This is a very difficult question! The simple answer is probably yes, but I agree that it might likely be the Melvins or Pearl Jam. At this point I would have to say Pearl Jam though, as they seem to be the ones who have spawned the most imitation. I hesitate to say this though, as I feel it takes credit away from the original that Eddie Vedder copied-Cher!!!! Listen carefully to how Cher sings and the tone of her voice, then listen to Pearl Jam, Creed, Nickleback etc., and you will hear how they all just bite her style! So really, it's hard to say that grunge had any lasting influence, as the influential grunge bands can be traced to influential rock and punk bands (and Cher!) that came before them. Grunge as a musical style was mostly imitation, and imitation is rarely influential.

I see what you're going for with the Cher thing, S. I like your claim...I can see Eddie Vedder singing along to Cher tunes in his bedroom...

I think that Pearl Jam is probably the most SUCCESSFULLY imitated of the "grunge" bands, although I hesitate to merely lump Nirvana in as "grunge." As much as I think they're a little overrated, I think they're as much of a pop band and a post-punk band as a grunge band. There were some groups that deliberately copied Nirvana's whole style (Silverchair, Bush) but they haven't done NEARLY as well as those who have followed Pearl Jam's more classic-rock style (Creed, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback).

I should also point out that I got the Pearl Jam double best-of from a label friend this year, and I still enjoy quite a bit of it. The songs from Ten, slightly remixed, still sound great. And I enjoy having the various singles from the later, more experimental, records in one handy package. "Do The Evolution" is a pretty hot little fuzzbox garage jam.

To the Mainstream, no doubt. But to go further back the Melvins truly started the potent grunge term

Go back further: the Stooges, the Sonics, Black Sabbath. The Melvins would be nothin' without all of them...

I love "Do the Evolution," but I hate 'Ten.' Awful, awful record. Not even worth it for "Jeremy."

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Go back further: the Stooges, the Sonics, Black Sabbath. The Melvins would be nothin' without all of them...

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True, but wouldnt Neil Young be more accurate? he is usually associated with bieng the father of grunge (Man i hate the term grunge )

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Originally posted by sludgefeast:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Go back further: the Stooges, the Sonics, Black Sabbath. The Melvins would be nothin' without all of them...

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True, but wouldnt Neil Young be more accurate? he is usually associated with bieng the father of grunge (Man i hate the term grunge!)

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He's in there too, but I think that "Godfather of Grunge" thing was overblown when Pearl Jam toured with Neil Young. I hear more of the grunge sound in the various bands on the Nuggets boxes than I do in any Neil Young/Crazy Horse stuff. But I can get the influence...

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Originally posted by storm_chaser:
But surely, we can't talk about Young being the "Godfather of grunge" without mentioning Crazy Horse, especially, the sadly missed, much under-rated Danny Whitten.

"I've seen the needle and the damage done"

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Amen. I think the whole "Godfather of Grunge" thing totally neglected that Crazy Horse was a BAND and not just a Neil Young construct. Those boys could whip up a glorious noise live that puts Sonic Youth to shame...

the only reason i joined this site is to tell the guy who said the members of nirvana can barely play their instruments that he is a moron. Others have already called him out but i would like to personally call him a jackass. Kurt Cobain did what he could with his skill. He might not have been the greatest guitarist in the world but he knew how to make something relatively simple into something beautiful. His lyrics could've and would've been better had he not supposedly killed himself. Krist Novoselic is a great bassist and Dave Grohl is the best drummer since Neil Peart. Neil Peart is the guy from Rush who is basically the best drummer ever, but Dave Grohl is bar none the best drummer of this generation.

Nirvana were the first time MTV got hold of alternative music and promoted it big-time.

As such they can rightfully lay claim to being the most influential 'grunge band' or whatever it is they were labelled as. They are the most well known, and they made the most money. David Geffen and Courtney Love are still milking the back catalogue even now.

Ask yourself this though - if Buzz Osborne from the Melvins/Fantomas actually looked normal (instead of having a head like a pineapple), could it not have been the Melvins?

If the Butthole Surfers had changed their name? Why not them?

Why weren't Mudhoney chosen?

Surely the Pixies pre-dated the whole thing by a good 5 years - But Frank Black was too fat for MTV wasn't he?

Nirvana looked right, sounded right and fitted in nicely with the marketing strategy - the fact that they wrote good music is neither here nor there (I happen to think they did). Cobain was a junkie. He should not be admired for that. His patented Fender Jagstang (designed with a crayon) is an awful instrument.

I liked Nirvana's music. I think it's awful that Mr Cobain is sold as a 'hero'. I feel the same way about Sid Vicious.

One thing about Nirvana as opposed to other Grunge bands, was that Kurt Cobain knew how to write a good hook. Nevermind, despite it's ragged instrumentation, is an incredibly catchy album from start to finish.

I pretty much stopped listening to grunge for awhile, and recently went back to some of it. It's surprising to hear how well Nirvana's music holds up, compared to other stuff from that era.

They're also infinitely better than the legions of Nirvana rip-off acts we hear on modern rock radio today (Yeah I'm talking to you, Nickelback).

Grunge is characterized as having heavy down-tuning and a harder rock sound. Nirvana, as others have posted is more of a punk, or power-pop band, and an excellent one at that. The most influential band in grunge and who pioneered the movement was probably a band like Dinosaur Jr.

I agree with both of the above statements.

Nirvana were a good band. Were it not for the actions of MTV...well who knows what could've happened?!

I should also note that's it's really difficult to say how great Nirvana would've been due to their relatively short career. "Nevermind" is a truly great album, but "In Utero" is a little spotty and "Bleach" isn't very good at all IMHO. Who's knows? Kurt might've followed Dave Grohl's descent into Modern Rock mediocrity.

Nah...I think he would've become a cult hero along the lines of Mike Patton, Isaac Haynes, Robert Frippe, Butthole Surfers, Captain Beefheart, Mark E Smith, Melvins, Morissey, Deus etc, etc...

Corporatism...

Bloody dreadful. Fugazi and Steve Albini are among the only artists that still manage to slip the net in a real sense.

Jimi Hendrix would be a fantastic underground hero now.

As for Dave Grohl, I think he deserves his reward. He is a very good live act. Low on artistic integrity but high on thrills. He supported someone so fucked up that they took a shotgun and...well you know the rest - Mr Grohl just got on with business as usual and played the drums for a man who was clearly not all there. He deserves his pay off.

And what of Kris NoveslovaK (probably wrong spelling). That bloke was there from the begining too.

Kurt should have just turned his back on the mainstream and gone back to his roots. That punk suicide was too cliche. He should have looked at what the other bands were doing. Soon after his death, Soundgarden split claiming they'd 'done everything'. Pearl Jam refused to embrace the mainstream. If he'd hung on just a bit longer...

I really enjoyed his brush with stardom. Songs like 'Negative Creep' and 'Territorial Pissings' gave the mainstream a damn good kick up the arse. It was well deserved and he earned his place in rock history.

I just don't like the 'selling off' bit. It was like every media whore since time began felt the need to cash in. I hated that NME front cover. How many papers did they sell off the back of that?!!! Wankers.

Nirvana always sound like The Melvins or the Butthole Surfers or the Pixies. It was nice for someone to notice (thankyou MTV). It just wasn't so nice when they sold it off as some 'new revelation'. I KNEW ABOUT THAT MUSIC ALREADY!!! As did many others. At least it educated the masses to some extent, though we now have Emo to contend with (aaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!)

Thank you for your time,

Duncan

nirvana's influence was minimal. they paved the way for bad predecessors like puddle of mudd, silverchair, seether, etc.

Paving the way for predecessors, bad or good, is a pretty neat trick.

Now Playing: "Doctorin' the Tardis" The Timelords/The KLF <-- okay, not really, but I wish...

Yeah, it's pretty easy to dismiss Nirvana based on the crappiness of their imitators, but it's amazing that 50% of bands on mainstream modern rock radio today are still trying to copy them. And this is nearly 15 years after the release of Nevermind. I wouldn't call that "minimal" influence at all.

Plus, I have to say that of all the "grunge" albums, Nirvana's "Nevermind" holds up incredibly well. Though he'd probably never admit it, Kurt Cobain had a true gift for writing catchy hooks. Even if they were about albinos and umbilical cords.

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Originally posted by ericg75:
Yeah, it's pretty easy to dismiss Nirvana based on the crappiness of their imitators, but it's amazing that 50% of bands on mainstream modern rock radio today are still trying to copy them. And this is nearly 15 years after the release of Nevermind. I wouldn't call that "minimal" influence at all.

Plus, I have to say that of all the "grunge" albums, Nirvana's "Nevermind" holds up incredibly well. Though he'd probably never admit it, Kurt Cobain had a true gift for writing catchy hooks. Even if they were about albinos and umbilical cords.

Well, first, when garage rock revival was big, a lot of the mainstream rock bands were copying that. Now mainstream rock is doing this whole new wave/post punk revival. Nirvana has nothing to do with this, hence their minmal influence.

Don't doubt the influence of Nirvana. They did the equivalent of the Sex Pistols in the 70s.

Right now it's a bit quiet in the music industry (and boring). There'll be another one soon...