Nirvana i thought were great, but to honest they weren't that massively original. They did however bring the punk philosiphy to the mainstream, which started with The pistols, Buzzcocks, the clash etc etc (where basically ANY one could get on stage do their thing, no matter how inept they were... and thanks to this we got "the worst", in my oppinion the very first noise band, which has certainly enriched our music).
That's why they weren't as sucsessful here than in the US, cos we'd areadly had the manchester scene and heard it crumble in the late 70's, only to give us a great post-punk sound (Joy division, blondie etc etc).
Personally i despise the notion that you NEED guitar solo's. I dont understand this. In the 80's we had an influx of bands centered around solo's, lacking in any artist concepts, and song writting was regarded as being superflous. Which i thought was very sad, cos musicains are human beings with feelings, not the products braging about faster speed, more echo, more collabs etc etc.
What also get's on my goat are poeple who have a go at turn tables. Turn tables are fantastic, and the early rap artists are a testiment to this. But like the guitar, it's jut a tool, it personally does nothing, and if it becomes a fad tahnks to the morons using it, then that's too bad, but remember Pappa Roach, Poison, Bon Jovi are guitar bands, but i dont think any us could be proud of such corprate sewage.
It's NOT about effort, but more about talent. To be honest, I hold much more respect for the pixies than i do for Slayer for example (I do like slayer dont get me wrong, but they have like 3 albums which sound the same, and not really taken their sound anywhere specail in the last 2 decades).
I'm glad David Bowie was mentioned, he is an innovator which poeple dont normally think of, and the same for iggy, punk wouldn't be half what it is whith out him.
Sadly with punk, the actaully style it self is vunrable to posers, fakes and generallly anyone out to make a quick buck.
But what makes me piss my self laughing when i hear some classically trained "vertiouso", who's never read any thing by Bowskie talk about Grunge bands saying they play like "hacks". I dont care what he says, he sounds like a cheesy midi, and cant hold a candle to the noise or the ideas of sonic youth (even though i'm not the biggest fan of post modernism). Let alone incorprate anything from teh dada movement, or just anything with depth.
I dont really know taht much abotu the beatles to be honest, but i am a big fan of the kinks, and i CAN apreacaite their influence.
rant over.