Rypro 525

i said it was nirvana, great band, but smells like teen spirit is not there best song (track two from nevermind is), cobain is not one of the best guitarists, and nevermind is not the second greatest album of all time (according to vh1.) i just think that they get a little too much credit.

Jepthah

The answer for me is instantaneous:

The Beatles.

Did they do some stuff that was genius? Undoubtedly. Are they the most influential, musically adventurous and brilliant band (from front to back--when you consider all of their work) of all time? Not a chance in hell.

MJKTool

The Rolling Stones

Andalusia

Yeah, well I can't rate the Beatles enough. Without the Beatles there to open the door, you wouldn't have your more "musically adventurous" bands to begin with. As for being influential, well, nobody escaped the Beatles influence.

I'd have to agree with Rypro and say Nirvana. What they did, had already been done better. The only thing of note is how Kurt Cobain became the Jim Morrisson of "Generation X". People tend to remember Nirvana via the grunge movement and Kurt's icon status much more than the actual music.

zak52

You start a thread about overrated bands and you call your most overrated band a great band. That doesn't make too much sense. Anyway, just because you say "Teen Spirit" wasn't their best song and Cobain isn't one of the best guitarists, why does this make them overrated?

Goat3001

I think Nirvana is a great band but I have to agree. I liked their music but the reason that Nirvana was soo popular was becasue of Cobains celebrity status.

With that said my vote goes to the Rolling Stones. Good band but aren't as good as some people say they are

MR ROBOTO 9000

Does this include all the crap like
Brittney, Spice Girls, N.K.O.T.B, Destinys Child etc.,etc. ??
Cause if it does, than Nirvana are nowhere near the most overrated.

zak52

I would say he became more of a Syd Vicious than Jim Morrison but that's just my opinion. I don't agree that people remember Cobain's icon status more than the music. The music is what made Nirvana big and I believe that's what's remembered more.

zak52

The reason they became so big was because people needed a change from the glam rock and hair bands that were big in the 80's. Nirvana came along at the right time to change that. Cobain wasn't a celebrity when "Teen Spirit" hit big.

zak52

Just two post to the topic, I think there are many overrated bands out there. But off the top of my head my #1 choice would be The Smiths. This opinion is soley based on Morrisey's voice. I don't know how people can listen to it.

palebluedot

The problem is Nirvana was not catylst for that change, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. There were much better bands doing it much longer than Nirvana was.


I didn't want to turn this into a Nirvana bashing thread but......my choice is definitely Nirvana.

Great band - No...they were an above average garage band.

Influential - Hell no...they stood on the shoulders of those who came before them that didn't get the recognition.

Cobain genius - Steven Hawking is a genius...kurt cobain was a heroin shooting prank monkey playing an out of tune guitar and blathering incoherently...and he indirectly spawned an even worse atroscity, the band Hole.

MJKTool

I've never been able to figure out why alot of Nirvana fans think Cobain was such a music genius. What exactly did he do to make him....a genius?

palebluedot

Me either...genius is a term that gets used way too loosley these days and was over-used on him.

Thumbs

Funny thing.

I have a feeling Kurt would agree that Nirvana was overrated, given too much credit, in the right place at the right time, undeservedly hailed as an genius/icon/celebrity, etc.

As I recall, that pretty much sums up his suicide note.

Shawn

Eminem.

POWERBOMB

What?!? No votes for that arce Elvis? He is a no talented bum who was fortunate enough to hit his stride during the age of drugs in the late 50's, 60's and 70's. Plus he married Pricilla who kept this money maker steamrolling as she has proven to be quite the savvy businesswoman.

I HATE Elvis!

DrThunder

The Monkees

codefree

Creed & Metallica -

Jackskeleton

wow, starting off the thread with a big flame potential..

I'm sure there will be plenty of flames to follow..

zak52

I disagree. Nirvana wasn't the only cataylst, but they were the main one. There were a lot of bands at the right place at the right time but they weren't good enough for what ever reasons.

By this statement no band can be influential anymore because everthing out there has already been done and all the bands that are out now are standing on the shoulders of the bands before them.

grunter

Weee-oooo-weeeeee-ooooo!

Massive flamebait detector going off.

What's the purpose of this thread except to rip on bands that other folks are very, very into or that have a critical consensus behind them concerning their impact on music?

Nirvana have the status that they do because they were the band that finally broke "punk" to the mainstream. Maybe not for everyone, maybe not for you - maybe you have some musty ripped up old "Flipper" t-shirt that proves you were there first. But in terms of pop culture, "punk" didn't "break" until Kurt howled about "an albino and a mosquito." "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the closest the American Top-40 ever got to bands like The Sex Pistols or The Dead Kennedys.

Typically when I see people use the term "overrated" to bait the flamethrowers - it's just a new variation on the "I'm-sick-of-hearing-them-on-the-radio-so-why-won't-this-band-shut-up" riff. The trouble with Nirvana is the fact that (a) they have a limited body of work (a perception that might be alleviated if Courtney would get off her high-horse and let the archival material be released) and (b) all the youth of today are far too familiar with that limited body of material.

If Kurt had survived and was still making albums today, I have no doubt that the band would have just continued to snowball in terms of critical weight and influence. The leap from "Nevermind" to "In Utero" was just massive in terms of sound and style. I just marvel at what would have come next.

That being said - in the spirit of the thread - I'll offer my pick for a so-called "over-rated" band:

RUSH

Ok - they produced "Tom Sawyer." They wallow in out-dated synth sounds. Their drummer apparently punches 15 billion drumheads a second. Their light shows are -- like, awesome, man.

But I'm thoroughly convinced that the enduring "reputation" of the band is passed down from your emotionally-remote older (and somewhat seemingly cooler) siblings and perpetuated by wrong-headed word of mouth down through the ages. I remember that that was how Rush was introduced to me. Some older guys in high school were listening to 2112 or whatever one of those album-length concept albums were named. I thought they were cool. I thought I'd be cool if I listened to the same album. I bought it. Got promptly bored in the first 30 minutes and never looked back.

That being said - "Moving Pictures" isn't a completely awful album. It's just that it's influence is massively over-estimated.

grunter

Actually now that I think of it - you could substitute PINK FLOYD into my criticism of RUSH above and it would work just about the same.

I'm just full-a flames today.

zak52

Nice post grunter.

subbacultcha

Yeah Greed is simply disgusting, but they're not considered good by anyone with taste.
I agree with Metallica....but again...

The 1st band that jumped to mind was Dave Matthews. People are like sheep for them and everything I've ever heard is marginal at best (pssst. guess what DMB fans....it all sounds the same) It makes me nautious!

The Stones new stuff is pretty bad, but give a listen to the 12-15 albums they put out that are classics.

palebluedot

grunter, I understand what you are saying about Nirvana, and this is completly subjective to one's own opinion.

My view of Nirvana is that they were a garage band. Their playing reflected this, their sound reflected this and their music reflected this. Their live shows were awful with sound cluttering the stage and Cobain "bargle nawdle zoussing" his way around the lyrics.

Cobain's attempt was spawned from the Seatle underground music scene and to a lesser extent the Philedelphia underground music scene which was going strong before Nirvana was even an idea.

If we are talking about those that "started" it all, how can you not mention bands like Green River, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains. These are the giant's shoulders I speak of. Without them there is no Nirvana.

I am not disagreeing that Nirvana became the band that was associated with the "grunge" or "Seatle" scence...they were. Like I said they just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Cobain and Nirvana were falsely idolized as the second coming by everyone else outside of Seatle and they caught on like wildfire with depressed teenagers and College frat houses...not even knowing where the roots of the music came from and that the alternative to them was so much better.

Again, just my opinion.