Can someone explain to me the massive appeal of Nirvana?

Kurt wasn't the best singer, nor the best guitarist, but his voice had an almost ethereal quality to it. It wasn't perfect, but it sounded as though he were talking to you, and only you. Krist is an overall great bassist, but definitely not the best. Dave Grohl is a beast at drums, though. But music wise, their somewhat simple songs conveyed a lot. Smells Like Teen Spirit conveyed confusion and loss of a wayward generation, I believe that Breed is a statement against random sex, and I think that Come As You Are is kind of about accepting everyone, and In Bloom is pretty much a song against posers. Kurt also could write ambiguous songs that would need a quite a few looks over the lyrics to understand. They were kinda the security blanket of the youth of the 90s, something they could relate to.

Hope I helped!

They brought grunge to mainstream, before them all the grunge bands were underground and relatively unheard of. Also, they gave voice to a generation. As opposed to the macho cock rock of the 80s, they brought something new that teens could relate to. Kurt Cobain was an amazing lyricist and his voice conveyed so much emotion that to me it was better than the voices of more technically talented singers like Layne Staley. On another point, you must have only listened to Nevermind, because Nirvana has quite a bit of diversity in sound. Listen to Negative Creep and then listen to Something in the Way and then tell me that their songs all sound the same! Alice and Chains and Nirvana had completely different sounds, even though they were both considered part of the Seattle grunge movement, so to say that one is better than the other is just a matter of opinion about which sound appeals the most to you. Personally, Nirvana appeals more to me.

Nirvana was called a grunge band, which a style of rock music from Washington that has distorted guitar parts and angsty sort of lyrics(not that I'd call any of Nirvana's songs angsty). I guess they were so popular because Nirvana emerged during a stage of rebellion going on during that time (Rebellion that was different than before, I don't know how to exlpain it, it just was).

Nirvana wrote songs that really summed up what it was all about and so I guess that's why they were so popular even after Cobain's suicide and the band's break up. I think a really good band has to be somewhat relevent to the audience, or else it doesn't mean anything to anybody, it would be just a catchy tune that everybody would forget about when the next hit came out.

At that time, they were the voice of a generation (Generation X) and everyone could relate to them. They brought Grunge and alternative music to the mainstream, a indie band topping the charts replacing Micheal Jackson's Dangerous at number one was unimaginable and turned the music industry up-side down. Soon all of the music companies went on the bandwagon and signed as many indie/grunge/alternative bands as they can.

They might not have been the greatest guitarists, singer, drummer, etc., but they were talented and unique and there would be no band like them EVER. If you like them or not, you can't ignore there contribution and influence to rock n' roll.

see the thing is with some of the bands you mentioned ....... nirvana started around the time of actual punk rock although hardcore punk (minor threat, bad brains etc.) might have faded away by 1987 and the "pop" music was the in thing kurt cobain enjoyed both the heavy hardcore punk rock, and the happy crappy sing song pop music, so he out them together the result was a heavy, almot metal sounding experiment with soft "pretty lyrics" and BTW kurt cobain was not addicted to heroin his whole life.....he only started it in about 93 and green day was just trying to copy some of the more poppy punk bands such as the sex pistols, ramones etc. greenday is primarily hated because they didnt creat anything new at all, just same old thing popular musi is a neverending evolution people will hear music and change it , and then that music will be heard and changed by another band etc. so when dorky litte band llike greenday come along and pla the same old **** ..... its only holding back the musical evolution in conclusion nirvana > greenday

It's first of all because they were different from the most band out there then...second, they were kinda depressing which always appeals to teenagers and last but not least the main reason is MTV which turned from Hair Metal to nirvana and other bands influenced by Cure...

lol i don't like hem either

jejeje

Well, they brought grunge to the mainstream, and many people related to their music. They are not the best band of all time and Kurt Cobain isn't the best singer or guitiar player out there (Chris Cornell and Layne Staley were better grunge singers though) or anything like that, but they're up there. Just my opinion!

Well, Nirvana is one of my favorite bands of all time. They had, and still have a massive appeal because they were one of the first bands to bring underground punk music to themainstream. Kurt was also a songwriting genius, in my opinion. Kurt was labeled as the voice of a generation in the '90s, because he wrote songs that generation X could relate to. A bunch of people who felt alienated and helpless identified with Kurt and his music.

because of kurt, thats why.

he was a beautiful song writer, and smells like teen spirit was one of the first grunge songs to go mainstream!

and kurt is a legend, with the kool-aid dyed hiar and grungy style, but also with his lyrics

he was a genius at what he did

(am i the only one who thinks he didnt commit suicide? its obvious his wife killed him, cuz shes now dissappeared and kurts ashes r gone too)

Intense, mysterious frontman.

Emotional, powerful lyrics which, at times, courted controversy ("Rape Me").

They were different.