Were Nirvana the biggest punk band of all time?
It’s practically impossible to identify what the grunge scene was all about in a few words. Although every member of the ‘Big Four’ brought something new to the table, it was all about making authentic music rather than making something trendy that would one day take over hair metal as the dominating force on MTV. For Nirvana, it was all about rebellion, and looking at the way they conducted themselves, they should hold the title as one of the biggest punk bands of all time.
Then again, the term “punk” alone comes with a few qualifiers. As much as Kurt Cobain may have loved his underground punk bands like Flipper, he was still prone to writing some of the catchiest melodies of the decade, which doesn’t exactly scan as someone who wanted to be talked about the same way people discussed bands like Melvins.
When looking at the entire Seattle scene, though, none of them sounded alike. The trademark ‘yarl’ may have become a trendy amalgamation of what grunge singers sounded like, but Eddie Vedder seemed to be the only person who had that growl in his voice compared to Chris Cornell’s Robert Plant-esque delivery or the raw pain in Cobain’s voice.
Listening to Nirvana in isolation, though, it’s easy to see how he looked at punk as the ultimate starting point for him. Despite some of his heroes being artists like The Beatles, it felt like Cobain was doing everything in his power to make his sweet melodies sound a little bit dirty, whether that meant throwing blasts of noise in between the verses of ‘Drain You’ or making ‘All Apologies’ sound like it was being played underwater.
What made Nirvana punk rock?
But punk is also about more than the way a band sounds. If that was the case, every punk act would still sound like Sex Pistols, but what Nirvana did was much more true to Neil Young’s definition of what punk rock was supposed to be. Throughout their career, they had zero regard for the mainstream, and even when they managed to get big, Cobain did everything he could to make the antithesis of a rock and roll show.
Looking at the people they hung out with, they were never afraid of their punk credentials, either. They were known to tour with bands like Sonic Youth and eventually worked with punk icon Steve Albini on In Utero. Listening to how they ended up sounding towards the end, Cobain was doing his best to make Nirvana sound like the exact opposite of what a big rock and roll band was supposed to be.
Even when performing for the MTV Awards, seeing him get smarmy towards the end of ‘Lithium’ felt like he was making fun of himself being onstage while he played. Then again, no other band has ever taken the piss out of rock and roll and still was able to rock harder than anyone could have ever imagined, especially when Cobain destroyed his gear or threw himself into the audience.
And that’s what punk rock was always supposed to be. The whole reason why acts like Sex Pistols and The Clash worked is because of how much they stripped everything down once prog rock started dominating the conversation, and now, with poodle-haired rockers as his target, Cobain brought everything back to ground level and ended up looking far more approachable than the John Lydons of the world.
So, really, Nirvana deserves a spot in both chairs as one of the finest rock bands of all time and the most successful punk act in the world. What they did wasn’t meant to be groundbreaking when they started out, but looking through every one of their songs, they were far more interested in subverting expectations, and that’s the mark of any great punk.
