Roy Halladay - Yo la Tengo

I'm desperately trying to figure out the similarity. Quiet, understated, and just keeps churning out great work?

It really was different from everything else that was selling at the time, and it really did stun a lot of people that Nirvana got so huge, so fast.

and that is the part that I don't get, it was slowed down guttural rock, with vague lyrics that was as much about appearance of not caring as it was a change in sound(in response to the appearance of leotards and big hair from that time). I don't really see much difference between Nirvana and early 70's metal other than personality and flair. Smells Like Teen Spirit is a great song, by far their biggest one, but it didn't really sound much different than prior generations of music. Yes I understand there were some differences, but most of that was superficial and a progression of a sound, not a radically new sound that hasn't been heard before. As you said it may have been different than what was selling at the time, but it wasn't that different from early 70's rock except maybe a reduction of the guitar god/drum god role to a more balanced band attack(at the time, you were dealing with frontman image makers, where the singer was the identity of a band and Nirvana moved away from that at least to a degree)

what made Nirvana big were that they were a legimate subculture band, a band from a scene that had cred, which ALSO turned out to have major legitimate mainstream chops: Kurt Cobain wrote more memorable songs than everybody else from that time put together, and he was by far the best singer.

so maybe I'm agreeing with gamingboy: Nirvana were basically a classic pop group, or a classic rock and roll band. the "grunge" thing was just the marketing.

as for "early 70s" metal, try to imagine Sabbath doing plausible versions of the various covers on "Unplugged", and you'll see the difference...Nirvana were much punk as metal. I mean, sometimes sludgy sound, depressive/introverted emotional quality=metal, yes, but no D&D;/satanist/gamer ########, no preening, no machismo, basically no guitar solos=punk.

Nirvana killed hair metal. Period. Immediately after Nevermind hit, hair bands that had sold millions could barely get a record deal. Even if all the music was terrible (which I disagree with) they would still be among the greatest heroes of all time for that alone.

Ryan, that, and that they're both so good I take them for granted. Yo La Tengo put out another great record about a month ago, but I've already moved on.

Around that same time, the "alt" stations were also playing the heck out of Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, and Dave Matthews.

Back when the Spin Doctors was big, I saw an interview with Steve Miller, they asked him what his favorite bad was (they may have asked for favorite band/influence when starting out- but asked awkwardly...)
He said the Spin Doctors...
The 20 something interviewer opened her eyes, "Really? So you're into the alternative music scene"

HE just kind of stared at her with a half smile, he was probably thinking something like, "You have never heard my music have you, you know nothing about music more than 5 years old do you..."

He said, "I think they have a great sound"
The interviewer was again like, "Really"

Nirvana killed hair metal. Period. Immediately after Nevermind hit, hair bands that had sold millions could barely get a record deal. Even if all the music was terrible (which I disagree with) they would still be among the greatest heroes of all time for that alone.

While Nirvana is definitely the name on the indictment, I thought at the time hair metal was on its last legs anyway and was just waiting for something to give it the final shove.

While Nirvana is definitely the name on the indictment, I thought at the time hair metal was on its last legs anyway and was just waiting for something to give it the final shove.

I think it had been on its last legs for about a decade, at least it had been artistically. Sometimes you need a vet with a black bottle to make things right.

I was only in high-school at the time so my world view was a bit narrow, but I seem to recall an awful lot of jean jackets with Poison patches on them around that time. In either case, Nirvana was definitely the end- and that was good.

I'm in California and I hear "Southern Rock" some. I suspect in the Northeast I'd hear it less, but I don't really know for sure.

Come now. I'm from the great white North and I still know that Southern Rocks sounds like this:

|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|--------3---------------3------|-------------------------------|
|----------2---------------0----|--------0--0----------------2/0|
|--0--0------0---------------0--|-------------------0-2/0-------|
|--------------3(0)3------------|--------------0/2--------2-----|
|-------------------------------|-3(0)3-------------------------|

So this thread inspired me to go listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit on YouTube (since I'm at work) and of course I went to check the comments for hilarity... and they didn't disappoint. The very first comment:

trewke (12 minutes ago) 0 Reply
did cobain? die before heading out on his tour, and what day and time did he die.