I think that a lot of hair metal from the 80's can be compared to most of today's rap...songs about girls, getting wasted, and a lifestyle that most people will never live to know. I mean sure there was the occassional cheesy power ballad, but nothing really meaningful. Kurt wrote about real personal issues like depression, addiction and such; issues that everyone can relate to at some time or another. Like Eggman said, they brought music back to being about the songs...and songs are about expressing yourself, not dancing around in skin tight leather pants, singing about strip clubs, and "cherry pie"! Now if only another Nirvana would come around and do the same thing with rap that it did with hair bands. But that's another discussion for another time....