I've been locked inside your heart shaped box

A few weeks ago I was listening to Nirvana and remembered how much I love their music. The first time I heard the opening guitar riff of the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, I was hooked. I obviously wasn't the only one. That album served as the band's springboard into the American mainstream. I was still a teenager (albeit a married one) when Kurt Cobain died, and I remember being devastated by the news. I can't think of another celebrity that could duplicate that sense of loss upon hearing about their untimely passing. It sounds stupid, I know, but I was depressed about it for weeks.

As I listened to the music the other night, I realized something that I'd never put much thought into before. The band released their first album, Bleach, in 1989. Cobain killed himself in 1994. While the band obviously formed before the release of their first album (1987, I think), they weren't together very long, yet, they had a tremendous influence on the music industry. They are credited with bringing the entire genre of alternative music to the forefront, and pushing the hair bands of the 80's off to the side. (Move over Poison, here comes something better.) That's quite an accomplishment for only being together for seven years.

It seems that Nirvana is not alone in that regard. There are other bands who weren't together very long, but also had a major impact on the industry. A little band called The Beatles comes to mind. The Beatles were together for ten years (1960-1970), and obviously changed rock and roll forever.

Another band from the same era as The Beatles played a smaller, but still significant, role in the evolution of rock music. The Doors were only together for six years (1965-1971) before Jim Morrison died. The band tried to go on for another year or two, but realized that there was just no replacing The Lizard King and gave up. Obviously both these bands have songs that anyone in the world who listens to music will recognize. That really says something.

A more obscure band (but one that I like a lot), Uncle Tupelo, was only together for seven years (1987-1994), but during that time launched an entire genre: Alternative country. How many bands can take credit for that sort of thing? The members of Uncle Tupelo went on to form Wilco (one of my favorite bands) and Son Volt (another good one), and still produce good music. In my opinion, these guys don't get their due, but as more people start to discover their music, they'll recognize it for what it is: Pure Genius.

I know that there are other bands that fit this category that I didn't mention. Bands that didn't stay together very long, but put out a lot of good music that many others have tried to emulate. I think that my friend Rural Murder would have been more qualified to write this post than me, simply because he knows an infinite amount more about music than I do, but he wasn't around, and I was. So there.