Former Nirvana Members "Dismayed" Over Guitar Hero 5

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Dave Grohl was in Nirvana?

wow... just wow.

What's so wow about someone who doesn't like Nirvana not knowing about it's members?

it's not so much about whether you like them or not - honestly i don't care. it's that you don't acknowledge the history behind the band, and what they have done for evolving music. getting cocky with ignorant statements is not a great way to show off what is supposed to be your intelligence.

I'm not ignoring what they've done for evolving music it's more that I have absolutely no interest in the band itself and thus wouldn't know who was in it.

Also you may think that cockiness through ignorance attempting to show off intelligence was implied in my sentence but I really don't see it.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

It's called Guitar Hero, isn't it really more of a compliment than anything to have created an effigy of Kurt for the game? I understand it being weird for members of Nirvana and of course his wife seeing a likeness of him in a somewhat childish game after hsi death...but it shouldn't be a leagal issue.

 

[theklng]

I'm not ignoring what they've done for evolving music it's more that I have absolutely no interest in the band itself and thus wouldn't know who was in it.

part of knowing how they evolved music is also knowing who was in the band; since they musicians the band consist of shape the music of their band. don't you think there is a link between what grohl did in the past and what he is doing at the present? also, judging by how you present yourself, there is a large probability that the music you like has been influenced by nirvana.

the worst part is that this is no more than a simple new tab in whatever browser you use and wiki'ing nirvana. again, you seem to think that personal interest in this should matter for some reason, when in fact it does not.

Also you may think that cockiness through ignorance attempting to show off intelligence was implied in my sentence but I really don't see it.

i said it didn't show off your supposed intelligence.

 

[Treblaine]

Nirvana was a decent band, made a few classic songs. But they are far from inspirational as grunge was just too shallow and pessimistic and died away so quickly where all that was left was that manufactured rage MTV-fodder like Linkin Park. Pearl Jam refusing to perform for 3 years certainly didn't help.

The death of one man should not have killed a genre of music, it just lost out to Britpop and other music movements that were much more sustainable. Grunge just didn't know how to stay alive. Maybe they were taking the wrong kid of drugs. Anyway, drugs are bad M'kay, Kobain would probably be alive today if he had stayed clean.

Hey, this is just my personal opinion, but to illustrate I am more a fan of classic rock like AC/DC, Black Sabbath and KISS as well as electronic rock like Justice, Pendulum and Daft Punk for the more recent stuff. Also a bit of black/extreme metal with Cradle of Filth as well.

Without Grunge (which...Nirvana was more a part of by association and location than musical style) it's pretty safe to say that Britpop (since the Blur and Suede exploration of Britishness was in some way a backlash against the dominance of American music at the time) and electronic rock wouldn't have become part of the mainstream. Even AC/DC got a boost--them and Motorhead were the two metal/hard rock bands that punks and alternative fans liked. The musical landscape completely changed with Grunge and Nirvana--the mainstream was dominated by hair metal and boy bands up until then.

Obviously there were greater forces at work, and we wouldn't be celebrating the re-master, re-release of Warrant's classic "Cherry Pie" if not for any specific band, but, Nirvana did have a lot to do with reshaping music and culture in general.

Well, from what I hear Britpop (blur, oasis, etc) was almost a reaction to grunge, so I suppose yeah you couldn't have Britpop without Grunge, but it's less evolution and more a completely separate lineage that everyone moved to.

In terms of how sounds of genres of music evolve, I am intrigued how Nirvana or Pearl Jam or the grunge genre in general artistically influenced Electronic Rock.

Also, I am a bit confused, are you saying that alternative rock introduced people to AC/DC, Motorhead, etc as if anything I'd say it was the deterioration of the grunge scene that left a void for many often well established bands to fill. Not much artistic lineage there in terms of style, instruments and so on.

 

[Meado]

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants," they said. "We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future."

And we urge them to do the f*cking research next time. Did they not even check out any of the previous games? Obviously not, else they would have seen that everyone they put in the game becomes unlocked like this.
Don't go crying to your lawyers because you weren't responsible enough to pay attention to what you were doing with your dead friend's legacy.

 

[SonicKoala]

The problem with this is that if Kurt were still alive, he'd have hated this inclusion of his avatar in Guitar Hero. Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic knew Kurt as a person, and therefore realise this, which is why they're speaking out againt it. Courtney Love, on the other hand, is fucking retarded, and her "handling" of Cobain's estate since his death is dispicable.

And it doesn't matter if you don't like Nirvana, but it's important to acknowledge their influence as a band and how important a place they have in musical history. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and its impact it had on popular music was almost unprecedented. If you appreciate music and are interested in the history of music, there are certain bands that you should be familiar with. Nirvana is one of those bands, and Kurt Cobain, although not the greatest musician, was an amazing songwriter.

 

[Meado]

I'm not ignoring what they've done for evolving music it's more that I have absolutely no interest in the band itself and thus wouldn't know who was in it.

part of knowing how they evolved music is also knowing who was in the band;
*snip for space*

He said that he wasn't ignoring it, not that he knew about it.
Look, we can understand that they did some good stuff for music, especially grunge, but if we don't have any interest in them, why should we have to care? Show love to things you like, show indifference to things that you don't.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

He's dead. I honestly doubt he cares about it.
Why would other people do? It's just pointless.

 

[AceDiamond]

The problem with this is that if Kurt were still alive, he'd have hated this inclusion of his avatar in Guitar Hero.

I dunno this is the same guy who happily let Weird Al make fun of him (respectfully) with "Smells like Nirvana"

The other thing is isn't it up to the player to choose to use him or not? I haven't played a GH since 3 but I would think that's the case. And isn't Johnny Cash in this game as well or is Kurt the only dead musician we get to play as. Also, so they're all upset. Problem is they signed a contract so either they didn't read it (unlikely except in the case of Courtney Love), or they misinterpreted some of the fine print (likely, but also nobody's fault but their own).

 

[theklng]

I'm not ignoring what they've done for evolving music it's more that I have absolutely no interest in the band itself and thus wouldn't know who was in it.

part of knowing how they evolved music is also knowing who was in the band;
*snip for space*

He said that he wasn't ignoring it, not that he knew about it.
Look, we can understand that they did some good stuff for music, especially grunge, but if we don't have any interest in them, why should we have to care? Show love to things you like, show indifference to things that you don't.

in this case ignoring who is in the band is ignoring music history; i.e. what they have done for evolving music. your statement is contradictory.

and why you should care? look buddy, if the whole world started caring just a little more, we'd not have half the problem with ignorance, wars etc. i can't change human nature, but i sure as hell can and will change people's attitudes towards general distaste of any given subject.

Show love to things you like, show indifference to things that you don't.

hell yeah, let's promote ignorance all over! let's let children not learn new things because they don't want to. let them show indifference when they read through history so as to not accept the lessons already learned by other people, just because they don't like the color of their skin.

no. show love for the things you like, show openness for the things you don't like. what happened, happened; but only a fool would let it happen again.

 

[SonicKoala]

The problem with this is that if Kurt were still alive, he'd have hated this inclusion of his avatar in Guitar Hero.

I dunno this is the same guy who happily let Weird Al make fun of him (respectfully) with "Smells like Nirvana"

The other thing is isn't it up to the player to choose to use him or not? I haven't played a GH since 3 but I would think that's the case. And isn't Johnny Cash in this game as well or is Kurt the only dead musician we get to play as. Also, so they're all upset. Problem is they signed a contract so either they didn't read it (unlikely except in the case of Courtney Love), or they misinterpreted some of the fine print (likely, but also nobody's fault but their own).

Letting Weird Al write an extremely clever version of "Teen Spirit" and including Cobain's image in a Guitar Hero game is not the same thing whatsoever. That comparison doesn't even make sense. Cobain found Weird Al's version funny. What would he find funny about Activision using his image for the purpose of selling a few more copies of their video game?

 

[JusticarPhaeton]

the reason why is probably because he killed himself because he didnt want his music to go mainstream. he was also disturbed and it wouldnt be right to put a manic depressive in a game as something he isnt.

Kurt Cobain used to phone MTV up and ask why his vidoes weren't played more often: in truth he desperately wanted to be successful. Of course I agree, though, that his appearance in this game goes against his image as anti-corporate artist. But as to his not approving of this...I'm not sure it's so clear-cut as people like to make it.

You are absolutely right. No offence, but Cobain was actually a bit of a poser in that respect; he actually DID care about success and fame whilst branding himself with the punk-rebel-non-mainstream labels.

It's not a clean issue really, since Love obviously didn't know what she was doing when she signed off the rights. To be honest, I totally foresaw this, once i heard the news of GH5 being on rockband and that cobain would be a playable character. Obviously Activision is going to milk that right, obviously the likes of Love will be irked, but in the end Activisino holds the rights so there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Sad but true.

 

[Dan Shive]

I'm speaking second hand on this, so I could be mistaken, but I've been told by a fan of Nirvana both before and after Cobain's suicide that one of Cobain's issues was commercialization and that he's probably rolling in his grave over this. I think it's understandable that those close to him would take issue with it.

As for Courtney, I suspect that she signed a contract without fully reading it, which wouldn't make Activision the bad guys here. It would make Courtney a fool who was so eager to snag some cash that she didn't read the thing.

 

[MrGFunk]

I find it a bit harsh to have him as a unlockable playable character who would then sing other people's songs. I do find it a little disrespectful. The example of Jimi Hendrix is similar for me - I would say these people should be treated with reverence. I don't want to see these people 'rocking out' to Girl's Aloud. - I don't know if their songs are featured, I use as an example of the sentiment.

 

[vultureX21]

Dave Grohl was in Nirvana?

I actually always thought Grohl had a lot more skill and presence as a drummer than his fronting for the Foo Fighters, but I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum as you, I really prefer Nirvana over the Foo Fighters. I would encourage you, even if you don't particularly like Nirvana to check out some of the footage of Grohl drumming, it's very cool.

As for the anger over GH5 I have never ever been able to stand Courtney Love and my guess is she signed off on this to buy herself more coke, then people got outraged and she decided she had better be too. In all honesty, as a huge fan of Nirvana I don't see the issue here. Cobain was a massive influence on the industry and a truly original musician but he's no more hallowed than any other significant dead artist. If Warren Zevon, Elvis Presley, or Jimi Hendrix were the character would that be any better or worse? No one is getting hurt or defiled here.

 

[vultureX21]

Not only that, but Dave Grohl is a FAR better musician than he ever was in Nirvana, not to mention a way better front man.

Respectfully disagree on both points, mostly because Grohl's skill and power as a drummer is often overlooked precisely because he went on to front a very successful band after Nirvana in the prime of his career. It put him in the spotlight doubly so, height of his powers (would have been if he still drummed too) and visible front man coming from an already famous band.

And as far as being better than Kurt, I mean that's open to interpretation. Cobain was always a reclusive character and very honestly bitched about how much he hated being famous, he wanted no part of being the band's face. Grohl was more naturally suited for and is far more adept at connecting with fans and promoting his band, which definitely makes him good. Again though, I wouldn't say one is better than the other, just different.

Of course if your definition is "actively worked to connect with fans and the industry" then yes, you give it to Grohl hands down.