh pit idiot. He was mad enough he threw down his guitar and just left.

 

[mopspear]

I'm not sure if I agree with your take or not but I'll say it was probably at least a couple more factors, if you're partly correct (that just seems to be the case in almost any situation). That being said, for example, I don't think Japan went through a grunge phase and it may have carried the 80's sound through into the 90's without a hard break like we got in the US. Not exactly what you're talking about but I think it's worth comparing the two if you know both countries music.

 

[Winter John]

Nirvana didn't kill rock. By the time they came along rock was already done. Surfer Rosa, Daydream Nation, Straight Outta Compton and It Takes A Nation Of Millions all came out in 1988. Those were the records that killed rock. It was a good thing too because rock was a horrible, bloated mess at the time. We needed bands like Mudhoney to come along and push all those boring hacks into obscurity.

 

[SLESS]

Nirvana never even got super huge and mainstream until after Kurt died. The remainder of "grunge" music bands didn't really survive past the 90's.

They did a fucking MTV unplugged man, you don’t get much bigger than that. It sits them with Eric Clapton etc….

 

[kurisu_1974]

"Nirvana is 'baby's first grunge' -- then you grow up and listen to Soundgarden and Alice in Chains."

He meant to say Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

You can tell you weren’t either alive or at a young age where you just weren’t paying attention.

White people have been drawn to Rap and Hip-Hop since the beginning and in fact by the time 1991 rolled around (same year Nevermind was released) there was a new word for white dudes who love all things Rap and Hip-Hop (replace the letter N with a W)

Yes Rock is in a dire state and has been since around 2005ish.
I blame the fashion/technology Plateau we’ve riding on for the past 30-35 years.
Notice how nothing hasn’t changed style wise since the 90s. Kids born in the late 90s and early 2000s have no identity in music or style.

 

[Days like these...]

Yes Kurt was talented and yes they had some good songs but if you ask me they took the fun out of rock. Hair metal was bad but the cure was almost worse than the disease. They took almost all the sexuality, fun, joy and swagger from rock and replaced it with angst and depression. Rock has never fully recovered from it. Kurt was openly against the masculine swagger that almost defined rock and roll in past decades and the genre turning it's back on that deeply hurt.

It's no surprise that rap and hip hop really crossed over to white America in the 90s. While rock was busy being grungy, sexless and eschewing the things that made rock and roll in past decades so fun rappers openly embraced those things and they became the new rockstars. Even the last gasp of hard rock in the mainstream borrowed heavily from rap and hip hop. Today what passes as rock as softer than what we hear on easily listening stations.

Like I said Nirvana were a good band and they made some great music but rock suffered from following their lead.

I agree completely. My take is that hair metal was dying and MTV needed something new so the powers that be decided Nirvana was it. Nirvana was nothing new Sonic Youth and Dinosaurs Jr had both been around forever and they are much better bands. Lol grunge where are they all now? Washed up has beens.

 

[AJUMP23]

Nirvana just popularized Grunge, or introduced it, Pearl Jam may have popularized it.

 

[KrazyKrelian]

They did a fucking MTV unplugged man, you don’t get much bigger than that. It sits them with Eric Clapton etc….

You do know that album released after Kurt's death and is mainly as popular as it is because of that right? Nirvana actually won their only Grammy in '96 for this album almost 2 years after his death.

Yes Nirvana was big before his death, but they became mainstream afterwards. You had frat boys and moms wearing Nirvana gear while only ever heard the Unplugged album and maybe watched Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV.

 

[ResilientBanana]

False.

 

[Days like these...]

You do know that album released after Kurt's death and is mainly as popular as it is because of that right? Nirvana actually won their only Grammy in '96 for this album almost 2 years after his death.

Yes Nirvana was big before his death, but they became mainstream afterwards. You had frat boys and moms wearing Nirvana gear while only ever heard the Unplugged album and maybe watched Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV.

I wish he wouldn't have died so he'd be washed up has been like the rest of these hacks. Yes, I have an irrational hatred of grunge.

 

[Wildebeest]

Pearl Jam were not as popular as Nirvana at their peak. Kurt took Nirvana in the direction of writing catchy pop songs then making them "punk" hits on MTV while Pearl Jam even refused to make music videos. If you think Pearl Jam are better, it is probably just because you are some beardy sweater wearing rock purist who is more accepting of a trad 70s rock cover band that sounds like the who and deep purple.

 

[MayauMiao]

Yes Kurt was talented and yes they had some good songs but if you ask me they took the fun out of rock. Hair metal was bad but the cure was almost worse than the disease. They took almost all the sexuality, fun, joy and swagger from rock and replaced it with angst and depression. Rock has never fully recovered from it. Kurt was openly against the masculine swagger that almost defined rock and roll in past decades and the genre turning it's back on that deeply hurt.

It's no surprise that rap and hip hop really crossed over to white America in the 90s. While rock was busy being grungy, sexless and eschewing the things that made rock and roll in past decades so fun rappers openly embraced those things and they became the new rockstars. Even the last gasp of hard rock in the mainstream borrowed heavily from rap and hip hop. Today what passes as rock as softer than what we hear on easily listening stations.

Like I said Nirvana were a good band and they made some great music but rock suffered from following their lead.

I thought Nickelback did that.

 

[KrazyKrelian]

Pearl Jam were not as popular as Nirvana at their peak. Kurt took Nirvana in the direction of writing catchy pop songs then making them "punk" hits on MTV while Pearl Jam even refused to make music videos. If you think Pearl Jam are better, it is probably just because you are some beardy sweater wearing rock purist who is more accepting of a trad 70s rock cover band that sounds like the who and deep purple.

Eddie Vedder is a complete hack who is known for his rambling and incomprehensible lyrics. From that era I do really like Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden though.

 

[diffusionx]

I actually kind of agree with the OP, despite Nirvana being one of the first bands I listened to and still one of my favorites along with all the other 90s staples. I don't know if I would blame Nirvana per se because it was doing something new and it was reflective of an ennui of the era, but all the fun of the genre from the 60s one was just gone. Watch a video of a popular rock song from the 80s and it is a bunch of dudes partying with hot blondes, and like 5 years later it was some guys just moping around in a field or a dirty street corner or something.

The funny thing is that a lot of rap these days isn't very fun - zoomers mumbling about how anxious and depressed they are. Seems like it is going down the same path...

 

[Duellist]

Ruined? Nah, but they definitely changed it. I am a massive metal fan and loved most of the hair metal era also but it needed a change. It was getting very stale with all the clones. I hated 90% hated of that grunge shit, but I loved Alice in Chains and soundgarden. Oh and Rock music now sucks big donkey balls.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Punk rock had a huge mainstream resurgence in the 2000s. Practically all you heard in films and on the radio.