What makes a great band great?
There are only two criteria for being a great band...
1. The ability to survive time.
2. The ability to change the face of music.
1. The ability to survive time.
Though a little time has passed since the rightful demise of pitiful Nirvana, Nirvana has truly not had the chance to stand the test of time. Nor will they be able to. The reason is simple. As it stands, for the most part, the only people who listen to Nirvana are in their teens or the media. Over the years teens will grow into adulthood, and move on to new and different things. They will raise families, get jobs, and many other things that life presents to them. Nirvana will become a distant memory. Only the media such as idiot tabloids like The Rolling Stone will keep their memory intact. They praise, worship and devour bands like Nirvana. By the way, notice how idiot tabloids such as The Rolling Stone start to worship bands only when they start to develop, or have developed a following? Hmmmmmm. Yes, that's EXACTLY what the Rolling Stone did once Nirvana started hitting the big-time.
2. The ability to change the face of music.
In order for a band to be considered a great band or artist, they must, no ifs ands or butts change the face of music so that many other bands and artists will follow in their footsteps.
OK. This one I will give to Nirvana. They did indeed change the face of music. Clearly, it was for the worse. The best thing that could have happened to rock music is the death of Kurt Cobain! You may call me sick and demented all you want. It is sad that anybody should kill themselves. However, the truth of it is simple. Nirvana made popular the genre of grunge. Though they hardly invented grunge, they have just made it popular. Now ask yourself... "where is the grunge scene now?" That is right class. It has gone bye-bye, and is virtually no more! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has been gone for nearly a decade or so with no true followers intact.
Truly great bands change the face of music for a very long time, and other bands and artists follow in their footsteps. Considering the fact that grunge is practically 100% gone, ask yourself, "how many bands are now following in Nirvana's footsteps?" There are very few bands following in Nirvana's footsteps.
The very dictionary definition of grunge is self defeating itself... "noise" and "slop"... and that not only reflects in the genre itself but in production values and musicianship as well. Notice how in Nirvana's heyday, production values and musicianship went on an incredible decline? Nirvana single-handedly allowed bands with little or no talent to get contracts with record companies. Nirvana allowed bands and artists to have virtually no production values. You can hear mistakes galore. And now that Nirvana is no more, notice how production values and musicianship have increased?
Granted, "noise" and "slop" are not always bad. In some bands or artists the noise and slop is deliberate. In others it may be very inventive and unique. Nirvana clearly attempted, nor did neither. A perfect example of being inventive and unique were Cabaret Voltaire when they first started out. So challenging was their music, they were physically assaulted for playing it.
Nirvana's music was the furthest thing from being inventive and unique. Kurt Cobain did not write the music. He stole it from other bands. Please go to The one, the only, the plagiarists... Nirvana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Criteria for becomming a great band.
There are three things required for becoming a great band.
1. Passion
2. Talent
3. Originality/ uniqueness
1. Passion
Care. Does the band or artist care enough to constantly try to improve? If the answer is yes, then this is passion. Kurt Cobain constantly used the words "bored" and "faking it". He used these words a numbers of times when talking about the music that he supposedly wrote. Being "bored" and "faking it" are the furthest things from being passionate and caring. Duh. As of this revision, not one person out of thousands asked, has been able to answer "when you are consistently 'bored' and 'faking it' with what you do, - how can you have ANY passion whatsoever for what you do? To put it mildly, there with be a big fat zero, zip nada, goose-egg, nothing, it won't exist - get the point?
2. Talent
Musicians should at least be somewhat capable of playing their given instruments. Granted, a lot of bands or artists can't even pick up their instruments and play them. Such is the case with Nirvana. The drummer of Nirvana David Grovel on an eMpTV interview freely admitted that he does not know how to tune his drums. How pathetic is that? Kurt Cobain... hmmmmmmm... he can't even play his supposed own music without stumbling through it... listen to the mistakes galore on every album that Nirvana did... come on, I dare yah.
3. Originality/ uniqueness
There is always something unique and original about bands who are great or ready to become great. Nirvana certainaly had nothing original or unique about them. Everything Nirvana did was done before they were around, and a lot better by far better bands.
People constantly say that there is nothing new in music, that it has all been done before. I totally disagree with this. Bands like Rasputina, Naked City, Melt-Banana, The Residents to put mildly are a one-of-a-kind original. In other words name one other band on the planet that sounds like them - even remotely.
I don't think "new" is the proper word. I think exciting, different, unique, and original, best describes the word "new". There are always a special band(s), artist(s), though not many, that take music one step further than the other band(s) or artist(s) before them. Is this a continuation of elements? In Nirvana's case and most cases, yes, it is. Nirvana was nothing more than a continuation of others whom were before Nirvana and far better than Nirvana could have ever have hoped to have been. However, in the select few that change the face of music, and are now changing the face of music, such as artists like Ani Difranco (she composes a mixture of punk and folk - and yes, she's stumbled), and Beck (he composes a mixture of jazz, punk, industrial, folk among others) to transcend genres by combining them. And then we do have music that is original, unique, exciting and different. All of music has not by any means been done before. In Nirvana's case, it has.
Great, or even good bands or artists continually re-invent themselves, creating something that even they thought they could never do, and thus originality is there. They continually create and strive for uniqueness. Some times they succeed, sometimes they do not. But at least they try. Unlike Nirvana.
There are 6 to 8 octaves on a keyboard/piano. On this instrument alone there is a combination of 12 (the notes in a scale) to the 6th (the octaves on an average keyboard) power of notes that are at a composers disposal. That's right, if my pathetic math is correct, a total of 101,088 notes to choose from before they come full circle from one note to the next. This does not include chords, nor does it include rests, or other different sounding instruments. The point? There IS PLENTY of room for creativity and originality. Nirvana as well as thousands of others are far too lazy to use these many notes at their disposal. They simply create what either sounds good, or what will get the band or artist cashola. However some do use this wide range of notes and sounds. In other words they strive to create and improve.
Home
Why did I make this page?
introduction
about me
What makes a great band great?
The one, the only, the plagiarsts... Nirvana!!!!!!!!!!
Generally, to whom does or did Nirvana appeal to?
Did Nirvana stick to their principles?
Comparing great "alternative" bands and artists to Nirvana
Comparing moronic and bad, and awful, and trashy, and useless, and worthless bands and artists to that moronic and bad, and awful, and trashy, and useless, and worthless band Nirvana
What does the music mean to the listeners/ author???????????????
Please do not tell me that I don't get it... I do get it just fine. Thank you very much.
Is there a future without Nirvana?
To sum up...
YESSSSSSSSSS... that's right kiddies... you can leave me some hate mail...
orrrrrrrrrrrrrr even some love notes...
AND you can also see what other unintelligent/ and intelligent
people have to say
by signing and viewing my guestbook...
Sign My Guestbook
View My Guestbook
