How many here remember when Nirvana burst on the scene? Yea what do you remember from Nirvana if you remember them in the late 80's & early 90's?

Also what do you think about Nirvana & Kurt Cobain?

I been listening to a lot of Nirvana lately.

Love Nirvana!  Most of the stuff out of Seattle at the time was really interesting.  There's been a big debate about the importance of Nirvana. Kurt's suicide has elevated Nirvana to (what many feel) is an unrealistic status.  All I know is that grunge was the music of my early 20's and I love it!  It was so much better, had so much more to say, than the other stuff out at the time.

My house of worship in the early 90s was 'Grunge' music. Kurt was the Pope for me, and his cardinals were Eddie Vetter, Layne Staley, and Mark Lanegan.

I think Kurt was never comfortable with the fame, and he is one of those souls that life bit hard.

Easily one of my favorite 90s bands, in spite of helping kill 80s hair metal which I also like. When you listen to a few of their songs, first from Nevermind then other records, you'll understand why Kurt Cobain was considered so legendary.

The most important thing to remember was how new and fresh this whole genre of music was, compared to third rate hair bands like Warrant and Poison, and other cheesy music from the very early 90s. Nirvana was the band that brought alternative rock to the mainstream.

Of course, I was a toddler when Nirvana burst onto the scene so I don't remember it, and my parents had no interest in rock music so I never was really exposed to it.

I only know a couple parodies.  90's music just isn't me.

I do remember hearing songs from Bleach on college radio stations in '89. 

The thing is, my sister went to Evergreen State in Olympia in the eighties and sent me mix tapes from the Olympia scene, which, of course, was the seminal Grunge.  I never cared for it.  I was into synth-pop and Industrial music.  Grunge presented the feeling of a pot hangover. 
8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YyDg9tT0Vw

I was in the Army over in Germany when Nirvana happened in 1991.

AFN (Armed Forces Network) radio was kind of lame for the most part, but late at night, especially on the weekends, they'd play cool music. And I can remember the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" but to be honest I didn't think a whole lot of it, they just sounded like another weird "college" band or something to me.

Meanwhile, around this time I'd go to the PX or post exchange, which was basically a department store for US military personnel (and ran by AAFES, or the  Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which was part of the Department of Defense), and the home entertainment section was where you could buy cassettes and CD's. And in the music section they had a list of the top 10 albums from the Billboard charts back in the states, and for about 2 weeks my buddies and I saw Nevermind by Nirvana at the top of the chart and we were all like, "Who the f*ck is Nirvana?" We all just assumed it was another lame pop or hip-hop group or something.

Finally I got a package in the mail from my older brother Rob back home, and inside was a tape he recorded of Nevermind along with a letter saying basically, "Holy crap...have you heard this yet? It's all the rage back here!" So I went back to my room in the barracks and put it in and listened to it and it blew me away. I think the song that really did it for me was Lithium.

I then ran down to my buddy Darryl's room and beat on his door. (Darryl is still one of my best friends, he's a gregarious, good-natured metalhead from Florida by way of Mississippi.) "Dude! Dude! You've got to listen to this!" The next thing you know we're beating on everyone's doors and playing it for all our friends and it spread like wildfire across the barracks. 

We knew that it was a big shift in popular music and it was quite exciting watching the whole grunge thing unfold.  ;)

I think the song that really did it for me was Lithium.



That song was the first one I learned to play of Nirvana's. It was hard (for me) to get used to tuning down from E to D.

here's a parody I did of one of their songs when I first got my CI  http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/nirvana374.shtml

Yep, Nirvana is back! It's been twenty years, so it's time for the music press to get all "nostalgic" about SLTS and it's impact on pop culture. The irony is, of course, that a corporately created nostalgia movement for a song that he had grown to despise would probably make Kurt Cobain want to shoot himself all over again.

That being said, it's hard to deny the impact that Nirvana, and their signature song, have had on pop culture. Suddenly, music was exciting again in the early 90's as the manufactured image (make-up and spandex) of hair metal suddenly gave way to the very much un-manufactured image (flannel and angst) of the Seattle alternative scene. The downside turned out to be that most of the key figures associated with the "Grunge Movement" not only didn't know how to lead a movement, but didn't want to either. They just wanted to chill and play music, which is impossible when you're being hounded by scores of MTV driven throngs. Before we knew it, most of the Seattle guys were either dead or back underground, and we were left with Limp Bizkt.

Unfortunately, I was only 4 years old when Nevermind came out, but this was still the music I grew up listening to, so I sort of consider myself a really young "Grunge kid".

God time goes by so quick.

  I haven't listened to them in years. I was aware of Bleach when that was out on Sub Pop around 1989, but I thought they sounded like some hookless blend of classic rock and hair metal and preferred label-mates like Mudhoney and Afghan Whigs. So much so that when they played in my town at a smallish punk rock club about 5 months before Nevermind came out I opted out (oops). All my friends who saw the show could not stop talking about how awesome it was and how strong all their new songs were. Then I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit on college radio on the day of the album's release and was kind of floored. It was a show I taped regularly, and I actually played the tape of the song for a few friends, who also dug it.
  Then about two weeks later I was walking out of a gas station and heard the song blasting out of some frat dude's Jeep followed by commercial DJ chatter. It was a little shocking at the time, them being a band that a few weeks earlier were only really known by people that followed college radio and indie-bands. Anyways, everyone knows what happened for the next couple years.

  Then in April of 1994, I was hanging out with some friends smoking w**d and this girl burst into the room and said "That guy from Nirvana just killed himself!". My friend, who was really into old psych and Canterbury prog, said something like "I was never crazy about them. Isn't that that band that skaters like?". I said, "Nah this is important dude- this is like John Lennon- you're going to remember tonight because of this". I went to a show later that night (Slowdive, touring for the Souvlaki LP) and all these local rocker dudes were dressed in suits and ties. I remember that night clearly, and how eerie everything seemed.

  And a month later my psych-prog friend had every Nirvana album.

I think the song that really did it for me was Lithium.



For me, it was Drain You. I always felt that Teen Spirit was decent, but overrated. I tend to love a lot of Nirvana's obscure songs as well.


That song was the first one I learned to play of Nirvana's. It was hard (for me) to get used to tuning down from E to D.


I usually never bother with dropping it down a step or doing Drop D tuning(unless the song is easier for me to play than in standard. On A Plain is Drop D for instances, but I find it easier to play in standard tuning. Songs like Stain though, I have to do Drop D tuning for).

I didn't like Nirvana.  I still don't, but I don't hate their music.  There's just too much hype around Nirvana. 

Hype makes me sick.  So does hearing things over and over again.  Don't know how many times I heard can't touch this. 

How can you not know
I can't stand this

Easily one of my favorite 90s bands, in spite of helping kill 80s hair metal which I also like. When you listen to a few of their songs, first from Nevermind then other records, you'll understand why Kurt Cobain was considered so legendary.

The most important thing to remember was how new and fresh this whole genre of music was, compared to third rate hair bands like Warrant and Poison, and other cheesy music from the very early 90s. Nirvana was the band that brought alternative rock to the mainstream.

Of course, I was a toddler when Nirvana burst onto the scene so I don't remember it, and my parents had no interest in rock music so I never was really exposed to it.

In fact I didn't even discover Nirvana until my early teens, and the 90s were long gone by that time. Smells Like Teen Spirit was what hooked me to that band, it sounded amazing the first few times I heard it, so I totally understand why people in 1992 felt the same way. But then it quickly got old, but I moved on to other songs, not only from Nevermind but also Bleach. "Negative Creep" in particular is worth a listen IMO.

In fact I didn't even discover Nirvana until my early teens, and the 90s were long gone by that time. Smells Like Teen Spirit was what hooked me to that band, it sounded amazing the first few times I heard it, so I totally understand why people in 1992 felt the same way. But then it quickly got old, but I moved on to other songs, not only from Nevermind but also Bleach. "Negative Creep" in particular is worth a listen IMO.


I feel like a baby. I didn't discover Nirvana until January '06, though of course I wasn't alive while they were getting popular.

For me, it was Drain You. I always felt that Teen Spirit was decent, but overrated. I tend to love a lot of Nirvana's obscure songs as well.


My favorite Nirvana song is Pennyroyal Tea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb71GyLkGYc

I don't remember when Nirvana came onto the scene but my sister might. I vaguely remember Kurt Cobain's death and I know my sister liked Nirvana. However, I personally was not super into music in Kindergarten which is when Cobain died.

I always thought the name Dave Grohl sounded like a high-protein snack!
:P

For me, it was Drain You. I always felt that Teen Spirit was decent, but overrated. I tend to love a lot of Nirvana's obscure songs as well.

I agree, they're lesser known songs are some of my favorites.  I personally like Polly and Something In The Way.

I didn't know who Nirvana was when they were around (seeing as I was 6 when Cobain died).  My sister (a couple years older than me) started getting into them in the late 90s, and I caught on.

The only criticism I have about Nirvana and the grunge movement in general is that it revolves around angst/despair/depression/etc without really having a central message--it's just the expression of those emotions, which can get old after a while, but can also be a good thing from time to time.

I'm a Seattle native and discovered Nirvana before they became the phenom.  I had an Audi Coupe GT, well insulated and spent way to much money on the sound system, but it sounded awesome.

My most vivid memory was giving my best buds sister a ride, she was in her early 20's, sinfully cute, and had done some time stripping.  I asked if she'd heard of Nirvana and she had only heard "smells like teen spirit".  I started the CD with "come as you are", she began swaying in the passenger seat, it was one of the erotic (no touch) events I've experienced.  From that point on, that song was always sexual to me. 

Didn't get into Nirvana until about a year or 2 ago. I was 2 months old when Nevermind was released.

My favorite Nevermind song is actually the mostly instrumental hidden track "Endless, Nameless" at the end of the CD. sheesh is intense. "Pennyroyal Tea" and "All Apologies" are my favorite from En Utero. To be honest, I haven't listened to Bleach yet.