Pop music is completely unrestricted. Some bands may receive all the credit for suddenly revolutionising music, but it’s likely that they’re just covering songs they’ve heard on record and are capitalising on the success of lesser-known artists. Dave Grohl was glad to introduce people to alternative music with Nirvana, but he did concede that the Pixies should have been the ones to break through to the mainstream first.
However, the Pixies are merely a member of a far longer tradition of outstanding alternative bands that emerged in the ’80s. In the United States, most of this music would have been categorised as “left of the dial” or “college radio.” However, in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, bands like The Jam and The Smiths were dominating the hit parade, and the Pixies were virtually the only “underground” outfit that most people heard of.
Nirvana wouldn’t have been possible without a little Georgia band called REM, though Grohl was quick to acknowledge the Pixies’ influence. While talking about their decision to go pop on Nevermind, Kurt Cobain recalled that his first attempt at a pop song, “About A Girl,” was to directly take from REM. He was never hesitant about praising Michael Stipe’s music.
Pixies are likely the most authentic representation of Nirvana’s sound if we’re just discussing music. While Frank Black did have his own unique sound, Nirvana owes much of their success to the ways in which they emulated Black’s shifting dynamics in their songwriting.
Just give Doolittle’s “Monkey Gone to Heaven” a try.It’s nowhere near as hooky as ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, but when you hear the band start gently and come crashing in on the chorus, it’s practically identical to how Nirvana used dynamics to get their foot in the door once they signed to a major label.
When questioned if Pixies could have assumed Nirvana’s place in rock history, Grohl even totally agreed, saying, “We were all kind of blown away that they never made it big. There are tracks on their last album that actually could have been radio songs. They could have been MTV’s new favourite band, but they weren’t.”
They didn’t have that response in their day, but it’s not like all the alternative youngsters didn’t go back to them. Despite only gaining limited attention on MTV, compositions like ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and ‘Where is My Mind?’ are the kinds of songs that would have absolutely killed had they been released in the period of Pearl Jam. But since the biggest name in the world at the time was Madonna, no VJ was going to touch this with a ten-foot pole.
While music appears to evolve every day, Pixies is one of those great acts that should have never been lost in the shuffle. Had they elected to maintain the course and kept everything fairly tight, though, who knows? Maybe we would be talking about Frank Black like people talk about Cobain today.
