Can we definitively list bands which were "killed" by grunge/Nirvana?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Cubby, Apr 8, 2014.

  1. Plexihead

    Plexihead Well-Known Member

    ^
    That's it in a nutshell.

    That vid a few posts above of Nirvana confirms what I've always thought of them... just absolute perfect timing.
     
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  2. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    Millennials are a bit younger then that.
     
  3. Nick Drake fan

    Nick Drake fan Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
    Spot on observation. It was definitely apparent at the time that the L.A. hair metal bands completely lost their audience to the 'Seattle Sound'. But that was a very astute call on Prince. That was less obvious but I totally agree. I was a huge Prince fan throughout the 1980s. One reason I dug Prince's music so much from 1980-87 was because he was an original and had serious credibility. He had a lot of credibility b/c although he sold a lot of albums it was apparent that he was always willing to change his sound, his instrumentation, his band - even if it meant he would sell fewer units. He was the one mega-selling artist that even the indie/post modern bands respected. But by the end of the 80s Prince was beginning to run out of creative steam. I remember when Nirvana and Perl Jam came along with their return to guitar/bass/drum rock sound (no drum machines, no synths, etc) it felt like a serious breath of fresh air. Almost immediately my friends and I put away our Prince albums and dove head-first into the new generation of rock bands that were emerging - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots. We loved their sound and the fact that they were doing something that was a 180 degree turn on the overproduced sound of the 1980s. It was a similar feeling as to when I heard DIRTY MIND and CONTROVERSY as compared to everything else on the radio at the time. I remember going to concerts by these new bands and it was fairly common to talk to people at shows who had been huge Prince fans who were now into the Seattle Sound. R.E.M. hit their commercial peak during the grunge era b/c they had been doing the no frills throwback guitar/bass/drums for a decade already. They helped pave the way and they fit in perfectly as sort of elder statesmen to those new rock bands. Serious music fans definitely moved on from anything that reeked of the 80s gloss sound and latched on to the new rawer sound.
     
  4. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
    the gloss and high production values of many 80's rock acts often masked some good songwriting though.

    a parallel to the Glam/Art rock of the 70's infused with blues in a way.
     
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  5. 200 Balloons

    200 Balloons Forum Resident

    I don't think your experience mirrors the broader market at all. Prince released plenty of popular songs between 1991-1994: "Cream", "Diamonds and Pearls", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", etc. He self-immolated after Cobain's death for reasons entirely unrelated to Nirvana or grunge.
     
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  6. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
    so much seemed to change around 1994. The internet was coming to the fore.

    It's almost as if the 20th Century started to come to a close around then.
     
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  7. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I also think much of Prince's natural audience began going with rap and hip-hop in a major way around this time as well, and Prince--for reasons only known to himself--never really went with a full guitar-based rock sound that I believe would have been very popular. He's a great guitarist but he continued working in genres where that instrument is neither fully utilizes nor appreciated.
     
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  8. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
    20th anniversary of The Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness".
     
  9. Lord Summerisle

    Lord Summerisle Forum Resident


    That's a great way to put it.
     
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  10. Lord Summerisle

    Lord Summerisle Forum Resident


    Couldn't that be said for every band who reached that level of success?
     
  11. Matthew Tate

    Matthew Tate Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond, Virginia

    depends how long it took a band to reach that level of success
     
  12. BluesOvertookMe

    BluesOvertookMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    29 pages and still nothing definitely killed by Nirvana.
     
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  13. The Slipperman

    The Slipperman Forum Resident

    I haven't read the 29 pages but heavy metal suffered big time when grunge got megapopular. The '90s were a horrible time for heavy metal as many big acts broke up or lost their iconic singers (Iron Maiden and Judas Priest for instance). Except for Overkill, I am having trouble thinking of a metal group not on the extreme fringes that was releasing quality material during the '90s.
     
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  14. theshape

    theshape Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saint Joseph, MO
    Just contact anyone involved with the CMC International record label for a comment. They seemed to have had a major role in keeping many 80's rock/metal bands afloat during their lean 90's years.
     
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  15. Matthew Tate

    Matthew Tate Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond, Virginia

    yeah overkill for sure. maybe testament and flotsam and jetsam to a certain degree
     
  16. Terry

    Terry Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee
    Please.
     
  17. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    It is funny, but I turned 18 in 1992, and absolutely nobody I know ever owned a copy of Dangerous in the first place.
     
  18. Promised Land came out in October 1994.
     
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  19. PH416156

    PH416156 Alea Iacta Est

    Location:
    Europe
    So, was "It bites" an inspiration for Cobain's look? :wtf:

    [​IMG]

     
  20. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
    "If we’re being honest, though, it never really occurred to me that Nirvana were any different from all the other bands I was already into – and from what I’ve read over the years, it seems like it never really occurred to a lot of other people, either: in Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman admits that, at first, he and his friends constantly mixed-up Nirvana with Ugly Kid Joe; in Life on Planet Rock, Lonn Friend talks about playing Nevermind for the dudes in Skid Row for the first time, and how they flipped out and immediately announced their intentions to take the band out on tour; and, of course, we’ve all heard the numerous stories about Axl Rose, who frequently wore Nirvana merch in public, being heartbroken when Cobain refused to open for Guns N’ Roses, and the feud that ensued between the two front men."

    http://www.metalsucks.net/2007/12/1...-bullsht-how-kurt-cobain-nearly-killed-metal/
     
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  21. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
    "and while he was certainly correct in calling Axl Rose immature for challenging him to a fight backstage at the ’92 VMAs, one could argue it was equally immature of him to taunt Axl both on-stage and off, where he mockingly called out to the singer “Will you be the godfather of my baby?” Not wanting to tour with GN’R was one thing, but provoking the bands’ members was something else, and to this day, I’m pretty sure the only difference in the way Axl reacted to Cobain and the way, say, Phil Anselmo might have reacted is that Anselmo really would have beat the living **** out of Cobain right there on the spot, rather than just threatening to do so (And besides, who anointed Cobain the arbitrator of good taste? He married Courtney ****ing Love!)."
     
  22. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Jellyfish were the guest band in the Boston rock & roll rumble in 1993, appearing after a couple of grunge-type bands. They were almost literally killed by that audience.
     
  23. GreenNeedle

    GreenNeedle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lincoln UK
    Just my 2 penneth and it has been an interesting 29 page read. I was 16 in 91 so had grown up with the poodle rock and cheezy pop of the mid to late eighties and was at peak going out, drinking (and other things) and enjoying nightime activities including clubbing (in metal and mainstream dance clubs) as well as the UK rave culture.

    What killed off the hair bands in the UK to my thinking was pretty much was that people weren't just listening to the music anymore, they were watching music videos. The problem there was that it was either cheezy pop or boring MOR stuff like REM or heavy metal. So if you liked proper music (or thought you did) you liked heavy metal.

    That was where the problem was because all those bands were making videos of cliches. They were cliches of the limousines, the motorbikes and rock chicks. It was all smiles and we're having a great time and polished. More like the new wave trendy party lifestyle than the 70s hard seedy rock n roll style. Even bands whose music was still rough, seedy aggressive (Motley Crue / Skid Row) were doing these silly cliche videos. All playing silly shaped wierd colour scheme guitars. Even Ozzy was doing that rubbish.

    Then came along Guns n' Roses and that polish wasn't there. It was in your face we don't care what you think because we are angry. Far from the videos of treating the women to the high life, the champagne the limousines, the vegas lights, G n' R had attitude and a chip on its shoulder. Forget all that smiley nicey nicey stuff all the other bands were doing, this was a snarling, dirty seedy drag you round the back, have their wicked way and leave you laying on the floor without caring if you were OK or not. It was the full circle from those very early 70s days off proper sex drugs n rock n roll. None of these cheeky winks and blowing kisses, more likely scratch your eyes out spit in your face and stamp on your head for daring to cross our path.

    Although all those poodle hair acts still sold well they immediately became girl's bands. It was not authentic and not hard edged so was no longer cool. They all started doing ballads for girls. Bonjovi and Aerosmith became massive on the back of lovey dovey ballads.

    Just at this same point the rave / Indie underground scene burst from nowhere and all that cliche stuff was finished in a whisper. Dance was crossing over into rock and vice versa. Metalheads were out of their heads partying in fields on 'e' with the dance music fans.

    Then Pearl Jam started getting video play. I remember hearing alive and I lumped Pearl Jam with guns n roses. They were another metal band that weren't doing the cliche videos. Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were just metal bands too. Then Nirvana just seemed to be the right place at the right time. They were more the pin up band. The hipster's choice. All those people who 'have their own identity' got rid of the goth make up and black clothing, bought a beanie hat a long sleeve T and some baggy blue jeans and their new 'individual' identity was the new uniform of choice. Throughout the late eighties and early nineties in the metal clubs you would only hear the likes of Metallica and Megadeth of the older groups with Guns n Roses. Anything that was associated with the cliche was gone and Metal clubs went very hard edged. That had already happened before Grunge arrived.

    I remember celebrating my 18th birthday in a metal club in $93 requesting Killing in the name of by RATM and the exact play list before that was Even Flow, It's so Easy, Today (Pumpkins) and then Smells like teen spirit. Teen spirit came on and the dance floor was a push and shove thing and there was always a good fight when someone got carried away. After that RATM came on and a lot of the hard metallers were really into that and would kick the beanie wearing crowd of the dance floor and get ready to properly headbang the chorus.

    So I would say Guns n roses killed the hair bands because they got rid of all that cliche, caricature crap that was in all those 80s cheesy videos and got back to an authentic sound and look with proper old fashioned Fenders and Les Pauls.

    I read a post earlier that said Nirvana fans looked nothing like Pearl Jam fans. Maybe different in the US but in all the places I went it was all the same. Combats or skate trousers. long sleeve tees and probably a lumberjack added over the top and a beanie hat or floppy hair. The only difference would be the T-shirt being the pearl jam stick man or the Nirvana smiley face. That change in fashion had already begun with Faith no More and Chillis anyway where before the grunge period more and more people were veering away from the cowboy boots and all black stuff.

    I would have been in the 501s and cowboy boots had I been older in the eighties and as it was I progressed into the combats and lumberjack shirts when I was 15/16 and went pretty much into a more normal dress sense before going all black again.

    For the record I bought Appetite for Destruction on vinyl when it came out aged 12. The copy with the robot rape scene on the front. There were no parental advisory labels yet. They came in after with all the gangsta rap stuff.

    By the time I bought Pearl Jam ten I had sold all my vinyl and bought it on CD. I also bought Badmotorfinger, Metallica black album, Siamese Dream. I bought Nirvana last of all these. To me and most people it was just more metal and had no effect on what we already liked. Was just an extra. The only difference I can see is that it proved to be an easy entry into metal for previously non metal types.

    Either way Smells like teen spirit has 350million views on youtube. November rain has 550 million. I would say that Guns n Roses is / was as inspirational as the grunge music because it was the first 'metal' album that along with its videos wiped away that smiley party **** video stuff and was a pre-emptor of a 'back to basics' video format.

    I think a lot of people forget just how video can change the way you interpret a piece of music. Even if you are listening on CD you have the video in your mind. Every Rose has it thorn or Love in an elevator or Livin on a prayer comes on and you think hair, fake wind and fog, smiles kisses, happy faces, pretend attitude. Welcome to the Jungle comes on and you think ANGRY stay away from me. Smells like teen spirit comes on and you stare at your shoes before pogo-ing.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2016
  24. sean monaghan

    sean monaghan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    AOR rock ( which was on the way out anyway with hair metal ) was ended by grunge. I do recall reading somewhere that Roxette saw their commercial success drop after grunges arrival.
     
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  25. Olompali

    Olompali Forum Resident

    Summed up well, GreenNeedle.
     
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