I watched “The Year that Punk Broke”, a travelouge and concert video filmed by Sonic Youth of a 1991 European Summer tour which included Nirvana and a host of bands you remember kind of — Dinosaur Jr and any number of others.  I probably should not have, but I had my reasons.
Courtney Love made me cringe.

I made a sudden realization that I don’t especially like Nirvana.  Aside from their great panoply of hits, Cobain is just sort of atonal and obnoxious.  Whenever I have put Nevermind into the cd player, I’ve always programmed it to play about 6 of the tracks, which means that I think Nevermind is a great half of an album.
Depending on who you ask, either Nirvana or Pearl Jam is the one that is mentioned as having “changed everything”, shifted the grounds of rock music.  And one or the other tends to be named.  Indeed, it was a great affect:  one variety of corporate rock aping something slightly more authentic was replaced by a better brand of corporate rock aping something slightly more authentic.  Some good things were invariably lost in the changeover, but on the whole, we don’t miss the Warrants of the world much.

But I am left with a realization, years after the fact.  Turn on the radio, focus closely on the new artists of the “00”s.  Who sounds like Nirvana anymore?  The “Seattle Scene” faded away, Sub-Pop went bankrupt, Grunge is Dead.  Which leaves me with the question of what does everyone sound like anyways.  What album or band from the 1990s ended with the ultimate lasting influence Nirvana is said to have.

I don’t think Green Day’s brand of Mall Punk can be said to rule the roost.  Or that third generation ska of No Doubt and various watered down but inoffensively and joyful tuneful such that I heard on Top 40 radio in the late 1990s.

Actually everyone sounds something like Weezer.  Forget Nirvana.  Weezer changed the entire landscape of rock and roll.  Nothing was ever the same after Weezer came on the scene.  Come to think of it, I don’t remember where I was when I first saw that “Sounds Like Teen Spirit” video of that demented pep assembly.  I do remember first seeing the Weezer dance with the Fonze.
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