Would nu metal be popular if Kurt Cobain was still alive?

Fat Freddy wrote:

jstate wrote:

Always weird the way dying becomes a good career move.

Nothin' moves product like a dead rock star. Look at Elvis. Look at Michael Jackson. Hell, even Dio's back catalog had a bump in sales after his passing.

Saw a Dio shirt in Hot Topic tonight.

Eyesore wrote:

Kurt Cobain had nothing to do with nu-metal's rise in popularity. The fact is, corporations decide what people are going to spend their money on because today's consumers are mindless. It's not about whether they really enjoy something than it is whether or not they feel like they should.

Cobain's days in the spotlight were numbered whether he lived or died.

Agreed. Plus I think his whiny lyrics would not play well today; Nirvana would be "metal emo" and tank famously IMO.

tohostudios wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Kurt Cobain had nothing to do with nu-metal's rise in popularity. The fact is, corporations decide what people are going to spend their money on because today's consumers are mindless. It's not about whether they really enjoy something than it is whether or not they feel like they should.

Cobain's days in the spotlight were numbered whether he lived or died.

Agreed. Plus I think his whiny lyrics would not play well today; Nirvana would be "metal emo" and tank famously IMO.

I should add that I'm not referring to all consumers.

it was a trend...trends happen. It would have phased out and into something else....grunge parlayed into an overall wave of alternative music acceptance...then that morphed into heavier alternative....into rapmetal...into whatever this cesspool garbage is we have now....but there will always be another trend waiting in the wings.

And lucky for some of us, there is always that time when old is new again...like the current resurgence of sleaze and glam metal....and thrash.

Gets kind of annoying to hear that Cobain killed glam m*tal...The only thing Cobain killed was himself!

The guy gets way too much credit.....Pop Metal was so watered down when he came on the scene it pretty much killed it's self.

Maybe that's why he killed himself, he realized he wasn't half the man MTV made him out to be.

Eyesore wrote:

Cobain's days in the spotlight were numbered whether he lived or died.

This. Nirvana wasn't invincible (obviously). Even if Cobain had managed to stay alive, they eventually would've succumbed to low sales and poor reviews like virtually every other artist and go back to Sub Pop or whatever indie label. They were part of a fad that replaced the previous fad. I think Grohl probably would have eventually left on his own too, he actually enjoys life and many different styles of music.

Nu metal borrowed much of its lyrical content from grunge. Plus, with the added hip-hop-like feel to the music, I think nu metal would have been popular regardless if Nirvana was still around.

I'm not sure if there was anything stopping \"thebandthatshallneverbementionedagain\" from making it big. Once Megadeth took them out on tour, that was it- a trend was born.

Quote :

The fact is, corporations decide what people are going to spend their money on because today's consumers are mindless.

You're right about that! Look at the current "Bieber fever" crap...

If Cobain lived Nirvana would have dissolved it was already on the way to that, The only reason Cobain went on as long as he did was because of Courtney

I think Cobain would have continued doing music at some point, he had a project lined up with Michael Stipe of REM

Novoselic would have gone on to politics as he's always been political though he did have that band Sweet 75

Grohl would have probably gone on to form the Foos.

I dont think the course of music would have changed much if Kurt still lived

The Foo Fighters are a much better band than Nirvana ever was, thus Kurt did Dave Grohl a favor by taking himself out. Not that I'm one of those people who celebrate Kurt's demise,I just think the whole Seattle scene was kind of done at that point.

If you watch the movie, hype! one of the bands mention that the record companies have a Baby Huey complex and pretty much exploit a city scene until it is done, then move on(which we knew anyway).

It is an intersting docu about Seattle and how Nirvana was really not a major part of it(at least that's how the movie made it feel).

Id have to agree with Chewie on that

Foos are a better band IMO

I dont know what would have happened if Cobain lived, personally I would have hoped he would have continued making music, and not doing something he felt like he was trapped. I would have hoped he would have cleaned up his act and gotten healthy