Nirvana Oversimplified
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- In this video I go over the history and musical style of the legendary band Nirvana. This introduction guide should prove especially useful for people just discovering Nirvana or alternative music in general. My hope is to combine both educational information and funny animation content. I will be making more videos for different artist coming soon. So please leave suggestions for new videos in the comments. Thank you!
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Who were Nirvana?
1:09 - Band Origins
2:14 - First Album
3:25 - Creative Changes
5:02 - Second Album
6:17 - Creating "In Utero"
7:40 - Final Album
9:05 - Losing Cobain & Breakup
10:42 - Identifying the Nirvana Sound
13:13 - Why Nirvana was Special
Correction: 3:36 should say DGC records
![Woo-hoo!: How Blur Mocked Grunge & Destroyed Britpop ["Song 2"] | New British Canon](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q29G7YDCq9Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I feel like Nirvanas Unplugged Album shows a great deal of how melodic and beautiful Nirvana can sound, rather than hard core loud punk. In that album Kurt definitely explores his sounds in his voice a lot more in songs like, " Where did you Sleep Last Night " and " The Man who Sold the World ". Nirvana really helps us understand the amazing affect music can have on us, and how any song can be beautiful.
I hardly believe Nirvana are punk. They are their own thing, under a more grungey and almost stonery veil. Some really heavy and dirty licks.
He started using some voice cracking technique on Unplugged. Where he would start at a higher octave and crack his voice down to the note he was singing. I dont know how to explain it. But he never did it on any of his albums. This shows that he was still developing his vocals and evolving as a singer. It would be so cool to hear where he would have taken it if he had lived.
@JBrooksNYS kinda like a country twang right? It's something I noticed in a lot of live recordings, he def took influence from J mascis, kirkwood from meat puppets and other early indie artist that used that "cracking" thing. He also was doing serious damage to his voice overtime which could lead to a loose control of his head vs. chest voice at higher registers
@@JBrooksNYSI was wondering why he sounded so different there
Yeah kind of a country thing... or almost like yodeling. Im not a singer, so I dont know what it would actually be called.@@aaronkerper4004
No one knew, what Kurt was singing about, but he sure hit exactly the right nerve.
Me imagino a Kurt escribiendo versos poéticos y luego dándoles forma para una canción. Tendría sentido.
N'fheadar an féidir le youtube aistriú Gaeilge
Níl :(
@@renameagain5808 it translated for me
@@renameagain5808it translsted it to me
He didn't just come up with lyrics mins before recording, he had them written down in his journal for awhile. You can buy his journal and read it.
Yes and lyrics changed frequently especially live.
Where would I be able to buy it?
@@EnderEntertainamazon
Plus, when he said that, he was talking about Bleach.
Fun fact about Nirvana: their b-sides and unreleased/rare recordings are SO good! It's insane that they never released another Incesticide-esque compilation of them. There's enough for like 5 or 6 volumes,at least.
They could totally do this by remastering a lot of the bootleg CD's and making them official releases.
@@sdpnz oh definitely!
...in fact,now that you mention it I used to own this bootleg CD that had the very bootleg-sounding title of I Love Myself and I Want To Live. It was just a recording of one of their shows during that last tour in Europe. It was cool though. They did this jokey cover of The End by The Doors. It was a very unique and specific moment during Nirvana's existence as a band that happened to have been captured in an unofficial capacity.
Their unreleased material is mostly found on the bootlegs "Outcesticide". There's 5 volumes and they are at least semi-endorsed.
@@Lozzo207 there's also official "Nirvana" release about 2002
Time to listen to Nirvana again 😛
Weird ahh connection, but I was talking to my friend and he randomly pulled out a “yeah so Kurt is my 2nd cousin”. Turns out his dad and Kurt were cousins haha
oh wow that's crazy
that would make him his uncle
@@ok-ge1fnope
Never put ahh in text it’s corny
11:35 Just a note: Kurt's guitar is actually in tune in that track (or at least, not very out of tune). The out-of-tune feeling comes from Kurt's insistence on playing chords in a wrong manner: he often plays open strings even when he "shouldn't". That happens on almost every track, giving Nirvana a very disctintive sound.
The guitar not out of tune. The studio version was done with the instruments tuned down a step. In the live version they are just tuned normally.
@@paulwblair That's true, but I don't think he's talking about that. Almost every rock band changes the key of their songs when they're playing live.
@@paulwblairyou’re so stupid
@@paulwblairbonehead
nirvana is so trash bozo
Great job! I think Incesticide deserves a mention in any conversation like this, some great songs on that record even if it’s not a “studio album”
It’s like my top 2 Nirvana’s album I think ! It’s just a perfect mix from Bleach to In Utero !
My favorite! w
Dive and big long now are fucking awsome
I could never describe very well why I was drawn to the band as a kid because I would never fit the classical grunge fan but I think the first single you pointed out Smells Like Teen Spirit really explains it. Also, because I think everyone knew that the song was about rebelling. Our generation wanted to rebel but we really couldn't anymore because it wasn't understood why at the moment and globalization was back then already too imprinted in society. Our generation was the first to be bashed about not having a real reason too rebel because our lives were too comfortable. Tracks at the time reflect that, Smashing's rat in a cage, RATM all repertoire, and NIRVANA the perfect band for the rebel without a cause because his cause has been deemed invalid. It was great that the lyrics were vague because they would fit your feelings much better and your emotional connections and illusion of empathy from the artist grows stronger. I wouldn't be surprised Kurt really hated fame and all the hassle that came with it. On one of his last interviews he says he really needs to experiment and shows enthusiasm about making music based on samples. For me that's symptomatic of someone that wants to cast himself away from the spotlight by displeasing the industry.
Maybe yours was “too comfortable” not a lot of ours who came from broken families and mean and angry fathers. Maybe you were lucky.
@@wandajames143 hey buddy life is hard on everyone. I could tell you I grew up in a poor household and you probably wouldn't believe me but that doesn't matter too. Tbh the only difference is that I grew up in Portugal and if you are poor in Portugal you don't feel that ashamed because the country itself is poor. What I meant is - back in the 90's whenever we protested (I protested a lot) we would be bashed, same as today. Critics were mostly unfair and when I say "comfortable life" it doesn't mean I had a comfortable life hence the rebellion through music you know? Fuck the system, stick it to the man, like Jack Black's character puts it. I feel your pain buddy and I am aching myself. We are not alone either, unfortunately we are the majority.
@@ganiniii it’s ok no big deal. It’s a long time ago.
Well said. I was never into Grunge, I was into Nirvana because I recognized how SLTS changed everything overnight.
Sadly many people really think he just did this songs out of nowhere but he tried so hard to achieve everything he did. If you want to know more about kurt cobain as a person and how he really write all of his songs you should some documentations on him
The 5 things that made Nirvana unique were also what made the Pixies unique just a few years earlier ;)
Very true, gonna do them for sure someday
Exactly what I was going to say. Nothing he said was exclusive to Nirvana, and had been done better by the Pixies years earlier.
womp womp@@doomgang2541
I love the pixies😔
I think they are actually closer to Husker Du. I think there is a Grohl quote where he mentions that.
Huge Nirvana fan because I love melody as much as i do noise/hardcore. I feel like their sound is also kinda whimsical in the way classic pop music was and kinda trippy in ways. Although pretty much all grunge gives me stoner vibes
Same I like the grunge style and music but whenever I try to "dress up" the style, it makes me look like I do stuff I shouldn't lol
The year was 1991, I was 13, and my life’s mission was to BECOME Slash from G’n’R. I’d even recently purchased a shiny black Epiphone Les Paul I’d been lusting after for years. But one night as I was visiting a couple of my beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking friends, all of that would change and send my musical sensibilities off the deep end. That catalyst would come to be known as “grunge” and the patron saints of this unstoppable movement were these 3 dudes from Seattle. Within mere weeks, almost every record I owned began collecting dust.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
@@UkeShrum famous.
(“stop eating and become skin and bones” - 😊
Kurt Cobain)
This is because, in reality, he was probably just an abused, likely narcissistic, and DEFINITELY a self-absorbed myopic social climber; and in MY OPINION he could have done himself some psychic healing perhaps if he could have found something actually MEANINGFUL in his life, after he accomplished his goals musically, rather than falling into (you know what) and marrying the ONE person in his wide and large social circle who was MORE self-centered and ultimately PARASITIC; and it was She that I believe played a big part in what ruined him in the end…
When he would protest over fame AGAIN and AGAIN; and DECLARE how much he HATED the Media attention and the accolades that naturally COMES with ALL THAT SHIT, I would just roll my eyes… I mean REALLY - who here among us DOES NOT THINK he was lying? Screeds vs. Deeds, etc. etc.
And you can see with your plain eyes what it WAS that Kurt Cobain ACTUALLY hated - Obviously, what he hated was the more astute amongst his fans who COULD SEE THE CONTRADICTION that he represented; which Kurt knew severely undermined the image of ‘purity’ that he, along with the fawning Media, so carefully cultivated…
That being said, Kurt Cobain was in MY estimation a musical genius. But also, what came along with that was his particular genius as a socially manipulating self-interested SLAVE TO HIERARCHY who, from my reading, NEEDED the Hero worship MORE than he WANTED true authenticity.
@@joshuamihalow6054He didn't want to become mainstream, but he did and that was hard to absorb for him
This feels like it was a school project (a compliment). Good job! ❤
ah it kind of does have that vibe doesn't it😅
“What was so special about Nirvana anyways?” They were just goated
This was so good. Great job explaining everything we need to know in one video, you hit every detail! I was wondering if you could do a video on the band Bush.
Brilliant my friend, love Nirvana and all the contradictions you mentioned. I remember hearing for the first time and going wtf is that ! I was blown away
Keep up the great insightful videos 👍🏻
Subscribed 👆🏼
I’d disagree with the five key areas to what made Nirvana unique. I’d still include Grohl’s drum technique and sound, Kurt’s voice and the quiet/loud dynamic.
However Kurt often played solos that were NOT imitating the vocal melody; there are more that don’t mimic it than songs that do.
Also, chronically untuned guitars are nothing to do with it. Just because live recordings sometimes showed he was out of tune doesn’t mean it was part of what made them great.
In reality:
1) Quiet/loud dynamic
2) Dave Grohl’s intense drumming
3) Kurt’s unique voice
4) Melding of pop harmonies with punk/rock chord progressions and riffs
5) Stripped down music without ornamentation, extreme technical performance or excess
Fantastic idea for a channel! Can’t wait for more
i just love this type of videos thank you they are so informative and entertaining
I love rock as a whole and I thought this was just going to be another boring information video but this was way more and the first scene hits home lol. Your doing great dude keep it up!
Merigold and blu always held such a deep place in my heart. I can’t really explain why or how but at times it feels like they helped me through some very dark times. Awesome video
MTV Unplugged (Especially Where Did You Sleep Last Night? Man Who Sold the World) and their performance of SLTS on Top of the Pops were truly awesome.
Very nice overview, well done!
Love it, please more about this stuff!
Next up AIC? Or Soundgarden?
Awesome vid! Your channel deserves way more subs even for only having a few videos and i hope you get very popular in the fiture:)
I honestly think in utero is better than nevermind by a long shot. The fact it was a “perfect record” that satisfied everyone shows that. Sad cobain passed away before we saw more of his work.
Out of the three it goes (imo)
1. bleach
2. in utero
3. Nevermind
Bleach is my favorite so that’s why it’s #1 but I could see it being in utero for most people
@@xvaderxkiller5190 bleach is great. Many great riffs but unfortunately felt more like demos
Love the way you presented this vid
good video keep up the good work!! 👍
i really liked the small sequences where you'd play their music and the art/comic scenes i thought that was pretty sick also your voice is really suiting for these kinda videos. overall you got the basics to nirvana king 🔥💥👑👑
i was surpised you hadn't had brought up more of their amazing live perfomances which are well liked by fans, the unplugged album, or even their complimation albums before his death.
And I do think that Dave Grohl was an intense drummer at times, but I think what really made Nirvana was how he'd set the vibe to be more mellow n peaceful in some songs. Their previous drummer was known for his more brash and going his own way drumming style because of their "artistic differences". If you listen though especially in the song Dumb on their unplugged. It was perfect and very tense. He was careful not to overstep but made it just to match and make the vibe entirely. But on other albums he'd go off so it's really a mix of both
Also, extremely random if you like an intense drumming solo I'd reccomend listening to some of Sublimes live perfomances those you can really feel.
Thanks dude, yeah there are a lot of good live performances to choose from.
The best overview of Nirvana great work👍
I couldn’t imagine how it was like going to a record store back in 89 and picking up bleach not knowing what would happen and listening to blew cuz that song is a hard ass opening imo. I’m that could be said for a lot of band buts it’s so crazy. Same with facelift we die young hard ass opening for AIC.
I absolutely love finding "underground" UA-cam channels. Great content!
I feel like sometimes even Kurt didn't know what he was writing about, a very mysterious creative force this man. RIP Kurt, I will never forget you or your music. I hope you can see how much of an impact you have had on all of us.
Crazy that I went through three whole nirvana albums while cleaning my garage today. Started with Live at Reading and finished with nevermind. This video could not have come at a better time
11:45 Yes because the studio version of lithium is a full step down and the never mind tour was in standard tuning. The band isn't out of tune, they're in an entirely different tune. They wouldn't tune down a whole note mid show for only a few songs. They just play the song in whatever tuning they're in at the time. On the In Utero tour they played in half step down to cater to the songs off the record. Whenever they would play a never mind song it would be in a different tune as to what is was on the record as all of never mind was either standard, full step down or drop D. They weren't playing out of tune, they just played in whatever tuning they were in at the time. Drop D (Drop c# for In Utero tour) is the tune they would change to mid show as it's only one string they needed to de-tune. There were a few incidents where Kurt was unintentionally out of tune like Come As You Are live at Paradiso, 1991. That was most definitely a tuning mistake. But intentionally playing a song in a different tuning isn't a mistake and actually sounds better at times. R#pe me sounds better in standard tuning as apposed to it's usual half step down in my opinion. Thanks for reading my rant lmao
I see what your saying. However, Nirvana admitted to having tuning problems. Even Cobain's tombstone reads "we play so hard that we can't tune our guitars fast enough". So maybe some tunings were intentional and some unintentional.
@@DJPlugman Yes, sometimes their instruments were a little out of tune, but in this case, as pointed out by @willmodul8467, they were just different tunings, done on purpose. It's not like they didn't care about tuning their guitars. They had guitar techs. They just banged on their strings hard and knocked them out of tune often.
3:31 Grohl was actually the 6th drummer
The best way I can describe Nirvana when I first heard them as a kid, was that for the first time it felt like our generation had a sound, a feeling and an anthem to rally behind that was our own. It tapped into a general feeling of restlessness and frustration we couldn't quite pin point yet, it dared to go against the grain and what was popular (and somehow succeeded in that anyways) and it represented people who at the time felt like they were on the fringe, and not in the middle of everything. Nirvana was effectively for all the people who felt left behind culturally in the 80s, and reestablished themselves with a new vibe and sound in the 90s. It was in your face, it was rebellious and it wasn't afraid to say what it thought, in favor of trying to squeeze a few more listeners out. But maybe most importantly, Kurt was a real artist, and that generation of kids growing up felt that. It didn't feel the same as everything we had ever heard before.... because it wasn't... it was raw, it was unpolished.... it was art... and it came at a time when we needed that art.
i got lazy and only watched the first skit which i gotta say, I LOVE and is so relatable
12:06 When I’m playing come as you are, I have to sing the verse in my head during the solo
Good video my man, you earned a sub great job
Loving ur videos general style wow
Do temple of a dog next ? I'm thinking it would be shorter, and great intro into Chris and Eddie.
one song i dont see mentioned a lot that i love is Marigold, that and their cover of The Man who sold the world are 2 of my favorites from them
I love marigold so much
@@mcr4everthat's my favorite song from them brooo
Good video man. Was the 56th sub
Awesome work, keep it up :D
Do Green Day oversimplified next
1. grunge, not punk rock.
2. they signed to DGC, not WB.
3. smells like teen spirit was named after a deodorant.
Thank you for this. I was looking for someone who pointed these things out.
Thanks for over explaining in an over simplified video
"overexplaining"
@@gustavosanchez1621
Thank you o great algorithm for bringing me thine small channel and coming forth with a rare algorithm W
You should do the rest of the Seattle 4
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains
One thing about the labels….Geffen wasn’t part of Warner Brothers when Nirvana signed to the label. Geffen (parent label of DGC, their actual label) had been part of Universal Distribution for two years.
Fun fact: acording to kurt assuming he wasn't joking he made songs by taking lines from poems he wrote in a journal, and combining them into a song. He also said that even he doesn't know what some of his songs are about
man this Jonathan show was freaking fire
It sounds good with the rebellious spirit in it.
nice video u just earned urself a new sub :)
great video make a lot of them and some more about nirvana i love nirvana and their music a lot
(please excuse my english it's via google translate)
Really cool video bro, thx
Floyd the barber doesn't "suck", I genuinely love that song in all its absurd simplicity and simple absurdity...
I was waiting for this comment. thank you.
awesome video, freakin love nirvana to the very end, i would say that if you like nirvana you probably going to end in the very punk rock side and searching more raw grunge in other bands
Dude your so underrated especially for your first video, keep it up dude!
probably my favorite band.
4 minutes in and my eyes are sore after all of the super bright white backgrounds in this video. x_X
For Kurt's raw emotion i think his scream in drain you live in paris was very cool 🗣🔥
grohl also sang backing vocals (e.g.: jesus doesnt want me for a sunbeam, live, MTV Unplugged)
Dj plugman is now my plug for vids while I eat. W
territorial pissings doesn’t get enough love it’s honestly one of my favourites
I’ll use that for my music project thx
Floyd the barber is great.
Kurt sometimes had an out of tune guitar but they’re in tune im almost all of the performances. The reason it sounds so out of tune in lithium is because he played lithium in E standard at that concert while the studio version is D standard
You deserve more this is funny 😂
The line, over 6 years they made 3 records and became one of the most successful bands of all time, is weird right? 3 albums, crazy
Bro your gonna get hella subscribers
Excellent product.
11:40 -- The guitar is not "out of tune" on the live version. Lithium was recorded tuned down a step on the album version. HIs guitar is just tuned normally in the live version.
Watch a bunch of Nirvana interviews and youll hear Kurt contradict himself numbers of times. One mine one was where he would talk about not wanting to be a rock star but in other interviews he would talk about how he wanted to be a rock star since he was a kid.
Dude you only have 858 subscribers??? That’s criminal
Like the beggining of the video, that’s a real problem today with people wearing shirts but can’t name one song, I wouldn’t do that so just shows how many dorks are out there, and just wanted to tell you I know it sounds like Kurt’s guitar is out of tune, but it was just probably tuned different live and sometimes he would tune it between songs on stage and maybe didn’t get it just right(strings are really sensitive and gotta be on the dot) and when he would strum, he’d hit open strings and stuff like that, because out of tune instruments are ughh the worst, like it’d be impossible to play out of tune because it just sounds so bad, iv even tried to be experimental or whatever, sounds awful lol but other than that, pretty good analysis
They released 4 studio albums
Bleach , Nevermind, incesticide (with prev unreleased tracks but still a studio album ) and in utero.
I'm so glad I'm from Seattle
Anyone else noticed the never mind joke?
Was looking for a comment like this
You got my like at the very last second... "Floyd The Barber" LOL
Keep going bro
What version of marigold plays when you get to the part on Kurt's death?
Great introduction for all their T-shirt fans!
"On a Plain" is probably their easiest song to get in, but also not really represantative to their sound.
*representative
Nailed it bro
Nothing will ever be as Kool as shoes tapping to smells like teen spirit on MTV in 1991
Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but could you do Ramones Oversimplified?
Do velvet underground, or doors, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix experience next please.
Nice video, but Floyd The Barber doesn't suck ;-) I like that you used Milk It in the video, it's one of my favorites.
You should do another simplified video like this, but with Alice In Chains
Damn you’re popular with only one video. I mean it was okay, but it just proves you can put “Nirvana” in anything and have it go viral
nice one brothr
I feel like this video doesn’t need to be made as there are so many videos that do it better with accurate info that are way more entertaining. Btw they are from Aberdeen not Seattle
Another song I would recommend is the famous Something In The Way, popularized by The Batman movie. But what I want is for people to know how it was created, it’s almost exactly to how Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osborn made Planet Caravan, replicated creativity wise. Even if you look at the album they’re, in they both stand as an outlier compared to the other songs.
Nirvana was on dgc
UNDERRATED!!
Right? Why they never got the recognition they deserved, I'll never know 🤷🏼♂️
Dave also sang backing vocals.
My favourite nirvana song is in bloom
Mines radio friendly unit shifter
His lyrics made sense. Even if you ignore his journals just look at the simplest essence of his lyrics & it hits you in 6:47 the guts
Love the use of Marigold when revealing Kurts suicide. First song that Groel sang and a good transition into his own famedom.
This video is so good
Make a video like this but about the pixies pleasse!