Whatever happened to those bands that were supposed to be the next Nirvana?

The music industry quickly changed in the early ’90s.

A big example:

In October 1991, Nirvana, a raw, honest band from Seattle, played a 460-person club in Athens, Georgia. (I was there–band imploded early into their set, and it was awesome.)

By January 1992, Nirvana’s “Nevermind” had displaced Michael Jackson at the top of the Billboard charts.

Who would be the next Nirvana? 

I recently watched a documentary called “Underground, Inc.,” and figured I’d share it here. I caught it on Prime. 

It tries to answer that question: What happened to all of those bands that got major deals in ’90s and then, rather quickly, seemed to fade away? I’m talking about heavier bands like Helmet, Handsome, Queens of the Stone Age, Quicksand, Monster Magnet, White Zombie, etc.

Anyway, here’s the trailer, and figured at least Tony would dig this. :) 

I'd say White Zombie had a pretty good run. Rob stole John 5 and the rest of the guys from Manson and he's still putting out great stuff.

I'm still waiting for the rest of the world to discover Ween

Some music is defined and generally liked by the fact that it is new and unique.

The problem with that is, eventually, by definition, it's not new and unique anymore.

It's pretty obvious (!), that if necessary, the music industry can "make" people like stuff.  It seems like this doc is based on how that did not work in this case.  

Appleseed said:

I'm still waiting for the rest of the world to discover Ween

Don't worry, we "discovered" them and quickly pushed them aside for better stuff 

Ween is a marmite band if there ever was one. I can't think of many other bands that are as "love it or hate it" with no space in between. Maybe Guided by Voices?

In reply to aircooled :

Yeah, it was interesting to hear how business and art collided for those who were there. I mean, I was there for all of this but didn’t realize exactly how it all went down: lots of bands chewed up, lots of records never released. 

Listening to Quicksand now. A friend turned me onto them a while back. Could Quicksand (or others) have been the next Nirvana, or did Nirvana just capture that lightning?

In reply to Trent :

Ween is very much a yes or no band. 

David S. Wallens said:

Listening to Quicksand now. A friend turned me onto them a while back. Could Quicksand (or others) have been the next Nirvana, or did Nirvana just capture that lightning?

Nirvana didn't change culture. Culture was at a tipping point and Nirvana was the catalyst.

For there to be another catalyst band, there needs to be another big shift in the cultural zeitgeist, and those don't happen every year. They don't even necessarily happen every decade.

There have been other cultural shifts like that, but the music industry has changed too much by streaming. We don't live in the sort of musical monoculture where EVERYONE is listening to the same bands on the radio like we had been up through the 90's. Now, artists can be as big or even BIGGER than any group in the 90's, and people might still have never heard them.

If there is a candidate for "Next Nirvana", I think Kendrick Lamar is the most likely candidate.

Wasn't Green Day it? Thought it would be Jawbreaker but the scene turned on them hard. Out of that list, Quicksand is still good. 

Tons of bands were the next Nirvana. Soundgarden, The Offspring, Elastica, Ween, Green Day, etc.

These Indie bands, and tons of others would've labored away in relative obscurity, integrity intact, but Nirvana opened the corporate powers that were to the idea that indie bands were profitable. Hell, Nirvana made their heros the Pixies, and Melvins into (relative) stars. Maybe not household names, but most might've never heard of, say, Mudhoney, Soul Coughing, PJ Harvey, or any of the explosion of bands that got signed because, frankly, the music industry didn't understand Nirvana. They just knew they had to get on board with the trend. 

QOTSA, hard to mention them without bringing up Kyuss. Homme's band before QOTSA. As for fading away? They just released their 8th album last year. Sorry, I'm a bit of a homer on that one. QOTSA has been one of my favorite bands for more than 20 years. 

White Zombie, Rob blew that up and just changed it to his "name." Helmet never really evolved their sound past "Meantime," even though that's a stellar album. 

I'll be honest in that I don't really know enough about the other bands to comment. 

I can't forgive Nirvana and their ilk for essentially killing hair metal. 

Stupid kids. Get off my lawn.

In reply to Appleseed :

And Mr. Bungle 

ddavidv said:

I can't forgive Nirvana and their ilk for essentially killing hair metal. 

Stupid kids. Get off my lawn.

hair metal was fine and had it's day. I listened to a lot during the 80's/90's. Nirvana and the grunge scene was the defining music for me and a lot of people my age. 

In reply to ddavidv :

Staring at their shoes on stage.

Wearing that dirty flannel shirt..

edit:

More prog rock, but Tool is still alive and kicking, thanks to an album release schedule measured in decades

Galactic Cowboys had a huge release with Geffen/Metal Blade which was shut down after the huge nirvana blow up.

I was never a Nirvana fan, just not my thing.  They certainly ushered in a new type of music and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

We also have to remember that was well over 30 years ago.  Back then, there were very few outlets for music.  Radio stations and record/tape/CD stores were about it.  Extremely different world we live in now.  This alone would make it incredibly hard to have the impact they did back in 1992, or the Beetles did in the mid 60s.

footinmouth said:

In reply to Appleseed :

And Mr. Bungle 

Faith No More 

Is rock and roll still a thing in this century? I mean, yeah, of course it is, but after 90s alt rock, there hasn't been much that's rung my bell. But then I'm old.... 

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Depends how you define "rock and roll". Artists have bent and blended genres more and more over time.

Depends what rings your bell.

Artists that would solidly be rock and roll this century: Black Keys, The Heavy, Jack White, Fantastic Negrito, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Marcus King is blues-soul-rock in sort of the Allman Brothers vein. Bend things a little more and you can argue Gorillaz and Billie Eilish. I love Wulfpeck, but I think they're more Funk.

Actually, Billie Eilish is also a strong contender for the most recent "Latest Nirvana".

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

Okay, I know most of those guys, so I guess that I'm not entirely out of the loop. 

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Also Muse' first big album was 2001, so I'd also include them in this century. Other bands that kind of straddle that same line:
Queens of the Stoneage
The Strokes
The Flaming Lips

Them Crooked Vultures is this century, but it's a super group so I dunno if that counts.

I'm just going to keep editing and adding bands/artists here as I think of them:

Wolfmother
The Hu
The Black Angels
Tame Impala
Phoebe Killdeer

*cough* Primus *cough*

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The Strypes

Galaxy 500

Luna

The Dandy Warhols

Brian Jonestown Massacre

A bunch of the bands BB mentioned