Jack Black on why Nirvana compare to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin: “I had never heard anything like it”
Few guitar bands would refute a comparison to Led Zeppelin. The London-born rockers penned countless classic tracks and forged a place for themselves as one of the most influential bands of all time, leaving generations of guitarists trying desperately to emulate their raucous riffs. To be likened to Led Zeppelin is a compliment that’s hard to beat, but to be compared to The Beatles goes one step further.
While Led Zeppelin are certainly up there as one of the biggest rock bands of all time, The Beatles are undoubtedly the most significant band in history. They top the list for most record sales, their compositions continue to dominate lists of the greatest songs of all time, and their impact on production and the wider industry can still be felt today. A comparison to the Fab Four is one that is coveted by guitar bands galore.
It’s difficult to earn a comparison to either of those bands, but Jack Black once deemed a 1990s grunge outfit as worthy of both. When Rolling Stone asked the multi-talented artist to reflect on the impact of Nirvana’s blistering sophomore record, Nevermind, Black took the opportunity to heap praise upon the trio, comparing the transformative experience of listening to them to discovering Led Zeppelin or The Beatles.
Black called his discovery of Nirvana a “formative experience” before going on to make the weighty comparison. “I had never heard anything like it before, and it was so compelling,” he recalled, “It must have been similar to what it was like when people first heard Led Zeppelin or The Beatles, you know.”
It’s a bold comparison, but Black isn’t exactly alone in making it. Nirvana didn’t just dominate their era, they demolished it. They took the raw energy of punk, the volume of metal, and the melodic instinct of pop, and rewired everything. Like The Beatles or Zeppelin before them, Kurt Cobain and Co didn’t just top charts, they shifted what those charts even meant.
And the impact wasn’t just musical. The Beatles had the suits and the haircuts, Zeppelin had the mystique and mythology. Nirvana brought a different kind of iconography: thrift-store flannel, scorched vocals, and lyrics that read like diary entries by teenagers looking for a mode of expression.
Led by a new kind of frontman in Cobain, Nirvana infused guitar music with a simultaneous sludginess and melodic nature. He was penning hooks as catchy as anything you’d hear on mainstream radio, then hiding them under grunge stylings and dark lyricism. As well as breathing new life into guitar music, Cobain also transformed the idea of the rockstar, using his platform to speak out about issues of homophobia and misogyny.
To Black, and to millions of other music fans in their teens and in their 20s, this was an entirely new sonic experience. Nirvana’s memorable riffs, singalong-worthy choruses, and moody energy reintroduced uninterested youths to the genre. The impact they had on first listen likely was akin to hearing ‘Come Together’ or ‘Immigrant Song’ for the first time.
Decades on from Black’s first exposure to Nirvana, the grunge rockers have earned their own place as one of the most significant rock outfits of all time. Cobain is still one of the most revered frontmen and songwriters in music history, while tracks like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ have found their place amongst ‘Here Comes the Sun’ as the best of the best. A comparison to the greats, to the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, brings with it a certain weight, but one that Nirvana’s legacy is entirely capable of carrying.
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