Pearl Jam vs Nirvana (2 Viewers)

[CGRdrJoe]

I get the casual music fan thinking Nirvana was a bigger deal, but for a 90's kid, Nirvana was a 3-5 hit band while PJ cranked out about 20 great songs in their first three albums.

You try to put together a set list for a concert and Nirvana drops off a cliff in a hurry and PJ has to cut some great songs just to keep it under 3 hours. And I'm not even counting anything after PJ's first 3 albums so the Cobain early death doesn't even come into play there. I'm actually not all that familiar with PJ's later stuff and was underwhelmed with No Code, Yield and Binural.

graduated high school in 93, Nirvana was not a 3-5 hit band

 

[Jayrod]

I get the casual music fan thinking Nirvana was a bigger deal, but for a 90's kid, Nirvana was a 3-5 hit band while PJ cranked out about 20 great songs in their first three albums.

You try to put together a set list for a concert and Nirvana drops off a cliff in a hurry and PJ has to cut some great songs just to keep it under 3 hours. And I'm not even counting anything after PJ's first 3 albums so the Cobain early death doesn't even come into play there. I'm actually not all that familiar with PJ's later stuff and was underwhelmed with No Code, Yield and Binural.

graduated high school in 93, Nirvana was not a 3-5 hit band

Name more than 5.

 

[SWC]

but just because nirvana hit first doesnt diminish how great pearl jam is

I think it's two different discussions. It could be true that both Pearl Jam is a great band (and even better than Nirvana) and Nirvana opened the door for the rest of the Seattle bands to break out (including Pearl Jam).

I don't think any fans of the Who or the Kinks would feel slighted by bringing up how the Beatles and the Stones opened the door for the rest of the British Invasion bands gaining popularity. It doesn't mean the Who and Kinks aren't great bands.

Making it big in the music industry involves luck and timing - there's 1,000s of great bands that don't get their chances.

i agree with you 100 percent i think you just said what i was trying to say but better take that to the bank bromigo

 

[SWC]

rolling stone says the no 1 nirvana song is lithium pear jam is black and ok thats a solid battle but by the time you get to 7 its nirvana aneurism vs pj even flow by 10 its nirvana lounge act vs pj elderly woman behind a counter blah blah blah i mean nirvana had some big songs but after 5 or 6 you are sort of searching for songs that many non hardcore nirvana fans probably dont know all that well that is all i am saying take that to the bank brohans

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to SWC for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

brony you seem to be having a bad day and music is subjective and we can call like what we like so my suggestion is that you take up a cool hobby like model railroading to pick up your spirits you can build a minature village named bronyville and have a tressle bridge over a roaring river next to an ho scale kwik trip serving tiny ranchero steak tornados and you can create stories of days of yore that will raise your happiness level to at least 10 happies and that my friends is the spirit of music take that to the bank brochacho

 

[CGRdrJoe]

I get the casual music fan thinking Nirvana was a bigger deal, but for a 90's kid, Nirvana was a 3-5 hit band while PJ cranked out about 20 great songs in their first three albums.

You try to put together a set list for a concert and Nirvana drops off a cliff in a hurry and PJ has to cut some great songs just to keep it under 3 hours. And I'm not even counting anything after PJ's first 3 albums so the Cobain early death doesn't even come into play there. I'm actually not all that familiar with PJ's later stuff and was underwhelmed with No Code, Yield and Binural.

graduated high school in 93, Nirvana was not a 3-5 hit band

Name more than 5.

Smells like teen spirit, heart shaped box, come as you are, all apologies, rape me, lithium, in bloom, dumb, pennyroyal tea, blew, school, polly

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I get the casual music fan thinking Nirvana was a bigger deal

 

[Jayrod]

I get the casual music fan thinking Nirvana was a bigger deal, but for a 90's kid, Nirvana was a 3-5 hit band while PJ cranked out about 20 great songs in their first three albums.

You try to put together a set list for a concert and Nirvana drops off a cliff in a hurry and PJ has to cut some great songs just to keep it under 3 hours. And I'm not even counting anything after PJ's first 3 albums so the Cobain early death doesn't even come into play there. I'm actually not all that familiar with PJ's later stuff and was underwhelmed with No Code, Yield and Binural.

graduated high school in 93, Nirvana was not a 3-5 hit band

Name more than 5.

Smells like teen spirit, heart shaped box, come as you are, all apologies, rape me, lithium, in bloom, dumb, pennyroyal tea, blew, school, polly

OK 8. The last 5 are garbage except for Polly. Every song on the Ten album is better than Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea, Blew & School.

Black, Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Dissident, Rearviewmirror, Elderly Woman Behind..., Not For You, Nothingman, Courdoroy, Better Man & Immortality. Those are 12 great songs. Not to mention Given to Fly, WishList, Yellow Ledbetter and the Rockin' In the Free World cover.

 

[[icon]]

Pearl Jam would have never been the wealthy careerists they've become if is wasn't for Nirvana breaking big before them.

Debatable.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

I think we’ve settled that they’re both really good bands and there’s no runaway winner, it just comes down to personal preference

Now can we all admit that Tool was far and away the best band to come out of the 90s

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Greatest tour of all time that I missed in 1992:

• Pearl Jam - Ten tour (opening act)
• Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream tour
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic tour (headliner)

I'd give up a big toe to go back in time and see this lineup. Word was that PJ killed it the whole time and Smashing Pumpkins struggled to keep up.

Very true. Saw them in State College. Pearl Jam and Pumpkins honestly blew RHCP away. It was pretty awesome.

Edit to add that it was RHCP that got blown away. Pumpkins were excellent too, just not as good as Pearl Jam.

 

[uwillbsoon]

What metric are you using to define"bigger deal?"

I can't think of any that have Pearl Jam ahead. In Utero outsold Ten if I remember right.

 

[ConstruxBoy]

To be fair, an ex-girlfriend gave me a tape of Ten in the summer of 91 and I was really excited to see them live, so maybe I was biased. I do like the Peppers though. Prefer Freaky Styley to Mothers Milk.

 

[[icon]]

Pearl Jam is an iconic rock act with a 30+ year career of sustained excellence (Dark Matter is a fantastic album). A lull or two on albums but their live shows are near universally accepted to be among the best in the game over that span. They've generally maintained accessibility to the fans, have been absolute monsters when it comes to charity/giving.

Nirvana was the angst we needed to right the ship out of boy band, but that didn't age well, IMO. Bleach was good. Nevermind was phenomenal. In Utero was very very good but the band was already on a downward trend and their live shows had already started to lose luster. They were unsustainable... not dissimilar to how Guns & Roses were.

They both served / are serving their purpose.

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

 

[uwillbsoon]

Despite having a smaller catalogue, Nirvana songs have been streamed twice as much as Pearl jam on Spotify.

Nirvana streams:

Nirvana - Spotify Top Songs

A website that collects and analyzes music data from around the world. All of the charts, sales and streams, constantly updated.

kworb.net

PJ Streams: https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/1w5Kfo2jwwIPruYS2UWh56_songs.html

 

[thecatch]

Pearl Jam is an iconic rock act with a 30+ year career of sustained excellence (Dark Matter is a fantastic album). A lull or two on albums but their live shows are near universally accepted to be among the best in the game over that span. They've generally maintained accessibility to the fans, have been absolute monsters when it comes to charity/giving.

Nirvana was the angst we needed to right the ship out of boy band, but that didn't age well, IMO. Bleach was good. Nevermind was phenomenal. In Utero was very very good but the band was already on a downward trend and their live shows had already started to lose luster. They were unsustainable... not dissimilar to how Guns & Roses were.

They both served / are serving their purpose.

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

Nirvana was the face of a genre and era of music, that's definitionally iconic. And they are aging fine - the amount of Nirvana-branded clothing/backpacks etc I see picking my kids up from elementary school is kind of insane. Pearl Jam is a top 5 band from that era, much like Foo Fighters, that has slowly glided to near irrelevance in terms of new music but is still fun to go see. And they've become the default choice for aging rock fans like myself as all their peer bands have died out (literally, unfortunately, in many cases). I don't begrudge anyone who prefers PJ, but by just about any remotely objective metric you could come up with, Nirvana was a bigger deal.

 

[BLOCKED_PUNT]

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

I think you have this backwards my good man

 

[uwillbsoon]

Pearl Jam is an iconic rock act with a 30+ year career of sustained excellence (Dark Matter is a fantastic album). A lull or two on albums but their live shows are near universally accepted to be among the best in the game over that span. They've generally maintained accessibility to the fans, have been absolute monsters when it comes to charity/giving.

Nirvana was the angst we needed to right the ship out of boy band, but that didn't age well, IMO. Bleach was good. Nevermind was phenomenal. In Utero was very very good but the band was already on a downward trend and their live shows had already started to lose luster. They were unsustainable... not dissimilar to how Guns & Roses were.

They both served / are serving their purpose.

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

Nirvana was the face of a genre and era of music, that's definitionally iconic. And they are aging fine - the amount of Nirvana-branded clothing/backpacks etc I see picking my kids up from elementary school is kind of insane. Pearl Jam is a top 5 band from that era, much like Foo Fighters, that has slowly glided to near irrelevance in terms of new music but is still fun to go see. And they've become the default choice for aging rock fans like myself as all their peer bands have died out (literally, unfortunately, in many cases). I don't begrudge anyone who prefers PJ, but by just about any remotely objective metric you could come up with, Nirvana was a bigger deal.

Exactly. Nirvana's songs are more universal - teenage angst is real. So not only were they wildly popular among generation X, but they're popular among new generations, too.

I have no idea how anyone would say PJ is iconic and Nirvana isn't.

 

[Willy]

Greatest tour of all time that I missed in 1992:

• Pearl Jam - Ten tour (opening act)
• Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream tour
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic tour (headliner)

I'd give up a big toe to go back in time and see this lineup. Word was that PJ killed it the whole time and Smashing Pumpkins struggled to keep up.

Very true. Saw them in State College. Pearl Jam and Pumpkins honestly blew RHCP away. It was pretty awesome.

Edit to add that it was RHCP that got blown away. Pumpkins were excellent too, just not as good as Pearl Jam.

That tour was pretty short, but they played quite a few shows per week. It was from September through most of December of 1991.

I was checking setlist and in late December Nirvana took Smashing Pumpkins spot. That must have been wild.

 

[Brony]

rolling stone says the no 1 nirvana song is lithium pear jam is black and ok thats a solid battle but by the time you get to 7 its nirvana aneurism vs pj even flow by 10 its nirvana lounge act vs pj elderly woman behind a counter blah blah blah i mean nirvana had some big songs but after 5 or 6 you are sort of searching for songs that many non hardcore nirvana fans probably dont know all that well that is all i am saying take that to the bank brohans

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to SWC for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

brony you seem to be having a bad day and music is subjective and we can call like what we like so my suggestion is that you take up a cool hobby like model railroading to pick up your spirits you can build a minature village named bronyville and have a tressle bridge over a roaring river next to an ho scale kwik trip serving tiny ranchero steak tornados and you can create stories of days of yore that will raise your happiness level to at least 10 happies and that my friends is the spirit of music take that to the bank brochacho

sage advice. Though I was agreeing with your take on PJ v Nirvana that Nirvana's catalog kind of peters out after the first 5-10 songs. Alas, I'll be on the last train to bronyville, so I'll catch you later.

 

[Eephus]

I was checking setlist and in late December Nirvana took Smashing Pumpkins spot. That must have been wild.

The Nirvana/RHCP/PJ bill was only for a handful of west coast dates.

While it's true that a lot of success in the music industry is based on timing and luck, I have to acknowledge that Pearl Jam really worked to make the most of their opportunity. They toured relentlessly in 1992, so much that their concert chronology for the year has to be split into two pages. Getting a slot on the second Lollapalooza tour was a huge deal for them but they had laid the groundwork earlier in the year playing just about everywhere.

Five Horizons: 1992 Concert Chronology for Pearl Jam

Part 1 of the 1992 Pearl Jam Concert Chronology, an extensive, carefully researched archive of PJ appearances and shows, including setlists, brief comments and links to pertinent reviews, photos and memorabilia.

www.fivehorizons.com

 

[Dr. Octopus]

While all of the Big 4 Seattle bands were lumped together under the "grunge" label, they were each very different in many ways.

"Grunge" only really seems appropriate for Soundgarden who had a very heavy and sludgy sound. I'd label Nirvana as Pop/Punk; Pearl Jam as hard rock/classic rock and Alice in Chains as glam/metal.

All 4 were great in their own way. My personal favorite is Alice in Chains - but Nevermind is the only all-time great album to be produced by the foursome. Dirt is a distant second.

There's many great albums in the bunch, don't get me wrong, but in 50 years when the latest Pitchfork - Top 500 albums of all time comes out my guess is only Nevermind appears, and appears highly.

 

[[icon]]

Pearl Jam is a top 5 band from that era, much like Foo Fighters, that has slowly glided to near irrelevance in terms of new music but is still fun to go see.

Nearly every Pearl Jam Album has charted to 1st or 2nd in quite a few countries around the world. Their latest album has two US #1 hits on it (Wreckage and Dark Matter).

And "Still fun to go see" is a pretty big understatement for a band who has put on one of the top live shows for 30 years... and is still selling out arenas around the world.

Nirvana has become somewhat of a pop culture meme, yes. We'll agree there.


Nirvana are Grunge and Roses... burned intensely hot, then collapsed into themselves within a few years.

 

[Hawks64]

One band was pretentious.

Can you give some examples?

Let me google that for you.

I always rolled my eyes at Kurt's attitude towards being famous or mainstream. He seemed to look down on everyone else that just wanted to be rock stars. He even had a name for it called "**** rock". In Bloom was basically about his disdain for fanboys who weren't "genuine enough" or didn't know what the lyrics meant.

Please, his girlfriend was Courtney Love for Pete's sake. They played SNL and MTV Unplugged. He was super mainstream and then tried to act like he was too cool for mainstream.

You realize he eventually stuck a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger? Maybe...just maybe...he was a little messed up in the head,

phrasing! Kurt definitely had some serious mental health issues, thinking and talking like this is ridiculous.

Do you use the method of suicide when referring to other musicians who have taken their own lives??

 

[Dr. Octopus]

burned hot then collapsed onto themselves within a few years.

How do we really know that? Nirvana was still HUGE when Cobain took his life.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

phrasing! Kurt definitely had some serious mental health issues, thinking and talking like this is ridiculous.

Do you use the method of suicide when referring to other musicians who have taken their own lives??

I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say or what you are asking me. I'm not sure what I said that was "ridiculous" but I'll just ignore your issues.

 

[Hawks64]

Thank God the FFA course corrected and put Nirvana in the lead here...was losing my faith in the collective wisdom of the FFA. Pearl Jam is great, but never was and never will be Nirvana.

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Probably a bunch of REM, Phish and Dave Matthews fans chiming in.

They own the longevity, and hey I love DMB but voted PJ here. Wore out 2 CDs and at least 2 cassettes of Ten at the end of 91.

 

[[icon]]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

 

[Hawks64]

phrasing! Kurt definitely had some serious mental health issues, thinking and talking like this is ridiculous.

Do you use the method of suicide when referring to other musicians who have taken their own lives??

I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say or what you are asking me. I'm not sure what I said that was "ridiculous" but I'll just ignore your issues.

Instead of being compassionate, you chose to be vulgar about someone who has serious mental issues and committed suicide.

And my question stands, when you refer to Taylor Hawkins, Chris Cornell, Richard Hoon, do you refer to them in the same manner as you did Kurt Cobain?

 

[Dr. Octopus]

nstead of being compassionate, you chose to be vulgar about someone who has serious mental issues and committed suicide.

You missed the context apparently AND you know nothing about me or my experience with suicide/metal health issues.

I'll move along though and let you feel good about yourself for calling me out.

 

[rockaction]

Greatest tour of all time that I missed in 1992:

• Pearl Jam - Ten tour (opening act)
• Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream tour
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic tour (headliner)

I'd give up a big toe to go back in time and see this lineup. Word was that PJ killed it the whole time and Smashing Pumpkins struggled to keep up.

I saw the tour at the Springfield Civic Center in Massachusetts. Eddie Vedder quipped that if you told him once upon a time he'd play a place that big (!) that it would have as many fans as they were opening for. They were the first act and nobody was there yet save for a hundred of us, a few of us due to my urging we go see them—I had wanted to see PJ that night. So Vedder made his comment about the crowd size. But you could tell that it wasn't false humility or a snipe at the crowd. It was just him being him and being humble.

As far as Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam goes, you cleverly put an album title right in the title of your thread. How could one not choose Pearl Jam with this type of subliminal shtick going on?

That all said, I'm going with Nirvana. Better songwriters for my money. Describing Kurt conjures up a lot of words that don't seem fair to describe him with these days, especially now because he's not here to defend himself. He was a provocateur from a dial this side of the aisle, and it suited the band and their whole reason for being. They are iconic. Pearl Jam is . . . well, sort of a jam-esque, inoffensive band that plays some decent music.

eta* That's short shrift to Pearl Jam, who can really rock out when they want to.

 

[uwillbsoon]

Pearl Jam is a top 5 band from that era, much like Foo Fighters, that has slowly glided to near irrelevance in terms of new music but is still fun to go see.

Nearly every Pearl Jam Album has charted to 1st or 2nd in quite a few countries around the world. Their latest album has two US #1 hits on it (Wreckage and Dark Matter).

And "Still fun to go see" is a pretty big understatement for a band who has put on one of the top live shows for 30 years... and is still selling out arenas around the world.

Nirvana has become somewhat of a pop culture meme, yes. We'll agree there.


Nirvana are Grunge and Roses... burned intensely hot, then collapsed into themselves within a few years.

Wreckage was their fifth song to be #1 on the Billboard alternative chart. Took them 30 years, but they finally matched Nirvana!

 

[odin33]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

Curious as to which you think is better. For me it's very close between Nirvana and Clapton. (FTR- I have not seen/listened to them all)

 

[SWC]

rolling stone says the no 1 nirvana song is lithium pear jam is black and ok thats a solid battle but by the time you get to 7 its nirvana aneurism vs pj even flow by 10 its nirvana lounge act vs pj elderly woman behind a counter blah blah blah i mean nirvana had some big songs but after 5 or 6 you are sort of searching for songs that many non hardcore nirvana fans probably dont know all that well that is all i am saying take that to the bank brohans

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to SWC for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

brony you seem to be having a bad day and music is subjective and we can call like what we like so my suggestion is that you take up a cool hobby like model railroading to pick up your spirits you can build a minature village named bronyville and have a tressle bridge over a roaring river next to an ho scale kwik trip serving tiny ranchero steak tornados and you can create stories of days of yore that will raise your happiness level to at least 10 happies and that my friends is the spirit of music take that to the bank brochacho

sage advice. Though I was agreeing with your take on PJ v Nirvana that Nirvana's catalog kind of peters out after the first 5-10 songs. Alas, I'll be on the last train to bronyville, so I'll catch you later.

i love you brony take that to the bank brochacho

 

[SWC]

swc story time back in 1995 i was at summerfest with a gal and we were trying to buy some scalped tickets outside the entrance to marcus trying to see pearl jam we could hear the concert as the gate was pretty close and we just could not find anyone to buy tickets from they either werent selling or they wanted a lot more than i had which was just like now not a lot so anyhow the opening acts were going and it looked pretty dim now we had walked around summerfest seeing other acts and were tired and there is just a look that most festival goers have if you know what i mean you can just tell who has been outside in the heat bumping into people all days long in the sun and so on well as we were basically giving up hope a woman who was dressed to the nines and clearly hadnt been out in the sun all day walked up to me and said i noticed you were trying to get tickets for the show and i yes we were how much for two and she said no charge here are two tickets quote courtesy of eddie vedder and the band end quote let me tell you brothers i could have about floated into marcus just getting tickets of any type and then we actually looked at the tickets and it ended up they were third row center so that is how i saw the frogs bad religion and eddie vedder and the band also known as pearl jam from the third row and it was effen sweet as hell take that to the bank brochachos

 

[Eephus]

swc story time back in 1995 i was at summerfest with a gal and we were trying to buy some scalped tickets outside the entrance to marcus trying to see pearl jam we could hear the concert as the gate was pretty close and we just could not find anyone to buy tickets from they either werent selling or they wanted a lot more than i had which was just like now not a lot so anyhow the opening acts were going and it looked pretty dim now we had walked around summerfest seeing other acts and were tired and there is just a look that most festival goers have if you know what i mean you can just tell who has been outside in the heat bumping into people all days long in the sun and so on well as we were basically giving up hope a woman who was dressed to the nines and clearly hadnt been out in the sun all day walked up to me and said i noticed you were trying to get tickets for the show and i yes we were how much for two and she said no charge here are two tickets quote courtesy of eddie vedder and the band end quote let me tell you brothers i could have about floated into marcus just getting tickets of any type and then we actually looked at the tickets and it ended up they were third row center so that is how i saw the frogs bad religion and eddie vedder and the band also known as pearl jam from the third row and it was effen sweet a hell take that to the bank brochachos

I'm Team Nirvana in the poll but have massive respect for the way Pearl Jam has treated their fans.

 

[rockaction]

a woman who was dressed to the nines and clearly hadnt been out in the sun all day walked up to me and said i noticed you were trying to get tickets for the show and i yes we were how much for two and she said no charge here are two tickets quote courtesy of eddie vedder and the band end quote let me tell you brothers i could have about floated into marcus just getting tickets of any type and then we actually looked at the tickets and it ended up they were third row center so that is how i saw the frogs bad religion and eddie vedder and the band also known as pearl jam from the third row and it was effen sweet a hell take that to the bank brochachos

Cue credits right there. Great story, SWC. I know that feeling of summer heat and music and sometimes it never relents. Glad it did for you that moment in the cool, cool sun.

 

[Major]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

Curious as to which you think is better. For me it's very close between Nirvana and Clapton. (FTR- I have not seen/listened to them all)

I have those two along with Jay Z and The Roots. Not sure which was best.

 

[TripItUp]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

My Unplugged Rankings

1. Nirvana
2. AIC
3. Clapton
4. 10000 Maniacs
5. STP

All Bangers, great era for music

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Someone mentioned the "kind of kids that liked each band" at some point earlier in this thread. The generalization I found for my cohorts (Caucasian Males) was the kids that were more quiet and shy but had a lot of "hidden" aggression/anger inside fell hard for Nirvana. And the kids that were more loud and aggressive but had a lot of "hidden" emotional sensitivity inside fell hard for Pearl Jam.
Then the quiet/shy kids without the aggression and anger listened to the Cure and the loud/aggressive kids without the emotional sensitivity listened to heavy metal.
In general. Anecdotally.

 

[uwillbsoon]

Someone mentioned the "kind of kids that liked each band" at some point earlier in this thread. The generalization I found for my cohorts (Caucasian Males) was the kids that were more quiet and shy but had a lot of "hidden" aggression/anger inside fell hard for Nirvana. And the kids that were more loud and aggressive but had a lot of "hidden" emotional sensitivity inside fell hard for Pearl Jam.
Then the quiet/shy kids without the aggression and anger listened to the Cure and the loud/aggressive kids without the emotional sensitivity listened to heavy metal.
In general. Anecdotally.

I found jocks, frat boys and popular kids liked Pearl Jam more. Nerdy and less popular liked Nirvana. But that's because my friends and I were the latter .

That's why I find it so funny Bill Simmons loves PJ. He's like the embodiment of the PJ fan stereotype to me.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Pearl Jam is an iconic rock act with a 30+ year career of sustained excellence (Dark Matter is a fantastic album). A lull or two on albums but their live shows are near universally accepted to be among the best in the game over that span. They've generally maintained accessibility to the fans, have been absolute monsters when it comes to charity/giving.

Nirvana was the angst we needed to right the ship out of boy band, but that didn't age well, IMO. Bleach was good. Nevermind was phenomenal. In Utero was very very good but the band was already on a downward trend and their live shows had already started to lose luster. They were unsustainable... not dissimilar to how Guns & Roses were.

They both served / are serving their purpose.

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

I loved this part of the post especially. I could be off base here, but I have a hard time imagining the majority of people who voted Nirvana popping on Bleach or Utero in the last few years. Nevermind and Unplugged? You will get no argument from me they are epic albums, but the other output they had to me is good to very good. Off the top of my head I thought of 5-6 Pearl Jam albums that are great to epic. Again, personal opinion. PJ's Uplugged was every bit as good as Nirvana's as well. That just showed up on Spotify in the last few years, if people wanted a listen.
Much of the emotion of Nirvana's is the unfortunate tragedy that closely followed. It makes the album that much more haunting in retrospect.

I also love the GnR comp, and would agree. Best case I could see for them would be to get one more great album before they self imploded. So much tragedy in all these bands, unfortunately.

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Someone mentioned the "kind of kids that liked each band" at some point earlier in this thread. The generalization I found for my cohorts (Caucasian Males) was the kids that were more quiet and shy but had a lot of "hidden" aggression/anger inside fell hard for Nirvana. And the kids that were more loud and aggressive but had a lot of "hidden" emotional sensitivity inside fell hard for Pearl Jam.
Then the quiet/shy kids without the aggression and anger listened to the Cure and the loud/aggressive kids without the emotional sensitivity listened to heavy metal.
In general. Anecdotally.

I found jocks, frat boys and popular kids liked Pearl Jam more. Nerdy and less popular liked Nirvana. But that's because my friends and I were the latter .

That's why I find it so funny Bill Simmons loves PJ. He's like the embodiment of the PJ fan stereotype to me.

Yeah, that tracks with my generalization.

 

[ConstruxBoy]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

My Unplugged Rankings

1. Nirvana
2. AIC
3. Clapton
4. 10000 Maniacs
5. STP

All Bangers, great era for music

All are very good. FWIW as an admitted Pearl Jam fan, their unplugged version of Porch was just about the most "rocking" performance in the whole series, right up there with "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool James. Of course, unplugged isn't designed to be "rocking"...

 

[rockaction]

Much of the emotion of Nirvana's is the unfortunate tragedy that closely followed.

I was already out of Nirvana and the whole angsty music scene when that came out and I will tell you it had nothing to do with the tragedy (the way it was received). Unplugged Nirvana was a classic from the moment it aired. And MTV knew it. I think they made it primetime or something.

Research incoming.

Three Feet From God: An Oral History of Nirvana ‘Unplugged’

Twenty-five years after the historic performance that became the band’s best-selling final album, we talked to producers, directors, musicians, and fans present for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s greatest performance

www.theringer.com

very quick research. Article starts out great. I'll have to read the rest.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Much of the emotion of Nirvana's is the unfortunate tragedy that closely followed.

I was already out of Nirvana and the whole angsty music scene when that came out and I will tell you it had nothing to do with the tragedy (the way it was received). Unplugged Nirvana was a classic from the moment it aired. And MTV knew it. I think they made it primetime or something.

Research incoming.

Three Feet From God: An Oral History of Nirvana ‘Unplugged’

Twenty-five years after the historic performance that became the band’s best-selling final album, we talked to producers, directors, musicians, and fans present for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s greatest performance

www.theringer.com

very quick research. Article starts out great. I'll have to read the rest.

I get that and agree. What I was trying to get at is that when PJ's aired a few years earlier it was also talked about with similar acclaim, powerful, and a great show. In that sense I am saying as a show I thought they were about equal. By the time Nirvana did theirs it was 1 1/2 years later and Unplugged as a brand/event was bigger, and it was easily available on disc where PJs wasn't from my memory, and the tragedy is why I think it's much more in the public conscious. People have a connection to it, and it's understandable. I was just pointing out that as a show I thought PJ's was a good side by side comparison for the two bands. IMO people forget how powerful a song like Black was in that format or how Eddie's antics were talked about and how big of a show that was at the time.

 

[SWC]

And Nirvana Unplugged is one of the best live albums of all time...take that to the bank bromigos.

Not even the best MTV unplugged

icon what do you say are the best unpluggeds i liked that show and love acoustic versions take that to the bank brohan

 

[uwillbsoon]

Pearl Jam is an iconic rock act with a 30+ year career of sustained excellence (Dark Matter is a fantastic album). A lull or two on albums but their live shows are near universally accepted to be among the best in the game over that span. They've generally maintained accessibility to the fans, have been absolute monsters when it comes to charity/giving.

Nirvana was the angst we needed to right the ship out of boy band, but that didn't age well, IMO. Bleach was good. Nevermind was phenomenal. In Utero was very very good but the band was already on a downward trend and their live shows had already started to lose luster. They were unsustainable... not dissimilar to how Guns & Roses were.

They both served / are serving their purpose.

Nirvana were greats. Pearl Jam are icons.

I loved this part of the post especially. I could be off base here, but I have a hard time imagining the majority of people who voted Nirvana popping on Bleach or Utero in the last few years. Nevermind and Unplugged? You will get no argument from me they are epic albums, but the other output they had to me is good to very good. Off the top of my head I thought of 5-6 Pearl Jam albums that are great to epic. Again, personal opinion. PJ's Uplugged was every bit as good as Nirvana's as well. That just showed up on Spotify in the last few years, if people wanted a listen.
Much of the emotion of Nirvana's is the unfortunate tragedy that closely followed. It makes the album that much more haunting in retrospect.

I also love the GnR comp, and would agree. Best case I could see for them would be to get one more great album before they self imploded. So much tragedy in all these bands, unfortunately.

I never listen to Nevermind. Love In Utero (Albini nailed the production) and Bleach is wildly underrated.

I've tried to listen to new (the last 25 years) Pearl Jam. I really have. I liked their earlier albums.

Just can't get into it. At all. That's probably cloudng my opinion of them.

 

[uwillbsoon]

Much of the emotion of Nirvana's is the unfortunate tragedy that closely followed.

I was already out of Nirvana and the whole angsty music scene when that came out and I will tell you it had nothing to do with the tragedy (the way it was received). Unplugged Nirvana was a classic from the moment it aired. And MTV knew it. I think they made it primetime or something.

Research incoming.

Three Feet From God: An Oral History of Nirvana ‘Unplugged’

Twenty-five years after the historic performance that became the band’s best-selling final album, we talked to producers, directors, musicians, and fans present for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s greatest performance

www.theringer.com

very quick research. Article starts out great. I'll have to read the rest.

I get that and agree. What I was trying to get at is that when PJ's aired a few years earlier it was also talked about with similar acclaim, powerful, and a great show. In that sense I am saying as a show I thought they were about equal. By the time Nirvana did theirs it was 1 1/2 years later and Unplugged as a brand/event was bigger, and it was easily available on disc where PJs wasn't from my memory, and the tragedy is why I think it's much more in the public conscious. People have a connection to it, and it's understandable. I was just pointing out that as a show I thought PJ's was a good side by side comparison for the two bands. IMO people forget how powerful a song like Black was in that format or how Eddie's antics were talked about and how big of a show that was at the time.

Abbruzzese was fantastic in that unplugged. Whatever happened to him? I like Matt Cameron, but Abbruzzese was the perfect drummer for them.

It's a really good unplugged, too.

 

[rockaction]

In that sense I am saying as a show I thought they were about equal. By the time Nirvana did theirs it was 1 1/2 years later and Unplugged as a brand/event was bigger, and it was easily available on disc where PJs wasn't from my memory, and the tragedy is why I think it's much more in the public conscious. People have a connection to it, and it's understandable. I was just pointing out that as a show I thought PJ's was a good side by side comparison for the two bands. IMO people forget how powerful a song like Black was in that format or how Eddie's antics were talked about and how big of a show that was at the time.

Oh, sure. And I'm partly wrong. His death did make it bigger, apparently, or so goes the narrative. They showed a clipped version of the Unplugged on MTV, which is in retrospect what I now seem to recall (memory is faulty). They waited to release the album on CD or cassette because of Cobain's death and not wanting to seemingly profiteer off of it.

So I'm a bit wrong.

And your opinion is just your opinion and I respect it. Don't let me harsh your mellow or attempt to mold it. I'm just excited to talk about that performance. I loved it in the clipped version, and generally (even though I sadly think I've out-olded and out-sobered it) love it now in all its glory.

 

[SWC]

rock i always like your music takes which you take to the bank bromigo