Is Nirvana Overated?

Having sold over 75 million records and having over 28 million monthly listeners on Spotify, nobody can deny the success and influence of the popular band Nirvana. From recording home demos while high in his room alone, to playing for hundreds of thousands of people across multiple countries, frontman Kurt Cobain, alongside Dave Grohl, Kris Novoselik, and Chad Channing, changed music history forever. Look up the greatest albums of all time and Nirvana’s “Nevermind” will be in the top 10.

The question however is, do they deserve it? In my opinion, yes. I think that Nirvana is one of the greatest bands to ever exist. In the mid to late 1980s the music industry was dominated by hair metal bands like Motley Crue, Metallica, and Aerosmith, but out of the dim rainy city of Seattle, Washington came a small band with only three members and an extremely unique sound. “Grunge” is a genre of music that was led to the mainstream and was popularized by Nirvana. The genre is often described as a mixture between hard rock/metal and punk. 

I think that Nirvana’s early sound definitely leans more towards the punk side with songs like “Negative Creep,” “Paper Cuts” and “Downer.” Their first album, “Bleach,” is definitely their least talked about album; possibly because of its heavy alternative style. 

Nirvana would not be thrown into the mainstream until the release of their second studio album, “Nevermind.” With this album came everything. They gained rising fame with hit after hit after hit. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “In Bloom” and “Drain You” all came from this album and all became extremely popular singles. 

Later Nirvana would release their third and final studio album, “In Utero.” The album would not reach the success of “Nevermind,” but would still perform very well.

 Nirvana can be looked at as overplayed especially with a lot of fans only knowing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but that does not take away from their musical value. Nirvana can get a bad rap and are sometimes labeled as a one-hit wonder. I think that people need to listen to more than a couple popular songs before labeling an artist or band as “overrated” or “one-hit wonders.”