Nirvana also got radio overkill, so actually people WERE forced to listen to it (although they could just change the station and maybe listen to some Pearl Jam
uke: ). It was the start of the "we have no talent" movement that is still around on radio today.
I can see both sides of the anti-Cobain sentiment. My personal dislike of the band is based solely on the overkill, and the "guilt by association" inauguration of grunge as a commercial form of music. The way the media outlets played that junk and their wretched mainstream offspring...criminy I hate that stuff. '90's "alternative" didn't just ruin metal, it also ruined alternative rock. It was the start of that whole "mine my crappy childhood for song material" trend that makes me want to start kicking people.
Objectively, I have no problems with Nirvana's music. Cobain could write catchy songs, and he also had irony in his lyrics which the people who followed in his wake didn't have the brainpower to grasp. But the overkill, plus the way it ushered in that whole era of crap...blargh.
But if anyone wants to know what really killed metal, it was...hair bands. I grew up in the 1980's, and it was not a golden era for mainstream recognition of metal. Sure, compared to now, more quality bands got exposure then, but for every Dio we got served five or more Warrant clones. I remember when I turned on the radio or MTV, I didn't hear Iron Maiden - more often than not, I would hear "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" or some other crapfest. Unfortunately, the mainstream connected that whole hair band scene with metal, and when people got burned out on the hair, it dragged metal down with it. People got tired of the hair bands because there were so many of them and they sucked bad. I like some hair metal anthems, but the third-hand Poison clones were so phony and their albums were so slick that they sounded plastic. I'd get tired of hearing a band like Warrant have songs about using women left and right, and then have another song on the same album about being mad because "his girl" was out cheatin'. And then the hair bands quit trying to be fun and tried to get serious by badly aping blues rock. That was the last straw for a lot of people. I was smart enough to know that those bands weren't "real metal," and around 2001 I hoped that "real metal" was going to finally get recognition. Boy was I wrong.
Nirvana was at the right place at the right time to offer something different to people tired of the hair bands. That's their real crime.
But I still never want to hear their music ever again.
