Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
See - this is where I have to disagree.
The Blue Album was important because it took that 60s Beach Boys sound/nostalgia, poured the Distortion/Fuzz/90's Disaffection on top of it and spit out something unique when you consider its contemporary albums (Downward Spiral; Superunknown; Mellow Gold; Purple, etc.) I'm not a music theory guy - but its was like the world was living in the Minor Chord Scale and The Blue Album came in with here's the Alt-Rock sound but painting with Major Chord Scales. I would argue - they took what Mathew Sweet's Girlifriend album did an pushed it farther an into the broader cultural zitegiest that MS did.
Green Day's Dookie - also was important in that it was THE album that shifted what was deemed "popular" away from the major "grunge" acts that had now climbed to the top of the heap - and made the Punk sound something accessible within the broader cultural zeitgiest. That is not to say that Cobain and other acts' being heavily punk influenced didn't move the importance of punk into a wider cultural acceptance - but Dookie shut the door on the early Alt Rock era (1989/Pretty Hate Machine - 1994/Dookie) and opened the door to an accessible punk sound that allows No Doubt to rule the airwaves two years later.
Hole, IMO, never innovated nor moved the needle in the way The Blue Album or Dookie or others can be said to have done.
At least that's how it all felt in real time - rather than looking back on it all.
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