When Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, I felt the loss. Nirvana was the one band at the time where I could go out and blindly buy one of their new releases without hesitation.

Had he lived, do you think Nirvana would still be a hot band, top of the charts, or do you think they would be in Pearl Jam's league in 2007?

I'm not saying Pearl Jam is bad, but in my opinion I don't think they're as hot as they once were.

I think even with Cobain's death, Nirvana NOW is still bigger than what Pearl Jam is today.

Pearl Jam's first album was incredible. And every album since then has been a rambling disappointment. Pearl Jam is not the influencial group it was right after "Ten" was released. As a matter of fact, I would put them only 1-2 notches above the current stature of what "Hootie and the Blowfish" is today.

No band stays on top forever.

Nirvana's sound is very dated. They were great for their time, but I think Cobain's act would have worn thin long ago.

I'd rather have the Foo Fighters than Nirvana. If that means sacrificing Kurt Cobain then I'd pull the trigger myself.

Bands don't have to be fucking "influencial" to be good. They have to put out good albums. Pearl Jam's last album is their very best. Times change and good bands change with the times. Pearl Jam has done this. I doubt Nirvana wouldvel been together much longer after In Utero's release.

Couldn't agree more, except that I thought their second album was very good also. But everything after that was downhill.

I think Cobain would have left the band anyway and tried to get out of the spot light.

Not even remotely. It's only great in comparison to the disappointing releases that preceded it following No Code.

I like Foo Fighters better than either of them as well.

Ditto on the Foo front, but I think Pearl Jam has been a lot more consistant than Nirvana would have been... hell, I revisit early PJ all the time, but I haven't had the urge to listen to Nirvana in a long time.

I wonder what Nirvana would have done post In Utero. You Know You're Right was not a step in the right direction, IMHO. I also wonder what the alterna-pop heyday of the late 90s would have done to the band. Cobain might have killed himself anyway.

Shouldn't the question be "If Kurt Cobain had lived and Nirvana was still together..."

They basically broke up before he killed himself. The (good) biographies will tell you this and that was basically the news in the industry at the time. It was also rumored that they were supposed to do Lalapalooza, but backed out (presumably because they weren't a band by that time).

Kurt expressed desire to people like John Robinson of the Fluid to do a "REMey" pop type of thing.

Either way the question is worded, I'd have to say "no". Unfortunately.

Him and Courtney would be Whitney and Bobbi by now. If one or both weren't dead.

I was going to post the same thing about Nirvana. I agree with you about them, but not Pearl Jam. I hate their debut about as much as any recording ever made. The odd thing to me is that I like "Vitalogy", though.

Aside from Ten by Pearl Jam, I like the songs Dissident and Yellow Ledbedder.

I feel pretty much the same way you do.

Maybe they've been a disappointment to some (yourself included), but I preferred Vs., Vitalogy and No Code to Ten. That's not to say that I don't love Ten, but the other albums were more progressive.

As far as Pearl Jam, I like Yield the best.

Couldn't disagree with you more. Have you actually listened to the albums? Or are you just making that statement to make it?

Hootie and the Blowfish have trouble filling clubs, Pearl Jam still plays to sell-out crowds the world over. Their last album has sold around 1.6 million copies world wide, and they charted at #2 the first week of sales.

I've been "over" Pearl Jam for 10 years but even I know that's not a fair analogy. Their last album was quite successful and a bit of a comeback for them, peaking at #2, Hootie's albums barely dent the lower rung of the charts at this point.

if Cobain had lived, Nirvana would have been a cult band with a small following. So no.

So you're saying that Nirvana would be just like Pearl Jam.

Way to go out on a limb there.

das

.... if Kurt Cobain had lived there's a 50% chance he'd be dead?

I somewhat agree. Nirvana was a lot less "fresh" by the time that Cobain committed suicide, and by that time a lot of the fair weather fans had moved on. He's kills himself, and suddenly people who had only heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a couple times on the radio where declaring him a "genius".