MYTH No. 2: Nirvana Killed Hair Metal

The Fleeting Ends like this

I would have to agree that hair metal had declined in popularity by 1991, but it wasn't really "dying." Even though I was only 10 in 1991, I remember cheesy hair bands like Extreme, Firehouse and Mr. Big still being quite popular, and Ugly Kid Joe (that band who sang "Everything About You") was even popular a year later. But I still think that hair bands could have died when they did anyway, which I'd say was really more like 1992, even if Nirvana hadn't gotten big. That's just how the music industry works; styles die out. Nirvana just came along at the right time, and you never know, there was the possibility that hair bands could have stuck around even with the popularity of grunge taking off and making alternative rock in general more popular. People also might bring up that alternative rock bands like U2, REM, Depeche Mode, Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cure, Faith No More, Living Colour, etc. were around before Nirvana, and also even had hits on the radio and MTV before Nirvana made it big. However, during that time in the 80's and early-early 90's, the hair bands were still the dominant, most popular form of rock around. Nothing could kill them off then. People praise Nirvana because the hair bands just really started to die off once they became popular. And as for people saying that grunge ended when Kurt ended himself in April of '94, if I remeber right, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, released in late 1994, was a huge hit (as well as Nirvana's Unplugged in New York), and Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots (who some might classify as post-grunge), Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees still had popular singles and videos on alternative rock radio and MTV a year or two after that. I'd say grunge really died in 1997 after the breakup of Soundgarden, and by that time, a slew of happy pop-rock, ska, pop-punk, and really crappy post-grunge bands had taken over alternative rock radio and MTV.

It looks funny when someone defies a thought taken for the last 15 years, people think that Nirvana killed hair metal, that is one of the reasons why Nirvana is so mitified as rock gods who built their tribute ststue with Teen spirit. As previously said it is funny that all nirvana fans **** on their pants when their "gods" are doubted. Nirvana actually didn't do much, they might have made the change apparentely but the change was already made, bands like sonic youth had already been recognized by rock critics, even Daydream nation was featured on the greatest ablums of thedecade of the RS magazine; R.E.M. had already broke into mainstream succsess throughout the late 80's and had critical success with their albums specially with Document & Murmur who reached top 10 in the greatest albums of the 80's by RS magazine. Jane's addiction's second album "Nothing's Shocking" sold 3 million copies in 88, then in the early nineties Soundgarden had their breakthrough album "badmotorfinger" in 91, the black crows "Shake your moneymaker" went 4 times platinum, Jane's addiction's Ritual sold 4 million copies gaining them more reputation; "Gish" Smashing Pumpkins debut album sold 1 million copies and was produced by Butch Vig (the same guy who produced nevermind) months before. Pearl jam who were criticized by music critics (you can count on that SPIN & RS) by being a complete unlegit copy of nevermind who were trying to steal money from young grunge kids (meaning that they suddenly became jealous because Ten outsold Nevermind by 3 million copies) turned out to be more experienced and more legit than nirvana, when kurt was listening and just discovering grunge, Jeff ament & stone gossard were playing in Mother love bone, who was one of the pioneers of grunge, Eddie vedder, mike mccready, stone & jeff played on Temple of the dog, a band who was made in honor of the passing of Andrew wood. the lead vocalist of mother love bone. Alice in chains took the world by the ears when Man in the box became a hit, earlier tan teen spirit. What nirvana did was that they went pop after critizing R.E.M. for being sellouts and critizing Pearl jam as being a copy of themselves. The hit the mainstream no 1 and then did nothing else, noe of their singles like come as you are or in bloom o lithium had that impact. so please do not say stupid things about pearl jam, they are the true legends, when you do something that stands up and then disappear dramatically meaning that you will not be able to screw thing in the afterlife, just be remebered for that one hit. After all, I Start to think that Kurt killing himself being 27 years old was just a publicity stunt to concide with Janis, jimi & Jim, well siucidal is not equal to natural death, that is why he is not as great as them, he didn't even liked who he was or what he did, just what others did, and was "great" critizicing everybody else after him. Accept it, Kurt is no hero, or savior, he was just in the right place at the right time, just months after more than a Dozen acts had done the dirty work for him, he just pushed the lighter onto the powder Keg and took credit for it

whoever reads this, Thnks

JFG

nirvana killed hair metal...thats the best thing they did 4 the rock industry. hair metal was the worst and most embarrising time in metal.

Wow. Nirvana fanboys really get their panties in a bunch whenever someone questions their sacred Kurdt.

I believe that hair metal was dying (as it should have from the begining) Nirvana was just simply the final nail in the coffin. They're the band that made it okay to flood the public with the great bands that only had hits every no wand then before. The 60s and the 90s were the best decades for music.

Jesus Jones was hair metal?

I'm glad that Courtney killing Kurt is no longer considered a myth or legend, just a generally accepted fact

No one mentioned how horrible that portrait of Kurt Cobain is. God, who the hell drew that?

Nirvana didn’t kill Hair Bands, they buried them.

The hair band balloon may have been on a slow descent pre Nevermind. However, no one in hair spray heaven expected a naked baby and a dollar bill to pop it, sending wigs, mascara, one armed abusive drummers and all three sides of the story into free fall.

Waiting below, Kurt with a shovel filled with existential anarchic angst, Kirst, a spade of social and musical unrest, and Dave, with both arms, hastily cover a decade of amplified nursery rimes in a newly dug six foot hole of the new grunge era. Fortunately or unfortunately, capitalism was also in attendance and gladly funded the tomb stone.

The new musical reality gives birth to new radio formats, style and substantive music that you cannot get by filling a balloon with hair spray. The musical landscape collapsed into the underground almost overnight.

There may have been small signs of a slow change in music on the way, but Nevermind unexpectedly expedited the rotation in a noisy, dark, chaotic, grungy shove. Never again would we be exposed to Brent Michael's and his wig (another myth?). Oh, wait...DAMN YOU VH1!

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"Music NEws That's Fit to Fake"

I think that we are talking about a sub category of music with in a general genre of music. I think it is safe to say that Hair metal was already DOA by the time Nirvana arrived on the scene. Nirvana was a great band and I hate to say but the record companies jumped on Nirvana as a vehicle to sell records to catch the new movement among young people. There where many bands that paved the way before Nirvana like: the Pixies, Mother Love Bone, and of course Jane's Addiction and GnR. Jane's had many fans i.e metal heads, surfers,skaters, hippies, new wave, punks. Most of these bands all held there creativity prowness before selling out to the record companies. Nirvana also came from an Indie label but the change had already occured young folks and college radio listners already had their ears to the ground. Unfortunately, Nirvana was the by product after the record labels new what they were missing.

I think that article makes some good points. The hair metal of '90-'91 was vastly different than the hair metal of '86-'89. The reality is that Nirvana were at the right place at the right time. Hair metal was on its last legs by summer of '91. R.E.M. and Janes Addiction are the bands that opened the door for alternative rock and Nirvana walked through in a big way.

And I totally agree that Living Colour, Faith No More and King's X were important bands that I might call "progressive hard rock" that helped steer rock away from the "girls and cars" aesthetic.

Most of the people posting weren't around when the whole "grunge" thing went down. I was. I was 20 in 1990 in Portland. I got to see alot of these future superbands in clubs, Alice in Chains, Mookey Blaylock (Pearl Jam), Nirvana, Mudhoney and others. At the time people were getting sick of what was considered overproduced "fake" music. I remember being at a party where a buddy was saying Nirvana was too corporate. This movement was all about the disgust of popular culture at the time. And the Nirvana break through did kill hair metal. Hair metal may have been dying but Nirvana finished it off very quickly.

It's easy to make a case for something if you grab a handful of annecdotal evidence and ignore the world at large. I am no fan of Nirvana. I loathe Nirvana, they represented a return to absurd rock values that I had hoped were dead and gone. They aimed for a cross between Black Flag and Black Sabbath (a paltry ambition) but they achieved was a recapitulization of Black Oak Arkansas. But it is impossible to ignore (if you live in the real world) that grunge represented ground zero for the innovative, inclusive, musical synth-based styles of the 80s (New Wave, or whatever) Technical guitar playing (Dweezel Zappa even put the instrument down for a while, there was no market for what he was doing) and hair metal, among other things. What followed was gloomy, depressing, and inartuculate. I don't know why you knock Collective Soul, I have liked what little I heard of them. They had good songs that displayed a stylistic range that grunge never achieved. The 17th Rock Myth that the Spin guys forgot to include: the irrelevancy of Spin Magazine to contemporary life. The last time they were relevant was when they covered The Human Skab.

What is happening in music today is everything and nothing. If you are interested in my take on it, check out http://zebratrucks.blogspot.com/. Just remember, you and I and Spin are equally important. There are no ordinary people, and there are no stars.