Learning Objective:
To study Nirvana/Music industry with consideration given to the impact of signing a contract with an established record label.
Key Terms:
Synergy: This is the interaction and cooperation of two or more madia organisations in order to produce mutually beneficial outcomes. For example, the combination of the artist and the record company.
Convergance: This is the coming together of previously separated media industries. This is often the result of advances in technology wherby one devicecontains a range of different features. The mobile phone for example, allows the user to download and listen to music, view videos, tweet artists etc. All this can be done through one portable device.
MP3 Player: In the 1990's the arrival of the MP3 player allowed music to be distributed digitally across computer networks allowing the copying of CDs, the transferring oif files and downloading. The floodgates are open for the music industry.
Record label: These are companies that manufacture and distribute recorded music and promote the music.
Independent record label: This is a record label that operates without funding of and is not necessarily linked to a major record label.
Big Panda for example is an independent record label that is credited with the early releases of now established artists; Coldplay, Supergrass, Placebo before they moved on to bigger labels.
Independent labels do not have the advantage of the big labels, they do not handle their own distriubution and are more reliant on traditional ways of selling new music.
The demise of HMV in 2013 was a blow to many independent music producers as it accounted for 50% of CD sales.
Sell out: One who betrays a cause for personal advancement.
Task 1: Note these key terms.
Task 2:
Create a spider diagram which describes Grunge values. Orange books.
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Nirvana biography
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Nirvana biography
The label had chart success with well known acts Elton John, Cher, Aerosmith, Guns N Roses.
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle alternative rock scene.
When Nirvana moved to Geffen Records, Sub Pop received royalties from sales of Nevermind that kept the label going for years afterwards. A stipulation was also implemented where selected future Nirvana studio LPs were required to carry the Sub Pop logo alongside Geffen's. After the mainstream success of Nirvana, many successful grunge bands had left Sub Pop for major record labels.
Nirvana significant dates:
January 23, 1988 Nirvana records a 10-song demo with the “Godfather of Grunge,” legendary Seattle producer Jack Endino. Sub Pop co-honcho Jonathan Poneman hears the tape and offers to put out a Nirvana single. The band accepts.
June 1989 Bleach is released on Sub Pop. Nirvana embarks on a month-long U.S. tour.
September 25, 1990 Dave Grohl, former drummer for Washinton, D.C.’s Scream, joins Nirvana.
October 1990 Nirvana briefly tours England with L7.
Winter 1991 Nirvana signs with DGC Records.
August 1991 Nirvana opens for Sonic Youth on a European festival tour, which includes a landmark
performance at the Reading Festival. The tour is documented in the film 1991: The Year Punk Broke.
September 24, 1991 Nevermind is released.
October 12, 1991 Nevermind is certified a gold album.
November 1991 The band starts a six-week European tour as Nirvanamania sweeps the United States. MTV airs “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video constantly; the song is hailed as an anthem for a generation.
January 11, 1992 Nevermind hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
January/February 1992 Nirvana tours Australia, Japan and Hawaii.
April 1992 Nirvana appears on the cover of Rolling Stone.
June/July 1992 Nirvana tours Europe.
December 15, 1992 Incesticide, a collection of B-sides and rarities, is released. It goes gold the following spring.
April 9, 1993 Nirvana plays a concert at San Francisco’s Cow Palace to raise awareness of and generate aid for rape survivors in Bosnia-Herzegovina. L7, the Breeders and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy are also on the bill.
September 21, 1993 In Utero is released.
October 18, 1993 Nirvana starts a three-month tour of North America.
November 19, 1993 Nirvana tapes an all-acoustic show for “MTV Unplugged” at Sony Studios in New York. Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets sit in on three Meat Puppets songs.
December 16, 1993 MTV airs Nirvana’s “Unplugged” show.
January 7, 1994 Nirvana plays the Seattle Arena. It will be the band’s last U.S. show.
February 6, 1994 Nirvana embarks on a tour of Europe.
April 8, 1994 Kurt Cobain is found dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound.
November 1, 1994 Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” performance is released as MTV Unplugged in New York. Two tracks not aired on the MTV broadcast appear on the album.
October 1, 1996 The Nirvana live album, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, is released, featuring performances from 1989 to 1994.
October 8, 2002 YOU KNOW YOU’RE RIGHT is released. This song was recorded in January 1994, and stands as the last song Kurt, Krist and Dave ever recorded together.
October 26, 2002 You Know You’re Right #1 on Billboard Modern Rock Chart and stays there for four consecutive weeks.
Task 3a:
Consider these statements:
Y: You can't be in the entertainment industry too long without facing challenges and temptations to do things the easy way for a quick buck.
N: Nirvana wanted to go into a different direction musically. They wanted to make an album that did not sound like their first album.
Y: It's been said that Kurt walked into the record company and said he wants Nirvana to be the biggest band in the world.
N: Some say Kurt made the record sound more poppy so it would be more popular
Task 3b:
Considering the values of the grunge genre, answer the following question:
Did Nirvana sell out when they moved from Sub Pop to Geffen?
Considering the values of the grunge genre, answer the following question:
Did Nirvana sell out when they moved from Sub Pop to Geffen?
Further Reading:
Was Grunge the Last American Musical Revolution?
The year 1991 saw the releases of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten. Those albums put Seattle on the musical map and flannel and army boots in every sullen American teen’s wardrobe. Adolescent angst was back in vogue and came soundtracked with a brand new anthem, Smells Like Teen Spirit.
However, the 20th anniversary of grunge is an uncomfortable reminder that music hasn’t given us anything “new” on such a grand scale since then. This generation still awaits its musical revolution.
We have, however, experienced one of recorded music’s greatest revolutions in regards to how music is delivered and marketed. The beginning of the 20th century saw sheet music and piano rolls. The phonograph forever changed music in that it now became about hearing actual performances from artists. Over the decades, radio, juke boxes, eight track and cassette tapes, and compact discs all played important roles in letting the music reach the masses.
However, none of those forms had the reach and impact of the Internet. In just over ten years, the way people access music has been permanently altered – for better or worse. A few clicks of the mouse or one’s mobile phone and any song imaginable is there for the listeners’ pleasure. However, much to the annoyance of the record companies, illegal downloads have ravaged their business while also giving consumers more control than ever before.
Perhaps it’s precisely because of the digital revolution that we have not seen a generation-defining genre since grunge. For one genre to so completely saturate the market perhaps requires a music industry with immense control over the market.
Downloading can be said to have destroyed the hope for any new genre domination?
The year 1991 saw the releases of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten. Those albums put Seattle on the musical map and flannel and army boots in every sullen American teen’s wardrobe. Adolescent angst was back in vogue and came soundtracked with a brand new anthem, Smells Like Teen Spirit.
However, the 20th anniversary of grunge is an uncomfortable reminder that music hasn’t given us anything “new” on such a grand scale since then. This generation still awaits its musical revolution.
We have, however, experienced one of recorded music’s greatest revolutions in regards to how music is delivered and marketed. The beginning of the 20th century saw sheet music and piano rolls. The phonograph forever changed music in that it now became about hearing actual performances from artists. Over the decades, radio, juke boxes, eight track and cassette tapes, and compact discs all played important roles in letting the music reach the masses.
However, none of those forms had the reach and impact of the Internet. In just over ten years, the way people access music has been permanently altered – for better or worse. A few clicks of the mouse or one’s mobile phone and any song imaginable is there for the listeners’ pleasure. However, much to the annoyance of the record companies, illegal downloads have ravaged their business while also giving consumers more control than ever before.
Perhaps it’s precisely because of the digital revolution that we have not seen a generation-defining genre since grunge. For one genre to so completely saturate the market perhaps requires a music industry with immense control over the market.
Downloading can be said to have destroyed the hope for any new genre domination?
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