donjunio

Those who, like me, were adolescents during that time couldn't help but be captivated by Cobain. You didn't understand anything he was singing, but you KNEW it was something tremendously important. His greatest achievement – albeit unintended – was capturing the feeling of a generation, composing an album that brilliantly represented the spirit of its time. Of course, he was also helped by circumstance, particularly by the role of MTV: if "smells like teen spirit" was received by millions as an extraordinary testament to collective alienation, the credit was almost exclusively due to the video. It’s no coincidence that MTV has always regarded that video as the moment when it gained cultural dominance over the musical masses.
The question "what would Kurt Cobain be today" seems very sterile to me... probably even a Jimmy Page would struggle to make his way now, because rock music has now been irreversibly standardized and homogenized. Or rather, fossilized. A sensitive and intimate writer like Kurt would likely have difficulty in a context where specialized media promote trends like Franz Ferdinand and the Strokes, only capable of generating debates on how cool it is to dress like hipsters or live in Manhattan... Today, it seems to me that rock has definitely become a supermarket phenomenon... In the grunge era, the market ultimately prevailed, but the cultural impulses that shaped it were extremely anarchic and nihilistic, and the main protagonists of that season (Cobain, Vedder, Staley). It was the last rock revolution precisely because it was the last gasp of punk – and Kurt was the last punk.
Congratulations on the review.

The fortune of Nirvana was to have found groups that paved the way for them in the late '80s, from Jane's Addiction to the Pixies. Kurt Cobain, with the humility that always characterized him, constantly emphasized the importance of those who preceded him, from the Pixies to the Melvins, who hadn’t received similar commercial recognition. Especially 1991 was the year when rock truly blossomed. There was Lollapalooza with the best bands in America, Neil Young who took Sonic Youth on tour in a frenzy of loud rock. What was missing was the cherry on top, the album that would knock Michael Jackson and Guns N' Roses off the top of the charts, symbols of '80s pop and rock. In this sense, Nevermind was the classic lupus in fabula. I remember a phrase from the lead singer of the Presidents of the USA. He said that when he heard Nevermind for the first time, he thought, "Who the hell wrote the songs that were in my head?" This gives you an idea... That said, these songs must actually be written, and knowing how to break into the mainstream is never an easy task. You need to have the right pop sensibility, and especially within the alternative scene, it's easy to find extraordinary talents who, however, were unable to make the leap in quality needed to create a piece capable of breaking into MTV's elite. Kurt Cobain had this gift because he always possessed a superior pop writing ability, dating back to the days of "About a Girl." He was a sincere, confused songwriter who put his anxieties, fears, and dreams to music—dreams that mirrored those of millions of kids during that time.

Great debate, really. So, I think that big bands are products of the era in which they grew up. Nirvana had an extraordinary expressive power given by two factors, in my opinion. First of all, they took advantage of the long wave of punk, which never exploded in America like it did in the UK and that mainly arrived in American provinces in the 80s. You could say that Smells Like Teen Spirit was for the USA what Anarchy in the UK had been for England.
Furthermore, the 80s had been a period of great economic crisis, not just musical. Especially in Seattle, there was a dreadful recession, and it’s not far-fetched to say that if such a nihilistic scene was created in that city, it was partly due to that. Cobain, in particular, was the classic child of a broken baby boomer couple, a fate he shared with thousands of other kids. One of the most effective definitions of Nevermind, if you think about it, was "teenage wasteland."

Legendary the lines with which the album opens.. "it was the biggest cock ever seen"!

Probably Dylan has released more influential albums, but none has surpassed the beauty of "Blood on the Tracks." It stands in his work like "On the Beach" stands in Neil Young's.

I remember the video for "the box" very well; it was truly splendid. Although I'm not a fanatic of the genre, I believe in "sides" it's really excellent.

Lemur, I think the only one who can hold a candle to Elliott is Will Oldham... Mr. Nobody, get this record and you won't regret it. By the way, I memorized a line from St. Ides Heaven but I got it wrong... the right line is "you see me smiling, you think it's a frown turned upside down." It happens.

unforgivable review, a really bland album for an artist who navigated much deeper waters with it's a shame about ray and baby i'm bored.

"In 1993, Evan Dando's Lemonheads were the most famous American rock band in the world".....this is really the biggest load of crap I've read on this site. You were probably 4 years old in 1993 because anyone who wasn't burying their head in the sand that year knew very well that other bands were dominating the charts, from Nirvana to the Smashing Pumpkins...before you write a review about bands you haven't experienced firsthand, you are encouraged to do your research!

this article is beautiful, worthy of one of the most important albums in popular music