Foo Fighters suck, change my mind.

jboss said
Because they're not that good of a band. They're fine. They don't deserve anywhere even remotely near the praise they get. Sure they're the premier grunge band but that aint saying much. Talk about an inconsequential flash in the pan genre.

Grunge was a genre for its time and its place, but that's where it should stay. I mean what other truly meaningful impact on music did grunge have other than being the spiritual predeccesor to 2000's butt rock? The hollow shell of rock music that is post-grunge that we all had to suffer through and really haven't recovered from since. Yea ya know all those bands that sound like something Trey Parker created as a joke? That's the legacy grunge left. Bleck.

I think it's fair to assume you're Gen X? I totally understand why you feel this way about them but no one outside of that specific period of time gives a sheet about grunge. Nirvana's ok, I don't hate Nirvana, but we need to stop pretending like they're some transcendent legendary band.

As for the "lowest point in human history" that really just sounds like an "Old Man Yells At Cloud" situation. Big "back in MY day!" energy. Huge "get off my lawn" vibes. There's tons of good music, TV, movies, art out there. Like every other period in time, the popular stuff is rarely the good stuff, but it's always out there.

Attempting to qualify the legacy of grunge to the 2000’s nu metal dreck, is no different than saying Rage Against the Machine’s legacy is defined by Limp Bizkit or The Beatles legacy is defined by The Monkeez. Woefully shortsighted. The music churned out by major labels in the wake of grunge was a corporate reaction and a desperate attempt to capitalize off the unforeseen success of that movement. I don’t think any other genre should be judged by what was popular in the 10-15 year period immediately following, so doing it here just feels weird. That you attempt to assign this as the legacy of grunge is especially strange given your statement of “the popular stuff is rarely the good stuff.”

And really, when most people reference grunge music, they are talking about 4 bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. Four bands that had very few similarities sonically and whose relationship to one another was mostly based on proximity and a very general aesthetic. Frequently riot grrrl acts are lumped into this, unfortunately and incorrectly.

The assertion that Nirvana “doesn’t deserve nearly the amount of praise that they get” should really be taken up with the endless and ever-growing list of artists that routinely list them as an influence. And that certainly extends from artists in hardcore to heavy metal to hip hop. You might not like them (I don’t really listen to them), but your favorite artists probably do. Obviously this is well beyond just some Gen X love affair, considering the increasingly obvious influence they have on modern punk, hardcore, and rock genres respectively. The legacy of the grunge and riot grrrl movements are still very much being written. Whether you are listening to it or not doesn’t change that.